Correct. The Clairixa was even officially shipped with isolative pads for those who thought that worked out for the better.


The Lush cables (all versions) have been quite explicitly designed not to be bothered by 5V usage or not.

Peter

Hi Arvind,

I am not aware of any requirement to isolate the 5V for any Lush cable ?
That would not even be possible for NOS1a/G3 customers, because the Phisolator uses the 5V from USB. Of course you can isolate the 5V but then you'd have to use the U input of your NOS1a/G3.

Kind regards,
Peter

Ramesh, no it did not.
Peter

Hi Ramesh,

This seems very odd indeed. Especially this part is speaking :


... This seems like some quirk from an other direction ?

Thank you for sharing this. If others experience similar, I hope they step forward.

Kind regards,
Peter

I'll keep that one in mind for tonight (on I Love Everybody).
Thank you John.

Hi there Paul,

Yesterday, thinking of you, I played a lot of the "UK" stuff we have been talking about in the past. Elvis Costello. Ian Dury / Blockheads. Iggy Pop. The latter not British of course, but I am referring to Punk.
I suppose you already tried it ? But anyway, I somehow felt that this suddenly all should come together, and it does ! Beautiful quality, even from Lust for Life.
So it's all this native "sound", like Punk now suddenly rendered so well !

Kind regards and thanks,
Peter

Thank you John.

Meanwhile I have been listening to
A: B-W-G, B: B-W-G
for two days (starting Oct 9, 2020). I did not encounter any annoyances, probably less than the bespoke previous two (that one plus its opposite).

But then I was handed this one, from someone off-line :
A: W-Y-R-G, B: W-Y-R
and these were my initial remarks :

---

I think it is a WOW. Highs (cymbals) are the best with colors. Also a mighty interesting sound. So realistic.
Skins of drums … also a WOW. So soft, so nicely developed. So colorful.

---

This configuration seems to beat all for the lacking of distortion. And Yes, isn't this a new phenomenon : judging USB cables on their amount of distortion ...

The strange this is and remains that instead of being easily able to point out where the cable (a config of it) is good at, it now comes down to determining the least "distorting" config. And mind you, I think I said so from day-1. "Which config shows the least annoyance". I suppose this can be related to the enormous step forward compared to the Lush^2 and that we could be completely overwhelmed by al the novelties and this still ab-nor-mal extra detail and sounds now coming forward. I myself am just too flabbergasted to pick out what's the best, BUT I can detect small annoyances.

Can you guys please try this and give your feedback ?

Peter

Hello Tore,

You are of course correct, if we'd read from left to right. But since the last 3 pins are a different section of the connector, it is easier for me to start at the outside again. So I need to connect R to G in that section. Then I first use the "first pin" (which is the outermost) and connect R to that, and then the second pin and connect G to that.

Similarly you could have told that R should have been connected to pin 5 and G to pin 6 (leaving pin 7 blank).
But it is all the same ...

Another explanation would be :
This is indeed how I connect the wires (start at the outside). Now I listen to that for a day and someone asks me to make a picture of it. What shall I do ? Twist it around just for the picture with the chance it may sound different, and listen an other day first ?

So just to be 100% sure, this is what I listen to, so I make a picture of that.

Best regards,
Peter

Done !

Oct 9, 2020
A: W-Y & R-G, B: B-Y-R
Notice that this is the “opposite” of the good sounding A:B-Y-R, B: W-Y & R-G.

Great stuff !! Sound is similar to that “opposite”, but I’d say better again. Even more I need to hold back from turning up the volume.
I’ve been walking around for 3 hours or so, all the time having this big smile on my face. I have no additional particulars on this config, except for that urge to play louder again (which I did not give in to because it is really getting too crazy loud).

---

The above is my first impression, possibly without paying too much attention to "particulars" because I actually have found my Walhalla already in that mentioned "opposite". Still I was happier than the I think 3 days I played with that opposite. Part of it could be that there was nothing to pay attention to, or, that too much sucking into the music was going on that no space was left to think about "sounds".

Anyway this judgment could be premature (more listening to it tonight) but meanwhile people could try this one themselves without feeling sorry to change (I'm sure).

Peter

Oct 9, 2020
A: Y-R, B: W-Y & R-G
This emphasizes even more what the previous config attempted, because W and R are now floating, are thus not interconnected and will have their own life, still extended by R and G respectively.

Loud in the Mid (not the highs)
Highs have no color at all (but is special somehow).
Not sufficiently “interesting”.

---

Yes, odd. Just not "interesting". I heart this from note one. Don't ask me about the why.

PS: I thought to flag "rejected" configs red.

Hi Anthony,

When you do not use the Alt-E Pause feature in Unattended, there is no way that XXHighEnd could impose DC offset during silence (and with Alt-E I just don't know, but my estimate is that this is unsupported, so do not use it !).


There is no need to set up a dummy load. Just measure the output of each power-amp when XXHighEnd is playing ...
And indeed, when the output of the pre-amp does not show DC already (XXHighEnd playing, no need to measure each power-amp.

Best regards,
Peter

Hi Ramesh,

Can be any DAC.

Peter

Hi Jaiello,

Hey, welcome to the club ! And your instant feedback ... so nice.

We'll keep on posting the newly found configurations !

Kind regards,
Peter

Oh, but it is not *that* bad ! I mean, once you quite carefully measure in advance what the DC offset is, and you test with playback and without speakers connected, you can just see what happens. And mind you, this should NOT be even 1V of offset. It should be the normally accepted value like 20mV - maybe a bit more at the power-amp outputs (all of them !).

Any self-respecting power-amp will reject DC, unless you remove caps yourself.
Normally - but here it gets dangerous, a speaker will reject it too because of the coincidental capacitors in there. But for example, for my own Orelo-II speakers I already don't know it as Bert might say "dunno, but I think it will be OK". So for example (and people should read this carefully) because there's DSP for the woofers there-will-not-be any protective whatsoever in there because it would counteract the DSP. Hence, there is no filter.
Next problem : The speaker is active, so it is far from easy to check the output of the power-amp(s) in there.
.... And this is exactly how Phase Alignment got forgotten ... this is because I myself don't use it any more. No bribing about it - nothing. But it surely sounded better and still should ...

So Anthony, and others, if you'd be able to engage Phase Alignment (which I don't know at this time) speakers not connected  !!!, set the values as the ToolTips will teach you, and check with the multi meter for DC (for the NOS1, just read out the meters so you can see the applied DC is operative - for other DAC's measure the output of the DAC with the multimeter). No DC at the output of the Poweramp(s) ? then go for it. Connect your speakers and listen. Mind you please, THIS can not go wrong, as long as you measured and deem it OK.
Nothing can go wrong. However :

What can go wrong is the by now possibly unsupported new functionality which causes a Stop of playback and which does not gradually remove the Offset. Starting - same thing. Thus, it is this complexity which makes it, well, complex. Mind you, how strange it may come across to some, this is a pure software function.

The Offset will never be more than 1V at the DAC-input (this is software settable and relates to the volume you play at). So, 1V only. Yes, but when this is "set" in one go, your windows will shake seriously, because it will be half of the max volume you normally apply to the speakers, with instant "rise". This is where the bang comes from.
And yes, with normal Absolute Phase Polarity, your driver will jump forward (and back). ... And when the Stop Playback is not supported somewhere, the driver will go backward (and back). Invert the Phase in XXHighEnd and it will go the other way around (but somewhere at the back of my mind I recall that Inverted Phase is not allowed together with Phase Alignment.

Oh, the Wallpaper Coverart shows what's going on for these settings (the top between the front and back cover).
Where normally you see (below) the _~_, and where Inverted Phase will show _I_, with Phase Alignment active it will show *~* (and theoretically with Inverted Phase *I*).

Now I am curious whether someone will enter this by now again next level. It really will be !
Peter