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Post by MartinT on Jun 24, 2020 13:38:37 GMT
Update summary:
1) SR Red fuse in primary LPSU feeding ER and OCXO. As above - more fluid delivery and deeper wrap-around soundstage. This fuse was already used so considered burned-in.
2) SR Red fuse in secondary LPSU feeding the router. Surprisingly, a little better focus and some more detail coming through. This fuse is new so needs more time on it.
3) Black Ravioli Eflos grounding box added to the OCXO clock. Cleaner! Less noise and noticeably crisper in delivery of complex music. Certain strands of music not obscuring others. More air around acoustic guitars. Definitely lower noise floor again.
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Post by John on Jun 24, 2020 17:55:27 GMT
Is that it for a while Martin or anymore plans to help the system. If you have finished upgrading can you write an overview of what you feel you achieved?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2020 18:31:02 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Jun 24, 2020 18:40:58 GMT
There's always space for mods and improvements!
However, for now, there is just the 2nd MCRU DC cable to arrive to power the router.
Yes John, I'll try and write up what's happened recently.
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Post by MartinT on Jun 25, 2020 19:14:08 GMT
A test for my system. The song Undiscovered First, sung by Feist, is a really interesting production and a great song. However, the recording is very hot and really quite unpleasant. Could it have been Coldplay's engineer? I meant that as a serious insult!
Her microphone puts a nasty glare on her voice, there is some distortion going on in the left channel and when all hell breaks loose it is quite unpleasantly bright. The thundering bass is well done, though.
The song sounds ok-ish in the car or on the computer system. It is quite unpleasant to play loud on a decent hi-fi system. Just now? I could hear through the harshness to the music and found it bearable. Surprisingly so.
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Post by user211 on Jun 25, 2020 20:34:50 GMT
Just played the Feist track on my headphones via the Amazon Music app.
Saw an X-Ray Lyrics button and pressed it. Sure enough the lyrics popped up as they were sung.
It sounds alrightish on my Sony WH-1000XM3s but that percussion could definitely cause some systems issues I reckon. I will see what my Apogee MRT ribbons make of it tomorrow out of curiosity.
The Amazon copy is 24/96. But not over Bluetooth.
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Post by MartinT on Jun 30, 2020 16:26:57 GMT
The final mod arrived today, another of MCRU's excellent DC cables, this one for my 12V router.
I've just connected it up, together with my back-to-back connector to give a grounding wire for the SGS-1. It's subtle, but even this one makes a different, the music stepping up a little more. Don't underestimate power, grounding and isolation for your router if you want the very best streaming quality.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2020 17:20:26 GMT
Don't underestimate power, grounding and isolation for your router if you want the very best streaming quality. Not just on the router, but all audio devices that use this methodology |
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Post by The Brookmeister on Jul 1, 2020 20:55:22 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Jul 1, 2020 21:21:23 GMT
Clearly it wasn't. So I wrote some more  |
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Post by MartinT on Jul 2, 2020 19:45:56 GMT
I'm trying to decide whether a change in DAC reconstruction filter setting may better suit my system now.
The only two settings I use are SLOW-M and APODIZING (sic). I've used SLOW-M (Slow roll-off Minimum Phase) for a long time and it's what was used in my old Ayre SACD player. Now I'm trying APODIZING and am wondering if it just takes a slight edge off proceedings, sacrificing a bit of transient clout for a slightly smoother top end.
Does anyone with a modern DAC have a view on these settings? It's a very subtle difference and not easy to detect in all music.
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Post by MartinT on Jul 2, 2020 20:06:25 GMT
Minimum Phase (MP) filters remove pre-ringing in the analogue reconstruction, which apparently is an unnatural sound in music, by shifting it to post-ringing. APODIZING filters take MP further by additionally attempting to eliminate the effects of the brick wall filter in the original ADC conversion.
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Post by John on Jul 2, 2020 20:20:49 GMT
I found digital filtering to be subtle I just went for the one I liked the best and then never bothered again
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Post by MartinT on Jul 2, 2020 20:27:44 GMT
Very subtle, John, and I struggle to hear the differences unless I relax and let the music wash over me.
I'm going to leave it set to APODIZING for a while.
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Post by wannarock2 on Jul 3, 2020 0:54:33 GMT
Very subtle, John, and I struggle to hear the differences unless I relax and let the music wash over me. I'm going to leave it set to APODIZING for a while. Interesting MartinT, I was following your lead on the Slow Roll-off DSP. The default on Volumio for my DAC is Fast Roll-off which has a little too much ‘edge’ for my liking. I will give a listen to the APODIZING DSP and report back. |
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Post by wannarock2 on Jul 4, 2020 19:43:52 GMT
Very subtle, John, and I struggle to hear the differences unless I relax and let the music wash over me. I'm going to leave it set to APODIZING for a while. Interesting MartinT, I was following your lead on the Slow Roll-off DSP. The default on Volumio for my DAC is Fast Roll-off which has a little too much ‘edge’ for my liking. I will give a listen to the APODIZING DSP and report back. ya, i’d say the APODIZING (fast roll-off) is a little further out on the sinewave, closer to the square. still liking the slow roll-off. |
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Post by MartinT on Jul 4, 2020 20:15:38 GMT
I'm still undecided, switching between SLOW-M and APODIZING. Feel different about it on different evenings, which may just be my state of mind.
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Post by wannarock2 on Jul 4, 2020 20:50:28 GMT
i think the most appealing thing about slow roll-off
is how the music seems to hang on for awhile
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Post by MartinT on Jul 7, 2020 16:17:53 GMT
I've reverted to SLOW-M. It's too close to call, but then I seem to always return to this setting so my subconsciousness is telling me something.
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Post by MartinT on Jul 9, 2020 17:12:49 GMT
Back to the master clock. The more I listen to my system, the more I hear the effect of the clock on both the EtherREGEN and Mutec MC-3+ USB.
The key areas of improvement, to summarise, are incredible note decay, low level ambience, bass tightness and extension.
This is a £70 clock using a reclaimed Chinese 4G mobile tower oven-controlled crystal. It's the only way it could be made so inexpensively. It's compromised as, although I swapped the 50 ohm BNC connectors, it still has 50 ohm output impedance and both my reclockers require 75 ohm clock feeds. I'm using very inexpensive Canare LV-61S 75 ohm cables. It only has one squarewave output and two sinewave outputs. I do feed it with good 12V LPSU power, though.
What could I do to improve on it without spending megabucks on a commercial hi-fi or studio clock? Well, I could ask the designer, BG7TBL (his callsign), to make me one with 75 ohm impedance and all-squarewave outputs. So I did. It will arrive soon. I could use better and shorter 75 ohm cables, so I have two short lengths of Canare LV-77S clock cables arriving soon.
The LPSU, BR feet, weight, MCRU DC cable and BR grounding box are all there already. I'll report on what I hear when I put it together. For about £90, it doesn't matter much if I have to bin it. It's worth the experiment and, let's face it, my original OCXO has to be rated a complete success.
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📶NAS > Gustard x26p DAC > Benchmark LA4 Pre-Amp > NAD M22-V2 Amplifier > Revel F228Be Speakers