Lush^2 - Share your configuration experiences

[elcorso]

6 hours ago, tims said:

What helped me figure it out is referring to this diagram:

How the pins are connected are at the bottom left of the diagram above: 4 pins (positions 1,2,3,4) are connected together; with the other 2 pins (5 & 6) also connected together (but not to 1,2,3,4). 

Then its just a matter of figuring out what wires need to be joined together by using the above connector.

For A: B-Y & W-R; B: B-Y & W-R is:

A: pins 1-2 (for B-Y) & 5-6 (for W-R)

B: pins 1-2 (for B-Y) & 5-6 (for W-R)

 

For another configuration say;

A: B-Y & W-R; B: B-Y 

A: pins 1-2 (for B-Y) & 5-6 (for W-R)

B: pins 1-2 (for B-Y) with wires W&R are left hanging; not connected to anything.

 

 

Very good graphic explanation !

 

That's why I think it's better to publish a photo of the cable, showing the A & B connectors of the Lush ^ 2,  every time a new alternative of the pin-out It is applied ...

 

Roch

[tims]

7 hours ago, BigAlMc said:

 

Thanks Tims,

 

Maybe it's just me but still too complicated.

 

If we assume it always starts from the red dots then would the following not be simpler:

 

A: B Y - - R W

 

Just put the colours in order and indicate which are left empty with dashes. Even a slow type like me could follow that without needing to ask for photos ?

 

Cheers,

Alan

Yes, good idea; nice and simple.

 

[RickyV]

I got my lush^2 last friday and have been burning it in almost 24/4. Tomorrow i will start playing with the shields. So far i have listend only a few moments to it. The problem is last friday i also got a new set of power supply capacitors for my preamp (mundorf Ag and Panasonic fm) so pre amp is also burning in and will probably sound different/ better. Sounded bad the first two days,  always scary did something go wrong ?

Tomorrow i will know more.

[zettelsm]

I’ve had my Lush^2 for eight days, so I’ve (barely) had time to get enough hours on it to break it in and try a couple of configurations. But I figure I’ll do my bit to throw in my two cents and maybe participate in some consensus-building — or at least offer some additional data points.

 

I’m coming from using an original Lush between a Innuos Zenith MKII STD running Roon and a Chord DAVE DAC.

 

Since I was familiar with and really liked the original Lush, and I had been reading about the JSSG adventures on another CA thread, when I received the Lush^2 I set it up in the JSSG360 configuration: A: B-W & Y-R B: B-W & Y-R

 

I generally only have time to sit down and listen to music with my undivided attention for an hour or two later in the evenings. Since I leave everything energized except my amplifier when not listening, I get snap-shots of a new piece of kit as it breaks in in 24 hour increments. But break-in goes fairly quickly — four evenings and I’m close to 100 hours, a week and a day and I’m approaching 200 hours. Still, I may need to go back and re-visit this first configuration because I heard some really dramatic tonality and presentation shifts over this first 100 hours.

 

Initially, fresh out of the shipping envelope, my impression was of a large, expansive soundstage, deep bass and somewhat recessed high frequencies, lacking transient snap or PRAT. Still, it sounded promising and I thought the soundstage and imaging already surpassed my original Lush. Since it took well over 100 hours for the high frequencies and transient energy to really fill in with my first Lush, I was content to let the break-in process continue and hear where it went with this configuration.

 

24 hours in and I thought things actually got worse — not only were the highs still missing in action, things sounded billowy and diffuse and very slow and muddled. 

 

50 hours and the sound stage was back to being more precise and expansive, images re-gained weight and definition, and the highs were beginning to catch up to the rest of the frequency spectrum. Rhythm and musical momentum also improved. So, back to sounding promising.

 

At 75 hours, the metamorphosis was quite nice — I thought the Lush^2 in JSSG360 configuration was very balanced top to bottom with a very wide soundstage featuring moderate depth, good energy, and clear highs with only a tiny bit of edge on the highest frequencies, which I chalked up to the inherent sound of less favored digital mastering — I hear this same bit of edge with the original Lush cable as well. On the whole, I thought the Lush^2 an improvement over the already good Lush.

 

For the next listening session I started up listening to a few selections with the cable still in the JSSG360 configuration, and then switched to: A: B-W & Y-R B: B-W

 

My impression of this configuration was that it has everything the previous JSSG360 configuration had — big soundstage, solid images, deep bass, present midrange and decent energy and added the most realistic sounding vocals I’d heard to date from digitally sourced music on my system. Really quite lovely to listen to music, particularly anything featuring the human voice. And, the high frequency edge that sometimes intruded was completely gone, unless the recording itself was a really egregious specimen of digital-sounding engineering.

 

I was very content to listen to this configuration for the rest of the evening and the next. However I started thinking that the reason the midrange and voices were so beautiful, and the high frequencies so edge-free was because there was some essential upper range energy missing. On some music it didn’t really matter, but for other pieces it seemed a little lacking. So, moving along I tried this one next: A: B-Y & W-R B: B-Y & W-R

 

This really is quite a stunning configuration. To my ears it has it all — deep articulate bass, extended grain-free highs, spooky realistic midrange, wide and deep soundstage, strong dynamics with lots of transient pop and rhythmic swing. It also had that elusive, quivery, energize the room presence that real live music has. It was very hard to tear myself away from the stereo last night and I didn’t get to bed before midnight. I’m very much looking forward to sitting down tonight and enjoying more music.

 

If this keeps getting better and better — wow.

 

Steve Z

 

 

[austinpop]

5 minutes ago, zettelsm said:

I’ve had my Lush^2 for eight days, so I’ve (barely) had time to get enough hours on it to break it in and try a couple of configurations. But I figure I’ll do my bit to throw in my two cents and maybe participate in some consensus-building — or at least offer some additional data points.

 

I’m coming from using an original Lush between a Innuos Zenith MKII STD running Roon and a Chord DAVE DAC.

 

Since I was familiar with and really liked the original Lush, and I had been reading about the JSSG adventures on another CA thread, when I received the Lush^2 I set it up in the JSSG360 configuration: A: B-W & Y-R B: B-W & Y-R

 

I generally only have time to sit down and listen to music with my undivided attention for an hour or two later in the evenings. Since I leave everything energized except my amplifier when not listening, I get snap-shots of a new piece of kit as it breaks in in 24 hour increments. But break-in goes fairly quickly — four evenings and I’m close to 100 hours, a week and a day and I’m approaching 200 hours. Still, I may need to go back and re-visit this first configuration because I heard some really dramatic tonality and presentation shifts over this first 100 hours.

 

Initially, fresh out of the shipping envelope, my impression was of a large, expansive soundstage, deep bass and somewhat recessed high frequencies, lacking transient snap or PRAT. Still, it sounded promising and I thought the soundstage and imaging already surpassed my original Lush. Since it took well over 100 hours for the high frequencies and transient energy to really fill in with my first Lush, I was content to let the break-in process continue and hear where it went with this configuration.

 

24 hours in and I thought things actually got worse — not only were the highs still missing in action, things sounded billowy and diffuse and very slow and muddled. 

 

50 hours and the sound stage was back to being more precise and expansive, images re-gained weight and definition, and the highs were beginning to catch up to the rest of the frequency spectrum. Rhythm and musical momentum also improved. So, back to sounding promising.

 

At 75 hours, the metamorphosis was quite nice — I thought the Lush^2 in JSSG360 configuration was very balanced top to bottom with a very wide soundstage featuring moderate depth, good energy, and clear highs with only a tiny bit of edge on the highest frequencies, which I chalked up to the inherent sound of less favored digital mastering — I hear this same bit of edge with the original Lush cable as well. On the whole, I thought the Lush^2 an improvement over the already good Lush.

 

For the next listening session I started up listening to a few selections with the cable still in the JSSG360 configuration, and then switched to: A: B-W & Y-R B: B-W

 

My impression of this configuration was that it has everything the previous JSSG360 configuration had — big soundstage, solid images, deep bass, present midrange and decent energy and added the most realistic sounding vocals I’d heard to date from digitally sourced music on my system. Really quite lovely to listen to music, particularly anything featuring the human voice. And, the high frequency edge that sometimes intruded was completely gone, unless the recording itself was a really egregious specimen of digital-sounding engineering.

 

I was very content to listen to this configuration for the rest of the evening and the next. However I started thinking that the reason the midrange and voices were so beautiful, and the high frequencies so edge-free was because there was some essential upper range energy missing. On some music it didn’t really matter, but for other pieces it seemed a little lacking. So, moving along I tried this one next: A: B-Y & W-R B: B-Y & W-R

 

This really is quite a stunning configuration. To my ears it has it all — deep articulate bass, extended grain-free highs, spooky realistic midrange, wide and deep soundstage, strong dynamics with lots of transient pop and rhythmic swing. It also had that elusive, quivery, energize the room presence that real live music has. It was very hard to tear myself away from the stereo last night and I didn’t get to bed before midnight. I’m very much looking forward to sitting down tonight and enjoying more music.

 

If this keeps getting better and better — wow.

 

Steve Z

 

 

 

Thanks for an incredibly helpful set of data points. I was sitting on the fence about getting a Lush^2, since I already have 2 JSSG 360'd Lushes in my system, but you may have tipped me over the edge to contact @PeterSt about getting a Lush^2 to try out.

 

Zounds!

 

 

[elcorso]

32 minutes ago, zettelsm said:

I’ve had my Lush^2 for eight days, so I’ve (barely) had time to get enough hours on it to break it in and try a couple of configurations. But I figure I’ll do my bit to throw in my two cents and maybe participate in some consensus-building — or at least offer some additional data points.

 

I’m coming from using an original Lush between a Innuos Zenith MKII STD running Roon and a Chord DAVE DAC.

 

Since I was familiar with and really liked the original Lush, and I had been reading about the JSSG adventures on another CA thread, when I received the Lush^2 I set it up in the JSSG360 configuration: A: B-W & Y-R B: B-W & Y-R

 

I generally only have time to sit down and listen to music with my undivided attention for an hour or two later in the evenings. Since I leave everything energized except my amplifier when not listening, I get snap-shots of a new piece of kit as it breaks in in 24 hour increments. But break-in goes fairly quickly — four evenings and I’m close to 100 hours, a week and a day and I’m approaching 200 hours. Still, I may need to go back and re-visit this first configuration because I heard some really dramatic tonality and presentation shifts over this first 100 hours.

 

Initially, fresh out of the shipping envelope, my impression was of a large, expansive soundstage, deep bass and somewhat recessed high frequencies, lacking transient snap or PRAT. Still, it sounded promising and I thought the soundstage and imaging already surpassed my original Lush. Since it took well over 100 hours for the high frequencies and transient energy to really fill in with my first Lush, I was content to let the break-in process continue and hear where it went with this configuration.

 

24 hours in and I thought things actually got worse — not only were the highs still missing in action, things sounded billowy and diffuse and very slow and muddled. 

 

50 hours and the sound stage was back to being more precise and expansive, images re-gained weight and definition, and the highs were beginning to catch up to the rest of the frequency spectrum. Rhythm and musical momentum also improved. So, back to sounding promising.

 

At 75 hours, the metamorphosis was quite nice — I thought the Lush^2 in JSSG360 configuration was very balanced top to bottom with a very wide soundstage featuring moderate depth, good energy, and clear highs with only a tiny bit of edge on the highest frequencies, which I chalked up to the inherent sound of less favored digital mastering — I hear this same bit of edge with the original Lush cable as well. On the whole, I thought the Lush^2 an improvement over the already good Lush.

 

For the next listening session I started up listening to a few selections with the cable still in the JSSG360 configuration, and then switched to: A: B-W & Y-R B: B-W

 

My impression of this configuration was that it has everything the previous JSSG360 configuration had — big soundstage, solid images, deep bass, present midrange and decent energy and added the most realistic sounding vocals I’d heard to date from digitally sourced music on my system. Really quite lovely to listen to music, particularly anything featuring the human voice. And, the high frequency edge that sometimes intruded was completely gone, unless the recording itself was a really egregious specimen of digital-sounding engineering.

 

I was very content to listen to this configuration for the rest of the evening and the next. However I started thinking that the reason the midrange and voices were so beautiful, and the high frequencies so edge-free was because there was some essential upper range energy missing. On some music it didn’t really matter, but for other pieces it seemed a little lacking. So, moving along I tried this one next: A: B-Y & W-R B: B-Y & W-R

 

This really is quite a stunning configuration. To my ears it has it all — deep articulate bass, extended grain-free highs, spooky realistic midrange, wide and deep soundstage, strong dynamics with lots of transient pop and rhythmic swing. It also had that elusive, quivery, energize the room presence that real live music has. It was very hard to tear myself away from the stereo last night and I didn’t get to bed before midnight. I’m very much looking forward to sitting down tonight and enjoying more music.

 

If this keeps getting better and better — wow.

 

Steve Z

 

 

  

I agree with you, Steve.  This is my favorite configuration for several days !

 

But... I will try tonight A: B-Y & W-R, B: B-Y , the last one suggested by @PeterSt that disappeared since then ?

 

Roch

[fas42]

33 minutes ago, zettelsm said:

This really is quite a stunning configuration. To my ears it has it all — deep articulate bass, extended grain-free highs, spooky realistic midrange, wide and deep soundstage, strong dynamics with lots of transient pop and rhythmic swing. It also had that elusive, quivery, energize the room presence that real live music has. It was very hard to tear myself away from the stereo last night and I didn’t get to bed before midnight. I’m very much looking forward to sitting down tonight and enjoying more music.

 

If this keeps getting better and better — wow.

 

Steve Z

 

 

I enjoy reading when people get a burst of competent sound - confirmation that the virus,  , is spreading ...

[PeterSt]

1 hour ago, zettelsm said:

If this keeps getting better and better — wow.

 

Steve, what a great read ...

[zettelsm]

Thank you, guys. And thanks very much Peter for making this innovative cable available. As opposed to some things I’ve tried in the past there is no ambiguity, at least so far, hearing the contributions of the various configurations. Very gratifying.

 

Steve Z

 

Oh, and I have to update my signature to reflect the Lush^2 — it’s definitely a keeper!

[elcorso]

Just trying now:  A: B-Y & W-R, B: B-Y

 

 

Best 'immediacy' of all the settings tested !

 

Sneak preview (I'm very tired tonight):

 

Extraordinary bass punch, depth and after-tone echo (don't know the exact English description).

 

Extraordinary midrange & upper highs, best noticed in guitar & bass guitar, and human voice. Extraordinary over-tones!

 

Lower highs (or upper midrange?), some doubts in human voice.  Singer to close to microphone or cruel microphone?  Must check a lot of human voice recordings ...

 

More time listening necessary ...

 

Good night,

 

Roch

 

PS/ Admired for all the possibilities allowed by this cable, making it fine tuned for each system and taste !

[zettelsm]

Thank you, Roch. That sounds very intriguing. I appreciate you taking the time to post your impressions.

 

I had another very, very enjoyable evening listening to music. Still in A: B-Y & W-R B: B-Y & W-R configuration. Yesterday evening I played a variety of classic rock — Yes’ (The Ladder), Elton John (Madman Across the Water), ZZ Top ( Rhythmeen — note to PeterSt: it must be the recording ‘cuz I don’t hear much bass either), Genesis (A Trick Of The Tail — Squonk is awesome!), most of the Stones’ Undercover album.

 

Tonight was more jazzy and poppy — Marian Hill, Janelle Monae, Esperanza Spaulding, FKA Twigs, Bishop Briggs, with some Hiromi  Uehara Trio (Move), Duke Ellington (Indigos) and Charles Lloyd (Rabo de Nube) for good measure. Thoroughly absorbing and emotionally captivating.

 

Something else I’ve noticed about this configuration is common in my experience with other really good components — not only does this cable make me want to play music louder than I usually do because everything sounds so good, it also lets me play music at a lower volume than normal while still retaining life and vibrancy and interest rather than becoming background music. 

 

Still your description of A: B-Y & W-R B: B-Y is very compelling, Roch. You are sorely tempting me to give this a try tomorrow evening!

 

Steve Z

[PeterSt]

Thank you Roch. And thank you for the photo !

 

2 hours ago, elcorso said:

Lower highs (or upper midrange?), some doubts in human voice.  Singer to close to microphone or cruel microphone?  Must check a lot of human voice recordings ...

 

It is my idea that this frequency area can be tested by means of Enigma - they show gray highs when really "wrong" up to normal cymbals when optimal (whatever that is). Generally the synthesized highs of the 80's will improve. Or even disco Donna Summer may start to be normal.

 

I am still on the A: B-Y & W-R, B: B-Y (the one you are reporting about) but I don't have many hours on it and I wouldn't know how to describe it either. This could be because of an "all good".

 

The 9 cables which ship today will ship with this A: B-Y & W-R, B: B-Y config. I mean, I thought it to be stupid to ship them with the basic JSSG 360 which for the Lush^2 is a random config out of the uncountable,  which per se does not sound the best at all (the contrary).

 

 

[PeterSt]

Funny ...

 

11 minutes ago, zettelsm said:

Genesis (A Trick Of The Tail — Squonk is awesome!)

 

I played exactly that one (re my earlier post).

 

11 minutes ago, zettelsm said:

Rhythmeen — note to PeterSt: it must be the recording ‘cuz I don’t hear much bass either

 

... with the same Lush^2 config. Hahaha.

 

11 minutes ago, zettelsm said:

You are sorely tempting me to give this a try tomorrow evening!

 

It would be true that when we all start to describe our experiences *and* they would convey a truth for all, we might end up with a config for each day or mood. So many USB cables in one ...

 

Thank you again for your contribution, Steve.

Peter

[manisandher]

9 hours ago, PeterSt said:

The 9 cables which ship today...

 

Just got a shipping notification from UPS ?.

 

Mani.

[PeterSt]

 

15 minutes ago, manisandher said:

Just got a shipping notification from UPS ?.

 

Yep. One of these is yours ...

 

 

 

 

 

[Jiffi32]

10 minutes ago, PeterSt said:

 

 

Yep. One of these is yours ...

 

 

 

 

 

Out of curiosity what lengths  are in the pictures? 

Are they 0.4 0.7 and 1m

[elcorso]

10 hours ago, PeterSt said:

So many USB cables in one ...

 

Thank you again for your contribution, Steve.

Peter

 

Bold is mine,

 

A music lover friend told me he wants the Lush^2 , but maybe he will wait for Lush^3...

 

I believe the Lush^2 must be renamed as Lush^∞ !!!

 

Roch

 

[rando]

L3SH   © ® 

LSH © ®

LVSH   © ®

 

[PeterSt]

5 hours ago, Jiffi32 said:

Out of curiosity what lengths  are in the pictures? 

Are they 0.4 0.7 and 1m

 

Yes they are !

[RickyV]

Pitty i can’t report much only that i have too many changes i my system. Pre-amp not up to scratch jet and i had to remove my iso regen because the clocking cable solder joint broke.

So far:

1: Lush^1 original

2: lush^2 jssg 360  wasn’t hearing it.

3: all in serial A: b-w & y-r B: w-y & r-b  noting special to report spooky?

4: A: b-w&r-y  B: w-b   Indeed spatial but bass muddy 

5: A: B-Y & W-R, B: B-Y Neo the one? Indeed sounded really well balanced and spatail.

 Need more burn-in, ears tired.? and repair iso regen.

[Lobbster]

Thought I might add my thoughts as well. 

 

I started on the Default config, which was backward on my cable, but that was ok cuz it was the same at both ends. I used that config for about 4 hours. Then I did the JSSG360 mod on my BJ6A Ethernet Patch Cable going to my Endpoint and was pleasantly surprised at all the new details I was hearing. So I switched the Lush^2 to the JSSG360 config and been burning it in for about 60 hours and have no reason to try anything else right now (except for curiosity).

 

With all these 'recipies' I've been challenged by the 4 wires plus jumpers to 6 pins thing. Does it make more sense to show which pin the wire is connected to, ie. JSSG360 A:W1/B2 J3/4 Y5/R6  B: W1/B2 J3/4 Y5/R6

 

Dunno, but what about the middle pins....

[Lobbster]

On 9/4/2018 at 4:20 PM, zettelsm said:

For the next listening session I started up listening to a few selections with the cable still in the JSSG360 configuration, and then switched to: A: B-W & Y-R B: B-W

@PeterSt @zettelsm In this configuration (B: B-W) are you using a jumper on pin 5 & 6 or are they open?

(Presuming jumper is on pins 3 & 4 on both ends)

[elcorso]

14 minutes ago, Lobbster said:

@PeterSt @zettelsm In this configuration (B: B-W) are you using a jumper on pin 5 & 6 or are they open?

(Presuming jumper is on pins 3 & 4 on both ends)

 

Pins 1, 2 ,3 & 4 are connected to each other.

 

Pins 5 & 6 are separated form the above, but connected between them.

 

Then, in the B connector B-W means connected together the two cables, or B+W.

So you can connect this two cables to pin 1 & 2, or, to 5 & 6 jumper pins.  

 

The remaining two cables Y & R not connected to nothing.

 

Roch

[zettelsm]

35 minutes ago, Lobbster said:

@PeterSt @zettelsm In this configuration (B: B-W) are you using a jumper on pin 5 & 6 or are they open?

(Presuming jumper is on pins 3 & 4 on both ends)

 

Check out the lower left image from the diagram near the top of the thread. The pin with the red dot and the next three pins are all connected together. The last two pins, that is, the two pins farthest from the red dot are also connected together, but not to the first four pins.

 

The convention established by PeterSt is that the first conductor listed is placed on the pin with the red dot. In this case it would be the black conductor. Any other conductors listed with a dash — symbol are to be connected to the first conductor, so will go on the next pin, and so forth, up to four total. In this case, only white is to be connected to black, as in B-W. The removable plastic jumpers are provided to protect the unused pins from being accidently shorted out, so in this case counting from the red dot, pins 3 and 4 are covered by a jumper. Since the remaining two conductors are not connected to anything and left hanging, pins 5 and 6 can also be covered by the remaining jumper.

 

I suppose it is confusing because we normally think of jumpers as being used to connect adjacent pins togeither electrically. However in this case the six pin header is doing the connecting and the jumpers are only covering the unused pins.

 

Now, in the example A: B-W & Y-R B: B-W-Y-R on the A (flat) connector end of the cable, black is connected to the pin with the red dot (pin 1) and white is placed on the pin next to it. Pins 3 and 4 are not used and are covered by a jumper. Yellow is to be connected to red but not to black or white, so we use pins 5 and 6, which are connected together in the pin header, to accomplish this. On the B (keystone) connector end of the cable in this new example, black, white, yellow and red are to be connected together, so black goes on the pin with the red dot (pin 1), white (pin 2), yellow (pin 3) and red (pin 4). A jumper is placed over unused pins 5 and 6.

 

Clear as mud?

 

Steve Z

 

 

 

 

[Lobbster]

37 minutes ago, zettelsm said:

Clear as mud?

 

Ahhhhh, now I get it!

 

Thanks.