The true experimental tweak thread

[mourip]

1 hour ago, Cornan said:

An interesting thing happened today as well. Since I had an electrician working with some issues with the lightning in the apartment that needed to be solved before the new owners take over I disconnected both my router end and audio gears since they have floating isolation transformers. I did'nt anything to happen to either the electrician or my gears while he was messing around with the ac mains.

 

Anyway, when I came back from my adventures with MR scan and coffee syphon I plugged everything in. It sounded noticable better than the other day, so it strucked my to re-evaluate my Google Drive FLAC to Tidal FLAC again. It suddenly sounds noticable better with the Google Drive FLAC just like with Bandcamp app on the move. More details, but this time with greater extent than previous trial. This surely make me want to dig deeper and try to figure out what is going on and how to improve it further. Next trial will be in the new apartment with new fiber connection and router. Interesting to see if it holds true there as well! ?

 

Yet again it proves to me to visit & re-visit several times to get the full picture.

 

I keep all of my digital equipment on 24/7 and just turn on my tube preamp and tube amp a while before I want to listen. On another site several folks were talking about sound quality gains by occasionally turning off their equipment long enough for everything to discharge and then starting back up. To them this seemed to benefit PC's and DACs in particular.

 

Just a couple of data points:-)

[Cornan]

12 minutes ago, mourip said:

 

I keep all of my digital equipment on 24/7 and just turn on my tube preamp and tube amp a while before I want to listen. On another site several folks were talking about sound quality gains by occasionally turning off their equipment long enough for everything to discharge and then starting back up. To them this seemed to benefit PC's and DACs in particular.

 

Just a couple of data points:-)

 

Thanks Mourip! I am actually in the turning-off-devices-camp and beleive it helps to reduce statics. However, I never turn off the DC Blocker trap filter>isolation transformers with floating secondary (balanced & unbalanced)>power distributors. Just the Brooklyn DAC and the Gibson Les Paul 8. I regularly make resets, but the point is also that my router have been behaving very strange lately. Cutting off wifi connections and being overall very perticular. I guess it needed a good old reset for more than 30 minutes rather than the normal 10 seconds. It is considerable more reliable and quicker right now atleast. ?

[BigGuy]

9 hours ago, Cornan said:

 

Yes, 100% correct! 4 conductor starquad in its own JSSG for D-/D+ and 4 conductor starquad in its own JSSG for 5v/GND. ?

Thanks for details, Cornan.

 

With regard to DIY starquad construction, what might be the electrical effect of a loose (3-4 twists/foot) vs a tight (10-12+ twists/foot)...i.e., is one theoretically better than the other?

[John769]

1 hour ago, Cornan said:

However, I never turn off the DC Blocker trap filter>isolation transformers with floating secondary (balanced & unbalanced)

 

Cornan, is there the same (small) SQ benefit with ATL DC blocker -> ATL 200va IT as there is with  ATL DC blocker -> Peaktech 2240 IT?  

[Cornan]

19 minutes ago, BigGuy said:

Thanks for details, Cornan.

 

With regard to DIY starquad construction, what might be the electrical effect of a loose (3-4 twists/foot) vs a tight (10-12+ twists/foot)...i.e., is one theoretically better than the other?

Your welcome BigGuy! ?

AFAIK with starquad it is more important with an careful equal twist (distance between the opposite wires) rather than many twists. An accurate 3-4 twists/foot is surely sufficient.

[Cornan]

20 minutes ago, John769 said:

 

Cornan, IIRC, ages ago you reported hearing a small SQ improvement with  ATL's DC blocker -> Peaktech 2240 IT.  Do you find it's the same extent with DC blocker -> ATL 200va IT?  

 

I have visited and re-visited the DC Blocker trap filter with both the Peaktech and ATL. Both always improve SQ in my setup. A tiny bit more difference pre Peaktech than pre ATL, but worth to use it on both. 

Still it will be interesting to see if it makes the same impact in my next apartment. There is a possibility that the AC mains is either cleaner or dirtier where I am heading.

[BigGuy]

26 minutes ago, Cornan said:

Your welcome BigGuy! ?

AFAIK with starquad it is more important with an careful equal twist (distance between the opposite wires) rather than many twists. An accurate 3-4 twists/foot is surely sufficient.

Works for me!   My reason for asking is that pictures of the Canare starquad show a tight twist but did not know how relevant the tightness might be.

[Cornan]

8 minutes ago, BigGuy said:

Works for me!   My reason for asking is that pictures of the Canare starquad show a tight twist but did not know how relevant the tightness might be.

 

Mind you that a tight twist might be easier to get equal since the wires support each other in an equal distance of the wire. No other advantages that I am aware of. A less tight twist need a more careful twisting performer! ?

Note that the cotton strings you find in Canare starquads is there to ensure a perfect distance between the wires.

[BigGuy]

7 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

Mind you that a tight twist might be easier to get equal since the wires support each other in an equal distance of the wire. No other advantages that I am aware of. A less tight twist need a more careful twisting performer! ?

Note that the cotton strings you find in Canare starquads is there to ensure a perfect distance between the wires.

Point taken but I am using 12AWG solid copper (for a speaker wire)  so it will hold pretty much any twist I put on it and support itself when installed.  ;-)

[Cornan]

1 minute ago, BigGuy said:

Point taken but I am using 12AWG solid copper (for a speaker wire)  so it will hold pretty much any twist I put on it and support itself when installed.  ;-)

 

Interesting to use solid wires with starquads. It might require patience as well though. You do not want to bend the wires in an angle. A delicate and  smooth equal twist without and any bended points (which could potensially ruin the distance formula). Do report back how the solid 12 awg solid copper wires turns out! ?

[BigGuy]

59 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

Interesting to use solid wires with starquads. It might require patience as well though. You do not want to bend the wires in an angle. A delicate and  smooth equal twist without and any bended points (which could potensially ruin the distance formula). Do report back how the solid 12 awg solid copper wires turns out! ?

I have started to make a starquad DC cable using solid 18AWG wire and had no issues with the twist.  The 12AWG WILL be a bit more of a challenge however.  I am going to drill 4 (::) holes in a large plastic juice bottle lid to use as a tool for making the twist after securing one end of the 4-headed hydra in a star pattern.

[Cornan]

28 minutes ago, BigGuy said:

I have started to make a starquad DC cable using solid 18AWG wire and had no issues with the twist.  The 12AWG WILL be a bit more of a challenge however.  I am going to drill 4 (::) holes in a large plastic juice bottle lid to use as a tool for making the twist after securing one end of the 4-headed hydra in a star pattern.

 

Clever idea with the 4- hole juice bottle! I am confident you get it right! ?

[Speedskater]

6 hours ago, BigGuy said:

With regard to DIY starquad construction, what might be the electrical effect of a loose (3-4 twists/foot) vs a tight (10-12+ twists/foot)...i.e., is one theoretically better than the other?

Theoretically 12 twists works to a higher frequency.  But in the real world there are so many overriding factors that it just doesn't matter. 

[sandyk]

Cornan

 My recent reply at the attached may be of interest.

Alex

 

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/38408-hunt-for-rfi-offenders/?page=5

 

[Cornan]

@Speedskater

While you are here I actually have a question regarding the VA rating of balanced isolation transformers. As you perhaps have noticed I have a balanced IT with floating secondary (the safety ground and the center tap is connected to the chassi). Disregards the safety aspect with such a IT for the moment. What I have noticed with my one (except great SQ) is that despite it is only a 200VA version it can with ease power my whole setup. If I calculate total watts I should really have a minimum 500VA IT to be sufficient. My question is if the specific safety ground connection and balanced construction actually could improve the power over head?

[RickyV]

Isolation transformers should 2x the power. Also you can’t use them for power amp’s, to many current peaks, restriction in current.

Do not use one IT for all components but one for every component. A specially those smps.

 

https://www.toroidal-transformer.com/shop/high-end-audio/audio-safety-transformer.html

[RickyV]

https://audio-life.nl/product/audio-consulting-isolation-transformer/

 

Or these if you really want to Go 

 

thats all i know about IT

[Speedskater]

33 minutes ago, RickyV said:

Do not use one IT for all components but one for every component. A specially those smps.

I would rather use one large IT wired as a Separately Derived System for the entire audio equipment set-up. Not much if any advantage to a group of small IT's.

[Speedskater]

1 hour ago, Cornan said:

My question is if the specific safety ground connection and balanced construction actually could improve the power over head?

I doubt it.

But your system may draw less power than you think and the transformer may have a very conservative rating.

[Cornan]

7 hours ago, RickyV said:

Isolation transformers should 2x the power. Also you can’t use them for power amp’s, to many current peaks, restriction in current.

Do not use one IT for all components but one for every component. A specially those smps.

 

https://www.toroidal-transformer.com/shop/high-end-audio/audio-safety-transformer.html

 

I know about it, but have other experiences. I use one IT for my router end (cloud music) and another one for my audio rig. I also use DC Blocker trap filter pre both my ITs.

IT is an exellent method to isolate different components from each other. Using one for the digital side and another one for the analogue side of the audio gears is also a good idea in some cases. 

It all comes down to how well it is isolated with other means, so experiments in your own setup (or measure it) is the only way to know for sure. Remember that all power supplies it a potensially noise source to other power supplies. If you put all power supplies into a single unfiltered power distributor they will share the noises. That is possibly partly why LT3045 ultra low noise voltage regs pre power supplies is a good option. Hopefully I will try to build a LT3045 power supply containing a floating isolation transformer (maybe balanced if I just can figure out how to implement it) and Stammheim's 3A LT3045 in series. It will be interesting to see how that turns out. It would isolate from both AC mains and have ultra low noise into the powered device.

 

[Cornan]

7 hours ago, Speedskater said:

I doubt it.

But your system may draw less power than you think and the transformer may have a very conservative rating.

 

Not impossible since I have only calculated the watts based on the figures from the specs. None the less the 500VA Peaktech 2240 (IT with floating sec) does'nt seem to have the same amount of torq as 200VA ATL Hi-Fi (balanced IT with floating sec). Makes me wonder why? ?

[jaaptina]

On 31-1-2018 at 1:54 PM, Cornan said:

 

Great to hear jaaptina! Let us know what you think about it SQ wise as well?  

First made the LT3045 easily interchangeable. Listened to several tracks. Can't tell exactly why but really prefer the sound with the LT3045 between LPS-1 and ultraRendu. With it in the chain the music is more vibrant. 

[Cornan]

2 minutes ago, jaaptina said:

First made the LT3045 easily interchangeable. Listened to several tracks. Can't tell exactly why but really prefer the sound with the LT3045 between LPS-1 and ultraRendu. With it in the chain the music is more vibrant. 

 

Thanks for sharing jaaptina! I had similar thoughts with a more vibrant and glowing sound. Two in series with ~1v drop-down inbetween them it is even more so IMO.

[John769]

On 2/5/2018 at 3:46 PM, Cornan said:

Do report back when you have tried the Autowinds LT1963 in series. Interesteing to know if they will improve in the same way as LT3045?

Well, the second 1963 arrived and took around 48 hrs to settle down.

 

I've set the Gophert to 13.7v, first LT1963 to 13V and second LT1963 to 12V.  This is powering my PC, which consumes just over an amp in operation.  NB, I also have three sets of 3045's in series on the three other PSU's for my PC's usb card, Regen and SSD.  Currently applying JSGT to all four PSU's and prefer it that way to without (although this needs to be reviewed periodically when changes are made) 

 

Listening to Keith Jarrett's Creation right now, and it's sounding better than ever. So in summary, SQ is clearer compared to just the one LT1963 and well worth the small outlay!

 

On 2/7/2018 at 6:34 AM, Cornan said:

None the less the 500VA Peaktech 2240 (IT with floating sec) does'nt seem to have the same amount of torq as 200VA ATL Hi-Fi (balanced IT with floating sec).

 

What do  you mean by 'torq', Cornan?

[Cornan]

1 hour ago, John769 said:

Well, the second 1963 arrived and took around 48 hrs to settle down.

 

I've set the Gophert to 13.7v, first LT1963 to 13V and second LT1963 to 12V.  This is powering my PC, which consumes just over an amp in operation.  NB, I also have three sets of 3045's in series on the three other PSU's for my PC's usb card, Regen and SSD.  Currently applying JSGT to all four PSU's and prefer it that way to without (although this needs to be reviewed periodically when changes are made) 

 

Listening to Keith Jarrett's Creation right now, and it's sounding better than ever. So in summary, SQ is clearer compared to just the one LT1963 and well worth the small outlay!

 

 

What do  you mean by 'torq', Cornan?

 

Great to hear that LT1963 responds great with a series mod as well! Enjoy the fruits!  

 

Torq or torque is an expression for the "moment of force" normally used for car engines. Power over-head is maybe a more proper word for it when it comes to electrical and non-mechanical force, but I think that torque describes it slightly better since what I am after includes both amperage- and voltage force. If you know of a better word please let me know.