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

[sandyk]

2 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

 

Since Supermicro X10SBA-L is cheap to begin with, maybe it makes more sense to modify the motherboard with sCLK-EX before sending that to Sean Jacobs? Then pay him to hardwire the PSU to the motherboard in a way that ALL regulators could be replaced by the latest versions of their CHC-REG regulator modules.

 

 Sean Jacobs does some very nice work.

 

 Attached is a photo of a partially completed monoblock version of my 15W Class A Power Amplifier design that he custom built for a Rock Grotto forum member several years ago. Up till then , all the other forum members builds were with both channels in the same 2U rack case, with the transformers and Regulated PSU PCBs in a separate 2U rack case.

I wish that I could do builds that look as good as those from Sean !

 

Click on the image twice for a large image.

[sandyk]

4 minutes ago, One and a half said:

That's a nice job, plenty of space to breathe. Perhaps some more steel to divide the transformer from the rest would be the icing on the cake, and gain losses of a few db of common mode noise.

 

Agreed.  Altronics did that with their kit for the Silicon Chip DAC. (see attached)

 The original S.C. design did not do that though.

Unfortunately the amplifier's owner died from cancer less than a year later, IIRC..

[sandyk]

1 minute ago, Dev said:

Is there anybody willing to do a group buy from Sean on a multi-rail psu  ?

 

 You are likely to find, that just like Paul Hynes, Sean is not geared up to do group buys.

Building a PSU like in the photo, would take quite a while for a small company to make just one, unless they are contracted out perhaps ?

[sandyk]

3 hours ago, kennyb123 said:

 

My guess is that your amp will respond better.  The Blue, unlike the Black, sounded great right out of the box.  You’ll know right away,  

 

My amp has responded quite well to better fuses - more so than my sources, but not as much as my preamp.  A couple months before the Blue came out I had just upgraded from Red to Black.  Not subtle, but not as profound as the Blue in my preamp.  I will swap Blues into my amp later this year.  

 

 Has anybody tried taking a standard fuse of the same size, soldering a piece of copper wire between both ends and comparing the results ?

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, Cornan said:

 

Speaking about copper wire. Here is a tip in solid pure silver, BUT ONLY FOR THE BRAVE!  

 

 I wouldn't use the word BRAVE, I would use the word STUPID !

Fuses are there for a reason. To protect the equipment from further major damage when a fault happens, such as catching fire and perhaps even burning the house down ?

With my DIY gear I only use suitably current rated fuses on the Primary side of the transformer, and other measures such as using low wattage non flammable  resistors in the emitters of the output devices for added protection.

In my 15W Class A amplifier I also use a Speaker Protection PCB that disconnects the speakers via a relay if a little less than  1 volt DC is present at the amplifier output of either channel.

 

Alex

[sandyk]

4 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 

 I wouldn't use the word BRAVE, I would use the word STUPID !

Fuses are there for a reason. To protect the equipment from further major damage when a fault happens, such as catching fire and perhaps even burning the house down ?

With my DIY gear I only use suitably current rated fuses on the Primary side of the transformer, and other measures such as using low wattage non flammable  resistors in the emitters of the output devices for added protection.  These resistors are also spaced a little above the PCB to help prevent charring of the PCB.

In my 15W Class A amplifier I also use a Speaker Protection PCB that disconnects the speakers via a relay if a little less than  1 volt DC is present at the amplifier output of either channel.

 

Alex

 

[sandyk]

8 hours ago, Cornan said:

 

Your words not mine. Ofcourse fuses are there for a reason. There are other means than fuses to protect yourself. I would´nt say that your suggestion to use a copper wire soldered to each end of a fuse is a safe thing to do either. It will mess with the safety aspect of the fuse.

 Cornan

 I wasn't suggesting that the bridged fuse be left there permanently, just used for comparison purposes.

Fuses don't have magical properties, but depending on the types  of metals used, and the rating of the fuse, they do have resistance which will vary according to the type of fuse and it's rating. Some amplifiers are unduly sensitive to any series resistance in their PSU supply leads, which does of course include the fuse holder itself, and the type of metal used there too.

If you are going to use premium fuses then perhaps you should also use gold plated fuse holders for lower contact resistance ?

Sometimes, just removing the fuse, and cleaning it's contact area with the fuse holder , as well as cleaning the fuse holder contact area with Isopropyl alcohol, and making sure the fuse holder has good tension may also make an improvement in SQ.

Alex

[sandyk]

3 minutes ago, BigGuy said:

Interestingly I was told yesterday that plating can actually be a potential issue due to a diode effect at the interface.  Not sure how valid the concern but, if supported, almost every connection in our system is somewhat problematic!

 

The cheap metals used in many fuse holders can oxidise, and the business ends of the fuses themselves go dull looking over a period of time. This could result in a small diode effect. Many high quality plugs and sockets are gold plated and appear to be more reliable . Banana plugs used for speaker connection are normally gold plated too.

 

Attached is a note from Silicon Chip magazine during the testing of their 15W Class A Amplifier design.

[sandyk]

6 minutes ago, Cornan said:

Replacing the valve sockets to new ceramic and golplated ones was a surpricing improvement with my Siemens E88CC gold-pin NOS tubes (with Duende Criatura tube rings) on my Musical Fidelity X-Can V2 with Rock-Grotto mod. Everything matters! ?

 Rock Grotto  mod ?

 Yes, Mike Grierson knew his Musical Fidelity X-can stuff. Perhaps you even saw a gain modification there too that I posted ?

 I was an Admin there for several years until I could no longer work with Mike because of his rapid descent into alcoholism.

[sandyk]

4 hours ago, Speedskater said:

That seems highly unlikely. It also seems unlikely that fuses from different brands that have the same characteristics will have a significant difference in resistance.

 That is not my experience with my own DIY amplifiers, and is why I use no fuses in the secondary side of the PSU.

 The boutique fuses often appear to have different combinations of metals in their formulation.

 N.B. I am not supporting the case for boutique fuses, just suggesting that the resistance of the fuse and it's holder may play some part in these reported observations by others.

[sandyk]

8 hours ago, mansr said:

I first used a Fluke 289 subtracting the test lead resistance. To double-check, I then ran 2 A, as measured by my bench supply, through it while measuring the voltage with the Fluke.

 For anyone who regularly needs to measure very low resistances, Silicon Chip magazine designed the kit at the link.

http://www.altronics.com.au/p/k2531-ultra-low-milliohm-dmm-adaptor-kit/

[sandyk]

10 minutes ago, austinpop said:

• The fuses were located in the little fuse box under the IEC input port.
• Question: Am I correct to assume both the fuses are in use? Or is one a spare? How would I know which was the spare?

IEC sockets like the attached have space for a spare fuse.

 With the power turned off, slide out the fuse holder and you should be able to work out which is the spare fuse.

http://www.altronics.com.au/p/p8325-c14-male-socket-chassis-snap-in-fused-m205-10a-iec/

 

[sandyk]

37 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

How do I tell which is the spare?

 

I have never seen one like this before.

 

 I would expect that somewhere there will be stamped a clue.

 

Click on the image for a larger image.

[sandyk]

17 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

Yup - that’s the question.

 

 On second thoughts, that seems highly unlikely , so the editing of my reply.

 Try measuring between the slider on each side and the top of it's adjacent fuse.

 If there is continuity in both cases, then it has me stumped !

 

 P.S.

 Can the fuse holder be plugged in the other way around too ?

[sandyk]

On ‎13‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 9:27 AM, Johnseye said:

 

That is worth 1000 words.  Thank you!

 

Where did you get your braid?

 

 John

 Recently I purchased a 2M - Canare L-4E6S, Premium Balanced Quad XLR Microphone Cable .

 I cut a 2 feet length from it , with the shield left open at both ends, and compared it against a similar length of 2 core mains cable at the output of my JLH PSU add-on before taking it further with the extra wire to both ends of the shield.

 I lost most of the 3D effect on better than average Quad Reel to DVD-A stereo downmixed material, so I didn't bother taking  the final step.

I was using a 12V 15,000mAH Li Ion battery into a JLH PSU add-on to power a USB memory stick via an Uptone USB Regen.

 I believe that the gauge of wire used in the microphone lead was way too thin to compensate for the much lower resistance of the same length of power cord.

What I am suggesting here is that for best results you may need to use heavier gauge wire Quad leads.

 

Regards

Alex

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, mozes said:

Not subtle at all for both. For the HiFi fuse, I would go for the supreme fuse. I find the prices of SR blue and others like Beeswax etc. iver the top.

With the Bybee you need to experiment to find the best spot and you will immediately know once you find it. As I mentioned before, best to position it next to AC power  inlets and best next to a power distribution  box.

 

 If you can find a .015 ohm wire wound (IIRC) resistor , try that instead of the Bybee, as that is what a DIY Audio moderator found it to basically be, with a protective coating.

See also :

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/everything-else/225928-bybee-quantum-purifier-measurements-double-blind-test.html

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, seeteeyou said:

I've been always wondering, what if we're replacing all power cables (i.e. 4-pin Molex, 4-pin / 8-pin CPU, and 20-pin/24-pin ATX etc.) inside our music servers with silver or maybe silver / gold ones?

 

 

 It would be nice to have some gold plated 4 pin molex plugs and sockets / connecting leads  as it's not unknown for the normal ones using cheap pressed metal to go high resistance.

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, One and a half said:

In defense of the Molex plug, they rarely fail, but have had the pins pushed back in the holder a few times not making a connection. Once they stick, the immunity to dirt is quite good. Made in the millions though, quality does suffer, and I bet pirated connectors give the real Molex a bad name. 

Ebay always has something to sell, here's the Molex gold plated variety, the crimping tool though usually costs a bomb, USD500 upwards. 

I have had the same problem as you, which resulted in intermittent contact . I have even used a blob of Araldite to prevent some pins from being pushed back.

 These look as though they should be solderable though.

[sandyk]

4 hours ago, dgarretson said:

That was my post on Audiogon post regarding DIY thick .999 dead soft silver DC cables on SR7.  Since then I have made some 10awg pure silver AC power cords as well, and am surprised how much better they sound on the SR7 than the several Synergistics and Furutech PCs I have on hand. 

 I think that the key word here is "thick" Thick implies a larger conducting area and hence lower resistance. Neither can silver do anything special for a frequency as low as the mains frequency of 50 or 60HZ. If there is an improvement it should only be due to the slightly lower resistance of the cable.

 

http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/formulae/resistance/resistivity-table.php

[sandyk]

 

Incidentally, when DIYing copper cables for AC, DC or speakers , when using stranded copper cable it is a good idea to make sure that the copper strands at each end are nice and shiny without oxidisation, and then solder the ends together at both ends of the cable using a suitably rated soldering iron .  If you have any silver content solder , then you could use that too.

[sandyk]

16 minutes ago, Don Hills said:

 

I wonder why soldering the strands together is not permitted for connections in mains power distribution networks?

 

 Pray tell ?

 All I know is that if you check older jumbo type stranded speaker cables with transparent sheaths, that you are likely to see some corrosion of the copper strands, and if you check the copper strands at the banana plugs they can also show obvious signs of oxidisation, which isn't exactly amenable to the lowest possible resistance.

I recently checked mine, and scraped the ends of the strands clean again before reterminating them in the banana plugs.

 Unfortunately my current soldering iron wasn't up to the task of soldering such a heavy duty cable.

I am not suggesting that you flood the whole area with solder just the very ends if possible .

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, Don Hills said:

 

Solder cold flows over time, loosening the connections. Don't use it for any terminations relying on pressure, such as crimps or screw terminals. That's why it's banned in mains terminations. A properly tightened connection will be gas tight at the points where the metals actually touch, so it doesn't matter if oxidation occurs elsewhere.

 

Don

 I still find it to be an advantage as I described, but I would never do this with actual mains supply cables .

Especially as Aussies aren't supposed to fiddle with mains supply wiring, but the N.Z. Government doesn't seem to mind if a few ill informed Kiwis electrocute themselves !

Lightly soldering the wires to a mains plug can actually be an advantage as it stiffens the wire and makes it easier to get the wire nicely under the screw terminal. I also do this at the ends of cable going into screw terminals in my preamp etc. as it ensures that there are no thin stray strands of wire to cause a s/c to another point or chassis, especially after a reinsertion. ( I learned this lesson the hard way!  )

In fact, I actually slightly retightened all the terminal block screws in my preamp about half an hour ago after several years of use , as well as ensuring it's + and - supply rails were still fairly close together. I adjusted the trimpots for both lots of the -VE  supplies as they were both around 25mV lower than the +VE rails, not that it would make much difference though.

 I prefer the lesser of 2 evils, which is ensuring that no stray thin copper strands can cause a future problem !

I don't mind slightly retightening screw terminals in my DIY gear every few years, as it also gives me a chance to check that the supply electros haven't become dome shaped (like many Suntan brand electros from Jaycar did), or had developed electrolyte leakage.

Alex

 

P.S.

 In the case of the speaker leads that I mentioned previously, only the very ends would be soldered, but with the type of banana plugs used, the very ends are clear of the banana plug hole with the internal screw going into bare copper only.

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, Don Hills said:

I learned the no solder rule in my NZ Telecom (then NZ Post Office) training some 50 years ago, then again in my Registered Electrician training.  I saw the problem often when I did hardware servicing at IBM. Many systems had power supplies where huge screw-terminal electrolytic capacitors were screwed to massive printed circuit boards. The tracks were tinned to improve current handling, and over time the tinning would cold flow, loosening the screws and causing intermittent problems.

We didn't have a "no solder" rule in the Postmaster General's Department ( later called Telstra)

Most of our practices were taken from the British Post Office guidelines.

Perhaps many of those problems in N.Z. were more due to the shaky nature of the place ?

 

More of a problem for us in Telstra Exchange equipment was due to the growth of very fine metallic whiskers in relay springsets to the frame of the springset .(Earth) This necessitated the replacement of the springset. In the latter years I realised that although the whiskers were too fine to be seen with the naked eye, that an electrolytic capacitor charged to our 52V supply could  vaporise the whiskers and save a fairly expensive exercise.

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, look&listen said:

But torriods and poor diode bridge. Even better,

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Finished-100VA-Ultra-Low-Noise-Linear-Power-Supply-Ouptut-9v-12v-19v-24v-R1716/141770497380?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

 

My one has copper foil over r-type. Used same but little less VA for Mini power for over year. But no LPS-1.2 to compare.

 

 If using to power a Regen etc. do not earth the R.core's screen wire.

The additional capacitance to earth degrades USB performance a little.

[sandyk]

7 hours ago, elan120 said:

Ouch...hope you will get sPS-500 issue work out soon.

 

I am using sPS-500 to power sCLK-OCX10 at the moment, and plan to try using JS-2 and see if I can detect any difference.

 

 I note that the sPS-500 is a SMPS PSU, and the 7Vdc, 9Vdc, 12Vdc, 19Vdc selectable ranges only have a
  Voltage tolerance of  ±10%.

This means that the 12V output for example, could have an output voltage ranging from 10.8 to 13.2V !!!

This also makes me wonder how much the voltage rails vary under varying load conditions. (Voltage Regulation)

 

" AC power input
  Voltage : 100Vac ~240Vac
  Frequency : 50Hz / 60Hz
  Current : 2.5A >
DC power output
  Voltage : 7Vdc, 9Vdc, 12Vdc, 19Vdc selectable
  Voltage tolerance: ±10%
  Current limit:
    5A@ 7Vdc, 9Vdc, 12Vdc
    3.3A@ 19Vdc
  Current tolerance: ±10%
  Maximum output power :
    50W@100Vac <, +50℃ > inside temperature
Protection
  Output short
  Over temperature"