The true experimental tweak thread

[BigGuy]

13 minutes ago, Monge said:

Very Nice Winther project 

I didn’t know that bamboo had that effect on ressonances.

Acatama use carbonized bamboo In some of their racks whatever that is.

I Think I found an almost perfect decoupler.

https://www.futureshop.co.uk/high-quality-gd-4mm-banana-gold-plated-4mm-banana-plug-couplers-pair

Needs some electrical tape though.

Regards Monge

 

Here is an article on use of bamboo for isolation...and an excuse to take S.O. to IKEA!  ;-)

 

Those couplers are very nice!  Black etape is gonna muck up the blingy-ness. :-D

[BigGuy]

13 hours ago, Cornan said:

 

You're welcome BigGuy! ?

Without a doubt! You will never use the tiny zipcord ever again when you've heard your DIY one. 

Are you planning to do a JSSG with the shields on the two cables, ie. solder a thin drain wire that connects the four ends (two shields) and not connect them to the plugs?

I think it would have to be a significant change for me to notice a difference in SQ with a relatively short low voltage DC cable powering an accessory rather than a component.

 

You raise a good point, Cornan.  I was actually just going to ignore the shielding on the pairs, other than not having it connected/touching anything, and just shield the whole starquad assembly.  Soldering anything to that small shield might be like doing brain surgery on a flea! 

I do have some 26awg silver-plated copper that is unshielded which may make the starquad more straightforward!?

I even bought surgical cuticle scissors to allow a neat & clean job of cutting it back since wire strippers do not work well.   They have turned out to be pretty helpful to have.

 

What are your thoughts on doing those shields vs an overall one?

[Cornan]

5 minutes ago, BigGuy said:

I think it would have to be a significant change for me to notice a difference in SQ with a relatively short low voltage DC cable powering an accessory rather than a component.

 

You raise a good point, Cornan.  I was actually just going to ignore the shielding on the pairs, other than not having it connected/touching anything, and just shield the whole starquad assembly.  Soldering anything to that small shield might be like doing brain surgery on a flea! 

I do have some 26awg silver-plated copper that is unshielded which may make the starquad more straightforward!?

I even bought surgical cuticle scissors to allow a neat & clean job of cutting it back since wire strippers do not work well.   They have turned out to be pretty helpful to have.

 

What are your thoughts on doing those shields vs an overall one?

 

The difference with a starquad DC with JSSG to a normal DC cable is not small IMO.

Good tools in a man's best friend. It will make the work less similar to micro brain surgery! ?

 

If you have 26awg wires and want to make a starquad it is easiest to use two lenghts and make two identical U-shape lenghts. Mark the positive with a marker if it is the same colour. Twist the both U-shape lenghts in +/-/+/- arrangement like seen on this picture (look at the cables arrangement inside the shield braid). You can see the JSSG drain wire on the picture as well.

 

 

I only know JSSG makes a difference for the better, but no one can answer the question why better than the inventor John Swenson! ?

 

 

[Cornan]

Yay, look what arrived today! If I will have some time alone it looks like it is going to be a crazy LT3045 weekend...atleast with the two 3A single ps! ?

 

 

If I can keep my fingers off I probably will not start experimenting with the parallel matched 12v/1A boards (green) until after the big move.

 

[Cornan]

So today I got some time alone and started with one of my Stammheim 3A single ps LT3045s. First up I made the DIY Canare starquad cables, plugged it in, fine-adjusted the output voltage and let it run for 10 minutes to ensure a stabile voltage.

 

 

Next up was to connect it all inside the cubborn. Not easy, but it will hopefully be easier when I have moved to my new apartment, which is pretty soon now.

 

 

Just to be sure I monitored the current draw of Brooklyn DAC. It never even past 1A. It is always around 911-915 mA in my setup, so I could possibly even use my 12v/1A board if I wanted to. Anyway, maybe a bit too close to be totally safe? 3A is in any case very very safe! ?

 

 

 

I started to listen through my new Gibson Les Paul 8 speakers which is now a definate keeper. In the beginning of the first track "Carry You" by Novo Amor I got chills all over and almost could'nt keep my eyes dry. Almost like falling in love. Sooooo beautiful! ?

Everything sounded so complete that I was totally trapped inside the music. A lovely feeling that unfortunately doesn't come sneaking in that often! ?

 

 

http://tidal.com/album/71241182

 

The Gibson speakers really translate the music great with a very broad register from top to bottom without feeling perticular or tense about it. I can pull the volume very high before feeling the need to lower the volume. 

The single ps made this volume range even greater. Novo Amor is sitting in my lap singing kind of feeling. Pitch black background, dynamic and deep LF, refinded and very nicely sculptured HF and most of all a very natural "woody" presentation.

 

Stammheim have clearly made a brilliant ps! I am so so happy that I pulled the plug. Do I want to go back to Brooklyns DACs internal SMPS yet again? NO WAY! I found my preferred PSU. Sorry, I am not going after SR4 or sPS-500 either after hearing how beautiful this combo sounds. I am happily trapped inside the music now! ?

 

[jean-michel6]

16 hours ago, Cornan said:

So today I got some time alone and started with one of my Stammheim 3A single ps LT3045s. First up I made the DIY Canare starquad cables, plugged it in, fine-adjusted the output voltage and let it run for 10 minutes to ensure a stabile voltage.

 

 

Next up was to connect it all inside the cubborn. Not easy, but it will hopefully be easier when I have moved to my new apartment, which is pretty soon now.

 

 

Just to be sure I monitored the current draw of Brooklyn DAC. It never even past 1A. It is always around 911-915 mA in my setup, so I could possibly even use my 12v/1A board if I wanted to. Anyway, maybe a bit too close to be totally safe? 3A is in any case very very safe! ?

 

 

 

I started to listen through my new Gibson Les Paul 8 speakers which is now a definate keeper. In the beginning of the first track "Carry You" by Novo Amor I got chills all over and almost could'nt keep my eyes dry. Almost like falling in love. Sooooo beautiful! ?

Everything sounded so complete that I was totally trapped inside the music. A lovely feeling that unfortunately doesn't come sneaking in that often! ?

 

 

http://tidal.com/album/71241182

 

The Gibson speakers really translate the music great with a very broad register from top to bottom without feeling perticular or tense about it. I can pull the volume very high before feeling the need to lower the volume. 

The single ps made this volume range even greater. Novo Amor is sitting in my lap singing kind of feeling. Pitch black background, dynamic and deep LF, refinded and very nicely sculptured HF and most of all a very natural "woody" presentation.

 

Stammheim have clearly made a brilliant ps! I am so so happy that I pulled the plug. Do I want to go back to Brooklyns DACs internal SMPS yet again? NO WAY! I found my preferred PSU. Sorry, I am not going after SR4 or sPS-500 either after hearing how beautiful this combo sounds. I am happily trapped inside the music now! ?

 

Hi ,

 

Me too I did bought some 1,5 A board from Stammheim to power ssd's. I will try those in a few days.  

 

One question about your set up.The board from Stammheim are AC-DC. From your report it looks like you are powering these board with gophert psu who are AC-DC Smps. 

How did you connect the board ?Did you bypass the incoming diode bridge ?

[Cornan]

2 hours ago, jean-michel6 said:

Hi ,

 

Me too I did bought some 1,5 A board from Stammheim to power ssd's. I will try those in a few days.  

 

One question about your set up.The board from Stammheim are AC-DC. From your report it looks like you are powering these board with gophert psu who are AC-DC Smps. 

How did you connect the board ?Did you bypass the incoming diode bridge ?

 

Hi jean-michel6!

 

Awesome, please do report back how it works out with SSD! ?

 

Yes I am powering the board with Gophert  csp-3205II which is a floating SMPS. I have  also added a JSGT to the output of Gophert. When using DC input the voltage will go through the two first diodes and the second pair will be useless. Voltage drop of >0,5VDC is OK, but for 12VDC output voltage close to a 1VDC drop was needed. 

The positive and negative terminal are passed through on the same side of the board.

 

I hope that helps! 

 

 

 

 

[hurka]

On ‎1‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 5:53 AM, Cornan said:

Yay, look what arrived today! If I will have some time alone it looks like it is going to be a crazy LT3045 weekend...atleast with the two 3A single ps! ?

 

 

If I can keep my fingers off I probably will not start experimenting with the parallel matched 12v/1A boards (green) until after the big move.

 

Great Cornan!!!!!!!!!  save some money

[Cornan]

4 minutes ago, hurka said:

Great Cornan!!!!!!!!!  save some money

 

Impossible to save money in this hobby. You just end up spending them elsewhere! ?

[jean-michel6]

Hi All ,

 

Does anybody has tried the LT 3045 regulator board with either an SPS-500 or a LPS-1 ?

 

To power what and What was the results ?

 

Thank's

[Cornan]

40 minutes ago, jean-michel6 said:

Hi All ,

 

Does anybody has tried the LT 3045 regulator board with either an SPS-500 or a LPS-1 ?

 

To power what and What was the results ?

 

Thank's

 

I have'nt done it myself, but I think @gstew, @hurka and maybe @mozes might have tried it? Hopefully one of these helpful guys can chime in! ?

[Cornan]

Meanwhile I can share a short journey with Stammheim's (Michael) single ps that I had since I posted here the last time. After my listening impressions with it listening through my brand new Gibson LP 8 I started to listen to it through my good old Fostex TH900. I noticed a slight HF fog (not noticable via speakers, so it is very slight) that made me suspect burn-in or SMPS leakage since I use a floating SMPS to power the single ps. Remember that the single ps still sounded awesome, but I wanted to persue the reason. 

 

I started out to ground the Gophert by connecting it to the star-earth receptacle of my PSD.

 

 

It worked, but I could still hear that it was'nt removed completely. Next up was to connect one end of the JSGT to Brooklyn DACs DC input instead of to the Gophert.

 

 

Much improved, but still not 100% gone. From earlier experiences in my perticularly isolated setup the JSGT connected to my Entreq Minimus sounds much better, so I decided to make a switch from the star-earth receptacle to the Minimus. 

 

 

I started to listen. Roughly 10 seconds into the first song the sound just opened up and the details arised from the fog. It really made me speachless. My jaw dropped to the floor. That fog did really hide more than I originally thought. Wow, now it sounds even better than before. I am a bit star strucked at the moment! ?

[mozes]

1 hour ago, jean-michel6 said:

Hi All ,

 

Does anybody has tried the LT 3045 regulator board with either an SPS-500 or a LPS-1 ?

 

To power what and What was the results ?

 

Thank's

I found that the LT3045 adds a bit of clarity when used with LPS-1 to power my switch. The improvement is subtle, in contrast going to a silver thicker gauge on the DC wire is by far more effective. 

[Cornan]

4 minutes ago, mozes said:

I found that the LT3045 adds a bit of clarity when used with LPS-1 to power my switch. The improvement is subtle, in contrast going to a silver thicker gauge on the DC wire is by far more effective. 

 

Thanks Moussa! ? A tip is to try to ground the DC input to the switch to your Silver Minimus. See my latest post with the single ps (LT3045).

[mozes]

36 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

Thanks Moussa! ? A tip is to try to ground the DC input to the switch to your Silver Minimus. See my latest post with the single ps (LT3045).

I already have the switch chassis grounded to the Entreq.

[Cornan]

8 minutes ago, mozes said:

I already have the switch chassis grounded to the Entreq.

 

Me too,  JSGT at the DC input as well as chassi ground makes it even better in my setup. However, what I ment was that the LT3045 could benefit from it.

[mozes]

8 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

Me too,  JSGT at the DC input as well as chassi ground makes it even better in my setup. However, what I ment was that the LT3045 could benefit from it.

So you mean to ground the negative of the DC input to the switch?

[Cornan]

2 minutes ago, mozes said:

So you mean to ground the negative of the DC input to the switch?

 

Yes, correct! ?

Both chassi ground and DC- output grounding is IME beneficial for a switch. Also on top of that LT3045s seems to benefit from it too. Not sure if is due to the same reasons (high impedance noise) though.

[lmitche]

2 hours ago, jean-michel6 said:

Hi All ,

 

Does anybody has tried the LT 3045 regulator board with either an SPS-500 or a LPS-1 ?

 

To power what and What was the results ?

 

Thank's

Here two lps-1s 7 volt outputs power three ldovr.com lt3045 6 to 5 volt chains.  One is used to energize a USB 3 pcie card. The second y-cable chain energizes an ISO  Regen and injects power into my DAC.  SQ is truly fantastic!

[lmitche]

1 minute ago, lmitche said:

Deleted

[Cornan]

In case someone missed the dead simple & great JSGT guide line with pictures by @R1200CL I post the link here as well. This is the same way I do it in my setup. It is very quick to perform and it works just great.  ?

 

 

 

[agladstone]

4 minutes ago, Cornan said:

In case someone missed the dead simple & great JSGT guide line with pictures by @R1200CL I post the link here as well. This is the same way I do it in my setup. It is very quick to perform and it works just great.  ?

 

 

 

FYI, I tried doing this since I did not like having all these DIY screw down M & F DC connectors hanging out the back of my gear and I also thought the cheap screw down chain of plugs was negatively impacting any benefits from using all my nice Ghent Canare / Oyiade JSSG cables and plugs. 

However I am currently using 14AWG SolId Copper wire and it’s too big of a gauge. 

Im going to have to swap it all out for 24AWG or 22 AWG wire  

Ultimately, I know Solid Siver wire  wrapped in Cotton from VH Audio would sound the best, but I will Prob look for something less expensive. 

I have a bunch of unused Mogami Star quad XLR Microphone cables and also a bunch of unused Mogami AES/EBU cables, so I’m even thing perhaps I should just use those cable for the JSGT ground, any thoughts? Prob 20 or 22 AWG wire inside and I have 4 cables in the Star quad and 3 cables in the AES/EBU I could use and it would look neater in the rack too and even have nice shielding ? 

[agladstone]

1 hour ago, mozes said:

I found that the LT3045 adds a bit of clarity when used with LPS-1 to power my switch. The improvement is subtle, in contrast going to a silver thicker gauge on the DC wire is by far more effective. 

FYI, I have a few of the IFI DC iPurifiers and I’ve been using them out of my HDPlex LPSU’s (HDPlex -> DC cable -> DC iPurifier -> Device, are these DC iPurifiers basically like an LT3045 or similar? 

I am awaiting a new LPS-1 that I should have shortly (ordered a couple of weeks ago and waiting for the next shipment run), would they also improve the LPS-1? 

Is it just cheaper to get the LT3045’s? Do they just do the same thing as the $90 iPurifier? 

[Cornan]

11 minutes ago, agladstone said:

FYI, I tried doing this since I did not like having all these DIY screw down M & F DC connectors hanging out the back of my gear and I also thought the cheap screw down chain of plugs was negatively impacting any benefits from using all my nice Ghent Canare / Oyiade JSSG cables and plugs. 

However I am currently using 14AWG SolId Copper wire and it’s too big of a gauge. 

Im going to have to swap it all out for 24AWG or 22 AWG wire  

Ultimately, I know Solid Siver wire  wrapped in Cotton from VH Audio would sound the best, but I will Prob look for something less expensive. 

I have a bunch of unused Mogami Star quad XLR Microphone cables and also a bunch of unused Mogami AES/EBU cables, so I’m even thing perhaps I should just use those cable for the JSGT ground, any thoughts? Prob 20 or 22 AWG wire inside and I have 4 cables in the Star quad and 3 cables in the AES/EBU I could use and it would look neater in the rack too and even have nice shielding ? 

 

I think that ~24awg silver plated wires with telefon sleeves are a great choise for JSGT purposes. Usually quite cheap in 25 feet lenghts. Ofcourse pure silver is better but no need unless you have a better grounding box. Good quality copper wires works great as well. No doubt. If you have the other cables you can just use them for starters and go for other wires later. They will improve things as well. Silver content will just makes it a bit better IME.

[agladstone]

2 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

I think that ~24awg silver plated wires with telefon sleeves are a great choise for JSGT purposes. Usually quite cheap in 25 feet lenghts. Ofcourse pure silver is better but no need unless you have a better grounding box. Good quality copper wires works great as well. No doubt. If you have the other cables you can just use them for starters and go for other wires later. They will improve things as well. Silver content will just makes it a bit better IME.

Thanks! So I should source some silver plates wire vs. rip apart these Mogami’s? I have used a couple of the starquad Mogami cables to make a temporary DIY Y DC cable with screw down DC plugs and I think it is great wire for that (looks like better cable than the Canare 4S6 to me).  However I am going to have ghent make me a Canare / Oyiade Y cable since I believe the Oyiade plugs and Profesionally made / soldered DC cables are going to be better regardless. I am really not a fan of these screw down DC plugs! They are really cheap and also I have had a few of them have the wires pull right out of them when moving some stuff around in my rack now.