The true experimental tweak thread

[Cornan]

Listening to Francis and the Light’s  track Cruise. Those drums at 00:40!!! I have never heard them so dry and firm ever before. This is a favoite track that I have listened to so many time. The wispering high hat is much more noticable and crisp. Joy! ?

 

Flora Cash track And Ever. The guitarr gives me goose bumps. Bass is lurcing in the background and she sings like an angel. ?

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, Cornan said:

Listening to Helehan - Temple of Maia gives me goose bumps from head to toe. A really sweet sound landscape are presented. Music glow in loads! ?

 

 

 What was the source of this material ?

[Cornan]

7 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 

 What was the source of this material ?

 

Tidal only! ?

 

https://tidal.com/album/69823232

[sandyk]

6 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

Tidal only! ?

Micael

 I thought so.

Have you ever considered the possibility that you are giving bad advice to other members about the use of so many VERY Low ESR capacitors, due to the source of your music being a little on the dull and  lifeless side, with veiling and loss of HF detail that you are artificially augmenting ?  

 Before you get all defensive, please read a PM that I will send you in an hour or so's time, after I drop my granddaughter at the railway station.

 

Alex

[Cornan]

38 minutes ago, sandyk said:

Micael

 I thought so.

Have you ever considered the possibility that you are giving bad advice to other members about the use of so many VERY Low ESR capacitors, due to the source of your music being a little on the dull and  lifeless side, with veiling and loss of HF detail that you are artificially augmenting ?  

 Before you get all defensive, please read a PM that I will send you in an hour or so's time, after I drop my granddaughter at the railway station.

 

Alex

 

Fair enough. Just remember to read the initial post of this thread. It is all there that this is all about my own impressions with Tidal as the only source. Each and everyone is on their own. I am likewise taking advices from people like you who are only listening to local content. I am not blaming you that Elna Silsmic II or LM317 did’nt end up great in my setup. It was my own choise to take that advice and try it out. It is up to everyone visiting this thread to grab whatever they think is suitable for their own perticular setup and make it into their own success or failure! ?

[tims]

7 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

Fair enough. Just remember to read the initial post of this thread. It is all there that this is all about my own impressions with Tidal as the only source. Each and everyone is on their own. I am likewhise taking advices from people like you who are only listening to local content. I am not blaming you that Elna Silsmic II or LT317 did’nt end up great in my setup. It was my own choise to take that advice and try it out. It is up to everyone visiting this thread to grab whatever they think is suitable for their own perticular setup and make it their iwn success or failure! ?

Well said - I appreciate the work you are putting into your "experimentation's" and your willingness to help others find "audio nirvana"  .

[sandyk]

1 hour ago, Cornan said:

I am likewise taking advices from people like you who are only listening to local content.

 

That is not correct. I extensively use material sourced via UseNet, You Tube and VEVO,  in various formats such as .mp4 (.aac audio) , .flac, and LPCM , and even paid .flac downloads

[Cornan]

8 hours ago, sandyk said:

 

That is not correct. I extensively use material sourced via UseNet, You Tube and VEVO,  in various formats such as .mp4 (.aac audio) , .flac, and LPCM , and even paid .flac downloads

 

As long as it is downloaded and saved somewhere in your home it is local files to me. Streaming is when none of that happens and the files are played directly from an online source.

[Cornan]

21 hours ago, lmitche said:

Think about 13.5 volts out of the sigma 11 instead or 14. 1.5 volts vdrop isn't great but it will work. You have to ask the vendor to install the correct resistor value for a given output. The little pot thingie doesn't have much range on these boards.

 

The hcpulns should handle a vdrop of .750 volts just fine.

 

Unfortunately the seller of S12 informed me that 13,5VDC is not possible with a 15VAC input. He suggested that I change the transformer secondary to 18VAC. I have asked him for guidance to perform this on my AC-AC ps. Should just be a matter of changing one cable for another one, but I want to be ansolutely sure that I’ll get the right one! ? 

I changed the S12 output to 14VDC/2A or 16VDC/2A depending on what is possible or not with 18VAC input.

[Leeuwarden]

Maybe it is wise to read the online manual from the Sigma 11 designer. 

Please be aware that the S12 is the fake version of the Sigma 11.

[Cornan]

23 minutes ago, Leeuwarden said:

Maybe it is wise to read the online manual from the Sigma 11 designer. 

Please be aware that the S12 is the fake version of the Sigma 11.

 

Thanks. The seller of the S12 is very helpful and seem to care a lot to get it optimal. I actually feel very comfortable that he will guide me in the right direction. I am not too worried about it being a fake version since it seems like a quality build to these eyes. 

 

I will read the online manual before I receive the S12.

 

EDIT. It is actually the same seller for both the balanced & floating AC-AC ps and the S12 discrete reg board. That is why I am very confident in his knowledge of both! ?

[lmitche]

3 hours ago, Cornan said:

 

Unfortunately the seller of S12 informed me that 13,5VDC is not possible with a 15VAC input. He suggested that I change the transformer secondary to 18VAC. I have asked him for guidance to perform this on my AC-AC ps. Should just be a matter of changing one cable for another one, but I want to be ansolutely sure that I’ll get the right one! ? 

I changed the S12 output to 14VDC/2A or 16VDC/2A depending on what is possible or not with 18VAC input.

Yes, or ditch the s12 idea and just change the 15 volt transformer to 11 or 12 volts and run ac directly into Michael's LDO.

 

Michael can tell you what voltage is best.

[Cornan]

Just now, lmitche said:

Yes, or ditch the s12 idea and just change the 15 volt transformer to 11 or 12 volts and run ac directly into Michaels LDO.

 

Yes, that is one on my mind right now. However, I still want the S12 since it is an interesting voltage reg. Two in series is greater than one, so three could potentially be a good thing! ?

Now I just need to open up the balanced AC-AC ps and learn how to rewire it for 12VAC or 18VAC output. ?

[lmitche]

1 hour ago, Cornan said:

 

Yes, that is one on my mind right now. However, I still want the S12 since it is an interesting voltage reg. Two in series is greater than one, so three could potentially be a good thing! ?

Now I just need to open up the balanced AC-AC ps and learn how to rewire it for 12VAC or 18VAC output. ?

If you haven't met him you should head over to http://sjostromaudio.com. There is no doubt that he can help you with your transformer swap. I hear he is a great guy and lives in your neighborhood so there is no excuse. I'm sure he has lots toys you are going to enjoy. For example I see a lt3045 was recently added to his product list.

 

I look forward to hearing what you learn.

[Cornan]

1 hour ago, lmitche said:

If you haven't met him you should head over to http://sjostromaudio.com. There is no doubt that he can help you with your transformer swap. I hear he is a great guy and lives in your neighborhood so there is no excuse. I'm sure he has lots toys you are going to enjoy. For example I see a lt3045 was recently added to his product list.

 

I look forward to hearing what you learn.

 

I don’t know him but know about him and his projects. He was recently active at Stammheims thread over at DiyAudio so it doesn’t surprice me that he have added LT3045s to his product list.

 

However, I will not need to swap my transformer. It will just be a matter of rewire the secondary transformer where I can have both 12VAC, 15VAC and 18VAC output. I am quite confident to pull that together without any assistance but will just in case post about it here and on DiyAudio to get it confirmed before I put it on! ?

[Cornan]

Bummer again! I just had a look inside the balanced ps and the secondary transformer is 15VAC output only. Not possible to rewire into 18VAC or 12VAC as I understood from the seller.

I have contacted the seller again to see if he can sell me another 18VAC balanced ps and build in the S12 into the case. Giving it a 14VDC output.

I will then save the 15VAC I’ve got for any future projects. ?

[Cornan]

Department of weird stuff has entered phase 2! ?

 

 

A Panasonic aluminium polymer cap is decorating the banana output sockets on the Voltcraft floating LPSU powering my main fiber router.

 

Instant reward yet again with a blacker background and a deeper sense of space. More details arrise from the dark and the echoes have clearly been extended.

 

Looking at Netflix 4K on my Sony A1 oled TV and the picture have improved vastly with a more vivid colour range and higher detail/resolutions. Same applies to non 4K content.

 

Yet another aluminium polymer cap keeper! ?✨

[Superdad]

On 5/3/2018 at 12:40 PM, Cornan said:

 

Hi Micael:

I just want to confirm that I understand correctly your use of the two Stammheim LT3045 boards.  In the above photo it appears that you are using those fine low-noise supplies just to “energize”/charge your UltraCap LPS-1.2 unit (which itself is of course based on LT3045s at its output).  

That seems tremendous overkill as the active bank of the LPS-1 (the one connected to the output at any given moment) is never connected to the presently charging side (the whole point of our design).

What you are doing is akin to saying that charging a battery with cleaner power results in better output voltage from that battery when you take it and install it in some device!  And you should be aware that what gets fed into the “charger” port of the LPS-1.2 then goes though an expensive ($26/pc.) buck/boost DC-DC switching regulator module, in turn charging one 70Farad bank of ultracaps, while the other bank is actually connected to the load—first through a TI TPS7A4700, then into the specially paralleled pair of LT3045s.

 

Really you could feed our LPS-1.2 the most nasty dirty power imaginable, and it’s output will measure the same (versus “clean” charger power) via every PS performance metric.

[The only exception to this is that it is best for the charging supply to have as little high-impedance AC leakage as possible since the transistors we use as switches for bank alternating—as opposed to large mechanically clicking relays—do have a few picoFarads of capacitance which can allow some high-impedance to pass.  (Low-impedance leakage has always been 100% blocked by our units.). And as is widely known since last year, preventing any high-impedance leakage from entering the UltraCap supply—from any SMPS charger—is a simple matter of just being sure that the charger’s DC zero-volt “ground” is shunted to AC mains ground. And that is already done with the UpTone-branded 7.5V/4.8A/36W charger that ships with every LPS-1.2.]

 

So I respectfully suggest that perhaps you can find a better use for those pretty blue heatsinked Stammheim supplies elsewhere in your system. 

[Cornan]

4 minutes ago, Superdad said:

 

Hi Micael:

I just want to confirm that I understand correctly your use of the two Stammheim LT3045 boards.  In the above photo it appears that you are using those fine low-noise supplies just to “energize”/charge your UltraCap LPS-1.2 unit (which itself is of course based on LT3045s at its output).  

That seems tremendous overkill as the active bank of the LPS-1 (the one connected to the output at any given moment) is never connected to the presently charging side (the whole point of our design).

What you are doing is akin to saying that charging a battery with cleaner power results in better output voltage from that battery when you take it and install it in some device!  And you should be aware that what gets fed into the “charger” port of the LPS-1.2 then goes though an expensive ($26/pc.) buck/boost DC-DC switching regulator module, in turn charging one 70Farad bank of ultracaps, while the other bank is actually connected to the load—first through a TI TPS7A4700, then into the specially paralleled pair of LT3045s.

 

Really you could feed our LPS-1.2 the most nasty dirty power imaginable, and it’s output will measure the same (versus “clean” charger power) via every PS performance metric.

[The only exception to this is that it is best for the charging supply to have as little high-impedance AC leakage as possible since the transistors we use as switches for bank alternating—as opposed to large mechanically clicking relays—do have a few picoFarads of capacitance which can allow some high-impedance to pass.  (Low-impedance leakage has always been 100% blocked by our units.). And as is widely known since last year, preventing any high-impedance leakage from entering the UltraCap supply—from any SMPS charger—is a simple matter of just being sure that the charger’s DC zero-volt “ground” is shunted to AC mains ground. And that is already done with the UpTone-branded 7.5V/4.8A/36W charger that ships with every LPS-1.2.]

 

So I respectfully suggest that perhaps you can find a better use for those pretty blue heatsinked Stammheim supplies elsewhere in your system. 

 

My middle name is over-kill! ?

If you haven’t read the whole story I did start out with the supplied grounded SMPS and the Gophert csp-3205II cured the ticking issues I started out with in my first meeting with the LPS-1.2. From there the HPULN at input & output where the output did’nt sound great but the input imoroved SQ further. From there adding another HPULN and yet another small SQ upgrade. From there added Kemet A750 aluminium polymer caps at the output if the LPS-1.2 resulting in a nice SQ boost. From there another Kemet at the input (output of the last HPULN) resulting in another small SQ boost and finally adding a Panasonic aluminium polymer cap at the output of the Gophert feeding the HPULNs feeding the LPS-1.2. Yet another SQ boost. Yep, my middle name IS over-kill, but I am also overly happy with how it sounds right now! ?

 

Don’t forget. This is where the fun starts for me, but surely where it ends for others! ?

[Cornan]

Unless you’ve all missed this, here is the potensial of the LT3045s in series posted by a DiyAudio member. Interesting stuff! ?

 

Keep in mind that even 1dB ripple rejection is a significant amount because it's 26% ripple reduction, and -3dB is half the ripple.

For the following examples, lets assume we're starting with a fairly clean 10mV ripple.

Going by the LT3045 data sheet, a 1V voltage differential generates 70dB ripple rejection...
10mV ripple @ -70dB = 0.00316mV ripple

If we again pass that through another LT3045 at 1V voltage differential and another 70dB ripple rejection...
0.00316mV ripple @ -70dB = 0.000001mV ripple

Likewise, -70dB + -70dB = -140dB which is also 0.000001mV ripple from 10mV

Now lets start with a single LT3045 at 3V voltage differential and 83dB ripple rejection...
10mV ripple @ -83dB = 0.00070795mV ripple

So a single LT3045 at 3V voltage differential (-83dB ripple) is 4.5 times more effective at ripple rejection than a single LT3045 at 1V voltage differential (-70dB ripple) 

But two series LT3045 at 1V voltage differentials is 708 times more effective at ripple rejection than a single LT3045 at 3V voltage differential, and it's 50% more efficient (net -2V versus -3V).

Also two series LT3045 at 1V voltage differentials is 3160 times more effective at ripple rejection than a single LT3045 at 1V voltage differential, but it's 50% less efficient (net -2V versus -1V).

So definitely series LT3045 has a distinct advantage over single. But if you can't wing two, try one at 3V differential.
 

[Cornan]

I have resolved my issue with the 15VAC balanced AC-AC ps now. Solution was to order another 12VAC balanced AC-AC ps to power the two HC-HPULN boards in series directly and to change my S12 dicrete voltage reg to 9VDC output (instead of 14VDC) so I can use it to power the ISO Regen with a couple of LT3045s in series. With 9VDC out of the S12 I will have a more universal solution as well since I can choose to power the Aqvox switch or BluWave board as well. I just left a bigger hole in my wallet. Life goes on!  

[lmitche]

3 hours ago, Cornan said:

I have resolved my issue with the 15VAC balanced AC-AC ps now. Solution was to order another 12VAC balanced AC-AC ps to power the two HC-HPULN boards in series directly and to change my S12 dicrete voltage reg to 9VDC output (instead of 14VDC) so I can use it to power the ISO Regen with a couple of LT3045s in series. With 9VDC out of the S12 I will have a more universal solution as well since I can choose to power the Aqvox switch or BluWave board as well. I just left a bigger hole in my wallet. Life goes on!  

Great to see you end up in a happy place!

[Cornan]

29 minutes ago, lmitche said:

Great to see you end up in a happy place!

 

Thanks Larry, it will be intersting to see how the S12 will turn out in combination with LT3045 in seies w/Kemet A750 and how the balanced isolated ps will compare to Gophert w/Panasonic FC series Type A! 

[sandyk]

15 hours ago, Cornan said:

Keep in mind that even 1dB ripple rejection is a significant amount because it's 26% ripple reduction, and -3dB is half the ripple.

 

  I was under the impression that -3dB was .707 of the original voltage.

 Perhaps some qualified E.E. could check what was stated in the DIY Audio post quoted above for accuracy ?

( I could be well off base here though   )

 

http://www.gareth.net.nz/nrgworkshop/decibel_scale.htm

[Cornan]

58 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 

  I was under the impression that -3dB was .707 of the original voltage.

 Perhaps some qualified E.E. could check what was stated in the DIY Audio post quoted above for accuracy ?

( I could be well off base here though   )

 

http://www.gareth.net.nz/nrgworkshop/decibel_scale.htm

 

That would surely be interesting to know. Meanwhile I found this after a quick Google:

 

http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-cutoffFrequencies.htm

 

Quote

Sound engineers and sound designers ("ear people") mostly use the usual (sound) field quantity. That'swhy they say:
The cutoff frequency of a device (microphone, amplifier, loudspeaker) is the frequency at which the output voltage level is decreased to a value of (−)3 dB below the input voltage level (0 dB).
● (−)3 dB corresponds to a factor of √½ = 1/√2 = 0.7071, which is 70.71% of the input voltage.
 
Acousticians and sound protectors ("noise fighters") seem to like more the (sound) energy quantity. They tell us:
The cutoff frequency of a device (microphone, amplifier, loudspeaker) is the frequency at which the output power level is decreased to a value of (−)3 dB below the input power level (0 dB).
● (−)3 dB corresponds to a factor of ½ = 0.5, which is 50% of the input power (half the value).