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121  Ultimate Audio Playback / Playback Tweaks and Source related subjects / Re: New pocket server CAPS v4 Pipeline on: December 09, 2014, 12:02:18 am
Hi Joachim,

No strange performance related experiences with the laptop?
I guess a lot of system optimizations are not possible. Ok these might be less relevant SQ wise in a LPSU/battery situation but stops, hiccups etc are an annoyance too.

The HDplex is for the laptop I assume...

regards, Coen
122  Ultimate Audio Playback / Phasure NOS1 DAC / Re: Req: any USB cable tips? on: December 08, 2014, 11:46:42 pm
I promised some closing remarks on my time with the YFS cable. Here they are.

I gave the cable some serious XX playlist time to give it a little extra 'burn in'. When I was ready to expose myself to the cooked cable my amplifier's right channel stopped working. This was eventually solved by a simple repair... only after 8 days. Just couldn't find the time to do this with a 'fresh' mood.
So now I was completely reset auditorily and had a slightly improved amp to boot.

What can I say, it's character of solid and very clear and detailed images remained as did the feel of dynamics, yet it all was dressed in a smoother jacket. But also even though listening to Kate & Peter and other tracks made more sense now, I think it ultimately didn't add up to the enhanced musical experience at my listening seat I hoped for.

Lastly just before its departure, the Blaxius arrived. A quick listen did not reveal new things from the YFS, only that the Blaxius digs much deeper into the music which enhances the YFSs strong points.

Now I would like to address my sincerest thanks for VJ and of course the cable proprietor who made this educational experience possible. good

The cable is now further on its tour and I am looking forward to the impressions of the next in line. And I trust you to keep in mind that my comments are made in the context of my system and listening preferences and to be as unbiased as possible!

regards, Coen
123  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your questions about the PC -> DAC route / Re: A new PC for XXHighEnd... on: December 08, 2014, 11:06:55 pm
Hi

My i5 playes the tunes most of the time, but not all the time. Also not sure if its the PSU, motherboard and/or processor that's holding back SQ.

Now I would be wise and buy a more performant processor. The more cache and cores, the better -it seems-. Graphics processing by the CPU chip (aka the IGP) is not relevant and its use should be avoided by installing a cheap graphics card. i7 standard would be my absolute minimum. I'm contemplating on upgrading to extreme series in 2015.

regards, Coen
124  Ultimate Audio Playback / Phasure NOS1 DAC / Re: Req: any USB cable tips? on: December 05, 2014, 09:34:59 pm
LOL!!!

That must be fun!

For the curious: http://youtu.be/tpf6dhZXYGY

Regards, Coen
125  Ultimate Audio Playback / Phasure NOS1 DAC / Re: Req: any USB cable tips? on: December 05, 2014, 12:34:31 pm
FYI: YFS is passed on to Stanley (Stanray). He has quite a different setup so I am looking forward to his first impressions.

Hopefully this weekend I will find the time to post some closing remarks. These will include my impressions of a 0,7m Supra USB2 cable.
But first: Sinterklaas!

regards, Coen
126  Ultimate Audio Playback / Phasure NOS1 DAC / Re: Blaxius ? on: December 05, 2014, 12:27:49 pm
Blaxius arrived this week. NOS1a is still NOS1a not 75B nor is my amp 75B yet.

Short first impression: phenomenal synergy between NOS1a and Blaxius. No disco but refinement and naturalness.

All, yes all aspects of the sound have been enormously improved. So much so that I now dare to experiment with different settings.

When there is more to say I will return on this thread (and there will be).

regards, Coen
127  Ultimate Audio Playback / XXHighEnd Support / Re: Set State ( Pause ) error on pin on: December 02, 2014, 10:26:30 am
Hi Gerard,

I encountered this frequently. It is usually an USB problem. Switch NOS off and on or try another USB cable first.

Another symptom: It looks like the NOS is in its driver control panel, but you can't really change something.

regards, Coen

128  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: YFS USB cable tour on: November 20, 2014, 12:09:59 am
Hi Joachim,

I also encountered this effect during the tuning of my diy amplifiers. I'm very sensitive to it and it can make or break usage of the component.

The worst I've ever heard this effect was with a couple of very expensive Cello amplifiers. You could almost walk around the instruments, but they sounded like being played by rocks. And let's not forget my win8 trauma wich is rooted in the same allergy.

Glad you warned me about the bnc adapters, because that was a similar experience.
 
Regards, Coen
129  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: YFS USB cable tour on: November 19, 2014, 11:58:42 pm
What are your thought about the image size, size of the soundstage (i.e. classical), and the spectral balance when compared to the phasure cable?

Hi VJ,

I'm letting the cable play till tomorrow and we'll see what that brings.

For now:

Besides the traits I allready mentioned, I'm tempted to say that the YFS extends a little more beyond the speakers (width/height) and is a more detatched from them. I have to say depth is comparable but in both cases not on par with the best I remember. Please note that I have allways found it difficult to hear the illusion of depth in a stereo system even when it was obvious for others, maybe I'm not that impressed by the effect so far. No problems with depth IRL.

The stock cable presents everything quite a bit larger. The stage is therefore much more filled with sounds and music.

I'd say tonality is similar between cables with the YFS doing the loudness thing better and the stock cable presents tonality differences between recording a tad better.

Oh and tonight I specifically listened to the decay and it remains (too) short. During the tone there is richness but when it stops all vanishes very fast. This phenomenon is also typical for cables that need burn in...

Regards, Coen

130  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / isolation transformer: how big? on: November 19, 2014, 09:09:14 pm
I have my PC in a Monster filtered power block. This is a no brainer compared to having it plugged in directly in the strip, but may have some drawbacks that I am not aware of yet.

Next to the unexecuted plans to revert to a linear base supply I also contemplate about the virtues of the isolation transformer. It seems a much more simple solution to eliminate the coupling of switching noise between PC and amplifier.

I noticed that the isolation transformers used are very over -dimensioned. Why would one choose a 5KVA transformer for a 50-100Watt PC load? I think big ones make sense for audio amplifiers but for a PC....?

Is there anything to share about isolation x-formers for a PC application?

Thanks,

regards, Coen
131  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: YFS USB cable tour on: November 19, 2014, 09:01:00 pm
Thanks for the reactions, lets’s keep sharing and experimenting!

Now back to the topic: Round three for the YFS cable.

Yesterday night I revisited the YFS cable and used some different music. It may have to do with a little more break in or something electrical in my system but the sound was a little smoother and I had to revoke my (second) opinion about the bass. The bass is deep and as defined as Windows 7 will ever be able to go. I support the postings of today about this topic. Anyway it seems that the stock cable emphasizes the mid bass and that’s where the power and drive live, but the YFS has the edge on the frequency extremes.

Now the lack of coherence remained. This was clearly demonstrated by ‘Don’t give up’ from Peter Gabriel. Perfectly separated instruments pinned in the air but they seemed not to care about each other. The pom-pa-pa-pam bass line was totally dissected from the music and there was just no impression of Kate and Pete singing together, just two voices doing their thing.
Also here the mid bass leanness robbed the song of its usual power. How different this sounds with the stock cable is almost laughable.

When listening to music like this with the YFS cable it occurred to me that the cymbals and snaredrums are a little ‘dry’. I think this is because there is an emphasis on the transient, neglecting the aftermath or decaying echos and imho this is exactly the reason why it is lacking coherence. Decays and image size are much more apparent with the stock cable. This could be a break-in thing but I noticed it on many albums so it is definitely resulting from the cable.

Now hearing al this cleanness, broadbandness and dynamics, there is something to be desired with the stock cable. Maybe because of the modifications, maybe because it is so it could use a little more of that. Holistically I presently still prefer the stock cable because of the drive and musical coherence.

Caveat Emptor: the stuff I describe here is my honest -analytical- opinion about the cable within the limitations of my system. For some observations it is hard to discern which plays the greater part of the observation. So this is only very preliminary since only three of us have heard the cable in their systems.

As a closing remark voor today it is a very interesting experience that the 5V connection makes a difference as do the used materials. I would not have expected it to be of this importance in a data transport that terminates in a perfectly isolated receiver. Now that we can tune the sound somewhat with different USB cables is nice but not desirable, we should actually be trying to find a solution that stops/minimises the noise from creeping in at loopholes. It also raises the question why the cable does what it does. Does it filter out noise or does it just more transparently transport the signal which includes the better transport of noise (implying more noise)?

To be continued!

regards, Coen
132  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: YFS USB cable tour on: November 18, 2014, 10:36:20 pm
Here we go, if you don't want to know close the window now!

To set the stage first some updates of my reference. For years I've been listening to the stock cable but connector wear or something like that rendered the cable quite useless. Only when plugged in just right it would play without errors but seemingly only looking at it made it all bad again. So I ordered a few sets of higher quality solder mount USB2 connectors. These arrived quite recently and I put them on a cable with I thought was the second stock USB cable but in retrospect wasn't. A few years ago I messed with this cable conducting the 5 volt conductor experiments, so it was the perfect candidate for a first try.

Why all this introduction, well during the soldering I decided NOT to connect the 5 Volt wire at both ends. Now it has become a standard el cheap USB AB cable with ok connectors yet setup as a 'high end audio' 'data only cable'. So I have a cable that is electrically similar to the YFS cable and I can assess the contribution of the unconnected 5Volt to the sound.

Where it not that this cable appeared thicker than my dysfunctional USB stock cable and so it was a different cable after all. To avoid changing two things at the same time I warmed up the soldering iron and mounted the plugs on the stock cable. This time I was even smarter and made it a 'data only convertible' by enabling the 5V to be connected outside of the USB connectors. There are now 4 options: unconnected, at two sides connected and connected at either the PC or the NOS1a.

The first listening of the modified stock cable without the 5V connected was very interesting. There seemed to be a little more focus and cleanness to the sound, but also it was robbed of lower end volume and impact. This is especially noticeable on piano recordings and electronic stuff. After a few days this kind of sound did not do it for me, too bloodless, no drive. Connecting the 5V at both ends (normal USB cable) restored the energy but made it clear that it lacked some focus that I got used to.

Then I experimented with the other data only cable and got the same results as with the data only set up standard cable yet with a quite different sound as basis. The latter is interesting since the cables construction is identical to the stock cable. It only has a thicker mantle on all conductors and tinned conductors instead of copper ones.

Then arrived the YFS cable.

It feels heavy and well made. The outside looks like a fine metal mesh and within are some stiff conductors this is not your supple garden variety cable. You get what you (will) pay for.
Plugging in the cable and firing up the NOS1a supersharp focussed sounds emanated from the speakers. Voices sounded natural and smooth with enhanced dynamics. Particularly noteworthy of this first session were the extreme naturalness of the applause on the Avishai Cohen live album and strinkingly real ticks on the snares of his bass. This lasersharp concentration of transients was also present on other albums especially in the mid and higher end of the spectrum. Great guitars and cymbals. The clarity also revealed details and instruments that I've never heard before from my system and in many albums a space ore presence could be heard.

Like Peter indicated above it needs some more time to get the impression into a worthy report. The second day I got back on my feet. Despite all the dynamic goodness I was less enthusiastic about the lower end performance that remained less defined and powerful as I am used too. As by now will not surprise you, I recognized the similarity with the previous 'data only' cables. Even more so I found the supers sharp focus to cause the soundstage to be incoherent like 'each instrument/sound on its own'.
Furthermore I also noticed a haze in the sound that irritated me. For me this sound, ripped of its initial impressiveness, was not acceptable anymore. A disconnected it and started listening to the stock cable again to get a sound 'reset' and a second round for the YFS cable... To be continued  Happy.

My observation so far: I like full USB cables better than data-only cables.

regards, Coen



133  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: YFS USB cable tour on: November 18, 2014, 04:37:38 pm
I expect to pass it on to Stanley next week.

Is anyone interested in my impressions or should I reserve them for another time? I can imagine that it might bias your opinions...

regards, Coen
134  Ultimate Audio Playback / Chatter and forum related stuff / Re: I'm finally close to the sound I want on: November 18, 2014, 04:34:13 pm
Hi Mani,

Quote
The PC still runs off a 5KVA balanced transformer.

Do I remember correctly that the noise sniffer did confirm the (PSU switching) noise isolating properties of the 5KVA transformer or was it the big one?

thanks,

regards, Coen
135  Ultimate Audio Playback / Your questions about the PC -> DAC route / Re: Building a PC for NOS1a on: November 11, 2014, 04:37:14 pm
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 simple Pico PSUs bypass the 12V. So this will be linear anyway.
The challenge is to get a more complex pc started up properly. They now sell Picos that can do that.

Quote
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.

That's also my thesis. If you are going the linear PSU way, than it makes sense to spend the extra money on a screened transformer.
Besides lower noise in the power line, stability of the power line is key too. Here the quality SMPS is at the advantage.
Next to that, I read once that CPUs run cooler on a linear PSU, I guess there must be less interaction between the CPU load and its supply leading to less losses. You get it: cannot really reason out what is more important though linear looks good from more than one perspective. Only trying will tell in the end.

Quote
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.

Shure. The Mobo itself is one big SMPS, just to start with the 12V line for the CPU i.e. 1.25V@ 60Amps all smps'd from the 12V line.

Thanks for sharing, I'm looking into upgrading the PC too, but am still in the fantasy stage. Got inspired by the Laptop experiments. All this stuff helps.

regards, Coen
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