For anyone who's interested, here's a needle drop from an 'audiophile LP'. I'd love to know what you think of the sound quality.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ob7w4dkvaeqzvr/Chris%20Jones%20-%20No%20Sanctuary%20Here.wav?dl=0

Edit: please use this version instead:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1x1u0d3ozvrkpci/Chris%20Jones%20-%20No%20Sanctuary%20Here%20v2.wav?dl=0

Make certain HDCD decoding is switched off in XX.

Mani.

Hi Paul...


Yep, and yep.


The output earth of the 5KVA balanced transformer (and not my 15KVA isolation transformer) is simply connected directly to the input earth (from the dedicated spur), which itself is connected to the house earth.


Not sure what you mean here. My understanding is that the amp gets it's ground (and not protective earth) from the NOS1a, and the NOS1a gets it's ground (and not PE) from the PC via the USB cable. In any event, there are certainly NO bangs or pops here!

Mani.

Hi Joachim, thanks for the reference and link. But quite honestly, I'm done with playing around with the AC mains... for now at least.

Mani.

Hi Stanley, I have a PurePower 2000 here and I agree that it certainly changes the sound. There are two big problems I have with it:

1. There is a big difference between how it sounds on battery vs. regeneration modes. This rings alarm bells for me. The battery sounds smooth, but 'flat' (a little like my isolation transformer). The regenerator sounds much brighter and has more sparkle, but the LF just disappears and the sound is a bit 'edgy'.

2. My 'noise sniffer' goes ballistic with the PP2000 hooked up. The PP2000 has a large switch-mode power supply, which is obviously very noisy electrically. What's interesting though is that the noise sniffer goes ballistic when connected the output of the PP2000 (even with zero load), in both battery and regenerator modes. The PP2000 may well provide a nice, steady 230V, but I'm not sure how 'clean' it actually is.

You may be aware that these older models seemed to have a lot of quality issues with apparently lots of variations between units of the same model. Mine has worked perfectly since I bought it 4-5 years ago, but may well be one of the 'not-so-good' ones sonically, and perhaps yours is? Dunno. But certainly mine has been gathering dust for the last couple of years and I certainly wouldn't use it now with the sound I'm getting with a 'direct' AC feed.

Mani.

I didn't know where to put this so thought I'd start a new topic...


With a bit of encouragement from Peter, I decided to bypass my 15KVA isolation transformer and replace my dedicated earth with the house earth. I've been very reluctant to do this because the 15KVA isolation transformer & dedicated earth took so much time and money to set up. It was hard to even contemplate this was all for nothing.

(Just to be clear, I'm still using a dedicated AC mains ring. There is a seriously heavy-weight cable running directly from my house AC meter to a dedicated consumer unit for the hifi. Everything has been designed to offer the lowest impedance possible for the hifi components. The PC still runs off a 5KVA balanced transformer.)

The sound has totally changed. The Orelos now sound ‘alive’. They now sparkle. But the smoothness to the sound remains. At first, I didn't think the bass had become extended, but I know think it has. But it is certainly much more tuneful now. The whole sound is tighter, allowing the rhythm of the music to be more easily followed.

Overall, I now have the most realistic sound I’ve ever heard in my room. I’d go as far as to say that I'm now almost on par with Paul’s (Scoobius’s) sound. The main difference is that I don't get the subterranean LF that Paul gets, due probably to his room dimensions. But even this may be 'fixed' when we undertake some major building work on the house, including extending the room, as we hope to do in 18 months time or so. But for now I'm over the moon.

Just wanted to share. Oh, and if you're using any mains products (filters, transformers, regenerators, etc), you should try by-passing them to see what they're really doing to the sound. I'm now convinced that all you need is the lowest impedance power source possible, and most of these devices simply do not allow this.

Mani.

Hi VJ, thanks for organising this. I'm looking forward to receiving the YFS at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Cheers, Mani.

Hi Dave, Michael's build looks pretty good. Maybe you should just follow his?


Hi Michael, nice build!

I've often wondered whether there's much point in feeding a PicoPSU with a linear PS or battery. In terms of getting a lower ripple to the mobo, I'd be surprised if there's any difference. The real benefit may be in preventing a load of HF garbage being sent back into the AC mains from a switching PS. If so, there are other ways to attack this, e.g. simply using an isolation transformer for the PC, as I have done.

Having said this, I would love to get rid of the last SMPS from my system, for purely psychological reasons. I may have to follow you at some point.

Thanks for sharing.

Mani.

Well, I intend to find out for sure. I have the following ADCs to hand:

- Pacific Microsonics Model Two [up to 24/192]
- Tascam DA-3000 [up to 24/192 and DSD128]
- Korg MR1000 (with Paul Hynes linear power supply  ) [up to 24/192 and DSD128]
- RME FF800 [up to 24/192]
- Motu 896 MKII [up to 24/192]

It's going to be a big job getting through all this, but I'm determined to do this. I'm intrigued to know how these units sound compared to each other, at the various sample rates. And also whether DSD128 really is as good as some people say it is. But already, I know that the PMII at 16/44.1 is going to be hard to beat.

Mani.

Yeah, finding something on LP and CD, taken from the same master, with little LP surface noise, and bearable to listen to is going to be difficult.

Thanks for trying Peter. I'd appreciate it if others did too and reported their findings.

For my part, from taking a few needle drops of some of my more pristine LPs, I'm pretty convinced that vinyl can sound very, very good. In fact, much better than I had anticipated. But quite frankly, I don't think vinyl is better than CD... but certainly not as bad as Peter made out in his opening post here.

Mani.

OK...

Firstly, you should play the 16/44.1 file (what else did you want me to call it if I'm also recording the track at 24/88.2 and 24/176.4???) without HDCD engaged in XX. I have taken all HDCD processing off in the PMII, but the HDCD flag remains. Play it without HDCD in XX.

Secondly, my CD rip is from the original CD released in 1988 - CDP7469772. I have no idea where yours came from.

I think this remains a good LP vs. CD comparison - the spectra are virtually identical (see below), so we can be pretty certain they're from the same master.

In any event, I think it clearly demonstrates that LP is not obviously inferior to CD... no?

Mani

For the 'Best Vinyl Rig' thread, I took a couple of needle drops at 16/44.1 in order to compare with CD rips of the same music. It seemed to me that recording in 16/44.1 was the fairest way of making the LP-CD comparison. It's pretty unbelievable, but I've never really compared any 16/44.1 needle drops to their hires equivalents. Well, I've now done this.

I recorded Talk Talk's 'I Believe in You' (see 'Best Vinyl Rig' thread) in 16/44.1, 24/88.2 and 24/176.4. I listened to these against each other on my main system last night. I listened to them again this morning on my office system (which includes my second NOS1a). In both cases, I was using double-octo ArcPrediction to take the rate up to 705.6KHz. And...

I prefer the 16/44.1 needle drop! To me, this is pretty unbelievable. I really thought the hires files would easily better the 16/44.1, but they don't. The sound is thicker. The air is missing. I'm almost inclined to say that it's the typical sigma-delta sound.

There's been a bit of talk over at CA about my ADC and whether it's a genuine PCM 24 bit ADC. I'm now starting to think that it was optimised for 16/44.1, which makes perfect sense as it was designed for the specific purpose of producing 16/44.1 HDCD files.

I'm going to do some more testing of various sample rates and have a number of other PCM and DSD recorders here too. I'll use this thread to share my thoughts. But any initial comments from anyone would be most welcome.

Mani.

I finally got around to making another needle drop. I chose Talk Talk's 'I Believe in You' from their 'Spirit of Eden' album. I have the original LP and the original CD, both from the same master (the Audacity spectra look identical). The LP is one that I bought back in 1988 when I was a student and is not really in the best of shape, so please forgive all the surface noise. (My needle drop is 1.5 to 2.0 dB louder than the CD - yeah this was the good old days before pop music on CD was compressed to death!)

I'm interested in hearing anyone's thoughts. Are LPs really inferior to CDs as Peter claims?

Here's the link (hope it works OK):

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/imypaxrbi6lznu3/AADvraa_Lyele8r4Wu0S43Uaa?dl=0

Mani.

Hey Brian, I'm not going to try any new cables from here on in. I'm done with this game.

I wouldn't refer to the Blaxius cables as a revelation in my system, but it occurred to me recently that since they've been in that I've been just sitting back and listening to way more music than I normally do (when I'm at home that is). There's just nothing out of place. Nothing shouting for attention. Just the music. I don't know how to describe it other than totally non-fatiguing, and yet still totally full of detail.

I suspect the sound that I have with the Blaxius cables would come across as pretty ordinary - nothing spectacular - to most people. But I dunno... I'm starting to think that this is how music really does sound without any 'sound enhancing' distortions - cable reflections, vibrations and perhaps room effects too. It's not the sound I've been after all these years. There's no artificial sparkle up top or room-shaking bass down below. What you get is something way more authentic instead. (Kind of reminds me of the difference between my ex-girl friends and the woman I finally married. In all the areas that really matter - not the superficial glamour but the deep and authentic character - there's simply no competition.)

Mani.

Hey Peter, yes I've been using Arc Prediction for the last 4-6 weeks. But not really because of your advice - I came to this conclusion on my own beforehand. I'm not at home right now but will try Custom over the weekend.

Mani.

Of course!


Easy - better ADC! I'm not sure what they used back in 1985 but it sounds pretty dull and dead to me.


Ah, I wasn't clear here. I use headphones for monitoring when I'm doing the digitizing, although I haven't actually digitized a lot as yet.

When making this comparison, I was using my main system - NOS1a 75B - Blaxius - Orelos, and this is how Paul heard things today too. No headphones anywhere!


I agree. I just thought that if I'm going to have to listen to the same track a few times, I may as well pick my favourite. Although I'm away from home right now, I've got the two tracks with me on a USB stick. I'll try to set up the file sharing sometime this week - you can then compare to your MFSL if you feel so inclined.

Anyway, I did this all with very little time. I should have a little more time next week to do things 'properly'. The real issue is finding a (well recorded) CD and LP from the same master.

Mani.