|
|
Post by MartinT on Feb 19, 2021 9:19:35 GMT
Thinking about it further, John, I suspect Mutec may have separated ground planes for the different input/output areas of the circuit. It's just a guess, but if so I can understand it objecting to having those isolated ground planes tied together.
|
|
|
|
Post by MikeMusic on Feb 19, 2021 10:00:35 GMT
Life, and grounding gets more confusing !
|
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Feb 22, 2021 11:58:30 GMT
Week off today, listening to music. Will have fun finding the best Ethernet link cable to use between my EtherREGEN and ultraRendu. My current one is a Cat6 no-name. I have two more, from Rhino and Andee.  |
|
|
|
Post by petea on Feb 22, 2021 12:10:40 GMT
I think Steve has some of my AQVox ones that you might be able to arrnge to borrow from him if you like.
|
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Feb 22, 2021 12:16:43 GMT
Thanks Pete, but I need 12cm ones to link back-to-back and no audiophile brand does them in that length.
|
|
|
|
Post by petea on Feb 22, 2021 12:25:17 GMT
AQVox make to order and so I'm sure they would. Offer stands if you want to see if you like their signature in your system.
|
|
|
|
Post by petea on Feb 22, 2021 12:28:36 GMT
Norman (and Susanne, the owner / designer) at AQVox are always helpful
info@aqvox.de
|
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Feb 22, 2021 13:53:59 GMT
The Rhino sounds exactly like the no-name, as far as I can tell. However, the Andee has more space, air and ambience in the background, and less sibilance. It's also in a very fetching pink. Here it is, in position, with a Magic Tube tied to it.  |
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Feb 22, 2021 20:47:44 GMT
Interestingly, Andee and Rhino appear to be the same company, but their two cables are built differently. Anyway, all these different 12cm cables (and a 15cm one I forgot I had) cost peanuts so it was a fun experiment to try.
The Andee is staying put as it sounds marvellous. It cost £4.15.
I may write to AQVox but their cables use metal plugs and Uptone specifically say metal plugs are not good for the B side of the EtherREGEN as you want earth isolation.
|
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Feb 22, 2021 21:19:04 GMT
Up to date photo of digital chain.  |
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Feb 24, 2021 22:20:12 GMT
I can't say for sure that the short 12cm ethernet cable is solely responsible, or whether the LKS DAC mods have further bedded in, or even if the 2nd QP-1 PSU has fully formed its supercaps, but everything seems to have snapped into place over the last couple of days.
I won't go into more hyperbole trying to describe the sound, it's just making great, vivid, exciting music. I'm using Qobuz Discover a lot now.
|
|
|
|
Post by MikeMusic on Feb 25, 2021 10:18:44 GMT
Just need to go all black on the kit now....  |
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Feb 25, 2021 10:40:41 GMT
That would ruin EVERYTHING  |
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Feb 26, 2021 15:56:40 GMT
I installed the 6D power cable I bought from MikeMusic today. This one replaces a Supra cable powering my 2nd QP-1 PSU, itself powering the EtherREGEN and master clock. This completes my entire system being powered by Coherent power cables. It, too, has an SR Red fuse in keeping with the others, except for the two feeds to the regenerators which have SR Orange fuses. I wasn't sure that this one would make a whole lot of difference, but it does. Every one of them has made an improvement in sound quality. Quite how they work so much more effectively than any other power cable I've used remains a mystery, but their ability to reduce RFI/EMI remains unparalleled. Apart from having my Mutec MC-3 modded, I have no more plans to upgrade. |
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Feb 26, 2021 20:02:30 GMT
As the system is now.  |
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Mar 8, 2021 21:08:06 GMT
I can't say for sure that the short 12cm ethernet cable is solely responsible, or whether the LKS DAC mods have further bedded in, or even if the 2nd QP-1 PSU has fully formed its supercaps, but everything seems to have snapped into place over the last couple of days. This was almost right. The DAC mods and QP-1 have improved and are giving their all. The 12cm cable, though, is a mystery. What started sounding like a good improvement must have burned in in the wrong direction. I heard a midrange grittiness tonight that I had only just started hearing last night, thinking then that I was just tired. I thought back to the last change I had made and it was the 12cm ethernet link cable. i put the original purple no-name cable back in place. Grittiness gone. I'll be damned but sometimes this game still throws me. |
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Mar 9, 2021 8:05:20 GMT
Just a general thought on system upgrades and why they can send you off in the wrong direction...
1. You perform a tweak. It seems to improve things. Happiness.
2. Elsewhere, you make an upgrade. Overall it sounds like an improvement.
3. You begin to sense that something isn't quite right. Unhappiness.
4. You chase around undoing what you did last. Worse. You finally undo the earlier tweak. Happiness.
Ad nauseam. Because everything interacts, sometimes a new tweak requires an older one to be removed as it was really only compensating for something wrong, whereas the new tweak fixes it.
|
|
|
|
Post by jandl100 on Mar 9, 2021 8:06:24 GMT
That 12cm cable must be a bottleneck - why not get TonyC to make you up a "special"?
|
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Mar 9, 2021 8:42:46 GMT
You think the cable needs to be thicker? Is that how it works? |
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Mar 9, 2021 21:58:56 GMT
Purple 12cm ethernet link stays. Two Magic Tubes removed from just the ethernet cables. Paul Hynes 12V LPSU + Kimber DC cable replaced by Coherent/Weiliang 12V LPSU + MCRU DC cable to power the router.
There is such resolution and definition that making micro-changes gives me different flavours of goodness.
Two go-to tracks that have startling amounts of detail and dynamic contrasts (on Qobuz, but using Spotify links here):
|
|
