Messages

1

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: upgrade of wall plug

« on: April 02, 2018, 01:28:43 PM »

If I may gentleman. Yes all this little upgrades will affect sound but for me I would make such changes
only when system has been optimised. Take it as a flavoring added to the recipe.

Cheers

Agree. A change of receptacle ain't gonna make or break a system. Best to get everything dialled-in nicely and then make the outlet change as the icing on top of the cake.

2

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: CSE RG-100, Nordost QX4 and PS audio P10 sound PK! And sound system tuning!

« on: July 24, 2017, 07:25:06 PM »

That certainly was an interesting outing !

I think this exercise also illustrates the importance of matching. All of the components in the original setup have a warmish tonality - maybe this was too much of a good thing. On the other hand, the Mytek, CSE and Nordost cables have more high frequency energy which could have helped balance things out on the other end of the spectrum.

3

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: Digital Music setups...what do you use and how geeky do you get ?

« on: July 22, 2017, 08:40:57 AM »

For me,

NAS - Melco N1-ZH
Control Software - Lumin
DAC - Totaldac D1-Six
Preferred Format - AIFF
Upsampling - No
Room Correction - No
Other stuff - USB output from Melco goes through a Singxer SU-1 USB/SPDIF bridge
Cables - Wireworld Platinum USB cable and Black Cat Tron coaxial cable

The Melco is connected to a small TP-Link travel router powered using a power bank. The usual audiophile stuff like a platform for the Melco and aftermarket powercords for both the Melco and Singxer.

4

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: Isolation Platform

« on: July 22, 2017, 08:26:43 AM »

You can look for user mivec on xtremeplace or maybe here too   cdp is his rice bowl

+1 for Mivec. He has fixed quite a number of CDPs that the dealers have said are unfixable.

5

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: The power distributor thread

« on: June 14, 2017, 06:26:48 PM »

@JB, as far as I'm aware, the outlet from Acoustic Revive is not available for sale separately.

The rough retail price (I'm relying on rusty memory - prices also fluctuate depending on the JPY / SGD exchange rate),

1. >$3k
2. 1.6k (this is a very old model and I just added the cost of the GTX-D(R) receptacles to the retail cost)
3. $ 800 (parts cost only)
4. $6k
5. $3k

6

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: The power distributor thread

« on: June 11, 2017, 02:57:37 PM »

I hope that benlzy and tiktokape can contribute their own impressions on the distributors. My $0.02 :-

1. Acoustic Revive RTP-6 Ultimate

Very refined sound with a noticeably laidback presentation. A tinge of warmth and smoothness coupled with good detail.

2. Furutech RTP-6N

This was to me subtly less detailed than the RTP-6 but otherwise performed quite well. It is blacker and darker sounding than the Acoustic Revive.

3. DIY distributor

I thought that both the R1 and Furutech outlets performed quite well (we didn't try the Orb) - very smooth and grain-free sound. I thought it lacked a bit of bite.

4. Orb Kamakura

This Japanese beauty could probably be easily identified in a blind test. Grand, majestic and a flow that was both golden and silky at the same time. I felt that this distributor deviated the most from neutrality. Really beautiful to listen to although not really true to the recording.

I would dare say that Benlzy loved the Orb, while Tiktokape preferred the BAC.

7

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: The power distributor thread

« on: June 11, 2017, 02:45:02 PM »

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

8

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / The power distributor thread

« on: June 11, 2017, 02:36:02 PM »

If you want to draw a bit of flak to yourself, just try telling your non-audiophile friends (or starter audiophile too for that matter) that a power distributor has an impact on the sound.

Recently, I had a few people over to listen to my system. We swapped out the power conditioner for four different power distributors.

The baseline reference is the Plixir Elite BAC 1500 balanced power supply. This unit only powers two units in my system, my Melco N-1ZH audiophile NAS, and the Singxer SU-1 USB/SPDIF bridge that is connected to it. In all cases, we unplugged the BAC and transferred the power cords (from both the wall and the components) to the distributors.

Four distributors were used in total :-

1. Acoustic Revive RTP-6 Ultimate
2. Furutech RTP-6 (the stock FPX-R outlets were swapped out for Furutech GTX-D (R) outlets)
3. DIY distributor (using teflon insulated OCC copper wire and three different types of outlets, the Oyaide R-1, Furutech GTX-D(R) NCF and Orb HP-2GB)
4. Orb Kamakura

Let me post some pictures before commenting on the results.

9

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: The power conditioning thread

« on: June 11, 2017, 02:27:32 PM »

I was having a recent discussion with some people on power conditioning vs power distributors. The power distributors I was discussing have absolute no form of power conditioning built in, so I will start a separate thread on this.

10

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: The stingy olive / no budget thread

« on: June 11, 2017, 11:34:51 AM »

I've obtained a decent quantity of the Belden 9497 speaker cable. Stay tuned for my impressions. These can be obtained for $4 / m from LHS. This cable has been highly recommended by Shindo-san from Shindo labs no-less !

11

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: Triode Wire Labs

« on: June 11, 2017, 11:32:11 AM »

It's quite a tall statement to make, but I think that his flagship Obsession power cord is one of the best values in his lineup as well as the cable industry in general.

12

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: The power conditioning thread

« on: May 06, 2017, 07:30:14 PM »

Nice thread but it would be nicer to also include some diy ideas instead
of having to spend mega dollars. Let me start if I may, go try out the good
old Jon Risch line filter. It works on amps real good cause I build one into
my amp. The difference in mine were the inductors, I hand it wound with thick
wire over laminated (I) plates instead of the recommended Corcom ones.
There is a little draw back though, for the filter to work really good, one has
to load the filter with a 100 watt incendescent bulb. With & without loading
the SQ is immediate no 2 ways about it.

Cheers

Wow. It's been a while since I've seen the incandescent bulb trick.

In fact, it's quite common to see some type of filter circuit built in to audio components. Some of the stuff I've seen are (i) encapsulated IEC inlet filters, (ii) capacitors across L-N and sometimes additional capacitors across L and N to E, (iii) common mode chokes.

13

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: Isolation Platform

« on: April 08, 2017, 10:44:54 AM »

Audiobeng, thanks for bringing this to our attention. Chipboard is definitely a no-no.

Let us know how your shelf experiment goes. Dense woods tend to have a very heavy sound.

14

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: Ethernet cable

« on: March 19, 2017, 04:33:03 PM »

Some of the forum members here have extensive experience with optical network links, and the power supplies for the receiver / transmitter boxes. I'll let them chime in here on this.

15

HiFi Audio Equipment Discussion / Re: Isolation Platform

« on: March 16, 2017, 12:37:06 PM »

Hmm, plywood is not too bad a material actually. The problem is that the material is not homogenous and hence there is no consistency in sound. The plywood material may also have some voids in the ply.

Chipboard is the most horrible of the lot. The various models from Ikea all sound different BTW. When you get sick of it, you can just transfer it to the kitchen too !