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Post by John on Jul 24, 2024 6:02:52 GMT
Yesterday I used my torture track The Deepness by Those who Ride with giants. This is a difficult track to get right, the music needs to flow and you need to hear the whale song, ocean waves and the bass all clearly. The bass just did not sound right and I was not getting the clarity I expected.
I decided to really just work on the cross talk issues. Unfortunately there was no way to stop the throttle cable touching the grounding cables, so I decided to re-route the Ethernet cable and remove the throttle cable.
Wow, I finally started to get the warmth, depth and detail I have been missing. This was not subtle at all. it was like someone turned on a switch, I now had sound shining texture and timbre onto the images I was hearing. The music had a lot more sense of flow and my torture track, just sounded flowing. I was fully hearing the ocean waves, along with the whale song and deep bass.
Just to say the A15 uses a built-in Lan isolator.
I also put RFI tape on all the lead connectors, but I am not sure how if any, this has helped. In my case the crosstalk was the last block I had in getting the system to sound at it full potential.
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Post by Clive on Jul 24, 2024 6:41:00 GMT
Interesting John. I’m pleased you’re getting the sound you want. I’m getting the impression that using anti-noise measures on Ethernet requires just enough to be used to make the signal clean and using too much starts to damage the sound quality. You seem to have found the right balance for your new kit.
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Post by MartinT on Jul 24, 2024 7:49:59 GMT
I tried a single snap-choke on my uGreen Cat 7 cable from router to EtherREGEN, at the ER end. There was a tiny improvement in smoothness, barely noticeable.
This probably confirms my suspicion that the throttle cable is going to be way too much for my fairly well noise-suppressed system.
I'll report on the sound I get with the throttle cable when I receive the ferrite ring.
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Post by John on Jul 24, 2024 8:02:13 GMT
I think something like this is so system dependent, its a case of maybe it helps and maybe it does not.
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Post by John on Jul 30, 2024 6:57:49 GMT
At the start of this journey I hoped my years of experience would give me a headstart in getting the setup right. To be honest I expected it to take weeks not months to get to where I am now.
The biggest issues were
1 My only reference point was knowing what I liked in sound. I had little experience with headphones and some of the gear was impossible to try before buying.
2 I made a rookie mistake in terms of power supply. This was the most frustrating I could hear the potential but it was like trying to drive a car with the handbrake on.
I was getting to the point where I had to figure out what was going wrong and was starting to think I might have to re-evaluate the system. Thankfully chatting to Tony helped.
Looking back on what worked.
I got the heart of the system spot on. The Carbon CC and Stax 007 MK1 are made for each other. The amplifier has the power to get those headphones working well. No issues whatsoever with the bass. I have both grunt and texture.
Looking back I think I only heard 80% of the potential of everything I tried and not there true performance.
Still a few months compared to 30 years to get to where I am is okay in my books.
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Post by MartinT on Jul 30, 2024 7:07:49 GMT
You have illustrated exactly why I now dislike fiddling with my system. It's all too easy to go backwards without first hearing what's happened. Just an eventual dawning that it's not as satisfying as it was before. So easy to make these mistakes.
Well done for starting from virtually scratch and building something completely different, John.
When do you plan to return to a speaker-based system?
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Post by John on Jul 30, 2024 8:54:43 GMT
It really depends on where I end up I have kept the speakers in the hope I can go back to them. As good as the headphones system is (in many ways better) I miss listening to music via the speakers. We both like the physical impact that listening to music has. It's not just a listening experience.
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Post by John on Jul 30, 2024 9:01:41 GMT
You hit the nail on the head. It's easy to go backwards or sideways. It's then that nagging dawning of realisation that you are left somehow feeling uneasy and then it's the figuring out where it all went wrong.
I have been to that place quite a few times so best practice is one change at a time and evaluate over a week
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Post by John on Aug 2, 2024 18:54:28 GMT
Listening today and everything is sounding more bedded in. I was totally lost in time when listening to music.
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Post by Clive on Aug 2, 2024 19:01:19 GMT
Listening today and everything is sounding more bedded in. I was totally lost in time when listening to music. I know what you mean John. When it clicks, time just melts away, I totally lose track of time. |
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Post by mattspl on Aug 2, 2024 19:19:41 GMT
Listening today and everything is sounding more bedded in. I was totally lost in time when listening to music. That’s good to hear. Sounds like you’ve reached the right place. |
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Post by John on Sept 19, 2024 11:25:39 GMT
Some of my cables moved and I could hear crosstalk. This comes across in the bass region losing clarity and sounding a bit muffled.
So some careful rearranging and more work shielding. Result a bit more clarity and detail.
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Post by palace on Sept 19, 2024 13:02:19 GMT
Yesterday I used my torture track The Deepness by Those who Ride with giants. This is a difficult track to get right, the music needs to flow and you need to hear the whale song, ocean waves and the bass all clearly. The bass just did not sound right and I was not getting the clarity I expected. I decided to really just work on the cross talk issues. Unfortunately there was no way to stop the throttle cable touching the grounding cables, so I decided to re-route the Ethernet cable and remove the throttle cable. Wow, I finally started to get the warmth, depth and detail I have been missing. This was not subtle at all. it was like someone turned on a switch, I now had sound shining texture and timbre onto the images I was hearing. The music had a lot more sense of flow and my torture track, just sounded flowing. I was fully hearing the ocean waves, along with the whale song and deep bass. Just to say the A15 uses a built-in Lan isolator. I also put RFI tape on all the lead connectors, but I am not sure how if any, this has helped. In my case the crosstalk was the last block I had in getting the system to sound at it full potential. I played The Deepness & several other tracks by "Those who Ride with giants". unusual! I came upon a track The Guardians of the Deepness I can recommend others to listen to these tracks & a few listed below, these described as torture tracks or test tracks. I am hearing individual instruments & speeded up whale song otherwise too low a frequency for humans to hear however whether strings or drums voices have distinct intonation low frequencies' are deep filling the room seemingly with no effort, mids & treble have clean & clear cut off, low level information is sharp & clear & bass as I wrote are deep filling the L 19' x W 10'5' x H 8'2" room seemingly with no effort The fact that my OTA Quad 57's can play them at all let alone very well & the likes of Malia Raising Venus or Rebecca Tallon Worthey Love or Aziza Brahim Abbar el Hamada or Feist Metals is the result of fitting various types of Stack Audio Auvas under the electronics & OTA Rupert speaker stands. Thank you John for another series of tracks to listen to the others listed would not been within my purview without your & other members suggestions, Aziza Brahim singing in I think Arabic it is irrelevant I can't understand the words, her, musicality shines through, it is enough to really enjoy. |
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Post by John on Sept 20, 2024 8:41:04 GMT
For the first time yesterday I got why some people love headphones
Usually my girlfriend is using her tablet but yesterday she was out. The brick power supply is definitely adding noise and I will have to get a LPS for her tablet.
Yesterday the sound became so 3 dimensional and involving. I never fully experienced this before I had punch, timbre, detail and scale in bucket loads.
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 20, 2024 9:08:07 GMT
The boss uses a USB for her iPad.
Never thought of noise from that
Could USB leads into USB mains plugs be noisy too ?
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Post by stellabagpuss on Sept 20, 2024 9:08:13 GMT
Great news John.. I can recommend a Zero Zone LA01 for that task,and l should have suggested that to you, but forgot.
lt's really a eye opener, on how much interference a psu can cause. Even ifi supplies that are quiet on the component they are supplying, chuck back noise into your supply,it was something l started picking up on,when l replaced my last couple of ifi psu for Farads
Great result John.
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Post by John on Sept 24, 2024 6:51:03 GMT
Re-reading Martin T article on getting the best out of digital I thought I add a grounding box to my router. I was initially connecting this to my RTZ that also grounds the A15.
Well a nice improvement on detail and depth. To be honest I was not sure I hear anything.
I have ordered a linear power supply to power the girlfriend laptop, so that I am not adding so much noise to the mains.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 24, 2024 7:45:21 GMT
I have ordered a linear power supply to power the girlfriend laptop, so that I am not adding so much noise to the mains. If you're taking a USB feed from the laptop, an ifi USB isolator is worth having. I use one from my mini desktop PC to the SMSL Q5 Pro. |
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Post by John on Sept 24, 2024 9:50:14 GMT
She is not using the laptop for music. Just research and planning.
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Post by John on Oct 12, 2024 8:41:31 GMT
Sunday will be a big day for the system.
I am going to hear if the Gold Note Evo A3 works in the system.
A big shout-out has to go to Tony I am borrowing a Belles Aria, speaker cables, RCA cables and stands. I have no idea if it will work in the room it should do as the Evo A3 is quite room friendly.
Quite nervous about it all.
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