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

[lmitche]

Sig8,

 

In theory you just need to buy a copy of Audiolinux, put it on a usb stick, boot from the stick and then remove it.

 

Take a look at the audiolinux site as much of this described on the home page. If you like it, you can always move the image to the hard disk as a long term solution.

[seeteeyou]

I just read this review of Intona Ultimate USB cable by @hols

 

http://www.hiendy.com/hififorum/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=121379#pid2846571

 

HQP → NAA → Intona Ultimate → ISO REGEN → USPCB → tX-USBultra + REF 10 → Chord Blu MkII → Chord DAVE

 

Overall it's able to bring MAJOR improvements to his system, what a nice surprise.

[hols]

14 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

I just read this review of Intona Ultimate USB cable by @hols

 

http://www.hiendy.com/hififorum/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=121379#pid2846571

 

HQP → NAA → Intona Ultimate → ISO REGEN → USPCB → tX-USBultra + REF 10 → Chord Blu MkII → Chord DAVE

 

Overall it's able to bring MAJOR improvements to his system, what a nice surprise.

Hi seeteeyou,

 

What a surprise that I've got tracked down!!  I can give a comprehensive account of the review here in English for our CA readers.

 

Well first off I am not advocating using expensive cables but at the same time I do admit that I can hear huge amounts of difference among different cables. 

There has been quite some change in my system since I last posted here. My DAC has changed from Holo Spring to Denafrips Terminator(which I am sure you will hear more from Rajiv when he reviews it) and then 5 months ago to Chord Blu 2 + Dave(which has been praised so much in these pages as well as in head-fi). To me Chord Blu2 + Dave is excellent in giving a very accurate 3D presentation,very transparent layering and layout, natural ambience, fast rise and decay. But one thing is that the timbre of instruments and emotion is less well delineated to my taste which I attribute to a lower than my liking mids. So it needs some tweaks here and there to 'compensate' for my own sake. All along I have been using a Linux based HQplayer-NAA system compiled by my buddy. Recently he has come up with a  new creation, probably world's first Dual Linux  Audio system accomodated in a solid chassis with specially compiled realtime kernel with low latency of some ten nanosecond. This is far better than my other Windows10 based HQplayer. Along with that there is a definite need to further tweak the system.

 

First I followed suit and bought a Mutec Ref 10 which indeed give some significant improvement over my Cybershaft OP14. And then as a lot of us know that the galvanic isolation of USB input of the Chord Blu2 is not well done and actually I can hear some background noise when the USB is connected so I have to put the Iso-regen and the USPCB back to the chain and this is very effective in isolating this ground noise and also give a bit more of mid range back to the system. While I am still waiting for my Habst BNC cable from the CA group buy I came across this Intona USB cable and I was caught by its idea of getting the best quality of raw materials in making the Ultimate cable. The idea is just similar to those who use tube gears that some most expensive tubes are simply handpicked from the group with the best spec or closest match. And this Intona Ultimate USB cable can really stand up to what some of them described it as the king of USB cables. After using it from my NAA computer to the Iso-regen you suddenly find that your orchestra is filled up with instruments that are not present before. You can now see the strings as twenty or so separate violins among the mass strings and not just a group of sound. The touch of the pianist is again the best that one can hear. When I listened to Joan Baez Diamond and rust I used to find the sound of Joan Baez a 'wobble' as if the sound is still in her throat but now the sound opens up as if she has finally opened her mouth to sing. At the end of the song the applause is most realistic with different groups of applause and the spatial orientation is as clear as one would want. What I would describe this USB cable is that it gives tremendous amount of detail and the details come in well orientated three dimensions. The  focus of instruments is the best that one can imagine. The speed of this cable is superfast and most important is the low, mid and high all arrive in the same timing. One can always feel the correctness of this cable.  As I have also mentioned in the local forum is that one cannot regard this cable to be a perfect fit for every system because with the tremendous amount of detail being delivered the sound might appear thin at times especially in systems that are on the thin side. And that would actually be a balance of the system that one need to tweak.

 

And finally I must say that I have no  commercial association with all the products that I have mentioned. And what I am most eager to know at this moment is whether any conclusion can be drawn from the thousands of combinations of Lush 2 ? And it would be great fun to compare the best result of Lush 2 with the Intona Ultimate.  Cheers.

[tapatrick]

16 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

Obviously I'm not Larry but here we go

 

NUC without eMMC
https://www.provantage.com/intel-boxnuc7cjyh1~7ITSP1N8.htm

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-NUC7-Celeron-Mini-BOXNUC7CJYH1/dp/B07B79CS8N

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1401554-REG/intel_boxnuc7cjyh1_intel_nuc_kit_nuc7cjyh.html

 

NUC with eMMC

https://www.provantage.com/intel-boxnuc7cjysal1~7ITSP1NQ.htm

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-BOXNUC7CJYSAL1-Essential-Mini-Windows/dp/B07BJT463H

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1428648-REG/intel_boxnuc7cjysal1_celeron_j4005_2.html

 

Case
http://www.cartft.com/catalog/il/2487

http://www.performance-pcs.com/akasa-newton-jc-fanless-case-for-intelr-june-canyon.html

https://www.amazon.com/Akasa-Fanless-Pentium-Processors-NUC42-M1B/dp/B07G9Y3YG3

 

RAM

https://www.provantage.com/crucial-technology-ct2k8g4sfd824a~7CIAL7J0.htm

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC4-19200-Unbuffered-SODIMM-260-Pin/dp/B01BIWMWVS

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1233407-REG/crucial_ct2k8g4sfs824a_16gb_2_x_8gb.html

 

AudioLinux

http://www.tophifi.it/html/paypal/index.html

thank you for listing @seeteeyou! you are a star with google. I hope to try the NUC route shared by Larry after I'm back from travels.

[RickyV]

5 hours ago, hols said:

Recently he has come up with a  new creation, probably world's first Dual Linux  Audio system accomodated in a solid chassis with specially compiled realtime kernel with low latency of some ten nanosecond. This is far better than my other Windows10 based HQplayer. Along with that there is a definite need to further tweak the system.

 

Interesting keep us posted.

 

Rick

[beautiful music]

5 hours ago, hols said:

Hi seeteeyou,

 

What a surprise that I've got tracked down!!  I can give a comprehensive account of the review here in English for our CA readers.

 

Well first off I am not advocating using expensive cables but at the same time I do admit that I can hear huge amounts of difference among different cables. 

There has been quite some change in my system since I last posted here. My DAC has changed from Holo Spring to Denafrips Terminator(which I am sure you will hear more from Rajiv when he reviews it) and then 5 months ago to Chord Blu 2 + Dave(which has been praised so much in these pages as well as in head-fi). To me Chord Blu2 + Dave is excellent in giving a very accurate 3D presentation,very transparent layering and layout, natural ambience, fast rise and decay. But one thing is that the timbre of instruments and emotion is less well delineated to my taste which I attribute to a lower than my liking mids. So it needs some tweaks here and there to 'compensate' for my own sake. All along I have been using a Linux based HQplayer-NAA system compiled by my buddy. Recently he has come up with a  new creation, probably world's first Dual Linux  Audio system accomodated in a solid chassis with specially compiled realtime kernel with low latency of some ten nanosecond. This is far better than my other Windows10 based HQplayer. Along with that there is a definite need to further tweak the system.

 

First I followed suit and bought a Mutec Ref 10 which indeed give some significant improvement over my Cybershaft OP14. And then as a lot of us know that the galvanic isolation of USB input of the Chord Blu2 is not well done and actually I can hear some background noise when the USB is connected so I have to put the Iso-regen and the USPCB back to the chain and this is very effective in isolating this ground noise and also give a bit more of mid range back to the system. While I am still waiting for my Habst BNC cable from the CA group buy I came across this Intona USB cable and I was caught by its idea of getting the best quality of raw materials in making the Ultimate cable. The idea is just similar to those who use tube gears that some most expensive tubes are simply handpicked from the group with the best spec or closest match. And this Intona Ultimate USB cable can really stand up to what some of them described it as the king of USB cables. After using it from my NAA computer to the Iso-regen you suddenly find that your orchestra is filled up with instruments that are not present before. You can now see the strings as twenty or so separate violins among the mass strings and not just a group of sound. The touch of the pianist is again the best that one can hear. When I listened to Joan Baez Diamond and rust I used to find the sound of Joan Baez a 'wobble' as if the sound is still in her throat but now the sound opens up as if she has finally opened her mouth to sing. At the end of the song the applause is most realistic with different groups of applause and the spatial orientation is as clear as one would want. What I would describe this USB cable is that it gives tremendous amount of detail and the details come in well orientated three dimensions. The  focus of instruments is the best that one can imagine. The speed of this cable is superfast and most important is the low, mid and high all arrive in the same timing. One can always feel the correctness of this cable.  As I have also mentioned in the local forum is that one cannot regard this cable to be a perfect fit for every system because with the tremendous amount of detail being delivered the sound might appear thin at times especially in systems that are on the thin side. And that would actually be a balance of the system that one need to tweak.

 

And finally I must say that I have no  commercial association with all the products that I have mentioned. And what I am most eager to know at this moment is whether any conclusion can be drawn from the thousands of combinations of Lush 2 ? And it would be great fun to compare the best result of Lush 2 with the Intona Ultimate.  Cheers.

23

 

Thank you for these information and will you try Lush^2 USB cable as well or not?

[hols]

On 9/6/2018 at 9:01 PM, beautiful music said:

 

Thank you for these information and will you try Lush^2 USB cable as well or not?

Yes, I have ordered Lush 2 and will try it when it arrives.

[beautiful music]

14 hours ago, hols said:

Yes, I have ordered Lush 2 and will try it when it arrives.

Looking expectantly for this review.

 

Thanks.

[BigAlMc]

15 hours ago, hols said:

Yes, I have ordered Lush 2 and will try it when it arrives.

 

Hi Hols,

 

Great review.

 

I'm loving the Lush^2, so looking forward to your thoughts and comparison to the Intona.

 

Cheers,

Alan

[lmitche]

NUC / Audiolinux update:

 

Continued tweaking is adding additional SQ refinements. Here is a list:

 

- Minimizing number of running subsystems with expert mode minimize scripts.

 

- Placing Mumetal braids on power cables from the sigma 11 based lpsu to secondary regulators and the NUC itself.

 

- Booting audiolinux in command line mode avoiding gpu initialization.

 

Still to test:

 

- Audiolinux extreme mode

 

- Boot from HDD vs EMMC, should be no difference

 

- Use of usb nic vs. Internal nic

 

While I have hdd boot running there hasn't been time in civil hours to have a listen. Not surprisingly the time taken to copy the hdd based partition to ram prior to boot has doubled or tripled from the emmc boot which is roughly four minutes. When booting from the hdd the emmc is disabled in bios. If sq increases with hdd boot, it is likely to be from the disablement of the emmc.

 

Stay tuned.

 

[sig8]

2 hours ago, lmitche said:

NUC / Audiolinux update:

 

Continued tweaking is adding additional SQ refinements. Here is a list:

 

- Minimizing number of running subsystems with expert mode minimize scripts.

 

- Placing Mumetal braids on power cables from the sigma 11 based lpsu to secondary regulators and the NUC itself.

 

- Booting audiolinux in command line mode avoiding gpu initialization.

 

Still to test:

 

- Audiolinux extreme mode

 

- Boot from HDD vs EMMC, should be no difference

 

- Use of usb nic vs. Internal nic

 

While I have hdd boot running there hasn't been time in civil hours to have a listen. Not surprisingly the time taken to copy the hdd based partition to ram prior to boot has doubled or tripled from the emmc boot which is roughly four minutes. When booting from the hdd the emmc is disabled in bios. If sq increases with hdd boot, it is likely to be from the disablement of the emmc.

 

Stay tuned.

 

Larry: Good to know. I have the NUC and 16GB RAM in hand, came in today. Would start experimenting. I have been playing AudioLinux for last few days on an i7-6700 and J1900 machines. Still struggling with things, but with excellent support from Piero, I am sorting things out one by one. Plan is to run HQPe with JRiver/JRemote control.

[Lobbster]

What's the best insulation material between shields for JSSG360 mods?

I've mostly used plumbers Teflon Tape, Orange T is nice to work with. However I need to do a 10ft ethernet cable and this would be tedious with teflon tape. Vinyl electricians tape is probably the easiest, maybe adds a bit of extra bulk. Heat shrink seems like it would be too stiff. Any other suggestions.

 

Also, I've used 3/8 tinned copper braid from ebay sellers acdcwireandsupply and electriduct. The product from ACDC Wire is a heavier, tighter weave, much easier to work with and never snags or kinks - highly recommended.

[lmitche]

4 hours ago, sig8 said:

Larry: Good to know. I have the NUC and 16GB RAM in hand, came in today. Would start experimenting. I have been playing AudioLinux for last few days on an i7-6700 and J1900 machines. Still struggling with things, but with excellent support from Piero, I am sorting things out one by one. Plan is to run HQPe with JRiver/JRemote control.

It's true, Piero has a great service ethic. I'd be lost without him.

 

His product has really grown into something quite reliable and mature. It is a great example of continuous improvement at work. 

[str-1]

Is there anything among the cable tweaks mentioned on this thread that would be usable with Uptone Audio’s USPCB?

[afrancois]

1 hour ago, str-1 said:

Is there anything among the cable tweaks mentioned on this thread that would be usable with Uptone Audio’s USPCB?

I was about to post how I shielded the USPCB and the ISO Regen, but I was quite busy with other things...

Anyhow here's what I've done. I took a piece of PVC tube in which the USPCB would fit and wrapped around it a sheet of Mu-metal. I hold the Mu-metal around the PVC with some ISO tape and then I shrink around it, a heat-shrink tube.

My ISO Regen already had 3M paper on both sides, but I also wrapped a sheet of Mu-metal around it. I didn't really expect any difference. I'm just obsessed by shielding. But it did make a difference!

The biggest surprise came when I did some Mu-metal treatment around my BNC cables coming out of the REF10. I have standard Oyaide DB-510 cables that I already gave a JSSG360 treatment. What surprised me most is, that it was the BNC cable going into the sMS-200 ultra that made the biggest difference. I even went further and I'm giving all my JSSG360 DC cables a Mu-metal treatment. I've even made PVC tubes that go around most of the DC and BNC plugs.

All I can say is that my system never sounded like it does now. Extreme shielding does payoff.

Almost forgot to mention, that I even put a sheet of 3M paper on top of the REF10 and all of my LPS-1.2.

3M was already underneath the REF10 and all LPS-1.2. 

[afrancois]

Some pictures.

 

 

[afrancois]

I'm sure many of you will say that my system is over the top (and I agree), fortunately, it's in the garage and it does work great.

The living room is very clean with only the Sopra's and the subwoofers.

 

 

[Speedskater]

On 8/1/2018 at 3:12 PM, Solstice380 said:

I’m looking through my references for metals RFI/EMI susceptibility and found this tech note on electronics. 

http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/AppNotes/00001767a.pdf#utm_source=&utm_medium=MicroSolutions&utm_term=&utm_content=MSLD&utm_campaign=AN1767

I will see what else I can find. 

• That's a nice paper for a hi tech circuit designer.
• Didn't see anything about different metal conductors.
• My only complaint is the casual use of the word 'ground'.

 

* * * * * * * * *

just realized that the referenced post was a month old.

[RickyV]

5 hours ago, afrancois said:

Some pictures.

 

 

Can you still bend the mu metal cables? And don’t you get harsher high tones?

 

 

rick

[afrancois]

42 minutes ago, RickyV said:

Can you still bend the mu metal cables? And don’t you get harsher high tones?

 

 

rick

You can only slightly bend the cables I've made. They are all custom size and bend as needed while applying the mu-metal and heat-sink tubing. Not flexible at all and a bit difficult to make. Don't get any harsher tones. Violin has never sounded as realistic, as is the piano.

[look&listen]

7 hours ago, afrancois said:

All I can say is that my system never sounded like it does now. Extreme shielding does payoff.

Happy to know your results with 'Extreme' shielding. Theory is attractive, but needed experimental results

I know of mu-metal for long time, but not interested because of problem with losing effectiveness due to even little bending of metal, and high cost too.

How do you see issue of bending degradation?

How much cost to you per cable (averaged with overhead)?

 

Pleased for your SQ level, also jealous 

[afrancois]

4 minutes ago, look&listen said:

Happy to know your results with 'Extreme' shielding. Theory is attractive, but needed experimental results

I know of mu-metal for long time, but not interested because of problem with losing effectiveness due to even little bending of metal, and high cost too.

How do you see issue of bending degradation?

How much cost to you per cable (averaged with overhead)?

 

Pleased for your SQ level, also jealous 

A sheet of mu-metal 15 cm x 100 cm costs 105 euro. Cost is acceptable for what you get. I guess the price per 50 cm is about 40 euro,  ISO tape and heat-sink tube included. My cables also have JSSG360 before applying the mu-metal.

I lose nothing (I think) while bending because I'm using more windings. More overlap as you will. I think it will be far more effective then mu-metal braid.

 

[look&listen]

41 minutes ago, afrancois said:

A sheet of mu-metal 15 cm x 100 cm costs 105 euro. Cost is acceptable for what you get. I guess the price per 50 cm is about 40 euro,  ISO tape and heat-sink tube included

How many shielded cables per 15/cm x 50, you estimate?

What is "ISO tape?"

 

45 minutes ago, afrancois said:

I lose nothing (I think) while bending because I'm using more windings. More overlap as you will.

So spiral winding, about how many turns? (not sure what is what in pictures)

 

48 minutes ago, afrancois said:

My cables also have JSSG360 before applying the mu-metal.

Ha! Multi-stages of shielding, like multi-stages of DC regulation, for extreme results  

 

Also suggest polystyrene tubing instead of PVC. Available in small sizes for cables, plus thinner wall, maybe better fits. Capacitance performance better, but is that right for this application?  Time to test  

[shadowlight]

@lmitche, is the Intel NUC that you are are talking about NUC7CJYH1, based on Celeron based?  If yes, Fry's has that on sale for 109 in case anyone is looking for it.

 

https://www.frys.com/product/9540382?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

 

the pentium based one is listed at 149 -  https://www.frys.com/product/9540392?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

[afrancois]

38 minutes ago, look&listen said:

How many shielded cables per 15/cm x 50, you estimate?

What is "ISO tape?"

 

So spiral winding, about how many turns? (not sure what is what in pictures)

 

Ha! Multi-stages of shielding, like multi-stages of DC regulation, for extreme results  

 

Also suggest polystyrene tubing instead of PVC. Available in small sizes for cables, plus thinner wall, maybe better fits. Capacitance performance better, but is that right for this application?  Time to test  

1

1 meter of mu-metal with a width of about 8 mm will get you about 13 cm's. 

ISO tape is a simple electrical tape (see image)

Had some PVC tubes laying around, so I used that...

I hope some other CA members will try to experiment with this. I feel it really helped. It will never be as popular as JSSG360 because it's more difficult to implement. And the resulted cables are not pretty. For me, it's the result that counts. Make sure that the mu-metal doesn't tough the connectors!