[marcmccalmont]

Maybe it’s just me but there is something I don’t understand.
If you use the cd as the base to determine the sound of bludave and try to get the sound of the usb close to the cd. Than
Blu produces noise but not on the CD playback, right. Only noise on the usb input. Than why do we need ferrites on the cable between blu and Dave and not on the usb cable?
Or did I miss something?

From a previous post:
Ferrites reduce the ground noise in Dave caused by Blu2's fpga at 2Ghz they are a positive improvement to any coax between Blu2 and Dave (not necessary for input to either Blu2 or other sources with Dave unless you have an RF issue, then the 2.5Ghz Wurths and the 61 Fair Rites are not the proper ones) they close the gap between lesser cables and the CA coax, but the CA is more revealing than any of the othercoaxes I've tried. If your on a budget use a quality coax with 2 foil and 2braid shields (I prefer Belden to Canare) and quality BNCconnectors (I prefer Trompeter toCanare) you will get 90% there on a budget

 

[flyte3333]

if it were that simple, someone would have done it

Sigh

 

[esimms86]

I think you are missing the point. The boxes are not fixing a BluDave problem, they are fixing a network and file delivery problem. We are using the Blu CD as a benchmark precisely because it is not subject to that problem.

Nonetheless, I suspect that Rob will be delighted to learn how easy it all is - I just can’t believe he didn’t spot this 20 years ago.

I understand what you’re saying about the boxes “fixing a network and file delivery problem.” It also appears from reports from you and Romaz that the Master Clock improves upon BluDave via CD. If you could somehow connect the Master Clock to the CD transport, CD sound would likely also improve. Of course, Chord has little incentive to add Master Clock BNC input to Blu2, especially given the fact that repurposing the old Blu chassis for Blu2 was done for manufacturing convenience. I don’t have any idea as to how many Blu chassis are still available for repurposing but it’s obvious that Blu2 production thus far has been a slow process.

 

[STR-1]

So what’s the latest on getting close to optimising the BNC cables between Blu 2/DAVE for minimal cost? Got my Blu 2 four days ago and have been running it connected to DAVE with the supplied 1m cables, with several Rob-recommended Wurth ferrites on each. How much money do I have to spend to get significantly better (I’m looking for cable options, not more ferrites). I know the Habst and Clearer Audio cables are well thought of, but they are very expensive (not sure if @Beolab sealed the discount offer with CA). Would be great if I could get worthwhile improvement with 0.5m cables (4-tier equipment rack close to the wall). Thanks in advance for any advice or recommendations.

 

[jonstatt]

I understand what you’re saying about the boxes “fixing a network and file delivery problem.” It also appears from reports from you and Romaz that the Master Clock improves upon BluDave via CD. If you could somehow connect the Master Clock to the CD transport, CD sound would likely also improve. Of course, Chord has little incentive to add Master Clock BNC input to Blu2, especially given the fact that repurposing the old Blu chassis for Blu2 was done for manufacturing convenience. I don’t have any idea as to how many Blu chassis are still available for repurposing but it’s obvious that Blu2 production thus far has been a slow process.

I am totally lost why an external clock has ANY relevance at all considering that both Blu2 and DAVE re-clock internally anyway? The whole point is to remove the need for external clock accuracy through internal clocking and jitter elimination.

As for production, the issue remains a backlog of black orders and I wonder if even the 16 week estimate is likely now.

 

[esimms86]

I am totally lost why an external clock has ANY relevance at all considering that both Blu2 and DAVE re-clock internally anyway? The whole point is to remove the need for external clock accuracy through internal clocking and jitter elimination.

As for production, the issue remains a backlog of black orders and I wonder if even the 16 week estimate is likely now.

@jonstatt, thank you for your reply. Your comments, along with the fact of Rob Watts liking your post, lead me to wonder what Rob’s impressions were of his listening sessions with Romaz and Jay(of audiobacon.net). In the past, Romaz has stated that his signal chain consists of some further tweaked version of the following: Zenith SE, Mutec Ref10, Mutec 3+ USB, SOtM tX-usbUltra into BluDave. If what you are saying is correct(and I have no reason to doubt you), it would seem to me that the Mutec Ref 10 is effective in “cleaning up” the noise emanating from the SE. Further, the audio chain from the SE on through the tX-usbUltra would offer zero audible/theoretical advantages over Blu2 playing a CD. Again, I would be quite intrigued to read Rob’s impressions of the effect made(or not) of the Mutec Ref 10 in Roy’s system.

 

[Triode User]

@jonstatt, thank you for your reply. Your comments, along with the fact of Rob Watts liking your post, lead me to wonder what Rob’s impressions were of his listening sessions with Romaz and Jay(of audiobacon.net). In the past, Romaz has stated that his signal chain consists of some further tweaked version of the following: Zenith SE, Mutec Ref10, Mutec 3+ USB, SOtM tX-usbUltra into BluDave. If what you are saying is correct(and I have no reason to doubt you), it would seem to me that the Mutec Ref 10 is effective in “cleaning up” the noise emanating from the SE. Further, the audio chain from the SE on through the tX-usbUltra would offer zero audible/theoretical advantages over Blu2 playing a CD. Again, I would be quite intrigued to read Rob’s impressions of the effect made(or not) of the Mutec Ref 10 in Roy’s system.

Rob has been rather coy in his posts regarding this extended listening session and one can read as much or as little into that as you wish. I quote again my late father in law who used to say, "Often there is much less to things than meets the eye!"

However, having been on a journey of fine tuning my own system I am now less inclined to add extra boxes and clutter and more inclined to leave it alone and listen to music. Sometimes I wonder whether the boxes are more important than the music. Last night I listened to Nightfall by Till Brönner and Dieter Ilg. This is a very recent album released earlier this month. Try it if you like double bass and trumpet. I first heard it on the Qobuz HiRes stream and on the strength of that bought the 24bit 92kHz download. Lovely.

Anyway could I have heard a difference in my system with some extra boxes of the sort being discussed? Well, maybe or maybe not but sometimes just because it is different does not make it better. I do wonder about the posters that have a Blu2 or Dave on order and even before they get it they want to know what extra boxes they can buy to fiddle with the digital signal. And what is this talk of 'cleaning up' the signal from a Zenith SE? I selected the SE because it has very low noise getting into the signal. Are we really sure it needs cleaning up? Has anyone measured this noise that needs cleaning up? Will it be better with another box in the signal path or just different or maybe the same but we think it is different because we can see the extra box? Sorry, but I've really got my skeptics hat on tonight (also the fish and chip van had run out of fish this evening so perhaps that set in motion my mood for tonight).

But after all that, a confession. I have bought a Chord Sarum T USB cable to try between the SE and the Blu2. I had no intention of getting one but this one popped up second hand at a good price. More of that anon after I have compared it for a few days with the cheap Supra Cables USB that I had been using.

I'm off now to listen to that album again.

 

[Malcyg]

I am totally lost why an external clock has ANY relevance at all considering that both Blu2 and DAVE re-clock internally anyway? The whole point is to remove the need for external clock accuracy through internal clocking and jitter elimination.

I know, which is why I was sceptical about even trying the tX-U in the first place.

 

[Malcyg]

Rob has been rather coy in his posts regarding this extended listening session and one can read as much or as little into that as you wish. I quote again my late father in law who used to say, "Often there is much less to things than meets the eye!"

However, having been on a journey of fine tuning my own system I am now less inclined to add extra boxes and clutter and more inclined to leave it alone and listen to music. Sometimes I wonder whether the boxes are more important than the music. Last night I listened to Nightfall by Till Brönner and Dieter Ilg. This is a very recent album released earlier this month. Try it if you like double bass and trumpet. I first heard it on the Qobuz HiRes stream and on the strength of that bought the 24bit 92kHz download. Lovely.

Anyway could I have heard a difference in my system with some extra boxes of the sort being discussed? Well, maybe or maybe not but sometimes just because it is different does not make it better. I do wonder about the posters that have a Blu2 or Dave on order and even before they get it they want to know what extra boxes they can buy to fiddle with the digital signal. And what is this talk of 'cleaning up' the signal from a Zenith SE? I selected the SE because it has very low noise getting into the signal. Are we really sure it needs cleaning up? Has anyone measured this noise that needs cleaning up? Will it be better with another box in the signal path or just different or maybe the same but we think it is different because we can see the extra box? Sorry, but I've really got my skeptics hat on tonight (also the fish and chip van had run out of fish this evening so perhaps that set in motion my mood for tonight).

But after all that, a confession. I have bought a Chord Sarum T USB cable to try between the SE and the Blu2. I had no intention of getting one but this one popped up second hand at a good price. More of that anon after I have compared it for a few days with the cheap Supra Cables USB that I had been using.

I'm off now to listen to that album again.

Nick, you should keep your sceptics hat on at all times - you wear it well - and I totally understand and even agree with the sceptiscism here. When I read some time back about Romaz, austinpop and others augmenting their little black boxes with various clocks, I did think at the time that they were slightly bonkers. I recall using the term ‘little black boxes’ on here and I did so in a slightly derogatory but humorous manner. My own view was that a simple approach was best which resulted in me plugging an SE directly into the BluDave.

I recall, after hearing your system, saying that I thought that the Aries was holding it back as well as questioning whether you might be better off going direct into power amp as opposed to having a preamp in between the Dave output and the power amp. We debated that and agreed to disagree, although we actually did come to agree in the end. Maybe we will agree, one way or the other, about this stuff as well - who knows, but it certainly doesn’t matter at all whether we do or not. This stuff is just froth in the overall scheme of things and YMMV as the saying goes.

Edit - in fact next time I visit my Mother and have time to spare, it may be interesting to pop round to yours and have a black box fest.

 

[Triode User]

Nick, you should keep your sceptics hat on at all times - you wear it well - and I totally understand and even agree with the sceptiscism here. When I read some time back about Romaz, austinpop and others augmenting their little black boxes with various clocks, I did think at the time that they were slightly bonkers. I recall using the term ‘little black boxes’ on here and I did so in a slightly derogatory but humorous manner. My own view was that a simple approach was best which resulted in me plugging an SE directly into the BluDave.

I recall, after hearing your system, saying that I thought that the Aries was holding it back as well as questioning whether you might be better off going direct into power amp as opposed to having a preamp in between the Dave output and the power amp. We debated that and agreed to disagree, although we actually did come to agree in the end. Maybe we will agree, one way or the other, about this stuff as well - who knows, but it certainly doesn’t matter at all whether we do or not. This stuff is just froth in the overall scheme of things and YMMV as the saying goes.

Edit - in fact next time I visit my Mother and have time to spare, it may be interesting to pop round to yours and have a black box fest.

It’s a date, not with your mother, just you and me and little boxes. (Ps, I still use a preamp into my valves and only reserve the Dave going unadulterated into the ss power amp).

 

[Malcyg]

It’s a date, not with your mother, .

 

[Beolab]

Last call for the Group Buy on the
Clearer Audio Silver Reference Coax digital

( Oppertunity for DAVE + Blu II owners )

New Deadline for the group buy is 20/3-2018 and it will not be post phoned.

If we order 5-10 pairs 2x BNC from Clearer Audio ,then Darren will give us 20% in discount at checkout.

( If we buy more than 10 pairs then he can stretch it slightly more, but he said that the margin is not that high because of the already fairly low price, and because of the expensive 6N silver he is using. )

When we have reached 5 or more members who are willing to goahead and purchase
2x CA Silver Reference BNC - BNC, then i will contact Darren at Clearer Audio, and then afterwords each of you can e-mail Darren at enquiries@cleareraudio.com with the lenght you need and your other details to complete the purchase with 20% discount.

Please PM If you are interested!

Deadline for the group buy is set to:
20/3-2018

Members that has shown interest for a group buy is:

@Beolab
@Clive101 OK
@adyc OK
@STR-1 OK
@yakaway OK
@etnt OK
@hattrick15 OK

 

[etnt]

Last call for the Group Buy on the
Clearer Audio Silver Reference Coax digital

( Oppertunity for DAVE + Blu II owners )

New Deadline for the group buy is 20/3-2018 and it will not be post phoned.

If we order 5-10 pairs 2x BNC from Clearer Audio ,then Darren will give us 20% in discount at checkout.

( If we buy more than 10 pairs then he can stretch it slightly more, but he said that the margin is not that high because of the already fairly low price, and because of the expensive 6N silver he is using. )

When we have reached 5 or more members who are willing to goahead and purchase
2x CA Silver Reference BNC - BNC, then i will contact Darren at Clearer Audio, and then afterwords each of you can e-mail Darren at enquiries@cleareraudio.com with the lenght you need and your other details to complete the purchase with 20% discount.

Please PM If you are interested!

Deadline for the group buy is next Friday 9/3-2018

Members that has shown interest for a group buy is:

@Beolab
@Clive101
@adyc
@nbarnard36 Please PM me
@STR-1 Please PM me

To be clear, we are referring to this https://www.cleareraudio.com/products/silver-line-optimus-75-reference-interconnect with the Oyaide SLSB BNCs?

 

[esimms86]

Rob has been rather coy in his posts regarding this extended listening session and one can read as much or as little into that as you wish. I quote again my late father in law who used to say, "Often there is much less to things than meets the eye!"

And what is this talk of 'cleaning up' the signal from a Zenith SE? I selected the SE because it has very low noise getting into the signal. Are we really sure it needs cleaning up? Has anyone measured this noise that needs cleaning up? Will it be better with another box in the signal path or just different or maybe the same but we think it is different because we can see the extra box? Sorry, but I've really got my skeptics hat on tonight (also the fish and chip van had run out of fish this evening so perhaps that set in motion my mood for tonight).

I'm off now to listen to that album again.

My bad. “Cleaning up” is clearly the wrong term to use given the implication of inherent noise in the SE’s signal. Rather, what I’m referring to is the addition of a Master Clock to potentially improve the signal being fed into BluDave by the tX-usbUltra.

 

[hattrick15]

Last call for the Group Buy on the
Clearer Audio Silver Reference Coax digital

( Oppertunity for DAVE + Blu II owners )

New Deadline for the group buy is 20/3-2018 and it will not be post phoned.

If we order 5-10 pairs 2x BNC from Clearer Audio ,then Darren will give us 20% in discount at checkout.

( If we buy more than 10 pairs then he can stretch it slightly more, but he said that the margin is not that high because of the already fairly low price, and because of the expensive 6N silver he is using. )

When we have reached 5 or more members who are willing to goahead and purchase
2x CA Silver Reference BNC - BNC, then i will contact Darren at Clearer Audio, and then afterwords each of you can e-mail Darren at enquiries@cleareraudio.com with the lenght you need and your other details to complete the purchase with 20% discount.

Please PM If you are interested!

Deadline for the group buy is next Friday 9/3-2018

Members that has shown interest for a group buy is:

@Beolab
@Clive101
@adyc
@nbarnard36 Please PM me
@STR-1 Please PM me

I'm definitely considering it seriously. I'll let you know before the March 20th deadline.