The true experimental tweak thread

[mozes]

21 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

No, but I will in due time. Before attempting to power it via the DC input I want to optimize the setup I have now for a fair trial.

sounds good, enjoy optimizing

[Cornan]

Just now, mozes said:

sounds good, enjoy optimizing

 

Thanks, I will! One thing I can try when I get my both Gophert floating PSUs is to make a Y-cable and let Aries Mini and Brooklyn DAC share one Gophert set to 14V/5A. As I understand it Brooklyn is fine with max 14v and Aries needs minimum 14V, so it should work! ?

[mozes]

1 minute ago, Cornan said:

 

Thanks, I will! One thing I can try when I get my both Gophert floating PSUs is to make a Y-cable and let Aries Mini and Brooklyn DAC share one Gophert set to 14V/5A. As I understand it Brooklyn is fine with max 14v and Aries needs minimum 14V, so it should work! ?

Have you tried to compare the Gophert against a LPS?

[Cornan]

8 minutes ago, mozes said:

Have you tried to compare the Gophert against a LPS?

 

Yes, I have compared it to Voltcraft FSP-1134 11-14v floating LPS. Voltcraft sounds slightly better, but not by much. The thing with Gophert is the flexibility and the fact that I can "make everything float"! ? It is the floating part and the use of less power supplies in the chain that is a bit of a game changer for me personally. Gophert have a 0-16v/10A floating PSU that I might take instead to power the Brooklyn plus Aries Mini. I'll guess more amperage will not hurt!

[mozes]

4 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

Yes, I have compared it to Voltcraft FSP-1134 11-14v floating LPS. Voltcraft sounds slightly better, but not by much. The thing with Gophert is the flexibility and the fact that I can "make everything float"! ? It is the floating part and the use of less power supplies in the chain that is a bit of a game changer for me personally. Gophert have a 0-16v/10A floating PSU that I might take instead to power the Brooklyn plus Aries Mini. I'll guess more amperage will not hurt!

Waw 10 Amps, that little thing is a beast! and it would be costly to have 10A in a LPS

[Cornan]

22 minutes ago, mozes said:

Waw 10 Amps, that little thing is a beast! and it would be costly to have 10A in a LPS

 

Then this Gophert will impress you even more! ?

 

GOPHERT CPS-1620 0-16V 0-20A Compact Digital Adjustable DC Power Supply 110V/220V
https://banggood.app.link/mBo9I70hBD

[ElviaCaprice]

39 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

Yes, I have compared it to Voltcraft FSP-1134 11-14v floating LPS. Voltcraft sounds slightly better, but not by much. The thing with Gophert is the flexibility and the fact that I can "make everything float"! ? It is the floating part and the use of less power supplies in the chain that is a bit of a game changer for me personally. Gophert have a 0-16v/10A floating PSU that I might take instead to power the Brooklyn plus Aries Mini. I'll guess more amperage will not hurt!

 

Not to pour cold water on your fun for tweaking but I don't find this comparison so promising.  If a low quality LPS can beat your DIY Gophert, then how much better would a high quality LPS like a LPS-1 be, or a Paul Hynes?

[mozes]

23 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

Then this Gophert will impress you even more! ?

 

GOPHERT CPS-1620 0-16V 0-20A Compact Digital Adjustable DC Power Supply 110V/220V
https://banggood.app.link/mBo9I70hBD

BTW I don't underestimate switching power supplies. They have the potential to sound as good as if not better than other LPS.

Linn, for example, managed to find a way to make switching power sound amazing and that's  why they have a nice sexy cute boxes which I may switch to from Naim if I ever decide to do that one day

[Cornan]

10 minutes ago, ElviaCaprice said:

 

Not to pour cold water on your fun for tweaking but I don't find this comparison so promising.  If a low quality LPS can beat your DIY Gophert, then how much better would a high quality LPS like a LPS-1 be, or a Paul Hynes?

 

No problem! You can draw any conclusions you'll want from it. That's the whole point with this thread. I know for sure that LPS-1s feeder supply is not floating relatively to the safety ground and my guess is that Paul Hynes is not either. You can ofcourse add them to a isolation transformer with floating secondary and most likely ends up better, but is it same value for money? You will not know until you have tried! ?

[Middy]

I did stage one of my Sbooster 13v Mod.

Swapped out the main cable up to the power splitter. 4S6 Canare. OMG the improvement is suprising. 

The aim is to replace as much internal wiring as possible and hard wire my IFI DC IPURIFIER.  It's just gone so much cleaner and holo graphic. There are internal switch's but I can only hard wire one that's obvious. If I can find a small enough hex key I'll try the ifi as well tonight. ..if I have time.

More to say hello all and wish you well

Cheers

Dave

Wish me luck

[ElviaCaprice]

6 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

No problem! You can draw any conclusions you'll want from it. That's the whole point with this thread. I know for sure that LPS-1s feeder supply is not floating relatively to the safety ground and my guess is that Paul Hynes is not either. You can ofcourse add them to a isolation transformer with floating secondary and most likely ends up better, but is it same value for money? You will not know until you have tried! ?

 

I think I'm fairly confident that from your comparison with the Voltcraft that it wouldn't even be close.  I don't need to try, you already did.

I do use an isolation transformer, which was a fantastic cheap add on.

[mozes]

6 minutes ago, Middy said:

I did stage one of my Sbooster 13v Mod.

Swapped out the main cable up to the power splitter. 4S6 Canare. OMG the improvement is suprising. 

The aim is to replace as much internal wiring as possible and hard wire my IFI DC IPURIFIER.  It's just gone so much cleaner and holo graphic. There are internal switch's but I can only hard wire one that's obvious. If I can find a small enough hex key I'll try the ifi as well tonight. ..if I have time.

More to say hello all and wish you well

Cheers

Dave

Wish me luck

Dave, those are my favourite posts, I love DIY mods especially that you don't know what to expect 

well done and thanks for sharing!

[Cornan]

7 minutes ago, mozes said:

BTW I don't underestimate switching power supplies. They have the potential to sound as good as if not better than other LPS.

Linn, for example, managed to find a way to make switching power sound amazing and that's  why they have a nice sexy cute boxes which I may switch to from Naim if I ever decide to do that one day

 

I am also convinced that SMPS can be a great choise. I am equally convinced that ground isolation is a must with SMPS, to prevent leakage loops. Both Naim and Linn makes awesome products. I would'nt mind having a Linn Klimax DS 3, but I would have to sell my body to rich old widows to finance that purchase! ?

[Cornan]

9 minutes ago, Middy said:

I did stage one of my Sbooster 13v Mod.

Swapped out the main cable up to the power splitter. 4S6 Canare. OMG the improvement is suprising. 

The aim is to replace as much internal wiring as possible and hard wire my IFI DC IPURIFIER.  It's just gone so much cleaner and holo graphic. There are internal switch's but I can only hard wire one that's obvious. If I can find a small enough hex key I'll try the ifi as well tonight. ..if I have time.

More to say hello all and wish you well

Cheers

Dave

Wish me luck

 

Thanks for sharing Dave! Very interesting and inspiring findings! ? I must check if I have anything else I can "starquad"! ?

 

[mozes]

2 minutes ago, Cornan said:

 

I am also convinced that SMPS can be a great choise. I am equally convinced that ground isolation is a must with SMPS, to prevent leakage loops. Both Naim and Linn makes awesome products. I would'nt mind having a Linn Klimax DS 3, but I would have to sell my body to rich old widows to finance that purchase! ?

Linn Klimax DS 3, I may give them my car for it but not sure they will accept

A lot of hardcore Naimees are using the Linn Klimax DS as a source with their big Naim systems. Great synergy!

[Cornan]

3 minutes ago, mozes said:

Linn Klimax DS 3, I may give them my car for it but not sure they will accept

A lot of hardcore Naimees are using the Linn Klimax DS as a source with their big Naim systems. Great synergy!

 

Not even my car would be enough for a new DS 3! ? I have owned a bunch of Linn products during the years (Linn Kolektor, Linn LK140, Linn Basik plus, Linn silver ICs etc). I bought them all second hand and have always been very happy with them. I can only imagine how good their top range sounds like! ?

[Middy]

My God it's been a nightmare but half way there. Nail varnish remover scapel and a heat gun to break the araldite epoxy in 4 places. and remove the male female connectors. DC IPURIFIER  with first cable in place.

Had to drill out the holes so it may work or not... Back after dinner the baby is hungry

 

 

[Cornan]

25 minutes ago, Middy said:

My God it's been a nightmare but half way there. Nail varnish remover scapel and a heat gun to break the araldite epoxy in 4 places. and remove the male female connectors. DC IPURIFIER  with first cable in place.

Had to drill out the holes so it may work or not... Back after dinner the baby is hungry

 

 

 

Great work Dave! I admire your fearless tactics. What can possibly go wrong? ? I will follow this nail-biter with great interest! ?

 

[Middy]

Made one mistake but the continuity part of my multimeter saved me.

Warming up the pcb makes desoldering so much easier with solder braid wick.

I need to make some small support grommets but in the end it worked

Sounds a bit better with this part 3 ifi hack... but the main cable was the biggest boost using quad.

The post pigtail and desoldered IFI DC IPURIFIER just adds that little more being hard soldered. Just didn't want it to beat me. The wife's not happy me beavering away until midnight....

Some pics for the audio voyeuristic amongst us.

Picture overload but one 13v SBooster and IFI DC PURIFIER MOD....DONE

Thanks for the support 

Good luck

Dave

 

[Cornan]

6 hours ago, Middy said:

Made one mistake but the continuity part of my multimeter saved me.

Warming up the pcb makes desoldering so much easier with solder braid wick.

I need to make some small support grommets but in the end it worked

Sounds a bit better with this part 3 ifi hack... but the main cable was the biggest boost using quad.

The post pigtail and desoldered IFI DC IPURIFIER just adds that little more being hard soldered. Just didn't want it to beat me. The wife's not happy me beavering away until midnight....

Some pics for the audio voyeuristic amongst us.

Picture overload but one 13v SBooster and IFI DC PURIFIER MOD....DONE

Thanks for the support 

Good luck

Dave

 

 

Awesome Dave! I wish I had your soldering skills!  

I see some copper foil there as well. Did you use it on both the Sbooster psu and the DC purifier?

 

[Middy]

Ah that's from our old shielding experiments. They were for the caps on the DC converter side. The Toroidal transformer wrapped in MU metal for extra Magnetic shielding. No real change I could hear but it stayed...

Quad main cable was the one. Acting as a nice filter.

Thanks mate

Dave

[Cornan]

10 minutes ago, Middy said:

Ah that's from our old shielding experiments. They were for the caps on the DC converter side. The Toroidal transformer wrapped in MU metal for extra Magnetic shielding. No real change I could hear but it stayed...

Quad main cable was the one. Acting as a nice filter.

Thanks mate

Dave

 

I actually thought about doing a shield experiment some day using JS cable shielding ideas with a drain wire across the copper shield that is not connected to anything (well, maybe to a grounding box). Just not sure what to shield just yet since I prefer my cables/ICs (almost) naked!

 

[Middy]

It's your sauna culture you have. 

I am suprised you don't roll your hifi in snow and beat it with twigs.

Any excuse to get naked

 

 

[Cornan]

8 minutes ago, Middy said:

It's your sauna culture you have. 

I am suprised you don't roll your hifi in snow and beat it with twigs.

Any excuse to get naked

 

 

 

I am not a Viking for nothing! Viking genes is deeply embedded into my naked body and have been passed by from generation to generations. These days we participate in hifi battles instead of exploring the world and plunder innocent foreign villages in the search for hidden treasures! Same same, but different!  

[Cornan]

Today I made some small changes in my low budget setup while the rest of the family was away for a couple of hours. I got the DC2,1 to micro USB adaptors and finally got rid of these.

 

 

I also free up a screw terminal USB male so I could use it to ground my pocket router.

Here is the changes high-lighted.

 

 

Here is how it looks without the magnifiers.

 

 

Before I made the changes I listened to Elsiane's new album "Death of the Artist". Awesome album! ?

 

 

After I made these changes I listened to the same album again. Bigger improvement than expected. Improved low end bass, better sense of space and less clinical was my initial impression. These Canare 4S6 starquad really works wonder where ever applied. Ofcourse grounding the pocket router also helped some for the final result with a magnified background and clearer hights.

I'm happy! ?