Bert - where can I find information on how to build the Litze cables?.

I remembered about Less-Loss cables as they use the independent isolated strands. There is in their site a short and didactic explanation from their point of view of the typical topics on regards power cords, like "Power lines run for hundreds of miles, so how could a six foot power cord make any difference?"http://www.lessloss.com/dfpc-series-p-213.html. Looking around also in their site I´ve found a curious device that they say it works to eliminate the ambient EM and the near field electromagnetic (EM) interaction to audio reproduction quality. If it works or not if far from my knowledge but the theory and the exposition is nice. This is the article:"Ambient field conditioning. A new approach"
http://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html

Juan

Peter - Ok, it works, after turning up and down the volume from -42db to -30db I realized that the volume change is very noticeable from one extreme to the other but step by step from -1.5db to the next level it is hardly perceptible. The change seems to take more time than before, it is like if the volume level changes not as quickly but in a smoother way. That could be the reason why it was hard to perceive the change from, let´s say, -30db to -28db. Of course it could be due to that the system is now more stressed. I´m using your same settings (Ultimate, SFS120, etc.).

Juan

I have a problem with 0.9z-8-3a. The Alt+U or Alt+D to turn up or down the volume level don´t work, although in the wallpaper appears the volume level as changed

Juan

About the power cords what I can say is, out of the technical issues and measures, that I can hear differences with different power cords although it is true that with the NOS1 the changes in SQ are less notorious. This is an old issue and my position now is to choose the cable I like more between the "normally priced" I still have, that´s it. The time when I spent an important amount of money on cables are gone forever, fortunately, and that´s due IMO because they seem to affect the sound less with the NOS1 and XXHighEnd than with other components I had.
Btw, I bought some years ago the Shunyata Anaconda power cord ($2.000) and I ended up selling it pretty soon because it was filtering the sound making it lifeless and anemic with a blurred bass.

Juan

BEBO VALDES death 3/22/2013

Bebo Valdes died three days ago at the age of 94

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDbeYD3bnBg

Juan

Hey Adrian,

Thanks for the link. Btw, how is it going with your new amp?.

Regards,
Juan

Hi Geoff,

I agree with you about the easier listening with "not the best" setting but, as I said, I find the sound not as well placed as it is with "Optimal". It is interesting also the changes in SQ that are related with volume level because there are changes again in the smoothness or the placement of voices and instruments, e.g. I find the perfect sound in my system at -30db while at -28db the voices are displaced a bit more in front and turn to be a little aggressive. It could be also related with the room acoustics that can deal well at certain volumes and not so well at higher levels.

All in all, what I can say is that this version is the best so far for my taste and in my system. The bass is big but firm and remains under control, the sound stage is deep and wide and the voices are clear and have a rare sense of humanity, I mean, they seem to come from a real human body. Very thrilling indeed.

Best regards,
Juan

No problem in my case with temperature, the cpu is working at 99,7% of the normal frequency, if I remember well. The six cores are at 30ºC/33ºC with a very short maximum peak at 42ºC in some of the cores (tested with Real Temp. Room temperature 23ºC). I even took off the cpu fan and I´m using just two of the three big fans that are at the bottom of my case, they are running at minimum speed, +/-950 rpm. No fan filters either (that makes 3ºC/3,5ºC less). For the ones that have my same pc case I´d recommend to try this configuration. You can take a look to the link in my signature to see my pc case that have the advantage of a different orientation of the motherboard with the cpu cooler receiving directly the air that comes from the bottom fans.

Talking about settings I followed Peter recommendations, XTweaks : Ultimate, etc. and I´ve found interesting the setting of "Time performance Index" because the sound changes quite dramatically, at least in my system. What seems to be a bigger sound stage and a smoother sound with "Time Performance Index" set at "Not the best" is in IMHO just a misplacement of the sound and it produces a fake sense of smoothness. With "Optimal" the sound is more pinpointed, firmer and better placed than without it. The smoothness gotten, or the lack of it (however it should be named) is the one produced naturally by the instruments and the voices placed as they should be. In other words, nothing is perfect but with "Time Performance Index" set at "Optimal" the sound is less artificial, more real.

Great sound!, (as always).

Juan

Cielito Lindo. Mexican Folk Song

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Kmy5kW3rWJU

Juan

Hi Adrian,

You can find more information below about the Spectron amps. There is at least other person in the forum, that I know, that also have this amp. Its nickname is Rutger21 you can ask him also, he´s a very communicative and friendly guy.

Here you have some links:

Simon from MCV Consulting, he´s a very affordable seller and you can ask him whatever you want to know: http://mcv-consulting.com/cart/spectron-audio-musician-iii-mk2-power-amplifier-with-free-vcap-upgarde-p-94.html?zenid=5a719024b8fc9024cb7ff2185a708188

A review in Enjoy the Music: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/superioraudio/equipment/0306/spectron_audio_musician_iii.htm

Review in Positive Feedback:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue44/spectron.htm

Review in The Stereo Times:
http://www.stereotimes.com/amp082908.shtml

More reviews from private owners:
http://www.audioreview.com/cat/amplification/amplifiers/spectron/musician-iii/prd_371112_1583crx.aspx

I hope it helps,

Regards,
Juan

Sorry Peter but there is not a consistent behavior, yesterday it was working fine (not always though) clicking on "Don´t do anything with Coverart" and not working with it unmarked but today after turning On the PC the first thing I did was playing this album (C. Dion) with Show as Wallpaper active and there were no stops at all along the complete album. The only message that appeared in this case was

ChangeWp
Error setting the Wallpaper: A generic error ocurred in GDI+

These are my settings in CoverArt.

Wallpaper Max Height: 400
Thumbnail Cache Size: 500
Coverart-Resize Size: 3000

So, the conclusion so far about the "Playback stopped..." message is that the behavior is erratic and that when it stops just trying two or three times it works again not necessarily changing any setting.

Juan

Hi Adrian,

The choice of your amp depends greatly on the speakers you have. If you need at least 100w I guess that they are not in the very sensitive side. The Moon looks a well done amp from a known brand and could be a good election.  Anyway, I´m writing here to make you a suggestion and what could be a better one than my own amps?: Spectron Musician III MK2.
They are class D amps and...so what?. The sound is fantastic and you have plenty of power and bandwith (100kHz). Price is from 2700€ to 3900€ with extras like V-Caps and Bybee filters, ask Paul (Scroobius) about the wonders of Bybee. Besides you can buy one amp and it will work as stereo and if in the future you buy another one you can configure they as monoblocks. That´s what I did and after using many different kinds of amps along the years, tube and solid state, never found an amp sounding better than this one. Well, to tell you the truth I´ve never tried the famous Gainclones  but they seem to be for very sensitive speakers.
 
Well, I wouldn´t need to say that I´m not involved in any way with Spectron, but just in case, I´m only a happy costumer. Oh, I almost forgot it, if at any time you get a NOS1 you´ll get a match made in heaven with the Spectron, at least this is my experience.

Here you can find information about Spectron:

SPECTRON AUDIO: http://www.spectronaudio.com/index.htm

THE ENGINEERING BEHIND SPECTRON SOUND: http://www.spectronaudio.com/tech1.htm

THE MUSICIAN III MK2: http://www.spectronaudio.com/musicianIII.htm

Good luck with your choice and best regards,
Juan

Well, the previous example of Celine Dion Best Balladas sometimes works sometimes not. I have to try several times making the process described in the previous post, charging also another album before this one (as trying to fool XX) and rebooting XX. At the end after some tries it works again but I couldn´t say how to follow an exact procedure to make it works.

Juan

Peter, that happened with the album Aziza-Always (16bits/32bits. 44kHz/705kHz) and it is stored as wav files. I´m currently playing wit a Playback drive because playing directly from the hdd where the originals files are causes frequents stops. I´m not using Copy to XX drive and the page file is disabled. The other settings can be seen in my sig.

The message appeared again with other album, this time with Dion Best Ballades (16bit/32bit. 96kHz/768kHz) also wav files and with all settings being the same as with the Aziza album. In this case the message appeared just at the start of the first song and this is what I did: I went to the same window where I disabled the page file: System Properties>Advanced>Performance> Settings... and in Performance Options I marked "Adjust for best performance" clicking only "Smooth edges of screen fonts" (to get a better appearance). Later in XX I marked "Don´t do anything with Coverart" (before I had marked "Show as Wallpaper") and finally I moved a little up and down the volume level. I don´t know what part of this whole thing worked but after doing it the album played with no stops and the message was gone. Please ask if you need more information.

Juan

The message has appeared again when I turned up the volume on the fly for a few seconds, no problem if it is just a short Alt+U click to turn it up for only -1,5db. I know that there was some problems with Alt+U but I do not remember if it had to do with this matter.

Juan