I’m in sonic heaven with my new amp now!

Wait!

I don’t know about you but I’m certainly not like this. I know most folks would be satisfied with their tube amp after the first build but not me. I’m not like the 95% here. I’m an Alpha Diyer, I’m the top dog 5%.

But first of all, forgive me for I’m an uncouth fella. No, I don’t spout Byron, I don’t drink red wine or whatever the fancies that elitism hobbyists like audiophiles like to engage in. Instead, let me confess. I’m a pot bellied, hair receding, foul mouthed dude. Led Zep is my type of music and I love my brew of common man stout. In this regard, I’m the 95% Sir. Why heck, I even pick my nose in public. [*facepalm*]

An Alpha Diyer is always exploring ways to improve on his system. So much so that in the back of his mind, a trip to a hardware store, departmental store, IKEA etc is always an audio excursion.

And so, I’ll illustrate what an Alpha Diyer will do once he built his amp. And it’s certainly no lounging around.

But first of all, let me introduce you to the Expletive Factor. You know the reaction when the sound improved by so much that you JUMP (standing up doesn’t count) up from your seat and start spouting swear words, expletives… so bad that I can’t even write them here? (I still want this site to be family friendly, okay?)

What we are looking for is BIG XXXXing improvement in sonics. Not subtle changes that you have to A-B like hell, until your face looks like you are constipating to hear the difference. Imagine an improvement so great that you leap out off your listening chair and spew the most colourful language known to mankind!

Better still, if you swear words that aren’t in your daily vocabulary. That can only mean the sonic improvement is HUGE!

Okay, here’s what an Alpha Diyer will start off with.

Build the best power supply you have heard — Very High Expletive Factor
I mean it. The best power supply you have built, heard and optimized. Not because some dude (like me) said so. We all value different things in audio so it’s best to go back to your experience.

For me, I like choke input, lots of chokes, not too high capacitance and 100 Hz hum reduction via tuned choke.

I arrived at this supply after years of building tube amps. The 47uF caps are Solen metalized polypropylenes but the 20uFs are oil capacitors. Oh yes, the supply is HUGE, HEAVY and screams ALPHA all around. Notice there’s no electrolytics anywhere.

Move beyond simple self bias stage — Very High Expletive Factor
Initially I had a simple self bias stage at the cathode. However, you can’t move earth if you stop here. You got to experiment.

On another amp I built years ago, I used LED at the cathode and didn’t quite like the sound. The bass got too boomy. Looking back, it could be the speakers’ issue rather than the amp.

Anyway, for this mod, I’m using Cree Schottky diodes here, as illustrated by Maxamillion on Audio Asylum. 3 diodes gave me the cathode bias I need.

Optimize parafeed — High Expletive Factor
In my first build, I was using a 5k:8 parallel feed output transformer from Magnequest. The 4.7uF parafeed cap was optimized for bass response. A huge improvement over the initial 3.3uF.

As I was using 16 ohm speakers and I need a bit more gain from the tube, so I went for 3k:16 ohm trans also from Magnequest. Now the 4.7uF cap just doesn’t give me enough impact.

I don’t have any 6.8uF or larger caps. The next larger I have is a GE 17.5uF oiler so this went in and the bass impact came back after some running in.

Less Gain Stages — High Expletive Factor
Every gain stage somehow changes the signal. So if you could get by with less, do it! The 6E5P could actually put out 1-2W of power but as my DAC only outputs ~2V, the output power delivered to the speakers is now only ~0.3W.

By right, I should put in another gain stage to squeeze out more power from the 6E5P but since my speakers don’t need much power, I could get away with this. So what’s wrong with 0.3W?

Optimize signal/return path — High Expletive Factor
This makes hell lotta difference! If you ever worked on PCB layouts on high speed digital designs, the phrases “short signal path”, “return path”, “ground plane” etc all carry significant meaning to you. I’m not smart so I suffered and learned the hard way before I learned all this and I’m still learning.

Okay, that’s all I have done so far. In the spirit of this article, I’m not done yet! To be tried in the near future…

WE coupling

Try other spud tubes
Top of my head, 417, 5842, 6C45pi, 7788… Actually I have all these tubes in hand…

The post The Purist’ Wet Dream Gets Wetter appeared first on diyparadise.

Hey! If you haven’t been to my site for a while (and I haven’t updated it for a while), you will notice the site has been revamped. I hope you like it better now. And here is my first article on this revamped site.

I wrote 2 articles on Computer Audio few years ago, Computer Audio Is So Much Fun which focused on the hardware side and a follow up article on the software side.

That sure feels like a longggggg time ago.

I’d be an idiot if I haven’t changed anything since then!

You see, you could use vintage gears every where but when it comes to digital, it doesn’t make sense to stay “vintage”.

Over the years, I have changed a few music machines, from the first generation Mac Mini, to a plastic  iMac (earlier gen) and now this Intel Next Unit of Computing.

Wait a minute! Have I abandoned the Mac world?

Hardly!

I got to know a local Mac expert and this boy (he is only 17!) made a Hackintosh out of this CPU.  You see, I find the strength of Mac lies in its software, not its hardware. Enter this CPU.  This little fella is even smaller than my previous Mac Mini (it’s only 4″ by 4″) and still packs quite a punch. The version this kid did for me has a 32GB SSD hard disk inside so it boots up really fast. I pimped it by adding more RAM so it runs on 6 GB RAM now. All music files are stored on an external hard disk.

It has a mean Thunderbolt port, as well as a HDMI and 3 USB ports. I’m not using the Thunderbolt port now but will do so in future when I get a Thunderbolt Hard Disk. So this guy feeds my Discreet Monica which has been rebuilt into a nicer chassis. It’s a wine bottle box…

Moi belle Discreet Monica has the Amanero USB-I2S convertor as the USB receiver.

On the software side, I’m totally gaga over Pure Music Player!

Simply awesome!

With my Hackintosh, I have more RAM than necessary so it’s really nice to be able to use the Memory Play feature. With Memory Play, the audio track is read, then placed into RAM and music is then “streamed” off your RAM. Thus, the impact of reading off  hard disk is minimized. Anyway, that’s the theory behind it. But how does music sound with Memory Play?

Music just sounds better! It’s like you improved your power supply and you reduced your jitter. The hard edges most noticeable in badly recorded music is greatly reduced, resulting in much0-welcomed smoothness and ease on your ears. On well recorded music, the impact is subtle but noticeable.

Another reason to like the Pure Music Player is the ability to play FLAC and DSD files! As you know, in the Apple world, FLAC is like a dirty word. Stock standard iTunes just wouldn’t play FLAC but PMP allows you to play and ride on it. DSD files is converted to PCM on the fly for you so your PCM DAC is still usable.  Since the Amanero supports DSD, I’ll be studying more on this… Ha ha!

So there you go, my current take on Computer Audio.

The post More on Computer Audio appeared first on diyparadise.

My first source was a heavily modified Marantz CD63. this seems like aeons ago. Then the foray to DACs began, first with TDA1543, then TDA1545. you could say that the seed of Monica was being sown around this time.

I later changed the transport to Philip’s CD-Pro2. Wow! Huge jump in sonics. Puts down so many other transports. However, for some reasons which I couldn’t comprehend, my CD-Pro2 module died on me. 2 pieces of CD-Pro2 later, I decided I had enough.

Then the switch to PC audio and hence started playing with a Squeezebox media player. Sonics wise the CD-Pro2 still makes a better transport but the convenience of playing off pc more than makes up for loss in sonics. And yeah, I heavily modified my Squeezebox unit too.

Well everything’s good for now but then… the revelation of the QLS Hifi’s QA550 SD card player! Wow! Immediately you hear the gulf in the sonic quality between the Squeezebox and the QA550. Fed with a Kwak Clock, the sonic improvement is even greater.

So if things are so good now, why fret? Unfortunately the user interface of the QA550 is akin that of a turntable, which is almost zilch. After being spoiled by the user interface on the Squeezebox (including the touch screen Squeezebox Touch), the QA550 is a step back in time…

So the journey for a better source starts again. Damn it.

I have heard lots of good things about the m2tech Hiface but I’m not interested in SPDIF as the I2S interface proves superior (to think that so much time/money/effort has been wasted!).

So John Kenny‘s modified I2S Hiface seems like the perfect ticket! (Unfortunately John isn’t selling the pcb module anymore).

Many many weeks later, finally got it built.

Boy, that one sentence didn’t show you how much work I did.

This is what I did:
As I2S consists of 5 lines of signal, you have to decide on a proper interface. there is no standard interface here so i settled for the RF45 network port which is used by many companies (m2tech, North Star and Zenden etc) too for I2S duties.

So got to build an I2S Monica that accepts I2S input via RJ45 interface.

While doing so, I might as well try this excellent looking “Weipu” connectors for analog signal duties. So this I2S Monica accepts I2S via RJ45 then outputs analog signal via Weipu connectors.

A Beyonce was later built using Weipu connectors. And to have more fun, instead of the Microchip controller I used before, I now put in an Arduino controller. The 8 digit LED display is really cool too.

Hey, since we are already at this stage, I built a new Charlize but using Weipu connectors.

Lastly i had to haul up my old Mac Mini to audio duties and transfer all the music files to a new hard disk.

So is it any wonder I’m so short of time?

Do notice I “standardized” my chassis. These are actually key holders made from recycled rubber wood. [trying to be green … ]

Oh well, finally got everything built and… the sound makes it all worthwhile!

Wait! I’m not done yet.

I also installed the very cool Pure Music Player. Oh my! What a nice software! It could upsample (which I can’t be bothered with) or play native sample rate of your audio files up to 384kHz sampling rate. And the hiface supports all this. If you have to ask, well, higher sampled material sounds better!

Higher sampled music does the highs so much better. At first I wasn’t sure of all the highs but then as you listened, damn in, I’ve been missing so much all this while! Scoped waveforms back this up. [Of course vinyl folks will tell you nothing beats infinite sampling rate. gotta give this to you guy!]

So after all this work, I’ll say everything is worthwhile!

The highs… could give you a high! Have never heard so much highs coming out of the system. This took a while to get used to but now with the silky highs, boy, everything sounds so much better now.

So am I done here? Again, not yet!

My I2S hiface is a Mk2. Apparently John Kenny has just released Mk3, so there’s more mods to be done. And more sonic blasts to be had!

One thing for sure, this won’t be the last time I rebuild my system. That’s the fun of DIY!

The post Rebuilding my system appeared first on diyparadise.

Charles Altman from Altman Micro Machines explains what is more important for digital audio is the sampling rate of our media rather than number of bits. Have a read on his page. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

Thanks for coming back.

So the higher the sampling rate, the better it is for our “signal reconstruction”. Hey, that’s what a DAC does basically.

So how about some real life example? How does Monica’s TDA1545A cope with higher sampled material.

And thus, I began my experiment.

But I hit a snag. Apparently, high resolution test tones are not easily available. 44.1/16 versions abound but not higher rez. Fortunately, you could create your own high rez wave files by using Linear Tech’s excellent LTSpice.

I also have a bigger problem in that I don’t have a media capable of high resolution. For the sake of you dear readers, I have to spend money… [another excuse to buy!] and I bought a John Kenny modified I2S Hiface module.

The signal path is now… Mac Mini -> jkenny I2S Hiface -> I2S Monica. Software is Channel D’s Pure Music Player and music library is via iTunes.

Oh yeah, did I mention I built a new I2S Monica as well?

Did I mention I had to haul the whole Mac Mini setup to the listening hall?

All this done [phew!], began feeding test tones. Please note that these test tones are created using the described sampling frequency. Note that no software/hardware upsamping nor over sampling is performed at all.

44.1kHz sampled

1kHz sine wave

10kHz sine wave.

16kHz sine wave

As you could see above, 10kHz above, the DAC is struggling to reconstruct the sine waves.

96kHz sampled

1kHz sine wave

10kHz sine wave.

16kHz sine wave

10kHz is still decent but 16kHz is a stretch…

192kHz sampled

1kHz sine wave

10kHz sine wave.

16kHz sine wave

Wow! 16kHz is no problem here!

So what does all this tell me?

The problem of digital audio is not in the equipment. It is in the material. We just need higher sampled data to begin with.

If fed high resolution material, our “vintage” DAC chip is far from an old clunker. It is still capable of reconstructing the signals properly.

In other words, Old is Gold.  ha ha!

The post Old but Gold appeared first on diyparadise.

If you are using digital media, you’ll use a DAC. Depending on how you store your music, this will have a bearing on how you interface this digital data out. Every format has its pros and cons, so let’s have a look here.

For digital media, to my knowledge, you have 3 choices today. SPDIF, USB and Firewire.

SPDIF is the de facto standard digital output. It’s available on CD/DVD players as “Digital Output”. Many media players like the Squeezebox has this too, as well as many PC soundcards. SPDIF even has an optical version, Toslink. A sonic upgrade can be experienced instantly if you ditch the lousy RCA socket and opt for BNC. Why oh why does everyone still use RCA then? For convenience rather than sonic reasons!

A major problem with SPDIF is that the SPDIF receiver in your DAC got to retrieve the clock signal from the incoming SPDIF. And this is a major problem. The older but still very popular obsolete CS8414 has a typical 200ps while the modern DIR9001 manages much better at 50ps. Irrespective of what comes after this, the fact that the recovered clock isn’t optimum will have a huge bearing on sonics later.

USB DAC is really popular these days. The most popular implementation is Texas Instrument’s PCM27xx chips. These are pretty good “as is” but still a lot can be improved on. Again, there is the question of how is the clock recovered?

There are better implementations of USB which do not use TI’s generic PCM27xx chips but I haven’t tried these yet.

Firewire is said to be the best but far from readily available. And too expensive at this point.

Which interface to use also depends on what is your source. If you are using CDs, SPDIF is most logical solution. If you store your music on hard disk, then USB or I2S via a SD card player is viable. The above briefly describes the pros and cons while the convenience of which format is really up to you. If you don’t mind a little trouble, go for the best sound!

My current favourite, however, isn’t any of the above. It’s via I2S! Provided you have a very good I2S source!

I started dabbling with I2S when I tapped out this signal from my old Marantz CD63 way back in 2003. The CDM12 transport isn’t that great and though the sound was already a huge improvement over SPDIF, there is still something lacking there. But hey, if you could ditch SPDIF, try this!

Later I played around with USB-I2S as well as USB-I2S-EIAJ in USB Monica. As good as all these sound, it’s still not a pure I2S solution. The interface is still via USB. You could say the weak link is how the PCM27xx chips derive the I2S out. I hope to have the resources to tackle a better way of doing USB one day…

Anyway, my current favourite digital player (The Digital Turntable) has, in my mind, the most direct route to I2S. A DSP chip reads WAV file data from a non-moving media (the SD card), then outputs I2S signal which is fed to a CS8405 chip to generate SPDIF. Both the DSP chip and CS8405 is clocked by a low jitter clock.

Since a good quality I2S is available, feeding directly to an I2S DAC chip (or through Black Crow for an EIAJ DAC chip) is all we need! Replacing the clock with a lower jitter implementation (like Kwak clock below or the plug-n-play Tent XO module) and I assure you your jaw will drop listening to music through this combo!

Okay, okay, enough about all this. So these are what we have here.

Above pics show the 3 implementation, coupled to mojo. They’ll couple nicely to mojo2 as well. mojo/mojo2 PCB has 6 PCB holes which couple nicely to the I2S-EIAJ, USB-EIAJ and SPDIF-EIAJ modules.

4 are EIAJ signals while the right 2 are your power connections to power the modules.

So instead of forcing you to buy a USB Monica or a SPDIF Monica, you now have choices and since this is in module form, you could play around slowly.

Hey, if there’s sufficient interest, how about an EIAJ selector to select from multiple inputs?

The post Let’s pay some attention to our Digital Interface appeared first on diyparadise.

Well, many months later, not only I found the factory, I got them to improve it!

Nothing was done to the drivers so the excellent tone still remains but the frame has been improved upon. From its initial stamped frame basket, it’s now an alloy cast frame.

Big deal you ask? Yes, IMHO it IS a big deal!

Hear me out first. Over the years I have played with all sorts of speaker drivers. My hifi journey began with a PSB bookshelf which uses Vifa and Scanspeak drivers. When I went into the world of low powered amp + high sensitivity speakers, I got a pair of Hammer Dynamics which was really pleasant to listen to.

Then later, I got into the amazing world of Coral drivers and I played and lived with so many of them, all the way until the top of the range Coral Beta series.

Today I have moved even higher up the chain (and my finances further down the red line) with the amazing, but expensive, Feastrex drivers.

So what have I learned all the way?

You can distinguish the top of the line, the best sounding drivers, in a company’s line up just by looking at the frame — the usage of alloy cast frame.

Huh? What’s the big deal?

Not only an alloy cast frame cost more than stamped baskets, it’s structurally a lot stronger too. And this translates to lower distortion especially at loud SPLs.

Besides if you have been in audio for a while, you also know that one of the first “test” and audiophile does to an amp chassis or loudspeaker enclosure is to give it a little knock with his knuckle. Why? To check if it is sufficiently dampened and will not “ring”.

Hey, ever notice how does a diyer tweak his speaker drivers?
1. dampen the frame with bitumen.
2. dampen the frame with rope caulk.

For what purpose? To strengthen the frame as well as dampen the frame from “ringing”. And stamped frames will ring! A gentle tap and you could hear it go “tinggggggggggg”….

All this is in theory but we have listened to the prototype and it’s bloody obvious it’s a huge improvement!

Full specs of the drivers can be downloaded here.

When I was at the factory, I was shown this excellent 1″ {jcomments off}silk dome tweeter. The build quality is really something! Puts many of the regular offerings to shame. And I was told this silk dome tweeter sounds really excellent. Some companies take this product from him then mark up 10x to sell. Hmm…

Took some back and listening test shows it’s really good!

From now till 31st December 2010, all 3 drivers will be at a special introductory price. Get them quick!

The post Reintroducing the Merrill DCA fullrange drivers! appeared first on diyparadise.

I have been playing with CD transports for a while now, culminating with the really excellent CDPRO2, but with the advent of PC based music, and related media players like the Squeezebox, CDPs slowly lose out in favour.

And with media players, once you modify them ala Crazy DIYers, the gain in performance puts many esteemed CD transports to shame. What more, these media players are really cheap! I don’t have to tell you how expensive it is to procure a CDPRO based transport. Go google yourself.

However, as much as I enjoyed my highly modified Squeezebox, CDPRO2 based transport still trumps. There just seems to be a glass ceiling where we are still trying to break.

But then when I heard of SD card players, I got interested. This got the makings of an ultimate digital source.

What’s so great about it? Purportedly no moving parts, hence better reliability; less jitter, hence better sonics etc.

I consider prototyping one myself but the engineering efforts takes time but fortunately our Chinese brothers in Shenzhen QLS Hifi offers a built up WAV player for not a lot of moolah.

On the other hand, this WAV player ONLY plays 16-bit 44.1kHz WAV files. So no MP3, no FLACs, no 24-bit gizmo etc. No, nope, None, Nilch, Nada.

So what’s so great about this WAV player? You just got to listen to it.

Easy. Just play music through it.

Feeding it WAV files and playing off stock, the first few hours was good but not great but after some hours of running in…. Wooooooooooowwwwwww!!!!!!

I was speechless.

I was stunned.

I was… dumb strucked.

Here is this humble looking fella (stock standard!), trouncing my highly modified Squeezebox with upgraded external Paul Hynes power supply.

And putting the CDPRO2 transport to shame.

What more does one want?

Being a greedy bastard, I opened it up and looked for modding potential.

There are Sanyo Oscons all around. Not exactly SA grade but still no slouch. There is a 7805V pre regulator followed by 3 LM1117 regulators. One for the DSP chip (this guy does all the hard work, reading off the SD card, updating the display and sending out I2S signal), one for the oscillator clocking this chip and another for the I2S-SPDIF generator. Impressive!

The pic below however, isn’t stock standard anymore as itchy-fingered me just have to work on it. I swapped the pre pre-regulator cap with another Oscon and removed the SPDIF RCA and Toslink sockets. I replaced the SPDIF RCA with a BNC socket. This should be the way to go!

Also, I replaced the output pulse transformer (there’s already one inside) with a Newava make.

Note that there is I2S output available on this player. On another player, I tapped this out and fed to an I2S-EIAJ convertor to feed directly to mojo (which accepts EIAJ readily). This my bro, beats the SPDIF interface! But it took me a while to hear the difference while Gabriel (who has much better ears than me) detected the improvement right away. So if you can’t hear any improvement, get a pair of better ears!

All in all, I’m so happy with this little guy, I use it as my reference these days. Yeah, the Squeezebox has a nice display and offers loads of convenience but the SD player gives the best sonics.

Sounds familiar? It’s like the CDP offers lots of convenience but the turntable gives best sonics.

So what do I make out of it? This SD card WAV player is like a Digital Turntable.

The post Digital Turntable appeared first on diyparadise.

There are 2 Paul Hynes’ regulators we want to introduce here. Well, if you include the CCS, then there’s 3.

First, there’s the 5.45V regulator for TDA1545A VDD. Then there’s the 0.83V regulator for the TDA1545A VREF. Lastly there’s the CCS2 for feeding the 5.45V regulator.

So first step is to identify how to incorporate all these regs. Ideally we would like to place them as close as possible to the chip which we want to regulate its voltage. So in this case, we want to place them as close as possible to the TDA1545A chip, yet without leaving a mess of spaghetti wiring. (pray hard…)

Here’s what I did. Found that the best place to wire in the 5.45V reg is on the PCB where the 220uF cap is supposed to go. If you have both caps installled, then you could solder them at the bottom of the PCB.

Ditto to the 0.83V reg, best place is on the PCB where the 47uF caps reside. Note polarity.

Now there are many ways you could integrate these regs in. One way is to cut the PCB trace, disconnecting the string of diodes to VDD but if you don’t want to, you could desolder the 1N4148 diodes (all or at least both at each end).

The Paul Hynes regs’ pins are labeled I(nput), O(utput) and G(round). Descriptive enough? When mounting the 0.83V reg, I found it’s easier to desolder the I lead and wire it this way. This goes to the CCS2 input.

More pics here.

Aha… Integrated with Monica SPDIF-EIAJ module. Note that power for the module is taken from this mojo board. For better isolation, i put in a ferrite bead too.

Hey! Since we are on a roll, might as well add 2 more regs! Now there’s a reg for each channel of the SS I/V stage as well. [These new regs will be called ACDC in line with our preference to name our minor products over rock bands.] In order to do this, don’t install any jumper on LSUPPLY.

And so that’s what I did. So we now have regulators for every stage of Monica.

Err, this guide helps explain better how to power the individual stages of mojo.

And what does all this hard work give you?

Aye caramba! Muchhhhhhhh better sonics! SE-PA-RA-TION is superb!

Since I’m such a nice guy, for those who are more budget conscious, you could use AudioSlave here and retain the original CCS structure. You’ll need to break the PCB trace linking the string of diodes to TDA1545 VDD (pin 5) though. Err, with AudioSlave, you could go up to 25VDC.

There you go! Have fun!

The post Mojo-fy your mojo! appeared first on diyparadise.

Okay, here’s just a few things I have done over the past few weeks (or is it months) to improve the sonics of my system.

First thing first. Monica!
Even though I specified 220uF in the Mojo power supply for TDA1545, I had only 100uF when I tried her out. Thus with Black Gates Super E, total capacitance is 200uF. But the PCB was designed for 220uF Super E, so that’s 440uF capacitance in total.

So after finally ordering these caps, put them in and.. Wow! Lower noise floor! By my dummy ears, I’ll say around 2.7896dB quieter. Okay! I made that up! But it’s at least 2dB quieter as I have to crank an additional 3dB setting to hear hiss coming out of the speakers. Err, mind you, these are ~100dB speakers…

The above pic shows Mojo integrated with Monica3. You may notice there are a few additional modules there… Blame the 2 Pauls (Needs and Hynes!)

Paul Needs told me about these modules he got from Paul Hynes. According to him, major improvement to Monica’s sonics! Well, you know me, if anything could milk more honey out of my lady (err I mean ma dac), I’ll go for it!

So after I got the 5V and 0.83V regs from Paul Hynes, incorporated them into Monica + mojo. The 5V reg is actually a “super shunt” so it still needs a constant current source, and what better CCS than Paul Hynes’ CCS2? The 0.83V reg is fed off the 5V reg. So what we have is this :

With these mods, Monica + mojo improved a whole new level! If before, you have been stunned by this combo, now you’ll be peeing in your pants! Well, assuming you haven’t done so. Hee hee…

Both the 5V and 0.83V regs should be in stock couple weeks later.

Err, just realized the CCS2 has been obscured by the 0.83V reg in above pic…

Next comes Charlize!
First thing I did was change the power supply. Have been so happy using this Hitachi battery which out of all the batteries I tested, gave me the widest grin. I actually got a Paul Hynes PR3 earlier and did the power supply for Gabriel, but I never got to listen to it in my system as Gabriel liked it so much he wouldn’t let me take it back!

Couple months ago, bought this Stillpoints ERS fabric. The sales copy is very interesting. An average of 50dB attenuation from 10MHz to 17GHz! Wow!

Of course, I can’t test this figure but I could use my crummy ears and see if I could hear any difference. After all, whatever spec means moot if I can’t hear any sonic improvement.

Tried inserting strips in the center of the air core inductors, but couldn’t hear any difference. Wrapped around the inductors… Yes! Not surprising as the inductors are coiled such that the fields radiate outwards. Improvement isn’t as huge as all the previous tweaks on this page, but worth your time and effort! Certain instruments like cymbals gain “body” and “definition”, if it was a mash of splishy-splashy noise earlier.

And the tweak is so easy to apply! Definitely reversible. Just be careful not to come into contact with any solder joints or component leads as the ERS paper could be conductive.

But we are not done yet! Last but not least, installed 2 pieces of this wood diffusor behind my horns.

Few months ago, visited an audiophile friend about 300km away and had quite an epiphany listening to his system. You see, I kind of regard many of the audio “tweaks/accessories” as snake oil – at least those that I can’t understand. Usually will just attribute any sonic improvement as psychological rather than real improvement. So imagine our surprise to come across this audiophile who has almost ALL the tweaks one could think of.

And listening was a revelation! The host was kind enough to let us listen with and without some of the tweaks. After just few seconds of listening, I was shocked. Gabriel was shocked.

From now onwards, we only regard the hyper inflated price as snake oil, but not the sonic improvement!

For starters, I’ll start with something I could understand and believe. Yes, no snake oil here. Just a simple diffusor. Will progress and experiment with other stuffs later.

All in all, it has been a fun journey but you know with audio, this journey never ends!

The post What I’ve done over the past few months to improve my system… appeared first on diyparadise.

Before I studied the art, a punch to me was just like a punch, a kick just like a kick.
After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick.
Now that I’ve understood the art, a punch is just like a punch, a kick just like a kick.

When you first approached diy audio, a resistor, a capacitor is just another
component. Then after you have read so much on the Net, tried some in your
circuitry, a resistor/capacitor is more than just that. There’s carbon/metal/tantalum film resistors, constructed foil type, wirewound, non-inductive and so on… For caps, you worry about its dielectric material. Is it teflon? Paper in oil? Polypropylene?…

But when you start accepting that a resistor is just a resistor and a capacitor is just a capacitor; when you begin to look beyond its details and could now see the big picture, that’s when you reach “a higher level”.

You should have enough opinion and experience to know where in the circuit to use what. By that time, you should be exploring the circuitry in greater detail than fussing about the components.

Sure, sound is the sum of every component in the circuitry but to be able to
transcend just looking at components, and going a deeper level, that’s when you have matured as a diyer.

It’s like when you first started diy audio, you are told tube amps sound better than solid state but now you should be able to see that tubes or ss, as long as the circuitry is good, the implementation takes into account
electrical/psychoacoustics consideration, both technologies are capable of great
sound.

Remember the fuss started by 47 Labs with its Gaincard amplifier? Many ditched their tube amps for it, just like we lost count the number of folks who prefer Charlize over their amps. (BTW, count how many audio companies offering gainclones these days…)

Who would have thought that LDR volume controls could trounce Transformer Volume Controls in the region of dynamics, transparency and immediacy? Virtues which TVCs should reign supreme?

Why heck who would have believed even a volume control chip implemented ala Beyonce could already outperform TVCs?

Who would have believed a 10W Class T Charlize could out-sung tube amps whose filaments already consume more than 10W?!

So stop carrying your hifi myths. Unlearn what the industry tells you and just rely on your ears.

So tubes or no tubes, LDR or TVC, whichever the route, if it sounds better, than that’s all that matters!

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On the other hand, what Bruce Lee is also telling us is that kicks and punches are just one of the elements of his art. There’s more to it than just kicks and punches.

Equally, in audio, there’s more to it than just tubes vs ss in amplifiers. There’s the preamp, the colume control, the DAC, the transport, or the phono stage, the turntable.. Moving downstream, speakers and not forgetting all the cables linking everything together, and the room where the system sits, and our state of mind…

Which means to say, if you focus only one element, say amps, it’s like just
focussing on kicks in martial arts. There will be a glass ceiling on how far you can go.

I’ve come across many diyers who only focus on ONE element of their system but do not go about holistically, to improve the sonics of every gear in his system.

It’s like an amp designer who tells the world he has built the best tube amp in the world but then when you look at the speakers and dac he’s using, you wonder how can he design such an amp…

Imagine this guy who claims he has built the amp to rival the Audio Note Ongaku but in his system he uses Bose mini sats and a $90 dvd player.

I could hear you say “He can’t be serious!” from here!

So what’s the point I want to make here?

Don’t go fussing too much about your audio components.

Approach sonic improvement like the Japanes – kaizen approach which is a
continuous improvement approach by studying every part of the system, then once
done, go through the whole system again.

So say you start with your amp. After improving your amp, focus on your DAC, then your transport, then your speakers etc. Then start all over again from your amp. Each time you improve something, it reveals the pluses and minuses of your system. Flaws obscured by your system’s lower resolution that were not heard before could be highlighted now and thus needs fixing. That piercing highs you heard may not be because of your tweeter, but your amplifier oscillating like crazy.

So you go round and round, in a cycle, improving each element of your system. And not just focus on just kicks.

System building is a dynamic process and continuous improvement is never static. It should be ongoing, it should be enjoyable and you should be having fun!

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