DaveRedRef-III
500+ Head-Fier
An amplified example of the noise, buzz, hum, that our system components have to cope with on a typical household power supply....
Chord Electronics - Blu Mk. 2 - The Official Thread
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Sonic77
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I too recently got Nick's cables. Surprised/impressed by the weight and construction quality - these are substantial bits of kit we have here!
My system was already very resolving (Blu2/DAVE, Illusonic IAP4, Sanders Magtech x2, Sanders Electrostatic/TL Speakers, LessLoss power and analogue cabling, industrial balanced transformer 2kW) but Nick's cables gave me yet another level of performance
Each and every instrument is held rock solid in the wide, high sound space. Tone and texture are deep and authentic. Everything is just SO fast and sharp but utterly comfortable to listen to at very high volumes. Absolute no digital edge or harshness whatsoever and I can now play so loud I can feel the air on my face as the panels pump out their fluid magic
And the bass .........
A worthwhile investment without any doubt
Love, love, love Nicks cables! Your gonna have to fight me Nick, if you want them back, lol
Christer
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Interesting little video. but what exactly does the Shunyata cable do?
Does it filter away the noise or what?
To me it supports my suspicion that having as many components as possible on battery power instead of off the grid power might be a very good idea indeed.
Back home my large powerful main amplifier system has its own huge and heavy power supply and power cable but since the amp delivers 900 watts per channel into 4 ohm load from my large electrostatic speakers a battery solution does not seem like a doable solution compared to a dedicated psu still connected to the grid.
But my Qutest while travelling and listening via headphones with both laptop on battery and Qutest on battery and headphone amp on battery yields smoother warmer cleaner sound with less hash and digital edge than off the grid.
But I still have to connect my M Scaler to the grid.
Not only does power as such ie enough of it seem to matter, but also the quality of it.
Cheers Controversial Christer
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Increased inductance. In addition to the overall construction of the power cable, Shunyata employs built-in filters with a ferroelectric material around the wire that is designed to distribute the radiated electric field over a larger area thereby reducing noise. The are many other methods and products that will produce similar results but Shunyata is admittedly good at marketing it.
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DaveRedRef-III
500+ Head-Fier
Your experiences with battery power are not surprising Christer. If only we could use battery power instead of mains power.
My recent investigation into power and cables in general started with an interconnect which had the signal wire in air tubes rather than than having a close fitting dielectric jacket as is the norm with most HIFI cables. The transparency and resolution was so high in this case that I could hear all kinds of unwanted artefacts in the signal. At first I thought it was the interconnect itself but as I tested each wire link in my system, it became apparent that the interconnect in question was just about the only piece of wire in my system that was not contributing to the artefacts. It was just that before using it, I didn’t notice as much of it through the haze but once I recognised what I was listening for I realised it was always there.
What I have found with power cable manufacturers is that they seem to agree on 3 constants:
1) electricity flows much better (resulting in faster and better macro and micro dynamics), with less ‘random eddy currents’ when the power wires are allowed to flow through air or buffered by air tubes rather than in contact with the dielectric jacket.
2) the earth wire is the primary source for noise in our power system. It acts as an antennae it seems. Much of a power cable manufacturers focus and ingenuity these days is in dealing with the problems created by our household earthing system. From what I have read, if we created a separated earthing system for our HIFI room and cut it off from the rest of the household appliances it would avoid much of the artefacts and haze we hear in our systems.
3) shielding is still required to protect against airborne interference
I haven’t tried shunyata btw but they say they use ‘multi stage filter’ technology in their power cables.
My recent investigation into power and cables in general started with an interconnect which had the signal wire in air tubes rather than than having a close fitting dielectric jacket as is the norm with most HIFI cables. The transparency and resolution was so high in this case that I could hear all kinds of unwanted artefacts in the signal. At first I thought it was the interconnect itself but as I tested each wire link in my system, it became apparent that the interconnect in question was just about the only piece of wire in my system that was not contributing to the artefacts. It was just that before using it, I didn’t notice as much of it through the haze but once I recognised what I was listening for I realised it was always there.
What I have found with power cable manufacturers is that they seem to agree on 3 constants:
1) electricity flows much better (resulting in faster and better macro and micro dynamics), with less ‘random eddy currents’ when the power wires are allowed to flow through air or buffered by air tubes rather than in contact with the dielectric jacket.
2) the earth wire is the primary source for noise in our power system. It acts as an antennae it seems. Much of a power cable manufacturers focus and ingenuity these days is in dealing with the problems created by our household earthing system. From what I have read, if we created a separated earthing system for our HIFI room and cut it off from the rest of the household appliances it would avoid much of the artefacts and haze we hear in our systems.
3) shielding is still required to protect against airborne interference
I haven’t tried shunyata btw but they say they use ‘multi stage filter’ technology in their power cables.
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Chord dacs have exceedingly high quality reference psu's in built with incredible power filtering and internal isolation from power.
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watermad
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Chord Electronics Blu Mk2 USB Sensitivity
I have a Chord Blu Mk2/DAVE front end running Roon off of QNAP NAS. I was using my venerable Squeezebox Touch as the Roon endpoint connected to the Blu Mk2 via SPDIF with no issues. However on selling my Squeezebox Touch connected to the Blu Mk2 via USB from the QANP and persistent intermittent dropouts in audio literally every 5 seconds. Connected to the DAVE via USB, rock solid, so there appears to be an issue with the Blu Mk2, has anyone encountered this have a workaround?
I was hoping to save myself some money and improve sound going direct to the Blu Mk2, however may now have to upgrade to an Auralic G1 or Lumin U1 min, unless a DCS Network Bridge comes on the 2nd hand market at a very reasonable price.
I have a Chord Blu Mk2/DAVE front end running Roon off of QNAP NAS. I was using my venerable Squeezebox Touch as the Roon endpoint connected to the Blu Mk2 via SPDIF with no issues. However on selling my Squeezebox Touch connected to the Blu Mk2 via USB from the QANP and persistent intermittent dropouts in audio literally every 5 seconds. Connected to the DAVE via USB, rock solid, so there appears to be an issue with the Blu Mk2, has anyone encountered this have a workaround?
I was hoping to save myself some money and improve sound going direct to the Blu Mk2, however may now have to upgrade to an Auralic G1 or Lumin U1 min, unless a DCS Network Bridge comes on the 2nd hand market at a very reasonable price.
6aardvark9
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I use a Mutec MC3+USB reclocker in front of the Blu2, takes USB input and outputs via SPDIF... you should maybe try this (can be taken on a 30-day try-before-you-buy period), as it really does remove an additional layer of digital harshness as well as circumventing your drop-out issues
ecwl
500+ Head-Fier
If you just need a good Roon Ethernet USB streamer, consider ultraRendu. Much cheaper.
I had an issue with frequent M-Scaler/Dave dropouts via USB from my iMac. There were none via SPDIF. Your issue sounds similar. It turned out to be a Dave issue which arises with some units. I had mine replaced, no problem at all now. Apparently is is also possible to fix in the factory via flash memory update.
A possible work-around is to use the other set of BNC inputs on the Dave. In my case it helped, but did not completely eliminate drop-outs. Another is to use the SPDIF input. However, I imagine you would want fully functional USB at this price point, so you may want to get the Dave fixed or replaced.
I have not listened critically yet, will do so and report back.
watermad
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I'm not quite following the train of thought that it is a Dave issue? My DAVE is connected to the Blu MK2 via dual BNC, so it should be irrelevant what source is connected to the Blu MK2 as far as the DAVE is concerened as it is receiving the data from the same input the Dual BNCs?
Indeed it is counterintuitive. At first I suspected cables. But after a lot of swapping, including testing other Dave and HMS units (thanks to my dealer), the following became clear:
- It was a Dave issue, and only occurred when fed from the M- Scaler. No issue when the Dave was fed directly.
- It only occurred in Dual BNC mode.
- Furthermore, it only occurred with USB input to the HMS. This was with all USB sources that I checked. No issue at all with optical input to the HMS.
- The sensitivity to dropouts depended on which set of BNC inputs on the Dave were used. In my case BNC 1+2 had drop outs every few seconds, while BNC 3+4 had them every minute or so.
- There was extreme sensitivity to cable movement, even just touching them lightly
would cause a dropout.
The problem went away completely with a new Dave. Cables work fine and are reasonably robust to movement. There was an earlier post by Rob Watts explaining it occurred with very few Dave units, and it was due to high sensitivity to synchronisation between the dual BNC cable signals. Rob mentioned that it can be addressed via a software fix which can be done in the factory.
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watermad
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Thanks for your very detailed response as you said Counter Intuitive, makes some sense, I've been using BNC 3/4 switched to BNC 1/2 and no drop-outs. Thanks for the quick fix, I may send it back when I'm on holiday for a proper fix as I don't want to be without music for an extended period.
Hindsight is always 20/20: The streaming music business in the US market is still very much evolving. For example, in February 2019 TIDAL and major record labels such as Atlantic, 2L and others began distributing some newly recorded albums only in MQA 48kHZ 24 bit, MQA 48kHz (see Audiophile Style for more discussions). Meanwhile Qobuz US which launched in February 2019 has struggled miserably to onboard suppliers and the selection is wholly inadequate. And then there's the myriad of problems with the methods TIDAL and Qobuz allow for artists/labels to submit albums and it invites serious questions about the quality and provenance of those recordings. Audiophile grade network endpoint and streamer solutions from Innous, The Linear Solution, Nucklehead, Sonore, SoTM, etc. aren't much better and are still in their infancy. With so much uncertainty in lossless streaming, the physical CD is an irreplaceable benchmark.
The Blu Mk II with an integrated M Scaler, Phillips CD Pro 2 mechanism, and USB input may have been the best approach in hindsight. Each time I see an album disappear from Qobuz US or one appear only as MQA in TIDAL, I admire my physical CD collection and the Blu Mk II that much more. Thank you @Rob Watts for seeing the future before anyone else and that's why I'm a 2x Blu Mk II owner.
Closing the lid and pressing play.
The Blu Mk II with an integrated M Scaler, Phillips CD Pro 2 mechanism, and USB input may have been the best approach in hindsight. Each time I see an album disappear from Qobuz US or one appear only as MQA in TIDAL, I admire my physical CD collection and the Blu Mk II that much more. Thank you @Rob Watts for seeing the future before anyone else and that's why I'm a 2x Blu Mk II owner.
Closing the lid and pressing play.
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