Audio-gd Reference 1 DAC (56 K warning) - Page 120

Sounds good and thanks for the info Curra. Have you decided what wire you want to try ?

Peete.

Well I got the RE1 going again. The new board was bad or so it seems for as soon as I swapped in the old board wired/bolted her all up she works like a charm once again. Talk about a major major relief. I thought I was losing my touch there for a while......

The Mundorf wiring is good and I have tested both ACSS and RCA out as well as COAX digital input thus far. I need to finish assembly and get it back in the main system to test the BNC input.

I'll post some pics of the wiring mods later on this evening. I also started the Phoenix mod today and decided to do it in stages to gauge effects of the wiring changes. The Phoenix is a tough bugger to work on especially the DC jacks (which will have the wiring changed in the near future when I decide what to use).

Here's the pic, the yellow wiring is Mundorf (on the analog outputs) and the digital input stuff is Illuminati COAX.



Anyway it's terrific to have the RE1 back even though the modified FrankenDAC was doing a fine job pinch hitting (but not that good)

I have the RE1 back up and running in the ref system...now comes the fun part, evaluating the work/mod

MOD SQ UPDATE: The wire swap is well worth the expense and effort. The Illuminati/Mudorf wire combination reveals even more untapped performance that can be had from the CD7/RE1 and the Phoenix. The changes are not subtle but easily noticeable from the get go with zero drawbacks (no thinning of the bass or overt brightness/harshness to the treble region). See my post in the Phoenix thread for a more detailed response from listening impressions earlier today and this evening.

Peete.

It hasn't changed the sound signature one wit from what I can discern but what it has done is what most silver wire brings to the table, some detail, imaging and speed improvements. I think too much is made of the Gold aspect it's only 1% concentration in this wire so I can't really say if it's any different than the solid silver stuff I use on other bits of gear. The similarities between the two types are very very close in nature if I had to judge at this point. So in reality I have no real idea if the 1% gold content is contributing at all. I can say that this wire isn't warm or cold. It's neutral to me. The good news with the swap is the slight extension of the treble region and it's quality improvement. I'm still trying to put into words what I'm hearing...so the old computer in the noggin is coming up somewhat bereft of originality or proper meaning. A good sleep I need methinks

Peete.

Not sure it's worth the aggravation since cabling choice/composition and relative worth draws so much negative attention around here. I'm sure there is whole section of the membership just waiting to tell me how delusional I am WRT these results since wire is just wire. Trust me at a certain point much of what the cable industry pushes is horse crap but basic metal formulations and proven geometries absolutely can and do have a positive (or negative if you choose poorly) impact on overall performance. IME and IMO at least

It's tough to separate the results to individual units so I guess I could post about the entire system in a DIY thread at some point down the road but for now I'll just post results in the two threads that are related. I had hoped to quantify the RE1 mod on it's own but fate had other plans......as usual.

I still have at least 45% of this mod left to complete and a lengthy evaluation period on top of that before I post a DIY thread on it. Anyway the initial results are very promising which is good news (for me at least) since this gear is a PITA to work on

Then again I've never had an easy project yet (glutton for punishment ?)..........maybe I'll get one for XMAS this year ? The Denon 3910 rebuild maybe ? Nah....just saw the pcbs for that (mostly smd...yeesh). I can't leave anything audio related I have alone you see, which has to be the truest sign of a committed DIY junkie

Peete.

I wasn't thinking of a full on review but people will want to know what differences there are and to do that properly (for me at least) takes time. I always like to wait well past the honeymoon period so what I'm hearing is really what I'm hearing.

Peete.