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A novel way to massively improve the SQ of computer audio streaming


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Most important: please realize this thread is about bleeding edge experimentation and discovery. No one has The Answer™. If you are not into tweaking, just know that you can have a musically satisfying system without doing any of the nutty things we do here.

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29 minutes ago, Bruce Orr said:

would it make any difference if I just clipped the ring at 12 o’clock so it could be spread wider?

 

 

That would certainly work just fine, or as stated in a previous post, nothing wrong with using a spade lug either.

 

The only other issue I ran into besides needing to grind down the inner diameter of the ring was the physical thickness of the crimp spot, it's actually just a bit too thick and gets in the way of the Meanwell's DC plug body fully seating at the input of the LPS-1. 

 

I solved that by using pliers with greater leverage to squeeze the crimp spot as flat as I could (flattening it after I had made the crimp). That fits, although I'm thinking I'll take it off the system again today and bend the ring terminal 90 degrees relative to the crimp spot, if that works out I'll post a picture.

 

In the meantime I bought a little space/clearance by putting an iFi DC Purifier inline, it looks like this:

 

PA281067.thumb.jpg.93f3a0b30ae0a8f93ddffe73b1413f36.jpg

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37 minutes ago, marce said:

Slide 10

https://www.et.byu.edu/sites/default/files/electrical_grounding_0.pdf

Double isolated electrical equipment should not have any connection to the PE (protective earth), I would recommend checking your local regulations. Though when connected to class 1 equipment it is often effectively grounded. The PE is connected to the negative, so grounding double isolated can cause a shock via the added ground connections, whereas when un-grounded you have to be between the hot and neutral line to get a shock.

Just a thought on safety, worth checking with someone who is more au-fait with the regs.

 

Interesting in relation to the apparent existence of "medical grade" Meanwell units that are already grounded and thus already block the leakage/don't need this tweak.

 

Are those Meanwell units perhaps not double insulated? 

 

Also puzzling to me is why these Meanwell units have an IEC input with a 3rd pin but it doesn't actually connect to anything, why do they even include a 3-pin IEC if the ground pin is not even connected?

 

I appreciate the link and the safety concern. For me it is a very small issue as neither I nor any household member will be touching/handling the LPS-1 while live, the very first thing I do before handling it for any reason is unplug and disconnect it from AC power.

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1 hour ago, marce said:

Slide 10

https://www.et.byu.edu/sites/default/files/electrical_grounding_0.pdf

Double isolated electrical equipment should not have any connection to the PE (protective earth), I would recommend checking your local regulations. Though when connected to class 1 equipment it is often effectively grounded. The PE is connected to the negative, so grounding double isolated can cause a shock via the added ground connections, whereas when un-grounded you have to be between the hot and neutral line to get a shock.

Just a thought on safety, worth checking with someone who is more au-fait with the regs.

 

An additional point of confusion for me is the lack of any double insulated symbol on the Meanwell GST25A07-P1J unit that came with the LPS-1, though there are a lot of symbols on it's model identifier plate and I don't profess to know what they all stand for.

 

This is in contrast to a similar but not identical 5v Meanwell unit I have, the GS18B05-P1J. That one does indeed have the double insulated symbol, and another difference is it uses a 2-pin AC input connector instead of the 3-pin IEC input found on the 7.5v unit.

 

 

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1 hour ago, austinpop said:

What gauge wire is it? And can you supply a link to the ring terminal you bought? Just wondering how you matched up the gauge of the wire and terminals.

 

It's a stranded 14 gauge run of the mill tin plated copper wire, very flexible with silicone outer jacket/insulation. I came to my senses and decided not to go nuts and use expensive wire such as Furutech Alpha 14 (yet).

 

The ring terminals are the Connex house brand of PartsconneXion in Toronto. I wasn't able to match the gauge perfectly and it turned out to factor just a bit on the fitment, the crimp spot is sized for 12 gauge wire and it makes the whole thing just a little larger/fatter than it needs to be.  I squashed it further after making the high pressure crimp, using a sturdy pliers and brute force, the other option would have been to file it down.

 

The crucial thing in the end with those ring terminals (for me) is that they are made of a very soft flexible OCC copper, so bending them at a 90 degree angle isn't hard. If they were brass that wouldn't work, they would break.

 

Or maybe the ConneX spades are actually the way to go, no way to be sure without asking them to be measured I guess, but those too are OCC copper and so will bend to a certain extent, and are sized for 14 gauge wire.

 

The ConneX right-angled spades have a 6mm fork opening and so would also work, but those are brass, so they will not really bend at all before breaking and are heavier than copper maybe putting a little more weight/strain on the DC socket. The wire is affixed with a set screw however, maybe the ticket for anyone without a proper crimper (or soldering iron).

 

 

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11 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

Do you need some kind of crimping tool - I don't have any - or will pliers and brute force get the crimping job done?

 

To use the same ConneX ring terminals I did (link in an above post) you would need a high pressure crimp tool to compress the lug and wire, or alternatively you could solder them, but pliers just won't work.

 

I have a crimper offered by Analysis Plus, it is a very high quality tool for $36 (said to be German-made), and I've made more speaker cables than I can count with it for myself, friends, acquaintances, etc... but for most people who have little ongoing use for it that tool is a pricey option.

 

Other ring terminals such as these generic looking ones found on Amazon/eBay etc... have a different design at the wire entry spot, and while pliers are still not the right tool you could probably get that to work. An Engineer PA-21 is the type of crimper better suited for that kind of connector design however, but it's a $40+ tool (ditto the Molex version). You can find a Chinese knock-off crimper at about half that, but the machined quality/durability of the die will be rather suspect.

 

Maybe the ConneX right-angled spade with the set screw for attaching the wire is a good option, though it could have it's own fitment issues, unfortunately you probably wouldn't know for sure until trying it.

 

Or perhaps you know someone that already has an automotive type crimp tool? That would also work well if someone you know has ever rewired anything on their car and thus possesses that tool (and maybe even a collection of appropriate ring and spade terminals along with it).

 

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25 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Yeah - that's always the rub with DIY, isn't it? You need to invest in good tools, so it doesn't make sense for one-off projects.

 

Yes there is nothing worse than acquiring various parts and supplies, only to find out your plans are foiled unless you buy a special tool that you'll otherwise have little use for.

 

Fixing or modifying just about anything on a modern automobile is often fraught with that.

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  • 4 weeks later...
7 hours ago, Speedskater said:

A listening report would include a protocol stating how the test was setup, how the proctor kept the listener blind, how many different listeners, how many tests each listener did and of course results.

 

Any useful report must be repeatable and reproducible.

 

Thats just your own personal take/opinion, others are free to see it differently, and many of us do.

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  • 4 weeks later...
1 hour ago, hopkins said:

Wow... So many broad statements about things you obviously know very little about!

 

None of these topics suffer from approximation, and you should restrain from making conclusions based on either your limited testing or understanding. 

 

Wow... what a fast easy route to my ignored member list, congrats, I'm sure others will follow suit.

 

 

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  • 2 months later...
4 minutes ago, Superdad said:

I am not real keen on 4% silver solder. A bit hard to work with.

 

Not WBT-0800, though I understand that as a manufacturer, you are essentially relegated to using lead-free solder.

 

Everyone else can have a very easy time of it using WBT-0800, fantastic flux formulation, it is beyond easy to work with, though not eco-friendly if the device is ever relegated to a landfill where the lead can eventually leach into ground water.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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