[cdacosta]

I have some to spare - seriously

I went a bit bonkers and bought two more lots from Europe (one order placed at the pub after a few APAs) so I have rather a lot of this stuff so can spare a little no worries.. currently mostly used gratuitously in A5 sheets on my speakers, amp, DAC & clock chassis, where with few exceptions I have found more is better e.g. 4 stacked sheets on my clock chassis each of which is clearly audible (told you it was gratuitous!) or as of today 3 stacked A7 sized sheets on the FMCs which along with an Ifi DC iPurifier transform them to a standard they are now better without an AliX audiophile switch after them.

So in the interests of science I just did an AB of a series of similarly sized pieces of TA-102 vs SH-22K, progressing to slightly larger 1x1cm squares, each placed on the USB cable plug where it plugs into the back of the Mac Mini. (My mates would think I had irrecoverably descended into the hifi tweaking rabbit hole if I told them this and they may have a point )

1mm deep TA-102 on left 2mm deep SH-22K on right, USB for scale (the heavy machined alloy brute that is the Denafrips remote is holding the cable in place)

Do you live in the US?

 

[Jake2]

Do you live in the US?

New Zealand.

 

[cdacosta]

I have some to spare - seriously

I went a bit bonkers and bought two more lots from Europe (one order placed at the pub after a few APAs) so I have rather a lot of this stuff so can spare a little no worries.. currently mostly used gratuitously in A5 sheets on my speakers, amp, DAC & clock chassis, where with few exceptions I have found more is better e.g. 4 stacked sheets on my clock chassis each of which is clearly audible (told you it was gratuitous!) or as of today 3 stacked A7 sized sheets on the FMCs which along with an Ifi DC iPurifier transform them to a standard they are now better without an AliX audiophile switch after them.

So in the interests of science I just did an AB of a series of similarly sized pieces of TA-102 vs SH-22K, progressing to slightly larger 1x1cm squares, each placed on the USB cable plug where it plugs into the back of the Mac Mini. (My mates would think I had irrecoverably descended into the hifi tweaking rabbit hole if I told them this and they may have a point )

1mm deep TA-102 on left 2mm deep SH-22K on right, USB for scale (the heavy machined alloy brute that is the Denafrips remote is holding the cable in place)

I see you are in New Zealand. Maybe we can do a trade? Say a finished ground cable for some of the fo.Q?

 

[cdacosta]

Ooh baby, $37.10 for shipping first class package from US to New Zealand.

 

[Jake2]

Yes, tell me about it re shipping to the Antipodes. Brutal here especially with the current exchange rate and €50 a pop shipping for each of those Playstereo shipments from Italy. I've spent a silly amount on the stuff now.

To that end whilst I don't mind sharing a small quantity for cable grounding damping purposes (a little goes a long way there, and I'd seek nothing in return, would fit in an envelope so postage would be negligible) if you or the other guys want greater quantities - full sheets for components - I'd encourage you to just bite the bullet (as I did more than once) and order some - maybe do a group buy to split costs from Europe before they're gone gone.

PS - I should add I appreciate the offer of exchange for one of your superb cables.

To encourage you further... The result of the AB was the TA-102 slightly thinned the sound, improving the resolution slightly but not in a desirable way. So I can see why it didn't grab you used like this. This was regardless of the quantity used. By contrast the 22K doesn't seem to have any drawbacks... Creates a more expansive and deeper soundstage than either sans any fo.Q or the TA-102, with greater definition than either but fuller more beautifully textured vocals and juicy textured bass. I have since moved to the larger squares without drawback (it's just ethernet plugs that are finicky with quantity it seems) and then doubled and tripled up on both the USB and RCA with no negatives, just an increase in the positive effects. Then proceeded to add strips on one of the octagonal flat surfaces of the binding posts of my boxes. This added more of the same.

My system sounds a lot more lush, with deeper richer timbres and a greater scale than it did this morning. There's some crazy grounding synergy with this stuff.

 

[cdacosta]

Yes, tell me about it re shipping to the Antipodes. Brutal here especially with the current exchange rate and €50 a pop shipping for each of those Playstereo shipments from Italy. I've spent a silly amount on the stuff now.

To that end whilst I don't mind sharing a small quantity for cable grounding damping purposes (a little goes a long way there, and I'd seek nothing in return, would fit in an envelope so postage would be negligible) if you or the other guys want greater quantities - full sheets for components - I'd encourage you to just bite the bullet (as I did more than once) and order some - maybe do a group buy to split costs from Europe before they're gone gone.

PS - I should add I appreciate the offer of exchange for one of your superb cables.

To encourage you further... The result of the AB was the TA-102 slightly thinned the sound, improving the resolution slightly but not in a desirable way. So I can see why it didn't grab you used like this. This was regardless of the quantity used. By contrast the 22K doesn't seem to have any drawbacks... Creates a more expansive and deeper soundstage than either sans any fo.Q or the TA-102, with greater definition than either but fuller more beautifully textured vocals and juicy textured bass. I have since moved to the larger squares without drawback (it's just ethernet plugs that are finicky with quantity it seems) and then doubled and tripled up on both the USB and RCA with no negatives, just an increase in the positive effects. Then proceeded to add strips on one of the octagonal flat surfaces of the binding posts of my boxes. This added more of the same.

My system sounds a lot more lush, with deeper richer timbres and a greater scale than it did this morning. There's some crazy grounding synergy with this stuff.

Yes an envelope was under $2. I PM you.

I ended up taking off the amp piece. After listening to it a bit, yep thinned presentation. In my system, even the tinniest changes can be heard.

 

[Jake2]

Yes an envelope was under $2. I PM you.

I ended up taking off the amp piece. After listening to it a bit, yep thinned presentation. In my system, even the tinniest changes can be heard.

Cool .

My system is pretty resolving now too, sometimes too much so. My Focals' Beryllium tweeters have been intolerant of any jitter or glare, especially in the upper mid-range, and on hot recordings, which grounding, damping and ethernet chain improvements have helped a lot with. Suspect a tube or class A amp would be a better match longer term but I'm staying on the highly resolving, neutral tonality path for now...

 

[Jake2]

So a few hours of further experimentation later I feel like I've discovered a cheat code, at least for folk with a master clock.

My DAC and system sounds much more lush and analogue than it has ever done.

I extended the grounding terminal damping approach I described above to my LHY OCK-2 master clock, which already looked like a copper Medusa with 5x grounding cables & foil strips coming off 5 of its 6 BNC sockets including the one with the BNC cable going to my DAC. What I did was progressively lay 1-2cm by 1cm pieces on top of each BNC, going across in multiple passes, listened to each to check if it was a net improvement (they always were for these BNCs), continuing to layer on more and more up to four layers high.

Did the same with stacking pieces on the Spdif RCA grounding plug I use to ground the R26, the R26 BNC jack to which the clock cable is connected and the grounding box binding post.

I used Tainted Love by Karen Souza as a ref track.. paying close attention to what happened to her voice along with a sequence of high and aggressively played staccato piano notes in the top left corner, and later a pair of subtle finger snaps as they emerged from the background. What I found as I added more and more pieces and layers to the BNCs was Karen Souza's voice became more and more languid and liquid, conveying more emotion, whilst the high and stacatto piano notes got progressively more filled out and textured and real sounding with nuanced decay rather than just a single sharp high note. Ditto re the finger snaps... little by little they got more sketched in and believable rather than the unrecognisable etched transients they started out as. I now have this really dynamic, flowing and big soundstage where instruments and voices sound so much more analogue than they did this morning... Or ever. Oh yeah, many female vocals now sound... velvety. Not a word I've much used to describe my system to date.

Very satisfying to get improvements of this scale just by this very focussed vibration damping. It feels like both my clock and DAC have been upgraded to another class of organic precision (for lack of a better term) I've been seeking for a long time but wasn't sure i'd ever achieve with em. Finally.

 

[cdacosta]

So a few hours of further experimentation later I feel like I've discovered a cheat code, at least for folk with a master clock.

My DAC and system sounds much more lush and analogue than it has ever done.

I extended the grounding terminal damping approach I described above to my LHY OCK-2 master clock, which already looked like a copper Medusa with 5x grounding cables & foil strips coming off 5 of its 6 BNC sockets including the one with the BNC cable going to my DAC. What I did was progressively lay 1-2cm by 1cm pieces on top of each BNC, going across in multiple passes, listened to each to check if it was a net improvement (they always were for these BNCs), continuing to layer on more and more up to four layers high.

Did the same with stacking pieces on the Spdif RCA grounding plug I use to ground the R26, the R26 BNC jack to which the clock cable is connected and the grounding box binding post.

I used Tainted Love by Karen Souza as a ref track.. paying close attention to what happened to her voice along with a sequence of high and aggressively played staccato piano notes in the top left corner, and later a pair of subtle finger snaps as they emerged from the background. What I found as I added more and more pieces and layers to the BNCs was Karen Souza's voice became more and more languid and liquid, conveying more emotion, whilst the high and stacatto piano notes got progressively more filled out and textured and real sounding with nuanced decay rather than just a single sharp high note. Ditto re the finger snaps... little by little they got more sketched in and believable rather than the unrecognisable etched transients they started out as. I now have this really dynamic, flowing and big soundstage where instruments and voices sound so much more analogue than they did this morning... Or ever. Oh yeah, many female vocals now sound... velvety. Not a word I've much used to describe my system to date.

Very satisfying to get improvements of this scale just by this very focussed vibration damping. It feels like both my clock and DAC have been upgraded to another class of organic precision (for lack of a better term) I've been seeking for a long time but wasn't sure i'd ever achieve with em. Finally.

Pics of what you did?

 

[Jake2]

Pics of what you did?

Will post some later, at work.

 

[Jake2]

Here ya go.. apologies for experimental messiness.

Clock on left, DAC on right. Zoom in to see the stacked pieces of fo.Q on BNCs/cable connnectors. In hindsight I wish if cut em consistently slightly larger. Ah well. There's no adhesive between the fo.Q blocks, they fall off with a light touch, annoying. Will come up with a better longer term solution... apply some spray tack and/or tape em on.

LHY SW-8 clock with 6 BNC outputs:
- 2 grounding cables to ground box, QA silver coated copper, CDA's OCC 14GA X 2
- 3 X foil tapes to grounding box, the bottom one hides the clock cable, an Harmonic Tech DC III, foil wrapped over the exterior ground of the BNC plug and socket. (Peg is to hold foil on firmly, actually sounds better) I find the foil is audibly complementary to wire ground cables.

R26 DAC (top to bottom, cables with fo.Q)
- ethernet cable
- s/pdif coax input - QA silver coated ground cable (I need to buy some more OCC 14GA)
- 10Mhz clock BNC input (HT DC III cable as above, should probably ground this end too per CDA advice...)

 

[cdacosta]

Here ya go.. apologies for experimental messiness.

Clock on left, DAC on right. Zoom in to see the stacked pieces of fo.Q on BNCs/cable connnectors. In hindsight I wish if cut em consistently slightly larger. Ah well. There's no adhesive between the fo.Q blocks, they fall off with a light touch, annoying. Will come up with a better longer term solution... apply some spray tack and/or tape em on.

LHY SW-8 clock with 6 BNC outputs:
- 2 grounding cables to ground box, QA silver coated copper, CDA's OCC 14GA X 2
- 3 X foil tapes to grounding box, the bottom one hides the clock cable, an Harmonic Tech DC III, foil wrapped over the exterior ground of the BNC plug and socket. (Peg is to hold foil on firmly, actually sounds better) I find the foil is audibly complementary to wire ground cables.

R26 DAC (top to bottom, cables with fo.Q)
- ethernet cable
- s/pdif coax input - QA silver coated ground cable (I need to buy some more OCC 14GA)
- 10Mhz clock BNC input (HT DC III cable as above, should probably ground this end too per CDA advice...)

From your pics I understand what you did. Will give it a try when I get that sample SH22. Thanks

 

[Dandoudou]

@Jake2 ,
Keep your fo.Q sheets unused as collector's items.
Try French anti vibration technology instead.

 

[Jake2]

@Jake2 ,
Keep your fo.Q sheets unused as collector's items.
Try French anti vibration technology instead.

Nice, I like the distinctly Gallic damping method you have employed, I am in need of some supports for chunky power cables especially, so I shall have to try it. Though our vineyards have largely moved to screwcaps these days, so might have to tailor my vino purchases to be more hifi friendly.

 

[Dandoudou]

Though our vineyards have largely moved to screwcaps these days, so might have to tailor my vino purchases to be more hifi friendly.

They need to be in cork, not in plastic.
Your system will sound better each time you finish a good bottle of wine or champagne.