[Jiffi32]

I meant on cables only - I got the impression that you felt expenditure there was unnecessary. I will let you know how I get on anyway, but by PM though.

Will you be posting your findings here? I'd be interested in knowing if they bring improvement to bludave. I can't try myself yet as I'm pretty near the bottom of the waiting list for my blu2

 

[Malcyg]

Will you be posting your findings here? I'd be interested in knowing if they bring improvement to bludave. I can't try myself yet as I'm pretty near the bottom of the waiting list for my blu2

I will post whether I can observe an improvement or not, but am reluctant to go into brand and price details due to the fact that it seems such a contentious issue which can generate a hostile and condescending reaction from some.

The comments on length are interesting, though it would seem that the ideal length will depend upon the two devices being connected, so I doubt there will be an easy answer other than to try for yourself with your own equipment. I would hope that Rob would have this echo issue sorted between Blu and Dave and the fact that Chord supply very short cables to get you started might possibly suggest that they are confident about the sound quality with shorter lengths. They are too short for me to use in my rack, so I have no idea whether they sound any different to the ones that I am using but I may try and check them out when I test the others if I can get the two units close enough together. I presume the short cables would be a neat fit if you use the Chord stands to stack the Blu and Dave.

Interestingly, the expensive AES cable that I mentioned previously was 4m in length which adds significantly to the cost being double that of a 1m cable. I did wonder why they had sent me that length and maybe this could be the reason. Or maybe it was just what they had in at the time. It did sound very good though. All the others were 1m.

 

[Brushane]

Where?

Here:

Just got my blue MII.... all I can say now is get a pair of good BNC... the original BNC just...

 

[Malcyg]

Here:

Ah.

 

[Pappadave]

I have finally ordered my Blu2. Should be here end of August and meanwhile I have started my "nesting" preparations. Hence the plea for few words of wisdom: what is the verdict on the BNC cables (there were quite a few tests and opinions but I am still confused which way to go)? What would be a reasonable power solution (would Isotek Sirius suffice to feed both DAVE and Blu 2)?

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

I have finally ordered my Blu2. Should be here end of August and meanwhile I have started my "nesting" preparations. Hence the plea for few words of wisdom: what is the verdict on the BNC cables (there were quite a few tests and opinions but I am still confused which way to go)? What would be a reasonable power solution (would Isotek Sirius suffice to feed both DAVE and Blu 2)?

I think it depends partly on the quality of the electricity supply in your house. If it is a house built in the last 10 years then that may be fine with the basics but if like my house, you have a very old installation, then you would probably benefit from some of the alternatives Isotek has to offer. I am a fan of their tech. These are clever guys. For instance the Dave is very fast on transients but in my house that didn't become fully apparent until I connected an Evo3 Syncro to my power amp. The speed difference was ridiculous. My electrics were a problem (though I was unaware until then) but Isotek had the solution. Obviously with power blocks the feed is normally adequate for a Streamer/CD player/Dac combination but the Blu II draws more power than normal. It may turn out that the power draw would benefit from something like a Sonus or Aquarius or perhaps even a Sigmas (which I use) but worth trying your Sirius first, get used to your new sound and then demo one or all of the others to see if anything changes.

 

[Triode User]

I have finally ordered my Blu2. Should be here end of August and meanwhile I have started my "nesting" preparations. Hence the plea for few words of wisdom: what is the verdict on the BNC cables (there were quite a few tests and opinions but I am still confused which way to go)? What would be a reasonable power solution (would Isotek Sirius suffice to feed both DAVE and Blu 2)?

I think it depends partly on the quality of the electricity supply in your house. If it is a house built in the last 10 years then that may be fine with the basics but if like my house, you have a very old installation, then you would probably benefit from some of the alternatives Isotek has to offer. I am a fan of their tech. These are clever guys. For instance the Dave is very fast on transients but in my house that didn't become fully apparent until I connected an Evo3 Syncro to my power amp. The speed difference was ridiculous. My electrics were a problem (though I was unaware until then) but Isotek had the solution. Obviously with power blocks the feed is normally adequate for a Streamer/CD player/Dac combination but the Blu II draws more power than normal. It may turn out that the power draw would benefit from something like a Sonus or Aquarius or perhaps even a Sigmas (which I use) but worth trying your Sirius first, get used to your new sound and then demo one or all of the others to see if anything changes.

I am going to give slightly conflicting advice. In reality the power draw of a Blu2 is only 30w and this less than many lightbulbs. This is exactly the same sort of power consumption as any other low powered device such as a streamer or CD player. It is possible to be confused by the FPGA current draw of 10amps but the FPGA is a low voltage device and hence the high current at low voltage but the actual power draw at mains voltage for the whole Blu2 is still very low indeed. It is therefore unlikely that you need to do anything special with your power supply unless you have known issues with it such as might be caused by having large motors or other devices on the same circuit.

So I would say that if your hi-fi is running happily on your existing mains supply then just leave well alone.

Also, the mains cable supplied with the Blu2 is fine. With such a low power consumption in reality it is probably well over sized. I am very much a skeptic with expensive power cables and see their main function to be lining the pockets of the suppliers and manufacturers. If there is any need for anything then it might be RF rejection or filtering but equally that can be done with a cheap ferrite sleeve available for less than £5.

Regarding the dual BNC cables, I am still using my £20 per 1m BNC cable versions although I have sent off for some 1.5m length ones of the same cable just to see if the possible RF rejection of the longer cables makes any difference. I suggest you try some similar reasonably priced ones first.

 

[Pappadave]

I am going to give slightly conflicting advice. In reality the power draw of a Blu2 is only 30w and this less than many lightbulbs. This is exactly the same sort of power consumption as any other low powered device such as a streamer or CD player. It is possible to be confused by the FPGA current draw of 10amps but the FPGA is a low voltage device and hence the high current at low voltage but the actual power draw at mains voltage for the whole Blu2 is still very low indeed. It is therefore unlikely that you need to do anything special with your power supply unless you have known issues with it such as might be caused by having large motors or other devices on the same circuit.

So I would say that if your hi-fi is running happily on your existing mains supply then just leave well alone.

Also, the mains cable supplied with the Blu2 is fine. With such a low power consumption in reality it is probably well over sized. I am very much a skeptic with expensive power cables and see their main function to be lining the pockets of the suppliers and manufacturers. If there is any need for anything then it might be RF rejection or filtering but equally that can be done with a cheap ferrite sleeve available for less than £5.

Regarding the dual BNC cables, I am still using my £20 per 1m BNC cable versions although I have sent off for some 1.5m length ones of the same cable just to see if the possible RF rejection of the longer cables makes any difference. I suggest you try some similar reasonably priced ones first.

Thank you both. Intuitively I am with Triod User. I am planning to use ROON on NAS -> ultraRendu with LPS-1 -> BluDave with IsoTek -> Utopia/LCD's. No fancy cables for now. I guess DaveRedRef's system is much bigger/power hungry and might be more sensitive to the power source parameters ...

 

[Malcyg]

Comparing hires file playback against CD using Blu II and Dave had lead me to question whether the Blu II was optimised for 44.1 resolution since CD playback was sounding better than the hires files of the same albums in my system. Rob Watts confirmed that this categorically was not the case and that what I was hearing could be related to the source files. I doubted that this was my issue because I had previously been able to easily confirm that hires files sounded better than red book rips of the same album meaning that the issue was probably in the delivery of the data. The whole exercise seemed to confirm what I already suspected which was that I needed to look again at my Roon setup and avoid the data round trip through the router and back that that involved. I had already been looking at this, but the various options and solutions are many and varied to say the least.

What I wanted to try was a server that could sit in my main system rack, run Roon and play the files directly into the Blu II USB input as well as to output via Ethernet so that I could use my mRendu or similar streaming device in case that gave a better sound quality either now or in the future - keeps options open. This was harder to find than I thought since most of the potential candidates only output via USB or Ethernet, but not both. My Melco fits the bill perfectly but, unfortunately, cannot run Roon core. This is a disappointment for me since the Melco has been excellent from day one and I'd prefer to keep it.

Anyway, I found a device that could do the job, an Innuos Zenith MkII and I also found a local dealer who had one rigged up in house and who very kindly agreed to let me take it home for a few days to try it out in my system. So I did and first impressions are very good indeed. I used the onboard CD mechanism on the Zenith to rip a few CD's to the internal hard drive. I then put the CD's into the Blu II and compared CD playback with the ripped files played directly via Roon from the Zenith USB output into the Blu II and I really could not discern any difference at all. I have not yet transferred any hires files to the Zenith, but I will do that next and my expectation is that I may now possibly be able to better the sound quality of the Blu II CD playback.

I then connected the Ethernet output of the Zenith to my mRendu powered by LPS-1 and connected the USB output of that into BluDave. The result was a step back in clarity and transparency and a sound quality that could not match the direct CD playback. This is good news because I prefer simple solutions and the ability to remove items rather than add them is always my preference.

For those looking at cables, I am still using the cheap ones recommended by Triode - getting two decent BNC cables from various brands is proving harder than expected as it seems the vast majority are RCA terminated.

 

[Triode User]

Comparing hires file playback against CD using Blu II and Dave had lead me to question whether the Blu II was optimised for 44.1 resolution since CD playback was sounding better than the hires files of the same albums in my system. Rob Watts confirmed that this categorically was not the case and that what I was hearing could be related to the source files. I doubted this because I had previously been able to easily confirm that hires files sounded better than red book rips of the same album meaning that the issue was probably in the delivery of the data. The whole exercise seemed to confirm what I already suspected which was that I needed to look again at my Roon setup and avoid the data round trip through the router and back that that involved. I had already been looking at this, but the various options and solutions are many and varied to say the least.

What I wanted to try was a server that could sit in my main system rack, run Roon and play the files directly into the Blu II USB input as well as to output via Ethernet so that I could use my mRendu or similar streaming device in case that gave a better sound quality either now or in the future - keeps options open. This was harder to find than I thought since most of the potential candidates only output via USB or Ethernet, but not both. My Melco fits the bill perfectly but, unfortunately, cannot run Roon core. This is a disappointment for me since the Melco has been excellent from day one and I'd prefer to keep it.

Anyway, I found a device that could do the job, an Innuos Zenith MkII and I also found a local dealer who had one rigged up in house and who very kindly agreed to let me take it home for a few days to try it out in my system. So I did and first impressions are very good indeed. I used the onboard CD mechanism on the Zenith to rip a few CD's to the internal hard drive. I then put the CD's into the Blu II and compared CD playback with the ripped files played directly via Roon from the Zenith USB output into the Blu II and I really could not discern any difference at all. I have not yet transferred any hires files to the Zenith, but I will do that next and my expectation is that I may now possibly be able to better the sound quality of the Blu II CD playback.

I then connected the Ethernet output of the Zenith to my mRendu powered by LPS-1 and connected the USB output of that into BluDave. The result was a step back in clarity and transparency and a sound quality that could not match the direct CD playback. This is good news because I prefer simple solutions and the ability to remove items rather than add them is always my preference.

For those looking at cables, I am still using the cheap ones recommended by Triode - getting two decent BNC cables from various brands is proving harder than expected as it seems the vast majority are RCA terminated.

I was just taking a break from rebuilding a crossover on some old Dali 104 speakers and your post popped up on here.

What you say is very very interesting. My Chord dealer has recommended the Innuos Zenith MkII and has promised to to visit me with one to try. He really raves about it.

I know that when he brings something for me to try on his recommendation I end up buying it. Hence why I find your thoughts interesting.

I am glad you are still enjoying the BNC cables that I recommended. Some 1.5m versions of the same cable have just arrived in the post this morning for me to try against the 1m cables.

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

I will post whether I can observe an improvement or not, but am reluctant to go into brand and price details due to the fact that it seems such a contentious issue which can generate a hostile and condescending reaction from some.

The comments on length are interesting, though it would seem that the ideal length will depend upon the two devices being connected, so I doubt there will be an easy answer other than to try for yourself with your own equipment. I would hope that Rob would have this echo issue sorted between Blu and Dave and the fact that Chord supply very short cables to get you started might possibly suggest that they are confident about the sound quality with shorter lengths. They are too short for me to use in my rack, so I have no idea whether they sound any different to the ones that I am using but I may try and check them out when I test the others if I can get the two units close enough together. I presume the short cables would be a neat fit if you use the Chord stands to stack the Blu and Dave.

Interestingly, the expensive AES cable that I mentioned previously was 4m in length which adds significantly to the cost being double that of a 1m cable. I did wonder why they had sent me that length and maybe this could be the reason. Or maybe it was just what they had in at the time. It did sound very good though. All the others were 1m.

Glad you got to the bottom of it Malc. Looking forward to your take on the hires comparison now that you have established your level playing field. Well done.

 

[Malcyg]

I was just taking a break from rebuilding a crossover on some old Dali 104 speakers and your post popped up on here.

What you say is very very interesting. My Chord dealer has recommended the Innuos Zenith MkII and has promised to to visit me with one to try. He really raves about it.

I know that when he brings something for me to try on his recommendation I end up buying it. Hence why I find your thoughts interesting.

Oh dear. I suspect that your wallet is in for a battering!

 

[Triode User]

Oh dear. I suspect that your wallet is in for a battering!

My wallet is hiding after buying the Spendor SP200 speakers. Or maybe my wife has hidden it.

 

[Malcyg]

Glad you got to the bottom of it Malc. Looking forward to your take on the hires comparison now that you have established your level playing field. Well done.

Thanks Dave. It is potentially quite exciting because I sorted my amp and speakers some while ago and now the BluDave combination has totally settled the front end, so file playback/streaming is the only remaining area to finalise. I've been looking at options there for ages now and it is both complex and fast moving. If the Zenith proves robust in operation, and it has so far, and copes ok with multi room, then I may be in the enviable position of locking the whole of the main system down and forgetting about it, which has always been my objective - but things are never straightforward when you are a perfectionist as I'm sure you will know. You don't buy a Red Ref if you are easily satisfied!

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

Thanks Dave. It is potentially quite exciting because I sorted my amp and speakers some while ago and now the BluDave combination has totally settled the front end, so file playback/streaming is the only remaining area to finalise. I've been looking at options there for ages now and it is both complex and fast moving. If the Zenith proves robust in operation, and it has so far, and copes ok with multi room, then I may be in the enviable position of locking the whole of the main system down and forgetting about it, which has always been my objective - but things are never straightforward when you are a perfectionist as I'm sure you will know. You don't buy a Red Ref if you are easily satisfied!

Haha