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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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8 hours ago, aggielaw said:

 

Interesting!  Silver has long been known as much for its "speed" as for its tendency for brightness.  Perhaps this explains why the "pace, rhythm, and timing" audiophiles sometimes discuss is usually excellent with silver cables.

 

Main reason for these sorts of differences would be the corrosion compounds that always form, and the electrical behaviour of those compounds, IMO. If a connection was made using a single strand of silver, and compared to equivalent in copper, where the ends were high integrity soldered terminations, I would suggest that all the differences would vanish ...

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9 hours ago, aggielaw said:

 

Interesting!  Silver has long been known as much for its "speed" as for its tendency for brightness.  Perhaps this explains why the "pace, rhythm, and timing" audiophiles sometimes discuss is usually excellent with silver cables.

 

+1 – Just my $0.02: I'm solidly in the PRaT camp and have enjoyed the positive effects of silver in the last two years of cable and DAC comparisons (extended, subjective listening sessions with repeated reference tracks). Not all changes were positive across the frequency spectrum but a large degree of silver opens up the top end while preserving the quality of the bass presentation in my Naim system. I use ZenWave copper/silver blended (?) interconnect and DC cables; thanks to other CA posters for steering me this way! On that note, anyone here have a spare JSSG'd DC cable (for Uptone LPS-1) they'd be willing to sell? I have no DIY chops, whatsoever. ☹️Local pickup in Seattle includes beer! 

Sum>Frankenstein: JPlay/Audirvana/iTunes, Uptone EtherRegen+LPS-1.2, Rivo Streamer+Uptone JS-2, Schiit Yggdrasil LiM+Shunyata Delta XC, Linn LP12/Hercules II/Ittok/Denon DL-103R, ModWright LS 100, Pass XA25, Tellurium Black II, Monitor Audio Silver 500 on IsoAcoustics Gaias, Shunyata Delta XC, Transparent Audio, P12 power regenerator, and positive room attributes.

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On 6/19/2018 at 11:52 AM, austinpop said:

Possible Meetup?

 

I wanted to float the idea of a meetup in the UK in late July. By a happy coincidence, I have a business trip to the UK the week of CanJam London, so I will be at that event in London (Jul 21-22). I will also be in Birmingham and Manchester on this trip.

 

I would love to meet up with local CA'ers and check out your "novel" systems if that's feasible. Perhaps if the stars align, we can even meet up as a group.

 

Probably easiest would be to PM me any suggestions, and I can coordinate and put all interested parties in touch.

 

 

No response, so I guess this is a non-starter.

 

Anyway, if any of you make it to CanJam London, give me a shout.

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21 hours ago, austinpop said:

OK gang - SUCCESS building my very first JSSG 360 cable!

 

image.thumb.png.963fd3ba080e2f4ea42dbe1780a8f47d.png

 

To those DIY-phobic readers like me who've been hesitant to try this - come on in, the water's fine.

 

Steps:

  1. I started with this generic Pasternack RG-400 50Ω cable
    image.thumb.png.89b41874284ffd9ed3558674810519f4.png
  2. I first masked the protruding ends of the BNC connector into the cable with electric tape (green in the picture).
  3. I then used a pencil to shape the flat Electriduct 3/8" flat tinned copper braid into a cylindrical form, and then slid the braid over the BNC connector onto the cable.
  4. Following which, I applied electric tape over the bulk of the braid, leaving only the ends exposed, as shown below. Note: I used some tension while applying the tape to mimic the effect of the heat shrink tubing. It seemed to work fine. Also, this particular brand tape as shown is quite flexible and did not cause the cable to become resistant to bending as I had feared.
    image.thumb.png.bd701173ca8b63fa16ab786fafea0796.png 

    image.thumb.png.7f3bc93afeb208b0440b0bb2df5b513a.png
  5. Next, slide on the 2nd layer of braid:
    image.thumb.png.4992bbdb2c24d607135802343732970a.png
  6. After this, I "encouraged" the exposed ends of the inner and outer braids to fuse together - not hard, just peel away from the cable and then finger twist the wires of both braids together. I then used the silicone rubber fusing tape - awesome stuff, excellent hint by @mozes - to seal the fused ends of the braid. This tape is stretchy, so it helps to apply some tension when applying it, and it just fuses nicely.
  7. Final step, slide on the wire sleeve for a nice finished look, and seal with the fusing tape.

End result:

image.thumb.png.963fd3ba080e2f4ea42dbe1780a8f47d.png

 

I'll be doing some listening this evening, and will report on how it sounds. Exciting stuff!

 

Update on this.

 

Since my initial foray was successful, I then went ahead and JSSG 360'd a couple more cables - a 1m Lush that connects my SE to the tX-USBultra, and my Audio Sensibility UPOCC Silver DC cable, that connects LPS-1.2 to TLS switch.

 

I'm hesitant to report listening results, as the methodology is challenging, since I can't A/B with the original. When I reported on the JSSG 360 Lush, I had the advantage of having a second unmodified one to A/B with. In the case of the Pasternack clock cable, and the Audio Sensibility cable, I did not. The best I could do was listen to the unmodified cable (A), then modify it (which can take 15-30 mins), then listen again (B). Even though I trust my ears, I doubt my audio memory is good enough to make these comparisons meaningful. Suffice it to say that these JSSG 360'd cables are sounding very, very good.

 

You might be wondering... does the JSSG 360 clock cable rise to the level of the Habst or the SOtM BNC cables? Sadly... no. Those still sound better. My subjective sense is that JSSG 360 improved the SQ, and closed the gap somewhat, but just as I found with JSSG, there is more to cable SQ than shielding. What I really like about the JSSG 360 approach is that you can take a cable you already like, and then mod it easily for a possible further bump in SQ - like my experience with the Lush.

 

The next cable I want to JSSG 360 is my Paul Hynes DC3FSXLR silver cable. With the arrival of Eric's SR-7 imminent, I can compare my modded cable to one of Eric's unmodified ones.

 

I'll let you know once I do this experiment.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

Update on this.

 

Since my initial foray was successful, I then went ahead and JSSG 360'd a couple more cables - a 1m Lush that connects my SE to the tX-USBultra, and my Audio Sensibility UPOCC Silver DC cable, that connects LPS-1.2 to TLS switch.

 

I'm hesitant to report listening results, as the methodology is challenging, since I can't A/B with the original. When I reported on the JSSG 360 Lush, I had the advantage of having a second unmodified one to A/B with. In the case of the Pasternack clock cable, and the Audio Sensibility cable, I did not. The best I could do was listen to the unmodified cable (A), then modify it (which can take 15-30 mins), then listen again (B). Even though I trust my ears, I doubt my audio memory is good enough to make these comparisons meaningful. Suffice it to say that these JSSG 360'd cables are sounding very, very good.

 

You might be wondering... does the JSSG 360 clock cable rise to the level of the Habst or the SOtM BNC cables? Sadly... no. Those still sound better. My subjective sense is that JSSG 360 improved the SQ, and closed the gap somewhat, but just as I found with JSSG, there is more to cable SQ than shielding. What I really like about the JSSG 360 approach is that you can take a cable you already like, and then mod it easily for a possible further bump in SQ - like my experience with the Lush.

 

The next cable I want to JSSG 360 is my Paul Hynes DC3FSXLR silver cable. With the arrival of Eric's SR-7 imminent, I can compare my modded cable to one of Eric's unmodified ones.

 

I'll let you know once I do this experiment.

 

 

you tricked us, you said you are not a DIY type and just the methodology (I love the pencil stretching part) turned out to be outstanding.

Thanks for sharing ... 

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2 minutes ago, luisma said:

you tricked us, you said you are not a DIY type and just the methodology (I love the pencil stretching part) turned out to be outstanding.

Thanks for sharing ... 

 

Yeah, I'm pretty pleased with myself. :D 

 

As Larry told me privately: "... nice to see old dogs learn new tricks."

 

BTW one caution: the electric tape for insulation becomes really tedious with long cables, like my 1m Lush. This is where the heat shrink tubing and heat gun probably are much more efficient in time. Maybe I'l try this next time.
 

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16 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

Refer back to Larry's post on JSSG 360.

 

The "separate wire connected to each end of the shield," is not a wire, it is a full cylindrical section of tinned copper braid.

Thanks for this, I had missed the original JSSG 360 post completely, hence my puzzlement.  All is clear now!

 

One clarification I have remaining is your use of flat tinned copper braid.  I had always assumed you should use braid tubing, so you would have to remove at least one connector to slip the braid in place.  Obviously, the use of flat braid rolled as you describe is significantly easier.  Do you feel this method did a fully satisfactory job?  Or maybe you feel that it would be better using braid tube if you are happy to get the soldering iron out to remove and replace the connectors.  It would appear that you are unlikely to get soldering any time soon, I just wondered how you felt about the rolled flat braid approach, do you feel this is fully satisfactory?  Thinking about this technnically, I cannot think of any reason why it should be inferior.

Windows 11 PC, Roon, HQPlayer, Focus Fidelity convolutions, iFi Zen Stream, Paul Hynes SR4, Mutec REF10, Mutec MC3+USB, Devialet 1000Pro, KEF Blade.  Plus Pro-Ject Signature 12 TT for playing my 'legacy' vinyl collection. Desktop system; RME ADI-2 DAC fs, Meze Empyrean headphones.

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14 minutes ago, Confused said:

Thanks for this, I had missed the original JSSG 360 post completely, hence my puzzlement.  All is clear now!

 

One clarification I have remaining is your use of flat tinned copper braid.  I had always assumed you should use braid tubing, so you would have to remove at least one connector to slip the braid in place.  Obviously, the use of flat braid rolled as you describe is significantly easier.  Do you feel this method did a fully satisfactory job?  Or maybe you feel that it would be better using braid tube if you are happy to get the soldering iron out to remove and replace the connectors.  It would appear that you are unlikely to get soldering any time soon, I just wondered how you felt about the rolled flat braid approach, do you feel this is fully satisfactory?  Thinking about this technnically, I cannot think of any reason why it should be inferior.

 

I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer your question. As I understood it, Larry's approach was also to slide on the braid without removing connectors. The flat issue is orthogonal to that ("that" being whether connectors need to come off). It only came up because unlike other vendors, Electriduct specifies their braid measured flat, unlike others that measure diameter. Someone more eagle-eyed than me noticed it, and pointed it out.

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19 minutes ago, auricgoldfinger said:

 

Does muMetal braid also expand and contract like a Chinese finger puzzle but simply less so in comparison to other braids?

That is correct...

 

<http://custommagneticshielding.magneticshield.com/viewitems/magnetic-shielding-for-wiring-applications/co-netic-aacableshield>

 

My experience is that copper will expand quite a bit but, if expanded too much, care must be taken to avoid unraveling the braid.

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Another Update on JSSG 360

 

As I mentioned, I can't A/B just the effect of JSSG 360 on the cables I did yesterday. However, just as a refresher, I re-auditioned several DC cables between my LPS-1.2 and the TLS switch. Of course, this was while streaming music from Tidal, as the switch does not come into play for local files. I compared:

  • Ghent JSSG Canare
  • Furutech  FA 220 AWG14 
  • Audio Sensibility UPOCC 7N silver with JSSG 360

In the past I had found the Furutech to sightly outperform the Ghent in my system, and both were outperformed by the Audio Sensibility.

 

Well, these same results still hold, but boy, the SQ improvement from the Furutech to the JSSG 360 Audio Sensibility is now just startling. How much of this is an "extra" boost from JSSG 360 I cannot honestly say, but the trend is promising for JSSG 360.

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6 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

Update on this.

 

Since my initial foray was successful, I then went ahead and JSSG 360'd a couple more cables - a 1m Lush that connects my SE to the tX-USBultra, and my Audio Sensibility UPOCC Silver DC cable, that connects LPS-1.2 to TLS switch.

 

I'm hesitant to report listening results, as the methodology is challenging, since I can't A/B with the original. When I reported on the JSSG 360 Lush, I had the advantage of having a second unmodified one to A/B with. In the case of the Pasternack clock cable, and the Audio Sensibility cable, I did not. The best I could do was listen to the unmodified cable (A), then modify it (which can take 15-30 mins), then listen again (B). Even though I trust my ears, I doubt my audio memory is good enough to make these comparisons meaningful. Suffice it to say that these JSSG 360'd cables are sounding very, very good.

 

You might be wondering... does the JSSG 360 clock cable rise to the level of the Habst or the SOtM BNC cables? Sadly... no. Those still sound better. My subjective sense is that JSSG 360 improved the SQ, and closed the gap somewhat, but just as I found with JSSG, there is more to cable SQ than shielding. What I really like about the JSSG 360 approach is that you can take a cable you already like, and then mod it easily for a possible further bump in SQ - like my experience with the Lush.

 

The next cable I want to JSSG 360 is my Paul Hynes DC3FSXLR silver cable. With the arrival of Eric's SR-7 imminent, I can compare my modded cable to one of Eric's unmodified ones.

 

I'll let you know once I do this experiment.

 

 

 

Now that you're getting comfortable you should buy a cable to come direct from the sCLK-EX to the REF 10 AND JSSG it. It's super easy and your eliminate a cable. 

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54 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Another Update on JSSG 360

 

As I mentioned, I can't A/B just the effect of JSSG 360 on the cables I did yesterday. However, just as a refresher, I re-auditioned several DC cables between my LPS-1.2 and the TLS switch. Of course, this was while streaming music from Tidal, as the switch does not come into play for local files. I compared:

  • Ghent JSSG Canare
  • Furutech  FA 220 AWG14 
  • Audio Sensibility UPOCC 7N silver with JSSG 360

In the past I had found the Furutech to sightly outperform the Ghent in my system, and both were outperformed by the Audio Sensibility.

 

Well, these same results still hold, but boy, the SQ improvement from the Furutech to the JSSG 360 Audio Sensibility is now just startling. How much of this is an "extra" boost from JSSG 360 I cannot honestly say, but the trend is promising for JSSG 360.

I think the Furotech 220 is a twisted pair with a shield?  Anyone know of a starquad cable such as the Canare 4S6 receiving the JSSG 360 treatment?

Thanks.

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I'm trying to bridge connections in Windows 10.  However, when I open network connections I only see the two ethernet adapters on my motherboard.  Do I need to use a crossover cable to physically connect the unused ethernet adapter to the ultraRendu or SOtm 200ultra to bridge them? 

 

I have both devices wired to my router presently.

 

Thanks!

Front ends:

Digital: Sonore ultraRendu or SOtM 200 ultra Trifecta --> LKS MH-D004

Analog: Clearaudio Performance DC --> Rogue Triton

Back end: SMc Audio VRE-1C --> SMc Audio DNA125 Platinum Plus-->Stealth Dream v10 cables --> Ridge Street Audio Designs Sason speakers, dual Rhythmik F12SE subs

 

 

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On ‎6‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 7:15 PM, aggielaw said:

I'm trying to bridge connections in Windows 10.  However, when I open network connections I only see the two ethernet adapters on my motherboard.  Do I need to use a crossover cable to physically connect the unused ethernet adapter to the ultraRendu or SOtm 200ultra to bridge them? 

 

I have both devices wired to my router presently.

 

Thanks!

Connect your unit to the 2nd adapter port using a quality ethernet cable. Follow instructions in this post (by jelt2359) which includes a link for Win10

 

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/30376-a-novel-way-to-massively-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-613653

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Yet another shocker from Rob Watts?

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hugo-tt-2-by-chord-electronics-the-official-thread.879425/page-52#post-14321258

Quote

No it's not a fairly standard unit - I went through a lot of units before approving this one. It measures extremely well - giving the same measurements connected and disconnected (measuring wideband). Also, SQ wise, disconnecting the unit makes no difference (TT will run for 10 seconds with no power). A linear PSU will almost certainly make it sound worse, as the audiophile ones have no RF filtering, unlike the supplied PSU. Moreover, linear supplies create much more magnetic noise, measurable audio BW noise, worse leakage currents (interwinding capacitance is much larger on a toroidal transformer) and are transparent to mains bourne RF noise. And they are horribly inefficient, and this can in itself degrade SQ. So absolutely not recommended.

 

I'm assuming that LT3045 or SR4 / SR7 etc. should have no such issues mentioned above?

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On 6/22/2018 at 9:52 PM, austinpop said:

Another Update on JSSG 360

.... but the trend is promising for JSSG 360.

My first foray into DIY cable madness showed that a new 1M Supra CAT8 JSSG 360 sounded better than my existing 2M Supra CAT8 with 20+ ferrites (between laptop and mR). A good result because, although the 360 treatment does increase the weight and (slightly) the stiffness of the cable, it’s still much more user friendly  than the clunky multi-ferrite solution.

 

I wonder if these are 2 different solutions to the same RFI/EMI problem, or 2 solutions to 2 different problems?  In other words, I wonder if adding ferrites to a JSSG 360 will further improve it?  I’m in no rush to find out, as the JSSG 360 alone is well worthwhile on this first test. I’m interested to see how you get on with JSSGing your PH DC cable.

 

On a practical note, I found the 10mm diameter copper braid easy to work with, to expand and shrink as necessary. But the 20mm flat width heatshrink wrap was a tight fit over the Supra plugs, so I used plumbers PTFE tape instead – this ultra thin tape kept curling up badly as I wound it round and was a right pain, so next time I’ll use PVC insulation tape. I like to use whatever I have in my spares box.

 

BTW, I also tried the new 1M Supra CAT8 with POE adapters and ADDED this to my existing short silver DC cable for my MCRU powered ISORegen. This wasn’t a particularly fair test of the POE DC cable concept, but it’s what I had to hand at the time. Result was a drop in SQ, so I’m putting this POE idea to one side for the moment, with JSSG 360 appearing to have the greater potential for my next tweaks.

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1 hour ago, TheAttorney said:

My first foray into DIY cable madness showed that a new 1M Supra CAT8 JSSG 360 sounded better than my existing 2M Supra CAT8 with 20+ ferrites (between laptop and mR). A good result because, although the 360 treatment does increase the weight and (slightly) the stiffness of the cable, it’s still much more user friendly  than the clunky multi-ferrite solution.

 

I wonder if these are 2 different solutions to the same RFI/EMI problem, or 2 solutions to 2 different problems?  In other words, I wonder if adding ferrites to a JSSG 360 will further improve it?  I’m in no rush to find out, as the JSSG 360 alone is well worthwhile on this first test. I’m interested to see how you get on with JSSGing your PH DC cable.

 

On a practical note, I found the 10mm diameter copper braid easy to work with, to expand and shrink as necessary. But the 20mm flat width heatshrink wrap was a tight fit over the Supra plugs, so I used plumbers PTFE tape instead – this ultra thin tape kept curling up badly as I wound it round and was a right pain, so next time I’ll use PVC insulation tape. I like to use whatever I have in my spares box. 

 

BTW, I also tried the new 1M Supra CAT8 with POE adapters and ADDED this to my existing short silver DC cable for my MCRU powered ISORegen. This wasn’t a particularly fair test of the POE DC cable concept, but it’s what I had to hand at the time. Result was a drop in SQ, so I’m putting this POE idea to one side for the moment, with JSSG 360 appearing to have the greater potential for my next tweaks.

FWIW, they do sell 2" plumbers tape which could make things like this easier tho' I have not yet tried the bit I bought.

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I've given all my DC cables leaving my LPS-1.2's a JSSG 360 treatment. It gives really good results and it also nice looking.

The outer crimp sleeve is transparent. I've ordered all I need to do the same for my power cables, without thinking :-)

Could a JSSG 360 treatment on power cables yield some positive results? My power cables already have a copper shield that's connected to ground on one side (at the power outlet)

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