I understood the opposite. Turning off the monitor helps for a better SQ. It seems to me more logical.

Juan

Once 09z-7 was installed and working I´d like to show you my numbers and settings, maybe you can compare them, in relative terms, with yours.
The sound is fantastic with almost all the settings, I could choose one or two as my favorites, more on that later, but probably is too soon and I´d need more listening sessions. As a general rule the sound is big and smooth with a feeling of live presence. No pops except when the first track starts playing with PA activated and also when the volume goes up or down.

First let me show you the numbers.

The volume level during the test has been always -30dB.

NOS1 output numbers:

Without PA activated: -09.0mV/-10.0mV. These numbers are the same ones that I ever had with all the XX versions.


With PA activated and the music playing:
   
  *With IPhase active or inactive but with + activated: -140mV/-144mV (with Phase intensity=1).
-116mV/-119mV (with Phase intensity=0).

  *With IPhase active or inactive but with - activated: 118mV/118mV (with Phase Intensity=1).
94mV/94mV (with Phase Intensity=0).


Amplifiers (mono blocks) output numbers:

  With PA activated and music playing:
Oscillating between 02.5mV and 00.06mV in both mono blocks.


Sound and Settings:

Now the settings I like more (so far):

As I said almost all the settings are great. But to orientate myself while I was listening I rated the settings in a scale of 1-10. With the PA activated I realized that all the settings sounded better with Phase Intensity=1, so I applied it to the following settings:

With PA activated:

      - Phase inactive and (-).....9.0 points (the one with less bass, but the rest is very musical)

      - Phase inactive and (+).....9-9.5 p.

      - Phase active and (-).......9-9.5 p.

      - Phase active and (+).......9.5-9.75 p. (favorite)


Without PA activated:

 With Phase intensity=0 and IPhase off....9-9.5 (also a favorite).

The other settings can be seen in my signature.

In my opinion the sound without PA activated is also beautiful, maybe a little less sharp but great in all its terms. Distorted sound?...
I need however more experimentation with PA activated and IPhase on/off, +/- because I have the intuition that the absolutely great sound is going to come to my system managing properly these latter settings. I agree with Peter on this regard.

Juan




 

Hi Gerard,

It looks that the MEDION® LIFETAB® P9514 Tablet can only be found in Medion NL, I wonder if the tablet will have installed other languages ​​such as Spanish or English

Regards,
Juan

Thanks Peter,

This is the Medion I´ve found although it is 1Tb not 2Tb like the ones you have: http://www.medion.com/gb/electronics/prod/MEDION%C2%AE+P83771+1TB+3.5%22+USB+3.0+HDDrive-n-go+%28MD90175%29/50038078A1?category=external_hdd_61

And in Amazon is possible to find the hub: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006TTA75Y/ref=s9_simh_se_p147_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=auto-no-results-center-1&pf_rd_r=4F6F6FA2DD5C4C5883FF&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_p=240112507&pf_rd_i=HDDrive-n-go

About the hub it is important to have one with enough current to drive well the hdds. Each external hdd needs 900mA, the hdds must have its own power supply if the total current exceeds the one provided by the hub.

I´ve found also a couple of hubs with 3.5/4A just in case someone could be interested:
- LogiLink UA0091: http://www.amazon.es/LogiLink-UA0091-5000-Mbit-3-5/dp/B003EC6H94/ref=zg_bs_937877031_3
- DeLOCK USB 3.0 External HUB 4 Port: http://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B003URZAMI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&smid=A1AT7YVPFBWXBL

Peter, I have a couple of questions about the external hdd and its connections. You said that the Medion has also an eSata connection, I wonder if you have tested it or if you think that could be a good idea to get an external hard drive with this kind of connection besides the USB 3.0.

What I´m also considering is to get out the internal WD hdd where I have the music stored and use some kind of docking station like these ones:
- Sharkoon SATA QuickDeck Pro (24.95€): http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/content/sata-quickdeck-pro
- Sharkoon SATA QP U3 FireWire (?€), it has USB 3.0, eSata and FireWire connections: http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/node/2237

There are more docking stations for 2,5", 3,5" and SSD hdds with different connections.

What do you think about this idea?.

Best regards,
Juan

Thank you Peter. Yes, it is clear a little, he, he, but not totally  , I guess that once I get some more control over the 09z-7 settings it will be clearer, of course  once it has been released!!

Peter, could you tell me please what´s the brand name/model of the external USB 3.0 hub and powered USB 3.0 hdd you have?

At the end, what I wanted is to know more about the differences in SQ between the internal SATA III vs. external USB 3.0 used for music storage. Any comment from the ones with some experience about it is welcome.

Best regards,
Juan

Peter 

I´m a little confused about the hhd configuration to store the music files. In the PC you build you have the music in an internal SATA III hhd. You also use an external (powered) USB 3.0 hhd in your normal audio PC, this hhd connected through an also powered USB3 hub, in your opinion "this setup is a good thing for SQ".
I´m planning to rebuild some parts of my music PC now that XX 09z-7 has been released and I´d like to start with the music hhd.
Could you explain a little the differences in SQ you have found in between both, the Internal SATA III and the external powered USB 3.0 hhd?

BTW, I can´t find your post about the PC you build for sale and I´d like to take a look. Could you post the link please?

Best regards,
Juan

Let me add something. Where are my speakers?, I can't see them, they disappeared totally.

Juan

YES, better. More information, fuller soundscape, sense of being closer to the real thing and all of that with a smoothness that penetrates inside the body. I´m eager to get the correct settings.
Thank you Peter and congratulations. Please take my money, I don´t want any return at all.

Best regards,
Juan

I´d like to help, you can count on me.

Juan

Thanks guys, I´ll try to make some tests with the external drives while we wait for the new XX version. Who knows if all of this experiments will be of some use once the new 0.9z-7 arrives.

Brian, about the room treatment, the best non technical and more practical treatment is to put some shelves with plenty of books on the walls, the front and rear wall can be similar but just try to put something different in the left than in the right wall.
As you can see I use those Ikea thick boards under the amps, dac and computer. When I use two of them like under the amps and also under the NOS1 I use some mouse pads to stop the vibrations. Not high tech but it works very well.

My room is (L.W.H) 7 x 4,95 x 3,03 mts. A little narrower in the rear wall.


Thanks Peter, so far I only have an USB 3.0 drive powered by the USB bus, however I notice some improvement.

About SATA II and III I have to investigate a little further.

I don´t understand what you mean with "Notice that the music files still are where they always were". I put the files directly in the USB 3.0 drive, is there some other way to do it?.

Juan

Has any one tested the external USB3 drive (music)  powered by the USB bus versus powered by an external power supply?. If so, what are the differences with respect to the SQ?. Maybe this is already answered in the forum.....

Juan

What I noticed is that when I turn up the volume (Alt + U) the amount of volume (level) seems to be higher than when I use the internal hdd. I don´t know if I explain myself correctly but anyway, I´m not really sure about it, maybe all the album seems to play at higher level. Not an important issue though, what´s important is that it seems that the sq is better using an external music USB3 drive.

Regards,
Juan

I´ve  tested the music in an external USB3 drive and yes, it seems to sound a bit better than with the internal drives. It seems like there are more harmonics in the sound.
Other thing that I noted is that the volume (Alt + U) reacts faster and also the volume level seems to be a little higher from one level to the next one than when using the internal music drive.
I have one question, if I use this USB3 drive, should I disconnect the internal music drive to get better SQ?. I guess that would be better with less hdd working.

Best regards,
Juan

Hi,

Mick Maloney owner of Supratek amplifiers, the ones I used some time ago, has this opinions about Balance/Unbalanced operation:

Balanced operation

I often get asked about the advantages of balanced operation-my reply is based on the following:
 
-Balanced/unbalanced is a conentious subject. It comes from the pro audio world where they need it to balance out the noise pickup from very long cables.

-True balance involves either using balancing transfomers or turning a Single Ended cicuit (as most preamps are) into a push pull circuit with double the components, circuitry etc- this is the only way to achieve "true" balanced throughout the preamp.

-There's a lot of hype about it, with a lot of so called balanced operation being psuedo balanced, which is basically having an XLR socket wired to accept a balanced signal and turning it back to unbalanced.
Personally I prefer Single Ended operation every time- there's an ease and effortlesss about it, wheras true balanced sounds more electronic to me, especially the push pull types of operation.

-One area where it is useful is in helping with RF noise in the big cities- it is not an isue for me in my country town isolation, but places like NY benefit from it and in my mind the best way to use balanced is to take it off the output transformer of a preamp, which fortunately we can do with the Supratek pres- it is true and perfect balanced with the minimum of circuitry to degrade the sound. (there's virtually no circuitry!)

-One balancing point in a preamp is all that is necessary- the output transformer turns the single ended circuit into a balanced circuit with two phases and the noise common to both channels (hum, RF etc) is greatly reduced.

-Going for balanced throughout is sonic overkill that does more harm than good IMO- it has been a successful marketing campaign by some companies, but it is marketed to sell amps.

I personnaly use XLR in my Spectron amps. I live in downtown Madrid sorrounded by offices and computers. My interconnection cables are also quite long. At the end I like more the sound with XLR than with RCA.


Best regards,
Juan

Hi Praphan,

I´ve been using tubes for more than 20 years, time enough to realize that rolling tubes is expensive and that you never get satisfied, why? because you are always thinking on other tubes to improve/change the sound. That´s the reason I took the route of SS, of course it isn´t perfect either but at least it is cheaper and there is less parts in the system to change/combine. With the amount of parameters we use now with XXHighEnd to think also on adding combinations with different tubes made me lazy to say the least. Of course if you are a quiet man you can stay with the same tubes all the time but I´m not that kind of guy, I like to play a bit once in a while changing one thing here or there. Once I began with the computer music (XXHighEnd), I realized that I have enough parameters to play with to kill the audiophile anxiety. Some of those parameters make similar effects as changing tubes, but again, a lot cheaper. So, I can play enough with XXHighEnd to get me entertained and, what´s most important, to improve the sound with those changes, something that evidently is possible.

After many different kinds of amplifiers over the years, tubes and ss, I ended up with the Spectron mono blocks. They are digital amps, I know that many people are sceptic with this kind of amplification, what I can say is that they make me very happy, they are smooth, dynamic and produce a very dimensional and clean sound, in my humble opinion they are fantastic amplifiers and the most true to the music amps I ever had.

Of course I had great times with tubes and I´m sure you too...Enjoy it!

Best regards,
Juan