My understanding is that the SE versions can only be ordered from audioconsultants in Surrey, UK, as this was the dealer that persuaded Puritan to add the Furutech plugs and sockets. You can demo any combination of stock and SE Puritan products (and rival power cords) at the dealer's location...

Actually, DAVE goes up to +19dB, so seems like plenty of headroom, but I'm not sure if SQ is impacted at these higher levels. A further option, should DAVE not quite match a great external amp, is do the Reactcore caps mod to give DAVE more oomph, particularly to bring out any deep bass. As...

That's an interesting result for DAVE owners. So was DAVE directly driving Immanis without even an interface transformer? Which cable was used for this? Would you say this was a viable long-term combination? Assuming low to moderate volume levels.

Will be interesting to see how you get on with that comparison. On the likes of UK eBay, it's much easier to find Sterling (925) Silver rods than high purity (9999) silver rods. Sterling silver is much cheaper and less conductive (a bit below copper). But as my tests show, simple conductivity...

Round 3 - Practicalities and final comments Titanium is a very tough, non-corrosive metal, whose characteristics vary with the amount of other metals/materials alloyed with it. The Audiogon and PSAudio posts weren't very specific about the different grades, but I will be. Several grades are...

Round 2: SR Purple fuse vs solid titanium slug. I wasn't sure what to expect. Titanium is way down the conductivity table compared to copper, and worse than "low grade" metals like tin or nickel. So what could it possibly bring to the table? But it's still a conductor, and absolute resistance...

Round 1. SR Purple fuse vs solid copper rod (aka slug): Swapped between SR Purple fuse and copper slug - in the wall plug of the MU1 mains cable, and in the wall plug of the Puritan Classic+ cable. The end result was the same: SR Purple beat the copper slug, being incrementally better...

"The best fuse is no-fuse!" This is often confidently stated as fact. But is it necessarily so? Why would anyone spend $5k on a QSA Silver fuse… if the only thing it achieved was to be invisible? Can an audiophile fuse sound better than a direct connection? If yes, then the fuse must be...

How does HM1's sound stage knob affect the Immanis, particularly wrt image solidity and focus? In both directions (increasing and decreasing the sound stage size).

Will the new models be at London CanJam in July? Raal is currently not in the list of exhibitors, although "more to follow".

Thank you for trying out all these options. I get easily confused when presented with too many variables, so, in my system, I struggled to hear the benefits of your best option - either by disabling wifi or by closing down Roon Remote. My best bet, based on SQ improvement vs speed of switching...

OK, I'll give that a go.

That's what I was hoping for, but the Zahl guy said no.

Having contacted the Zaal Sales person (in the UK), it looks like there will be no opportunity to demo the HM1 at any UK dealer or show this year. So, does anyone know of any upcoming meet or mini-meet in the UK that would enable me to try the HM1? Ideally within 100 miles of Worcestershire...

How does the Wandla spacial enhancement compare with Zaal HM1's "sound stage knob". The latter sounds very interesting, but I've not yet found anywhere in the UK where I can audition it. I recall you were very impressed with the HM1 in general.

How easy is it to attach the ZMF pads? Do they have the same plastic tabs as stock hifiman pads?

Thank you for that. I listened to some of the Vitruoso sample tracks, and they were very interesting - more towards the "expansive" style, where the overall width increases (compared to traditional CF decreasing the width). But depth-wise, the sound stayed within the line running between my...

Will either of these work with Roon? Which supports convolution filters, but not plug-in filters as far as I know. The app websites don't make this integration aspect very clear.

I don't know if Mojo's CF works with an external amp (my DAVE does, but only by design oversight), but Chord's CF implementations in general are good. Other DAC makers that include CF: Meier (who are CF champions), Weiss (also CF champions), and most interestingly the new Ferrum Wandla...

It's difficult to predict the impact on resale value. Although some potential buyers would be put off by any mod of any kind, the buyers that are interested in this caps mod would instantly jump at a Dave already modded in preference to a similarly aged un-modded Dave, probably prepared to pay a...

I found putting my iPad Air 5 into standby helps (by pressing its on/off button). Of course you lose the display and controls when in standby, but it's super quick to enable/disable by one press of the on/off button, much faster than toggling airplane mode. Not sure how the above damping...

Try this link below. There's no definitive answer to your question, but most people would say it's not about the bits themselves, but about the noise that surrounds the bits, which is hard to get rid of once it gets into your network and system. Not everyone hears these sometimes subtle...

I'm a dedicated user of cross-feed, and generally agree with the posts of @jamesjames. I posted my thoughts on DAVE DAC/amp's CF here. To my ears, a good CF provides benefits to almost all recordings, not just orchestral or early stereo recordings. Once I "got" the benefits of a good CF, it's...

It's HEK SE (which I upgraded to a while back from HEK V2). FWIW, I thought the SE was incrementally better than V2 across the board, but these two are much more alike than they are different. They both allowed me to immerse myself into the musical performance without fretting about...

I wasn't convinced by Diana MR when compared to either HEKse or Meze Elite. One really must try the Diana to know whether its sound signature and clamping mechanism suits your preferences. No amount of reading reviews could have prepared me for the practical realization that Diana was not for...