The EtherREGEN thread for various network, cable, power experiences and experiments

[ray-dude]

Quick initial impressions from some power experiments

 

Mac Mini (Roon server) -> stock enet -> stock switch -> stock ethernet cable -> EtherRegen -> Startech CAT7 (6") -> NUC i7 running Euphony HQPlayer -> Lush^2 -> LPS 1.2/ISO Regen -> Lush^2 -> Chord DAVE (dedicated 30A circuit, Isolation transformer, etc) -> Voxative 9.87 speakers (4D driver) direct (no amp)

 

Switched from the stock ER PS to a PowerAdd Pilot2 laptop batter at 12V (no ground wire, single cable to upstream side, single cable to downstream side).  Detail on bass tightened up noticeably, and attacks seem sharper (both pleasant surprises!).  Giving it an extended listen right now, before coming to any conclusion.

 

Next will be to switch to optical input on the ER to see what that does.   I'll report back when I have more listening time

 

 

[ray-dude]

I'll eliminate the switch Alex, but unfortunately my server is literally in my closet (with storage drives, etc) right by my internet router so not easy to move around.  I'll experiment with taking the line from my router to the generic switch directly to ER, and with putting gigabit media converter going from stock switch to ER and router to ER.  May not be until the weekend though.

 

(v2 upgrade was painless and flawless BTW...thank you for making it so easy to do)

[ray-dude]

Curiosity got the best of me.  Quick test with the generic switch out of the path (router direct to ER, only one connection into ER and one connection out) and the difference is basically gone now.  If I do a confirmation bias squint, I maybe hear a VERY slight difference, but if its there, vanishingly small (6 guesses out of 10 difference, vs 8 or 9 guesses out of 10 before) .  Very interesting!

 

I need to get back to work (alas), so will resist playing with the media converter in the mix.

 

Alex, was there anything behind your suggestion?  Would be interesting to have a hypothesis on what mechanisms might be at play here.

[ray-dude]

 

Some more critical listening tests this morning.  I simplified my chain to free up a LPS 1.2 and make interpreting what's happening easier:

 

Mac Mini (Roon server) -> stock enet -> stock switch (in closet connected to router) -> Dacrown cat8 ethernet cable (5') -> EtherRegen -> Startech Cat 7 ethernet cable (6") -> NUC i7 running Euphony HQPlayer -> Lush^2 -> Chord DAVE (dedicated 30A circuit, Isolation transformer, etc) -> Voxativ 9.87 speakers (4D driver) direct (no amp)

 

I have only one ethernet cable coming to the A side of ER, so I am not grounding the ER when using these various supplies (although that is worth a future test I think).

 

I bypassed the stock switch by my AV setup since this improved bass detail and dynamics considerably (I was stock switch to stock switch before...hadn't noted it in my original post since I didn't think it mattered).

 

First, I looked at various power sources for the EtherRegen: stock Uptone SMPS (7.5V), PowerAdd Pilot2 laptop battery (12V) (mains isolation, but not the best current reserves or voltage regulation), Uptone LPS 1.2 (12V) (mains isolate, great supply), and Paul Hynes SR4 (12V) (great voltage regulation and current reserves).  

 

For this test, I mainly focused on bass detail/imaging, and dynamics (a good tell for me for what ER brings to the table. I used several test tracks, but an example is Tikk Bronner "A Thousand Kisses Deep" from Nightfall, and Diana Krall "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams" from All For You.  For this eval, I was mainly focusing on the sense of space and presence I'm getting from the bass, but the benefits of the ER (as I hear and many have reported) are more than that.

 

First I confirmed that with the extra switch between my closet switch and the ER, detail was lost with the stock Uptone PS (it was) but better with the PP2 battery (it was).  Better configuration was going straight to the ethernet jack by my AV setup, bypassing with stock switch in my AV setup.

 

In this configuration, I went through the various power options and rated them as follows:

 

Going direct from NUC to wall ethernet (no ER)        1

ER + Stock ER PS (7.5V) with extra switch in path    2

ER + Stock ER PS (7.5V)                                            4

ER + PP2 battery (12V)                                             4.5 (very close when bypassing my AV stock switch)

ER + LPS 1.2 (12V)                                                     6

ER + SR4 (12V)                                                           8

 

Note that this is a relative 1-10 scale (for example, ER with stock PS is not 4x better than no ER, it is just 1/2 way to what I hear with ER + SR4 )

 

For me, the LPS 1.2 and SR4 have a material and very welcome impact to SQ. 

 

That being said, I have a very non-conventional setup: I have DAVE directly driving very high efficiency single drivers (104dB sensitivity), and the bass units on the Voxativ's each have dual very high efficiency bass drivers (99dB sensitivity) drive by 200W class AB amp.  These have the fastest cleanest bass I've ever heard (particularly effective for creating a very strong sense for the space a recording was made, and imaging the lower resonances in piano and cello/bass violin).  Upgraded power to the ER is a big win for me, but YMMV.

 

I'm very curious to read of other people's experiences with different power options to ER.  It is very unclear to me what the mechanism for these SQ differences may be, but more perspectives would certainly help triangulate!

 

 

 

[ray-dude]

Haven't heard the Farad yet (although I am sorely tempted to order one to be able to do so), but I can confirm that a SR4 on TT2 and HMS are most definitely worthwhile.  The good news is that the added SQ lift you're going to get with your HMS+TT2 will reveal even more from your other tweaks (ER included).  Amazing how the whole gets to be so much more than the sum of the parts.

[ray-dude]

Just now, Superdad said:

 

Great report Ray. And I'd love to hear your unique system sometime!   (I don't get down to San Diego very often, though I know it is lovely there.)

 

You're always welcome Alex!  Please drop a note if you're down this way and we'll host a listening session (and wine tasting session) with the local audio crazies

[ray-dude]

3 hours ago, ray-dude said:

Some more critical listening tests this morning.  I simplified my chain to free up a LPS 1.2 and make interpreting what's happening easier:

 

Alright, I think I'm done with ER listening tests for the day   My last bit was to test various accessible (eg, cheap) ethernet cables that I had on hand and that have been mentioned in various posts along the way.  I do not (yet) have any summit-fi ethernet cables (bits is bits, am I right or am I right?)

 

Starting with where I left off (same chain as my power post linked above, SR4 powering the EtherRegen) I tested the following ethernet cables:

 

Random cable out of a box (no markings at all, may have been a pack in cable by the looks of it)

 

Cable Matters Snagless Cat6 5’ ($3)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E5I7WBS

 

Monoprice Flexboot Cat6 Ethernet Patch Cable 5’ ($5)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AJHC926

 

StarTech.com Cat6 Patch Cable (6”) ($4)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y651SKV

 

Tera Grand (3’ and 6’) CAT7 10 Gigabit Ethernet Ultra Flat Patch Cable ($8)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MQHD96X

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F7MLJU0/

 

Dacrown Cat 8 Ethernet Cable 5’ Shielded ($8)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QZH6C8F

 

 

For the first set of tests, I left the Dacrown Cat 8 running from my wall to my ER.  In this config, here is how I rated the various cables (again, a relative scale, focused on the same bass detail and clarity/imaging and dynamics I mentioned earlier) :

 

Random cable                          3

Cable Matters Cat 6                 4

Monoprice  Cat 6                     5

Startech Cat 6 (6”)                    5

Tera Grand Flat Cat 7               7

 

Differences were more subtle than my earlier tests, but the Tera Grand cable did clearly stand out from the rest.

 

 

Next, I put my 6' Tera Grand flat Cat 7 cable from the wall to my ER.  In this config, I heard the following:

 

Tera Grand Flat Cat 7              6 (with a grain of salt when comparing to the above...the switch took longer here)

Dacrown Cat 8                        8

 

Clear step up with the Dacrown between the ER and my NUC compared with the Tera Grand, but both I think are clearly separated from the other accessible cables.

 

These listening tests are (unfortunately) encouraging me to actually pay attention to ethernet cables.  I'll probably dip my toe into Amazon for more Cat 8 cables, and try my best to resist exotica like the SOtM dCBL-CAT7 (at least until some soon-to-be-former friend brings a set over for me to hear in person  The Supra Cat 8 may be my limit for buying blind without an audition.

 

I should say that for the record, I'm really really uncomfortable so clearly hearing differences between ethernet cables....this way (even more) madness dwells.

 

 

[ray-dude]

14 minutes ago, PYP said:

Can't remember who suggested trying grounding the eR, but thank you.  Doesn't make any sense to me that this would work, but it works.

 

Someone else suggested the easily-managed flat ethernet cables and tried one on the A side of the eR.  Sounds fine and takes stress off the connection, which I prefer.  

 

Dang it @PYP you made me go back and see what grounding sounds like.  I'm a bit delirious after all this A/B testing, but there may be something there even with only a single ethernet cable on the A side.  I'll need to listen to some AM radio for a while to clear my ears out, but I'll come back to this one

[ray-dude]

1 hour ago, lmitche said:

Hi Ray-dude,

 

I've been in a parallel universe here testing Tera Grand Cat 7 flat and and premium cables. In the end, the premium double shielded cable definitely sounds best. Looking at the Dacrown cable you chose above, it has a very similar construction to the Tera Grand premium. The Dacrown is rated higher then the Tera Grand so I am curious to learn whether that matters to SQ. To that end, I've ordered one to test.

 

 

 

Thanks for the update Larry.  Do you happen to have any Supra CAT 8 cables or (shudder) SoTM dCBL-CAT7 cables available to test?  It's all fun and games to experiment blind with cables that set you back a morning latte, but yet another thing to drop $600 on a listening test (that buys a lot of fine wine that we could/should be drinking during a listening test)

 

Ray

 

 

[ray-dude]

1 hour ago, lmitche said:

Hi Ray-dude,

 

Yes, I have Monoprice, Supra Cat 8, BJC Cat 6a cables and many more. No SOTM gear here as it is too expensive.

 

These Amazon Cat 7 and 8 cables are nicely made, flexible and light weight. My Supra Cat 8 with JSSG360 shielding approaches the weight, thickness and flexibility of a fire hose filled with water. Tera Grand Premium SQ is better then my Supra 8 for sure. There is even more focus, and therefore deeper blackness between players.

 

Look for a comparison the Tera Grand Cat 7 and Dacrown Cat 8 next week.

 

I ordered white cables. Are yours white or black?

 

I prefer darker backgrounds, so I always lean toward black cables

 

Thank you for feedback on the Supra and BJC cables, very helpful.  Wonderful to have next day delivery from Amazon on these cables, makes moving through listening tests very quick and painless.  I'll have a listen to the premium Tera Grand later this week (thank you for the pointer)

[ray-dude]

On 12/13/2019 at 10:49 AM, lmitche said:

For those that are interested, unfortunately after several days,  the Dacrown cables never shipped. Perhaps the white cable order meant that supply was constrained. Disappointed, I cancelled the order and did some additional research on Cat 8 cables. Findings included reports that the Dacrown, and most other Chinese Cat 8 cables, fail when measured against Cat 8 standards.

 

It occurred to me that there should be "authentic" Cat 8 cables made by a credible manufacturer. After much browsing, the Cables Matters Cat 8 showed up. This is a Massachusetts based company and their Cat 8 reviews look good showing cables that measure well. The price was competitive so I ordered a couple instead of the Dacrown. The short one, 3 feet, arrived this morning, the long one, 10 feet, is a day late and still hasn't arrived. The connectors are the best ever seen here and are clearly industrial strength. Unfortunately the cable seems just as stiff as the BJC 6a.

 

When the second one arrives, I'll test this pair against the Tera Grand premium. It will take a few days to break in of course, so stay tuned.

 

The Amazon Gods were a bit kinder to me than they were to Larry.  Today I was able to followup my cable listening tests last week with the new contenders.

 

As background, here is a link to what I posted last week:

 

 

 

For this followup test, I wanted to listen to some more CAT8 cables (vs the Dacrown Cat 8 winner from last week), so I picked a random Amazon CAT8 cable (Phizli) and got a Cable Matters Cat 8 (all in black of course).  I also picked up the premium Tera Grand Cat7 cable that Larry mentioned in his write up (vs the flat cable that I had last time).  All tests were with no break in on the cables.

 

I still have my EtherREGEN still powered by a Paul Hynes SR4 @ 12V, with a Tera Grand 6’ Cat 7 cable connecting it to my ethernet wall jack. In my closet, I have a stock MacMini running Roon Core.

 

However, since I’m done with my power supply experiments with EtherREGEN, I now have my ER connected via various cables under test to my NUC i7 (Euphony running HQPlayer Embedded, powered by PowerAdd Pilot2 battery at 16V) connected by a Lush^2 USB cable to my new SoTM tx-USB ultra (stock, powered by Uptone LPS 1.2 @ 12V) then Lush^2 to Chord DAVE to Voxativ 9.87 speakers direct.

 

Here are the cables that were invited to round 2:

 

WALL TO ETHERREGEN: Tera Grand (6’) CAT7 10 Gigabit Ethernet Ultra Flat Patch Cable ($8)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F7MLJU0/

 

 

RUNNER UP FROM LAST WEEK: Tera Grand (3’) CAT7 10 Gigabit Ethernet Ultra Flat Patch Cable ($8)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MQHD96X

 

WINNER FROM LAST WEEK: Dacrown Cat 8 Ethernet Cable 5’ Shielded ($8)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QZH6C8F

 

NEW: Tera Grand (3’) CAT7 10 Gigabit Ethernet Premium Patch Cable ($7)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G4M4FIG

 

NEW: Phizli Cat8 Ethernet Cable (3’) 40Gbps, 2000Mhz with Gold Plated RJ45 Connector ($8)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XNZ2CGH

 

NEW: Cable Matters SFTP Cat8 Ethernet Cable in Black (3’) ($12)

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NVS8BF5

 

 

Like last week, I mainly focused on bass detail/imaging, and dynamics (a good tell for me for what ER brings to the table. I used several test tracks, but an example is Till Bronner "A Thousand Kisses Deep" from Nightfall, and Diana Krall "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams" from All For You.  For this eval, I was mainly focusing on the sense of space and presence I'm getting from the bass, but the benefits of the ER (as I hear and many have reported) are more than that.

 

Here are my very subjective ratings after sweeping through these a couple times:

 

Tera Grand Flat Cat 7              6 (baseline from last week)

Dacrown Cat 8                        8 (baseline from last week)

Tera Grand Premium Cat 7     8.5 (a bit more bass attack)

Phizli Cat 8                              9 (clearer, and maybe a bit better attack)

Cable Matters Cat 8               10 (even more clarity and attack)

 

 

The Cat 8 cables were generally better than the Cat 7’s, but there was variability from cable to cable, and even overlap (the Cat 7 Tera Grand Premium did better than my favorite Cat 8 Dacrown from last week).

 

As a last test before I called it a night, I wanted to check whether the cable on the A side of the ER (connected to the wall in my case) make a difference?  With the new favorite Cable Matters Cat 8 on the B side to my NUC, I compared having my random ethernet cable from a box (lowest rank last week on the B side) to the Dacrown Cat 8 from the wall to the ER (last week’s winner on the B side).

 

With a confirmation bias squint, is there a difference?  Maybe so, but maybe not.  I think it would take an extended critical listening test to suss out differences.  At this point, the delta is not enough for me to really worry about.  Since the Cable Matters cables are so reasonably priced, I’ll get another one (black of course) to put on the A side to the wall, and not think about the A side any more.

 

As a next step, things are still stepping up enough that I suspect there is more to be had on the B side than what the Cable Matters Cat 8 brings to the party.  If I have time over Christmas break, I may try to do some experiments with adding JSSG360 shielding to this cable to see what happens.  Of course, as we hear feedback from people using the EtherREGEN with the Phasure ET^2 ethernet cable with different shield configurations, all the better!

 

Larry, thanks for the pointer to the Cable Matters cables (their Cat6 cables are my go tos in the rest of my house).  Looking forward to hearing what you’re hearing once you have your round 2 cables in house.

 

 

 

[ray-dude]

It so happens that I got my second Cable Matters Cat8 1m cable this evening, so I was able to do a comparison against my first cable (~100 hours of music play on the first cable...I've had it running continuously since the weekend in anticipation of testing to see if burn in does anything with this cable)

 

There is a clear difference with the cable with hours on it (please don't ask me how or why, I'm still having a hard time admitting to any difference between ethernet cables), with more of the bass impact and precision/detail and sense of space that I was hearing as I went through the various cable tests (the effect is particularly striking with full range orchestral pieces...the lower registers and music hall really are coming into clearer and clearer relief).  That being said, I was hearing a more significant difference between cables of different types, but I'm surprised to hear any impact from burn in at all.

 

That being said, I wouldn't characterize it as a significant difference.  If you don't care for the Cable Matters vs your Slimrun, I'm not sure if the delta I'm hearing would be enough to tilt a clear preference for a different cable.

 

Anyway, time to ingest some mushrooms and sacrifice some poor creature to the audio gods and hope a rationale comes to me in a vision (my EE degrees certainly aren't any help in understanding what is going on here).

 

[ray-dude]

13 minutes ago, lmitche said:

It still amazes me that cables can make such a big difference, especially on the digital side.

 

+10000

 

Maddening to have something this audible without even a working physical theory (cable to optimized NUC to optimized TX Ultra for USB regeneration to DAC...that's a lot of optimization layers between the cable and my ears). Clearly the enhanced shielding of the CAT8 cables is making a difference.  Can the antenna effect to the streamer end point be that significant?

 

With a second Cable Matters CAT8 on hand, I just had to experiment.  I clipped the shield on one end of the cable, thinking I would prefer the clipped end on the NUC (I power my NUC with a battery for mains isolation).  Alas, another hypothesis shot down.  I preferred the clipped shield end on the ER side (at least so far)

 

All this reminds me of the random walk search a bunch of folks did with Lush^2 shield configurations.  Those with the Phasure ET^2 are in a much better position to investigate different shield configurations to suss out what may be going on.

 

[ray-dude]

5 minutes ago, rickca said:

How did the clipped shield on one end sound compared to not clipping the shield?

 

Different (subtle) but I can't say (yet) if I'm hearing more real detail or more RF sparkle.  Taking one for the team with marathon listening sessions ("Sorry honey, I need to listen to music for 12 hours to audition this hacked up ethernet cable" ; ) 

 

Kidding aside, it all sounds absolutely lovely, so motivation for serious A/B critical listening is low, while motivation to binge listen to a bunch of Todd Garfinkle's amazing recordings is quite high (really enjoying "Mudejar" by Begona Olavide as I type this)

 

[ray-dude]

8 minutes ago, kennyb123 said:

Yup and I should have typed 1310 instead of 1350, as 1350 doesn’t exist.  I was just browsing 1310nm SFPs on Amazon.  I’m tempted to purchase a couple to hear if they sound any better.

 

 

 

https://planetechusa.com/product/mgb-tlx-mini-gbic-lx-module-20km/

 

Later Emile posted that he thought this might be the same OEM module he has (unconfirmed).  Interestingly, a wide temperature part.

 

I'm not (yet) setup for fiber ethernet, but looking forward to joining the party soon...

 

[ray-dude]

2 minutes ago, kennyb123 said:

It still amazes me that there are some who prefer the Startech 1550nm SFPs without attenuators.  I'm not sure if any of those cases they were using an ER.    I could be wrong but I don't believe Emile used attenuators when he tried this Startech SPF in the ER and found it to "perform very poorly".  Could it be that the ER is more sensitive to the ill effects of over saturation than his typical FMCs?  

 

IIRC, Emile was looking for a lower power SFP for the ER, which is why he tried the OEM 1310nm/20km units that he had on hand (no attenuators for either SFP, IIRC).  Alas, difficult to find power consumption specs for these SFPs (unless someone has access to OEM spec sheets?)

 

If Emile's hypothesis about power consumption bears out, that would imply more sensitivity related to the power network in the ER than sensitivity to over saturation.  Alas, difficult to confirm without have a bunch of SFPs that draw different amounts of power (and decoupling wavelength, laser power, etc)

 

 

 

 

[ray-dude]

32 minutes ago, kennyb123 said:

 

Great observation, thanks.  And yeah, really difficult to find power consumption specs for SFPs.

 

It could all be related: overstaturation on receiver draws max power, different wavelength SFPs having different power load, etc.  Emile's hint is the only hypothesis I've seen for the root cause of the differences people are hearing with SFPs, but it was guess work.

 

That being said, even with plain old cat 8, my ER scaled very nicely from the stock SMPS to LPS 1.2 to PHL SR4.  That seems to hint that more/better power available, the happier the ER.  A SFP that is drawing a significant amount of power from the board (1W seems to be the spec limit) on top of the background power consumption could be tipping the SQ.

 

For the solder inspired, the most definitive test might be to hack a SFP to externally power it (relieving the power load on the main ER board).  Looking at the pinouts, it looks like host sensing is on the ground lines, not the power lines, so we might be lucky on the power handshake.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_form-factor_pluggable_transceiver#Signals

 

 

[ray-dude]

4 hours ago, HeeBroG said:

 

Hi Ray,

 

Is that improvement using ER with streaming/NAS or playing "local" files?

 

Did you find ER better with PHL SR4 than LPS 1.2?

Do you think it's due to higher current capacity of SR4?

 

G

Hi Geoff

 

My power/cable tests with ER where with Tidal and content from my Mac mini file server.  I have an end point NUC on the B side, and a Roon server NUC on the A side.  All my ER tests were with content going over the moat. 
 

I did find the ER improved as I went from SMPS to LPS1.2 to PHL SR4.  Very easy to hear in my system.   I have found that the SR4 has bigger impact on my tX-ultra SE, so that is where I usually run it. 

 

I have a pretty limited stable of power supplies to test, so I can’t be definitive on what factor may be driving things.  I’m looking forward to Rajiv’s findings once he finishes his eval and reports his findings. 

[ray-dude]

Over on the main ER thread @cat6man asked: (and @superdad appropriately redirected here)

 

1 hour ago, cat6man said:

 

what voltage did you run the lps 1.2 at?

 

fyi------mine is edgerouterX-SFP and comes with a 24v, 2.5A wall wart power supply.

says it support 9v-26v input and has a 5W maximum power consumption.

not sure why a 60W supply is needed for a 5W comsumption, on the other hand we know that oversized power supplies often have benefits due to the ability to provide peaks.

 

assume i'll run it at 12v to get maximum 12W out of the lps 1.2

 

I run my LPS 1.2 at 12V for my EdgeRouter 10X.  I don't have any PoE devices on it (unlike the EdgeRouter X, the 10X is passive PoE pass through...the ER X needs the extra voltage for PoE, but doesn't need it to run)

 

I have not tried different voltages to see if it makes a difference.

[ray-dude]

2 hours ago, sahmen said:

Not that I am trying to stir up some kind of hornet's nest here...  I just have a question that I will not dare pose on certain other forums I know :  Are boutique ethernet cables subject to the rules of "break-in" or "burn-in"?

 

Even for mundane Cat8 cables from Monoprice and Cable Matters, I found that they needed ~80-100 hours before the SQ with my old EtherREGEN settled out.  Aside from shock that ethernet cables were audible at all, the fact that they changed over the first couple days was a definite punch to the stomach.  The impact was visceral though (literally...the better the cable, more the visceral bass became, and the more tangible space became)

 

I have no hypothesis for break-in, but now I am a true believer in the impact of ethernet cables (running the amazing Sablon Audio 2020 ethernet cable for all the copper in my digital audio signal path)

 

(and thank you to Alex and Chris and all the contributors here for creating the community space where real discussion and exploration can happen)

[ray-dude]

FWIW, I have ATT Fiber -> ATT Lucent ONT -> EdgeRouterX SFP -> opticalModule -> Extreme.

 

I can very clearly (and happily) hear the Sablon ethernet cable between the ONT and ERX, and between ERX and oM (the later being more impactful).  As I detailed in my long Extreme write up, the EtherRegen moat held back the Extreme, and it worked better when using the EtherRegen as a FMC (optical and copper on the same side, not going across the moat).  In this FMC configuration, I prefered the oM to the EtherRegen.  When I was experimenting with the EtherRegen going across the moat, the impact of the Sablon ethernet was clear as well.

 

Net net, at least in my chain, the Sablon Ethernet cables made a (still) surprising difference very far from the business end of the signal.  I still don't understand why or how that could be, but empirically, that's what I'm hearing.

 

To echo Rajiv's note, Mark is incredibly generous with his loaner cables (and it has worked...I have Sablon ethernet cables, USB cables, and power cord now...all had a "first 5 seconds, yup this is the one" impact in my system).

[ray-dude]

When I had my ER, I had it on a vibration isolation scheme very much like John's and it worked great for me.  In general, I find this scheme extremely impactful for digital electronics, DACs, and power supplies.

 

In my case, I ended up having a whole bunch of aluminum bowls machined in various geometries, and I experimented with lots of different polishing techniques and precision bearings.  In general, if you set the plate oscillating, the longer it oscillates the bigger the impact (direct correlation to SQ).  Makes mechanically optimizing things much more straight forward.  To give a sense of order of magnitude, I was able to get oscillation time from ~30 seconds to ~120 seconds

 

I currently use smooth ceramic tiles from Home Depot for my plates.  I like the idea of more mass with the 1/2" aluminum plates though.  I'll see if I can source a plate to compare to the Home Depot plates I'm currently using (thanks for the tip John!)

[ray-dude]

6 hours ago, HeeBroG said:

How did you deal with the "flexible" cable issue which can impede the freedom of oscillation?

 

 

Alas, no good way to do so.  Ideally there are no cables and the component floats freely.  Alas, that is not possible, but any isolation I can get is better than no isolation.

 

Typically, I try to position cables so that the platform can oscillate more freely.  As I position cables, I give the component a little nudge and see how it responds.  There are no sure fire schemes, but generally, the less strain I can get on the connector for the cable, the freer the movement.

 

At the end of the day, you do the best you can and try not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

[ray-dude]

3 hours ago, MarkusBarkus said:

...you never know how folks will take a joke, right! Someone posted on another forum that the silver Chord Dave had a brighter sound; the black anodized case sounded darker. OMG--it became an issue. Who wouldathought? 
 

Full disclosure: I have the silver Dave, as I prefer a "cleaner" sound. 😉

the darker backgrounds of the black DAVE are to die for (right @Doody ?)

 

Black DAVEs rule, Silver DAVEs drool (sorry not sorry)