Hi Peter,

I do have those "ticks" at the beginning of a song, and I also play a hi-res file between 2 redbook files from time to time, at the same settings as you have (q1 14, q3 0, q4 1, q5 0 and SFS 120). No recall of last notes playing from the previous redbook (before the hi-res). So I can't say a thing about the reported potential problem...

Alain

Hi Peter,

If you look at the typical electrical panel that we have here in Canada, you will see that each of the 2 tracks carries 120 volts. When 240V is required, the 240V breaker has twice the size o a regular 120V breaker, so it overlaps the 2 tracks, each of them going into a different wire.

Maybe it is just a matter of using the correct words to describe this, but a cable connected to a 240V breaker has 3 wires: 2 "hot" wires and the "ground". I know because I have tested some of them when installing a heating radiator (it requires 240V) here.

Alain

Addendum to my journey with the NOS1a.

Please read in the opening post of this topic the part where I wrote about the 3rd switch on the NOS1a. If I have i right, it is equivalent to "lifting" the USB port black wire ground from the NOS1a chassis (pressed UP) or not (pressed DOWN).

At the time I pressed the switch down to have the ground connected.

Well I tried to "lift" that ground again yesterday and was very surprised at the details that added? It is more revealing and I hear more subtleties than before. I am surprised but very pleased too

Alain

Hi Peter,

In Canada and my guess is that it is the same in the U.S., when there is 3 prongs, the position of the "hot" wire is always the same compared to the ground (it is the small blade).

So when the ground pin is down (it depicts 2 "eyes" and the "mouth"), the "hot" is the smaller right eye and the neutral is the left eye.

Of course this is standard for domestic appliances because there are other NEMA plugs that have the 2 blades the same and I suppose it means that there is no dedicated way to plug the device.

This, provided that the electrician tied the right wire in the wall plug... There is a tool that one can buy here (not expensive) and if has a set of lights that indicates if all is connected correctly or not.

But then... How do one wires a IEC plug at the other end ? There must be a certain rule, depending if we are talking about 120V (hot and neutral) or 240V (hot + hot + ground)... Maybe it does not matter with a switching PSU, but does it for others ?

I agree: this is a nightmare...

Alain

We are right. Many have the same size 2 blades, but some do not, because they are told to be "polarized", for what meaning that carries. It may have to do with the topology inside the component...

Alain
PS: Anyway I hate these plugs. Having "audiophile" cables showed me how inadequate the principle is. The wall plugs do not hold the blades tight enough when a cable is heavy so the blades are partially pulled out of the wall...

Hi Robert,

The problem with some 2 prong connectors is that the "hot" has a small blade and the neutral a bigger one (for some components), not allowing the switching...

As for the other (the "cream" one), not having a ground pin may affect the results, no?

It would have been so wonderful if the connector was made of two half mechanisms that would allow on to loosen a screw and just do a half turn and then tighten the screw, allowing to maintain the ground but reverse the polarity... But because the ground would be at the same place would not work...

Alain

Hi Ramesh,

I do not know an easy way to do this, because of the ground pin... My only suggestion may sound stupid, but if I really wanted to do this in an easy way, I would buy 2 good power strips (not too expensive) and I would invert the connectors from the cable that powers one of the strips. So every component that would be connected to that power strip would have the same reversed polarity.

The interesting aspect of it is that if someone has one strip in reversed polarity and another in "standard" polarity, he could test each component with one and the other to see how that affects SQ (if it does). Some components may behave better with the reverse polarity, some may yield better SQ with the standard polarity. It could be a good way to test different configurations. 

Regards,

Alain
PS: As for the danger of doing this, unless there is such a warning in the owner's manual, I don't think so. Where I am less sure is if a connector only has 2 prongs (no ground). A lamp may not be a risk, but for the wiring inside a component, there may be a reason for the "hot" wire to be as it is... In doubt, it is always better to contact a technician.

Peter, I can't answer your question for the moment. I may be back home somewhere today (still morning here) and for sure I will play Machine Head under 14393 to check what is happening, after listening to 10586 for comparison purposes.

I am aware that talking about my experience with the high-res version was kind of OT, because this is not what you are interested in. I do have a few other albums with muffled HF, but I suspect they would be so because either the tapes used were worn out or there are no good original tapes.

Do you know Charlie ? They had a few albums like "No Second Chance" and "Lines". They are awful to listen to on CD, but were quite good on vinyl. I got rid of my TT and my vinyls also a few years ago, but have kept those albums to ask for a needle drop. For these two albums, the SQ is definitely better in analog. It does not make me happy, because of the surface noise (and the state of the vinyl is unknown), but it should be better than what I am hearing with the remastered CDs. The worse by far is "Lines". Steve Gadd was the drummer on these albums by the way.

Alain

Peter,

This reminds me of a download I made not even one month after I subscribed to Phasure (it was in July 2011).

At the time, I was buying some high resolution files, in a “discovery mode”.

See this:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f13-music-downloads-and-streaming/scandal-brewing-high-resolution-downloads-7735/index7.html#post93808

It is about Deep Purple “Machine Head”. The sound was surprisingly good for that album and I was stunned by the amounts of HF that had always been lacking before. Would I never have heard that album before, I would have not thought that HF were lacking.

But there was something else and this was really annoying: the “mixing” of the recording was done in such a way that some instruments were arriving from nowhere and disappearing, as if there was a missing channel. It was so weird that I think I ditched the album finally, because it was almost unlistenable from what I was used to hear from that album.

Alain

Hi Mani,

You certainly have good taste I also understand your dilemma; when I am not at home (I have been for the last 3 weeks at my girlfriend's home - her mother is in loss of autonomy), II miss my audio system a lot... Music is such an important part of my life... Having the chance to listen to music and with marvelous SQ is a gift of life for us

I hope that Peter knows how many smiles he triggers 

Please keep on bringing your perceptions

And let the good times roll !

Alain

Hi Mani,

But we know he is cool And with all he has done and is still doing he can also be quite hot

You have a very cool system btw

Alain

Wow, very impressive to see all those cores !

Cool ! Did you put it back in the water or was it for dinner ? With such a size, I hope it's not a flying fish, otherwise you better have an helmet

Wow, where did you get it (apart from answering "In the water") ?

Alain