What have you done with your system in 2009

[AlanMaher]

Where to begin?  Without yacking about my own stuff....a little background, I'm a pc audio guy....OK enough said.  This year I built a kick ass 24TB media server.  What makes the server cool is the tweaks inside (Bybee, Quantum Symphony Pro, ERS, Quantum Physics, and the CBF).  When I build a pc I spare no expense, and the server is no different...many would say it's overkill, but it's my money so who gives a ....?  I used a 1200 watt PC Power & Cooling SLI psu.  Basically what I did was turn the psu into the ultimate pc parallel conditioner.  The psu is first tuned using multiple CBF's...sorry no getting around that fact.  Next I used ERS under the motherboard to cut down on the ground noise.  Next I removed the stock power supply of the Symphony Pro and hard wired 2 small Bybee's and a 16ga (4N solid silver/teflon) 2 pin molex (use WBT solder and gold plated copper molex pins)and plug directly into the psu....holy .... - massive improvements!!!  Small Bybee's were used in the design to cut down on the noise and control the magnetic leakage.  Other goodies are power cords, cat 7 wiring (love this stuff with a Shakti On Lined centered on the cable),Quantum Physics Cable Disrupters (psu 24 and 8 pin molex...centered and tuned for upper midrange response), QRPC, etc...but the set has really transformed both the audio and video performance of my entire system.  Other tweaks that worked great were using a CBF to tune the pse of the switch, router, and dsl modem.  Quantum Physics Cable Disrupters centered on the dc cabling (audio improved in the bass foundation....didn't really notice a picture improvement....Shakti OnLines offered the picture improvement when centered to the cat 7 cabling).  OK now I'm rambling...  As for a parallel power conditioner....tuning the power supply had a radical improvement on the rest of my audio/video circuit for the better...the entire system is isolated by a Plitron LoNo NBT transformer...the same designed into the BPT 3.5.

[shep]

Lord have mercy Alan!
ps just as the years ends, I switched direction of the next-to-latest cables and BINGO! Unless my gypsy Marantz turns up, this will be the last change this year.

[mdconnelly]

24TB?!   That is a whole lot of media and one hell of a server!

I find myself using PC-based audio with a Squeezebox Duet much of the time (although critical listening is still dominated via my CD transport or vinyl rig).  The Duet is feeding my Oracle DAC1000 so it's just acting as a wireless digital transport. 

I'm curious to what extent treating my computer and hard drives would hold potential for improving Duet playback?  The computer is actually at the opposite end of the house although it does have an AM Ref II on that circuit.  Will my bits fly faster?  line up better?      Seriously tho, I can imagine that everything in my 'computer room' is throwing a lot of trash into the electrical line.

[RichardS]

Main system has seen a few upgrades:

from a Tact 2150 amp to a 2150 with full Aberdeen mods, moving the (mostly) stock 2150 to sub application

added an Olive Musica 750GB with external battery to my 160GB Olive Musica with internal battery

from Gabriel Gold Revelation biwires to JPS SC3 with Aluminata jumpers

Genesis Digital Lens

Harmonic Technology Photon digital cable

Maher Quantum Studio

Verastarr Grand Illusion 2, Black Sand Statement One and Fusion Audio Impluse and Enchanter power cords

The modded Tact takes some etch out of the highs and sounds overall less 'digital' with gains in body, presence and natural tone.

The Olives are great machines (I have three) especially when modified for battery operation by Red Wine Audio. Have my whole collection on its drive. Computer source convenience without the computer power supply noise and hassles. I use them mainly as transports into my Tact preamp (also modded). My North Star transport sits pretty lonely these days.

The JPS is a great cable in my system. I was pretty happy with the Gabriels after trying 6 or 7 others, but the SC3 provided a missing sense of power and PRAT and bass foundation, with a slightly expanded stage and delightful vocal presence.

I had sold my digital Lens when I bought my first RWA Olive, as the gains were now modest. But I recently found a really good deal (couldn't resist) and added it back in for use with one of the Olives. It makes things a little smoother without any negatives that I can perceive. I suspect the jitter from the battery Olive with its pulse transformer on the digital out is pretty low, so the Lens just provides a slightly different jitter spectrum, besides stripping track and timing info, etc.

The HT photons are the best digital cables I've used. I had one Cyberlight before, and now have two photons. The ground and RFI/EMI canceling benefits of a fiber cable with the lower jitter of AES/EBU and RCA S/PDIF. Very open and detailed noise-free sound.

I 'believe' the Quantum Studio has been a step forward in the sound with a lower noise floor, but I haven't taken it out to verify, and probably won't. It's connected to the outlet next to my RSA Haley.

With the Verastarr on the main amp, the Black Sand on the sub amp and Fusion Audio Impluses and Enchanter on the preamp and Haley, I believe (hope) I'm done with power cords. I still may go back to my other Statement One on my amp though -- both are very good but slightly different.

Oh, and in my studio set up I got some ADAM P-22A speakers and an Apogee Duet, and I'm loading Logic 9 into my new Macbook Pro as I write....

[rollo]

 Added JPS SC3 ICs  between Pre and Amp. New 211 TJ Meshplates tubes for the Amps. Lingo power supply for the LP12. The most affective change was wrought by the Alan Maher CBFs. they tied it all together in a way I never thought possible.
 


charles

[AcidJazz]

New power cables, speaker cables took my sound up a few notches. All KaplanCables, in trade for some of my services..
New Jenna(1) and Kaplan(4) cryo outlets, brought more sonic details, air, and texture.
Tried the AM CBF, but thought the sound took a slight hit...ended up with 1/3 of the contents of one CBF still in the loop. Like they say, too much of a good thing...
Completed my super-duper Felix based power conditioner, does a heckuvajob. All my components are now 'isolated' from each other via their own respective Felix.
Replaced the coupling caps in my Jolida 102b with paper in oil caps, much smoother sound, gone is the slight grit typical of that stock amp. This amp drives my VMPS RM1 mid panel and tweeter.
Went active on the bass drivers; removed the big inductor and small cap in the cabinet. Currently using a pro electronic crossover, but have a Marchand to replace that on my next 2 do list which I expect to lower the  audible noise floor that proX now adds.
Stepped up to Grover SX ICs, think its an improvement over the SC version I had, mellower, less grain.

And last but not least. Bought/acquired over 600 albums (mostly cds, some LPs) over the past 12 months...lotsa music to hear...
And did attend several music concerts all year long, serves to calibrate the ear/brain with respect to musical cues/properties.
Its a great hobby.

All the best for 2010.

[AlanMaher]

AcidJazz

It's all about placement...experiment and have fun


mdconnelly

I use EVGA Classified motherboard and a Acera SATA card.  All hard drives are WD 2TB.  WHS is used for the OS.

We only just scratched the surface of what pc audio is capable of performing.  As far as tweaking is concerned the psu is you gateway into all those 1's and 0's.  Hard Drives are not a big fan of magnetic tweaking unless it's on the 12/5v input.  IDE drives responded well to the Bybee molex bridge on the + and -.  Images sharpen for both audio and video.  The results are still out if the Bybee helped the drive itself, or magnetically altered the leakage for the better through the psu.  By best guess would be a 50/50 since I added them one at a time to evaluate the change.  In my rig I only use the Bybee w/the Q Pro because I only use SATA drives at present.  

When it comes to the Q Pro I was never a strong believer in the radio station theory of the device....Quantum used a large choke in the design that was easily capable of magnetising the internal power supply caps and altering the leakage...which if you read the literature and experiment for yourself should take about 20 to 30 minutes for increased bass warmth and depth of picture....this is normal for any kind of choke installed across the load.  In theory the incoming ac quality should not affect the performance of the Pro....another BS claim.  When the internal psu is taken out of the equation the large (1000 watt plus) psu acts as a magnifier for the choke effect.  Within a matter of a few minutes you will experience the increased musical warmth and video depth dimension which is easily heard and viewed by any other pc installed throughout the home..  As the psu begins to stabilize you will start to notice mechanical noise start to lower as performance increases.  This is not night and day....the fans will run faster and smoother due to the lower line harmonic and noise leakage will be lower throughout the pc.

With that said, each aspect of a pc can be tailored, especially for audio reproduction.  I use a external DVD-RW as my main transport.  The drive was installed inside a Vantec case with it's own internal power supply.  This case is a tweakers dream.  I trowled in GE Silicone II on the bottom of the case to act as a dampener and stiffened the bottom using a sheet of TI Shield.  I installed 2 small Bybee's off the IEC socket to the psu board (WBT solder).  I replaced the 4 wire molex and hardwired a Bybee molex bridge.  Used EAR small isolation feet as the final tweak.  In itself, after break in, I would throw this transport against any modern audiophile transport on the market.  Both picture and sound quality is greatly improved over the stock performance and is a Worth while investment.  WW usb cables appear to sound best with the mod.

There are so many things you can do to tweak every stage of the pc...I use isolation stands, cone feet (love Soundcare spikes),power cords (12ga or larger), psu (anything larger than 1000 watts will offer audiophile quality reproduction....PC Power & Cooling offer the best sound that I have heard to date)...the options are endless.  

Another thing...pc audio lovesisolation transformers....so if you having trouble with dropouts...more than likely it is caused by poor grounding in the motherboard....a medical grade isolation transformer w/center shield will fix the problem.

[bpape]

More info on the Bybee molex bridge please?  Pics?  Will break this off into a new thread if significant disussion.

Bryan

[AlanMaher]

I have to work on my main pc next week after Jen and I get back from our trip...I will take a pic or two at that time.  The bybee bridge is basically a male and female 4 pin molex connector/s with 2 to 4 small Bybee's soldered in between instead of wire.  If you plan to do something like I did with the Q Pro then only 2 small purifiers is needed....on he other hand if it's used for a IDE DVD drive or hard drive, then you will require 4 small Bybee's for the 12 +/- and 5 +/- leads.  After install allow 3 to 4 weeks for the Bybee's to fully break in.  I like to use ProGold 100% solution for the connection. 

[Rob S.]

I'm hoping my purchases slow way way down for 2010.  In 2009,

Main 2channel room:

Selah custom speakers
mapletree 2A se
music reference RM200 mkII amp
Equitech 1.5 balanced conditioner
VPI classic TT, Benz glider cartridge, Vista phono 1 MC
VPI 16.5 record cleaner
JPS SC3 IC's (4), SC3 speaker cables, JPS power cords
Large SRL diffusor on back wall
unfinished DIY hybrid diffusion/ absorbtion panel (2) on  1st reflection points
removed ugly flourescent basement lights- installed track lighting

Basement HT room (work in progress):

Mits.5500 pj
Da-Lite hi gain screen
Onkyo 860 receiver
Oppo's new Blue ray player
traded in defective veneer AV123 speakers & upgraded (additional $400) to AV123 Rocket 5.1 setup

I guess that about raps up 2009.   Actually while typing this I'm getting a little sick to my stomach.  This is a huge amount of $$ to spend in 1 year, Hell, I don't even know where the $$ came from to buy all this stuff.  In my delusional mind, I thought I had maybe 3-4 big purchase and a few small ones.  What a wake up call,  this madness must stop.

Please smack me in the head if I start babbling about needing more gear!!  Please, i won't be offended at all.

Rob S.

[tmazz]

After not changing a single piece of hardware in over 10 years, I got the bug back in a big way in 2009  (thank god for Audiogon and ebay):

Soundproofed and added a new ceiling in the mancave

Added (2) dedicated 20A lines

Replaced my Thiel 3.5s with Thiel CS-6s

Replaced my George Kaye modified Moscode 600 with a Classe Tewnty-five

Replaced my 1986 vintage Magnavox CD player (which had functioned great as a transport, but developed tracking problems) with a Denon 2910 Universal player

Replaced my Audio Alchemy DTI-XDP with a Boulder Cable Mensa Mod DI/O

Cleaned my ears!!! (call the thread gross, but I don't know anybody whose tried it that is still laughing)

Added Alan Maher CBFs

Found a local thrift shop that sells LPs for 49  & 69 cents (lots of junk, but the get in new stock almost every day so there are plenty of gems to be found, and besides, the thrill is in the hunt  )

Spent more time and had more fun listening than I had in years.

Got my 15 year-old into the hobby. (or was it him who pushed me back in?  )

Met lots of other Nervosians (is that a word?) here on AN. My wife has been saying for 25 years that this is a sickness, not a hobby. Now I have a nut house to go play in!   

[richidoo]

You've been busy Tom! Lots of big changes.

[mdconnelly]

One thing I didn't note in here is what I did and then undid/redid...

-- replaced an original Shunyata Hydra with an RSA Jaco then replaced it with Alan Maher products

-- purchased a Benchmark DAC Pre and sold it within a few weeks!

-- upgraded Grover ICs and then replaced them with JPS

Live and learn but my 2010 resolution is to avoid such short-lived purchases!

[tmazz]

You've been busy Tom! Lots of big changes.

Rich,

The changes were kind of the result of a perfect storm.

1) With my son getting into it we spent a whole lot more time listening and I ended up paying with tweak, if nothing more that to let him hears some of the things we were talking about. and just like how you exercise better  with a friend, the stereo bug bit a little harder with him egging me on (He also started asking me to take him out to used record stores to he could start to build his collection, which just broke my heart... "Honey, I have to go to the record store, your son needs a ride." 

2) The economy crashed and burned creating some unbelievable opportunities for anyone who could pull together a bit of cash. Piece of hardware I bought was at a fire sale price. I don't think there was one thing that I paid more than 20 cents on the dollar for. These were prices that I wouldn't have been able to walk away from without hating myself in the morning. 

I spent 20 years saying "it ain't broke, so don't touch it" and then in 14 months I end up  jacking up the radiator cap and driving a new car under it. But when opportunity knocks.....

Bottom line is that while they  system always sounded good, it never sang like it is now and I don't think I ever listened  more or enjoyed it as much as I do now,  and isn't that the name of the game?

[richidoo]

Sounds fun. Yes, good opportunities abound now.   It's great that your son is into it, so you have someone at home to share your passion.