Author Topic: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks  (Read 28003 times)

Offline gander

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks - power fuses
« Reply #45 on: March 15, 2018, 12:02:36 PM »
 I know this is a bit off topic but this is about my tweaks. I recently went to most recent LA and orange county Audio club meeting and I enter the raffle. I won a Synergistic Research blue fuse. Not a bad deal considering I spent $20 to win a $150 fuse.  $150 fuse? You’ve got to be s***ting me.  So I looked up the fuse values for my audio note dac,  let them know what it was, and they sent me a fuse.  The power fuse next to the IEC socket on the back of the unit.

 My girlfriend and I could not believe the difference. Bigger, bolder, better bass, less edge without losing details, all the good stuff. From a stupid little fuse. 

It didn’t make any sense until you think about it. What is really going on with alternating current? First AC is pushing One Direction, then it alternates and pushes the other direction. So not only is it going through that expensive power cord, but it is also going through the IEC socket metal, the fuse, the wire to and from the power switch, and the power switch itself.  And it does make a difference when part of that path is better, as most of us have heard by putting in a better power cord.  Yes it sounds much better with some power cords, but the power still has to go through the fuse and the other stuff before it gets to the actual guts of the audio gear.  So I am convinced that better fuses can lead to a better sound, dammit! One more thing to buy.

 It was a quick blow fuse and the fuse blew and I thought I was out a bunch of money. Then I called Synergistic Research and they have a 30 day guarantee that if you blow one of their fuses they will send you another one for free. They increased the amp value and made it slow blow and now it seems to be fine.  I think their quick blow might’ve been a little too quick. But I am very happy with the sound and it really got me thinking about what is going on with the power in general.

 If you want to put a bunch of money an a gear upgrade you might consider upgrading the power fuse first just to see. This is not vaporware and it is not voodoo, but it is what my ears are telling me. Your mileage may vary.

Gary

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Offline tmazz

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #46 on: March 15, 2018, 03:14:16 PM »
Have you tried listening to the fuse in both directions? I know guys who swear the fuses sound better the installed one way vs the other.
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Offline tmazz

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #47 on: March 15, 2018, 03:20:48 PM »
I think it’s quite the advantage being a musician like Gary so that you can really judge and appreciate what an instrument truly sounds like. I can only make an educated guess regarding that, but it will have to do. I don’t go to live concerts as much of the music i dont care for or the acoustics are spoiled by audience members. Then there’s the balance that I sometimes struggle with between a live performance and the glam that some speakers produce and that I briefly get attracted to. I appreciate that some guys like to tinker and always improve the sound, but I’m too busy working on inside and outside home improvement projects.
Nick

    Nick really only one instrument to hear as a complete reference. That would be a Piano live maybe in someones home. Frequency range of 28HZ to past your hearing. DONE, reference had.

charles

Charles,
OK, it’s the piano and I’ll take your word on that. It makes sense. But I really hesitate to say this, especially at the peril of what pianists might say, but I really don’t like the piano. I will say that among my favorite instruments are the saxophone, violin, flute, guitar, cello and harp.
Nick

But then again Charles is not advocating listening to piano for musical enjoyment but rather as a test signal for equipment evaluation. These are two separate and distinct functions, so it is not unreasonable to have some recordings you use to listen to sound and others that you play when you want to listen to and enjoy music. And they don't need to be one and the same because the goals of both situations are different.

Just as long as you can keep the two activities separate. I have known too many people over the years who never seem to get out of the test mode and sit down to actually enjoy listening the the system the spend so much time optimizing. Makes me wonder why the bother upgrading if they never actually do any listening. But to each his own........
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Offline _Scotty_

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #48 on: March 15, 2018, 03:46:17 PM »
For some people a sub section of the hobby amounts to constant testing and seldom listening for pleasure, the search for an improvement or the best possible sound is the focus of their involvement with the hobby. I don't get this as it seems to be going down a rabbit hole, but I have a good friend who idea of fun is this type of activity.
 I don't try to turn him on to new music to listen to, as, by and large he not interested.
Scotty

Offline rollo

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #49 on: March 15, 2018, 05:14:08 PM »
  Yes for testing only. The piano, violin [ top end], cello [ mid ] and guitar. Guitar is really good if you know someone who plays one well. Have them come over sit in between the speakers and play something you have recorded. That will do it.
   If you get the decay of harmonics and timbre like the playing guitar I want to move in. :thumb:





charles
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Offline gander

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #50 on: March 15, 2018, 05:14:24 PM »
Have you tried listening to the fuse in both directions? I know guys who swear the fuses sound better the installed one way vs the other.

No, that idea seems kind of silly to me, considering alternating current goes in both directions. I suppose I could try it sometime and see.  But I do have a friend that tells me that speaker wires and such do settle in and when they’re moved they don’t sound so good. So maybe the same is true of fuses.

Gary
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Offline rollo

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #51 on: March 15, 2018, 05:15:56 PM »
   Gary you are correct about the blue fuse. My customer demonstrated it to me. I was stunned that a fuse could make that much difference. Wonder if a quality circuit breaker in lieu of fuse would be equal or better.

charles
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Offline rollo

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #52 on: March 15, 2018, 05:16:54 PM »
Have you tried listening to the fuse in both directions? I know guys who swear the fuses sound better the installed one way vs the other.

No, that idea seems kind of silly to me, considering alternating current goes in both directions. I suppose I could try it sometime and see.  But I do have a friend that tells me that speaker wires and such do settle in and when they’re moved they don’t sound so good. So maybe the same is true of fuses.

Gary


   Gary are not the fuses directional ? I think they are. BTW correct with cable moving.  Need time to settle again. Crazy but true.

charles
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Offline gander

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #53 on: March 15, 2018, 05:29:45 PM »
Have you tried listening to the fuse in both directions? I know guys who swear the fuses sound better the installed one way vs the other.

No, that idea seems kind of silly to me, considering alternating current goes in both directions. I suppose I could try it sometime and see.  But I do have a friend that tells me that speaker wires and such do settle in and when they’re moved they don’t sound so good. So maybe the same is true of fuses.

Gary


   Gary are not the fuses directional ? I think they are. BTW correct with cable moving.  Need time to settle again. Crazy but true.

charles

 Of course you can flip the fuse either direction, but alternating current goes one way when the sine wave is going up and then the other direction when it is going down. Not sure what you mean.  Do you mean that the fuse will sound better in the fuse holder one way rather than the other way?  I haven’t tried that.

Gary
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Offline tmazz

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #54 on: March 16, 2018, 07:51:19 AM »
Have you tried listening to the fuse in both directions? I know guys who swear the fuses sound better the installed one way vs the other.

No, that idea seems kind of silly to me, considering alternating current goes in both directions. I suppose I could try it sometime and see.  But I do have a friend that tells me that speaker wires and such do settle in and when they’re moved they don’t sound so good. So maybe the same is true of fuses.

Gary

I agree, it seems very counter intuitive that any conductor carrying an AC signal should sound different based on which end is hooked up to the source and which end is hooked up to the destination. In any sinusoidal based signal (which music is) the voltage and current flow over time should statistically approach an equal amount of time in either direction. In a signal which is a pure sine wave (which I would hope your incoming commercial AC is) it should be exactly equal. If the current sends essentially and equal amount of time traveling in each direction why should it make a difference which way we plug it in? As Teveye said in Fiddler on the Roof, "I'll tell you, I don't know." But it is pretty much accepted in audiophile circles that certain things are directional (but not universally accepted.... like you could ever get a large group of audiophiles to all agree on anything.....  :lol:) Interconnect and speaker cables have long come with directionality indicators on them.

Do I believe it makes a difference, yes and no. But I do believe it's worth a try.  If a cable  (or a fuse) is physically set up such that it can be place in either direction I give it a try (of course if a cable had different physical connections on either end you do not have the ability to reverse it.) In my experience over the years sometimes it makes a difference, sometimes it doesn't and sometimes the best sounding way is not the direction that the manufacturer says labeling says it should be.

There is a whole industry out there selling tweaks to audiophile trying to squeeze that last litttle bit of performance out of there systems. Even though this one doesn't seem to make logical sense, it is fairly easy to do and best of all it doesn't costa penny of cash to do, so why not flip thigs around and try. If it doesn't give you any sound improvement all you are out is a little time.
Remember, it's all about the music........

• Nola Boxers
• Sunfire True SW Super Jr (2)
• McIntosh MC 275
• ARC SP-9
• VPI HW-19 Mk IV/SDS/SME IV/Soundsmith Carmen Mk II ES
• Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 DAC/Rasp Pi Roon Endpoint
• DigiBuss/TWL PC&USB/MIT Cables

Offline rollo

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #55 on: March 16, 2018, 08:08:16 AM »
Have you tried listening to the fuse in both directions? I know guys who swear the fuses sound better the installed one way vs the other.

No, that idea seems kind of silly to me, considering alternating current goes in both directions. I suppose I could try it sometime and see.  But I do have a friend that tells me that speaker wires and such do settle in and when they’re moved they don’t sound so good. So maybe the same is true of fuses.

Gary


   Gary are not the fuses directional ? I think they are. BTW correct with cable moving.  Need time to settle again. Crazy but true.

charles

 Of course you can flip the fuse either direction, but alternating current goes one way when the sine wave is going up and then the other direction when it is going down. Not sure what you mean.  Do you mean that the fuse will sound better in the fuse holder one way rather than the other way?  I haven’t tried that.

Gary

   Gary what I'm asking is if the Manf. in the instructions has a directional arrow. If so install that way and be done.

charles
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Offline gander

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #56 on: March 16, 2018, 09:17:44 AM »
Have you tried listening to the fuse in both directions? I know guys who swear the fuses sound better the installed one way vs the other.

No, that idea seems kind of silly to me, considering alternating current goes in both directions. I suppose I could try it sometime and see.  But I do have a friend that tells me that speaker wires and such do settle in and when they’re moved they don’t sound so good. So maybe the same is true of fuses.

Gary

I agree, it seems very counter intuitive that any conductor carrying an AC signal should sound different based on which end is hooked up to the source and which end is hooked up to the destination. In any sinusoidal based signal (which music is) the voltage and current flow over time should statistically approach an equal amount of time in either direction. In a signal which is a pure sine wave (which I would hope your incoming commercial AC is) it should be exactly equal. If the current sends essentially and equal amount of time traveling in each direction why should it make a difference which way we plug it in? As Teveye said in Fiddler on the Roof, "I'll tell you, I don't know." But it is pretty much accepted in audiophile circles that certain things are directional (but not universally accepted.... like you could ever get a large group of audiophiles to all agree on anything.....  :lol:) Interconnect and speaker cables have long come with directionality indicators on them.

Do I believe it makes a difference, yes and no. But I do believe it's worth a try.  If a cable  (or a fuse) is physically set up such that it can be place in either direction I give it a try (of course if a cable had different physical connections on either end you do not have the ability to reverse it.) In my experience over the years sometimes it makes a difference, sometimes it doesn't and sometimes the best sounding way is not the direction that the manufacturer says labeling says it should be.

There is a whole industry out there selling tweaks to audiophile trying to squeeze that last litttle bit of performance out of there systems. Even though this one doesn't seem to make logical sense, it is fairly easy to do and best of all it doesn't costa penny of cash to do, so why not flip thigs around and try. If it doesn't give you any sound improvement all you are out is a little time.

 I guess I would agree with that. Doesn’t hurt to try anything. There aren’t any directional arrows on the fuse and nothing I have read about Synergistic Research fuses suggest that they should go one way rather than another way. You could research this yourself and let me know if I missed something.

However, even so, in this case it doesn’t make any sense yet because you need about 200 hours to burn these fuses in, according to Synergistic Research. I’m not anywhere close to that. When it is completely burned in I may swap the direction, let it run some hours in the new direction, and see what happens.

For example, I just got a rhodium plated AC power plug and IEC plug for the power cords I build. The standard AC power and IEC plugs that I use are hospital grade, but not rhodium.  I put them in yesterday and I was a smidge disappointed at the sound, where the low-end was not quite what it was before, and it doesn’t quite feel the same as before. But I have to wait 100 to 200 hrs. to hear what they really sound like, and then put the other plugs back on the same wire to see if it really makes a positive difference, no difference at all, or actually is worse.

Gary

Oppo 103, SSD drive
DIY ultra low capacitance power cords, ICs and speaker cables
Audio Note 2.1B DAC
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Offline rollo

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #57 on: March 16, 2018, 11:08:51 AM »
  Not a big Rhodium fan here. I found them bright and hard sounding with every one tried. I like Gold over copper.


charles
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Offline gander

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #58 on: March 16, 2018, 11:55:57 AM »
  Not a big Rhodium fan here. I found them bright and hard sounding with every one tried. I like Gold over copper.


charles

 I will give them some burn in time, but that is good to know. I feel the same about silver wires. Don’t like them at all, too harsh.  Just trying rhodium out to see what might happen.

Gary
Oppo 103, SSD drive
DIY ultra low capacitance power cords, ICs and speaker cables
Audio Note 2.1B DAC
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Primaluna Dialogue4 tube, Hegel H90 int amp
DIY speakers w/8” Rullit field coil FR drivers

Offline BobM

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Re: Gary’s DIY and Tweaks
« Reply #59 on: March 16, 2018, 12:10:35 PM »
I found Rhodium to work like a loudness button (remember those?). It seems to emphasize the treble and lower bass, tightening both. I use one on my subwoofer with good results.
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