austinpop

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbi_Shergill

Never used it, or found a need for it.

They are all excellent cables, and honestly the one you prefer comes down to your ears and your system. I did a comparison of exactly these 3 cables and posted my impressions here: https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/sablon-usb-cable-2020-model.29912/post-627980. In my system, I really felt the Sablon's were the best in my system, as I described. More recently - but before we all went into self-isolation, Eric and I did a comparison in his system. We compared the Habst, Intona Ultimate, and Sablon unpowered between the Zenith SE and tX-USBultra. We kept the second leg from tX-USBultra to the DAC (Ayre QX-5) fixed with a Sablon powered cable. In this case, we both liked the Habst the best, followed very closely by the Sablon, with the Ultimate much further. The Habst is a little prominent on the low mids and upper bass, but also has a very clean, dense, saturated presentation. The Sablon is actually more balanced, but in this system, we both found the Habst more satisfying. I suspect in my headphone system, which is so revealing, the smoother signature of the Sablon was why I preferred it over the Habst. It's amazing how system-dependent this stuff is!

Thanks! I was just being silly. It’s happy hour here in the US. 😉

They’re fish, of course! * * Reference: Finding Dory movie

RIP Manu Dibango. I’m old enough to remember Soul Makossa from the 70s. Enjoying this tonight.

Hi Joe, Yes you’re correct - the SOtM switch had all those features. Apologies if the price is incorrect. I’ll get that fixed.

I'm so impressed you appreciate Punjabi Sufi music!

Another data point here for peer to peer backup. In my case, I have a friend across town, and we each own a primary NAS in our own house, and a remote backup NAS in friend's house. Both of us upgraded our NASes and used the previous one as the backup target. These are all Synology, and we just use HyperBackup. The nice thing about this approach is the initial backup of TBs of data can be done over your own local home Gb network. For both of us, the initial backup at 1GBps speed took a day or two at most. After the initial backup is done, deploy the backup unit at friend's house, and do the one-time router setup to open ports etc. Synology has tools for this. Of course this is in the context of our ISP speeds, which sadly is limited to 300/30 Mbps. We've been doing the above for over 3 years. I haven't looked at cloud backup solutions since then. Have any evolved to the point of allowing you to send in an initial seed on a disk drive?

Hi, welcome to AS. This is a very good question, and you're in luck - a local friend of mine has just gone through exactly this thought process with this DAC. He really liked the Farad Super 3 15V driving the Pro iDSD, but then realized how much better it got when we tried my 15V/6A SR-7 rail with it. He ended up getting an SR5-15F which has a 5A continuous/30A transient capacity, and this was a big step up from the Farad. It's no knock on how good the Farad is - the DAC use case really benefits from current capacity, so the PSU selection process needs to weight current capacity much more in this use case.

Glad to hear from you @Cornan! If you ever start audio experiments, do come back. Chris has instituted some changes that have reduced the negativity and snark, and moved it to its own separate forum. Hope to see you on AS again at some point. All the best, Rajiv

The STORM Reference cables are the flagship in the lineup and extend the gains made by the STONE and the STREAM. Compared to the STREAM, the STORM has more of everything - refinement, cleaner transients, and solidity and density. Compared to the comparably priced SOtM dCBL-BNC, the STORM has better dynamics and bass slam, while the SOtM has more smoothness and warmth. Both are excellent, but in my well optimized systems, the STORM was preferred.

The STREAM Performance cables are a big step up from the entry level STONE in the lineup. While sharing all the positives of the STONE, the STREAM significantly opens up the soundstage further, and thereis a noticeable further "deblurring" of transients. This cable is well worth the extra price difference in resolving systems.

I compared the Blaxius^2 cables relative to the stock Chord BNC cables between the M-Scaler and DAVE. Compared to the stock cables, the Blaxius^2 cables make a large improvement: spacious soundstage very clean, incisive transients no harshness Compared to similarly priced WAVE STONE Premium, the Phasure Blaxius^2 has more air, and of course is highly customizable. The STONE has more density and solidity. Both have a neutral tonality, and are excellent cables at this price. Respond to this review

I compared the STONE cables relative to the stock Chord BNC cables between the M-Scaler and DAVE. Compared to the stock cables, the STONE cables make a large improvement: spacious soundstage very clean, incisive transients dark tonality (i.e. no harshness) Muscular solidity, especially in the low bass. Compared to similarly priced Phasure Blaxius^2, the Stone has more solidity, while the Blaxius^2 has more air, and of course is highly customizable. Both are excellent cables at this price.

BTW - in case you have avoided Schoenberg because you thought he was all chromatic scale and atonal music, have a listen to Verklärte Nacht on this Isabelle Faust album. It's one of the most beautiful pieces of music I know.

Keep us posted on your findings, John!

Some more winners amongst classical new releases on Qobuz:

Bob, a true labor of love. It looks fantastic!

Despite the review becoming TL;DR for many people, there were sooo many things I didn't try or chose to leave out! Yes, I do think the "best" switch should be last in the chain. I'll try the Melco as the last switch when I get a chance...

As I said in review, this is a bottomless pit. For most people, a single good switch like the eR with a good PSU is a sensible place to stop. Some might add an oM or second switch, plus another good PSU. Beyond that, it's crazy-town!