[OctavianH]

When I told you guys that my next steps will focus on the quality of the USB input of the DAC I was not joking.

So I have done the following:
- found a good offer for a better USB cable and the choice was Chord Signature Tuned Aray USB 3m

This cable is quite expensive but at a discount of 50% because it was used as a Demo unit in the showroom became more affordable. It is, of course, in perfect condition.

- bought a LPS for ISO Regen (and in the future JCAT Femto) which I am currently testing

And yes, all these powered by the Kemp Power Strip 4 isolated from the rest of the electrical network. And yes, there are audible improvements here, and not small ones. I need some time to test these but I am on the right track.
On Thursday I will receive the JCAT and then plug the new USB cable into it, then decide if I'll keep or not the ISO Regen. I have doubts it will still be needed after I'll add the JCAT but I'll see.
And yes, last but not least, I changed all the stock power cables to Supra Silver plated ones, exception being the Furman. Now it is hard to say which of the upgrades is bringing the biggest improvements, but overall all these were some good steps forward.
After the JCAT I'll stop with any investment and wait 100 hours to see what is happening. What I have to do in addition is to find a better route for the USB cable which, at the moment, is passing though an area with other power cables and stuff.
This will not be an easy task, because honestly I have no idea where to route it, and I have to power devices on the desk, like for example my monitor or speakers, this being the reason for some power cables going upwards on the desk and passing near this USB one.

PS. The sound is cleaner and more detailed but somehow brighter. I guess after all the elements are in place I will realize I'll need a pair of GEC 6AS7G as powers to bring some bass back... Hard is the life of the music lover.

 

[hypnos1]

Hard is the life of the music lover.

Some would say it never ends lol!!

But it looks like you're getting there(?!!)...well done!

 

[OctavianH]

I am on a good road of musical satisfaction but I'll need to buy some anti-depression pills for my wallet otherwise it will commit a violent suicide.

I am really curious where JCAT will lead me, sine I have quite big expectations from it.

 

[Scutey]

When I told you guys that my next steps will focus on the quality of the USB input of the DAC I was not joking.

So I have done the following:
- found a good offer for a better USB cable and the choice was Chord Signature Tuned Aray USB 3m

This cable is quite expensive but at a discount of 50% because it was used as a Demo unit in the showroom became more affordable. It is, of course, in perfect condition.

- bought a LPS for ISO Regen (and in the future JCAT Femto) which I am currently testing

And yes, all these powered by the Kemp Power Strip 4 isolated from the rest of the electrical network. And yes, there are audible improvements here, and not small ones. I need some time to test these but I am on the right track.
On Thursday I will receive the JCAT and then plug the new USB cable into it, then decide if I'll keep or not the ISO Regen. I have doubts it will still be needed after I'll add the JCAT but I'll see.
And yes, last but not least, I changed all the stock power cables to Supra Silver plated ones, exception being the Furman. Now it is hard to say which of the upgrades is bringing the biggest improvements, but overall all these were some good steps forward.
After the JCAT I'll stop with any investment and wait 100 hours to see what is happening. What I have to do in addition is to find a better route for the USB cable which, at the moment, is passing though an area with other power cables and stuff.
This will not be an easy task, because honestly I have no idea where to route it, and I have to power devices on the desk, like for example my monitor or speakers, this being the reason for some power cables going upwards on the desk and passing near this USB one.

PS. The sound is cleaner and more detailed but somehow brighter. I guess after all the elements are in place I will realize I'll need a pair of GEC 6AS7G as powers to bring some bass back... Hard is the life of the music lover.

I am on a good road of musical satisfaction but I'll need to buy some anti-depression pills for my wallet otherwise it will commit a violent suicide.

I am really curious where JCAT will lead me, sine I have quite big expectations from it.

Nice upgrades!, hope they do well for you, the true path to audio enlightenment is paved with many troubles, especially for our wallets, perhaps we should have a be kind to your wallet day! .

 

[hypnos1]

I am on a good road of musical satisfaction but I'll need to buy some anti-depression pills for my wallet otherwise it will commit a violent suicide.

I am really curious where JCAT will lead me, sine I have quite big expectations from it.

Nice upgrades!, hope they do well for you, the true path to audio enlightenment is paved with many troubles, especially for our wallets, perhaps we should have a be kind to your wallet day! .

Well, guys, I myself have found the only solution is to put blinkers on the poor things...pills don't work I'm afraid OH...neither for them nor us lol!!

ps. It also helps to use those blinkers ourselves...and especially on our better halves! ...HAPPY LISTENING!...CJ

 

[mordy]

How do you click on the forum site to have new posts delivered to your email?

 

[OctavianH]

Hi @mordy

I guess you have to "subscribe" to the thread (on the top right side) and then you receive all new posts via e-mail. The reversible action would be unsubscribe.
I think there is also an automatic subscribe when you reply to a thread because I receive them without manually subscribing. I hope my answer helps.

 

[hypnos1]

Hi @mordy

I guess you have to "subscribe" to the thread (on the top right side) and then you receive all new posts via e-mail. The reversible action would be unsubscribe.
I think there is also an automatic subscribe when you reply to a thread because I receive them without manually subscribing. I hope my answer helps.

Hi OH.

It looks like notification can be rather hit and miss alas....sometimes I get them from subscribed threads and 'automatically' as you say, and sometimes not. No rhyme nor reason lol!

 

[OctavianH]

I do not understand either how this really works. I guess it is a timeout after your last reply to a thread because I stop receiving notifications after some inactivity in a thread. I might be wrong but I would say it is a timeout at, let's say, 2 weeks?

 

[hypnos1]

I do not understand either how this really works. I guess it is a timeout after your last reply to a thread because I stop receiving notifications after some inactivity in a thread. I might be wrong but I would say it is a timeout at, let's say, 2 weeks?

Could well be something like that OH...

 

[hypnos1]

Now then guys...after a month or so living with my Meze Empyrean headphones, I would definitely say these and Euforia are simply made for each other.
The Empys bring out a performance from Euforia that I honestly didn't think this amp was capable of, despite being an already superlative one lol! And I'm sure Euforia is also helping these headphones deliver at their best...(with a better cable in situ at least...and the assistance of other system goodies ). The combination of EL11 drivers (albeit mesh-plated ones), and 1x 'balloon' and 1x Philips Dario EL38 powers also helps in this top class overall performance, I'm sure...there isn't a single weakness in any area one can name, or any aspect that I would want/need to 'tweak'.

So it looks like my days of (enjoyable, if sometimes frustrating) DIY tinkering/experimentation could well be at an end...not sure how I feel about that lol! Still, I do have just one more task left...to adapt a nice-looking EL39, which is apparently even better than the EL38. So my juices can flow for a short while longer yet!! ...(but might well temper my findings, given what has happened to the prices of the early 'balloon' version EL38 since I trumpeted their virtues!! ). Cheers and HAPPY LISTENING to all...CJ

ps. Get saving up for those Empyreans lol! ...

 

[OctavianH]

Good evening people,

The Enemy of Noise has returned. This time by luck. I had a week filled with work, salesman activities and music. I sold my Littledot MK2 alongside with a big collection of tubes, my Chord 2Qute and also some not used cables. For the 2Qute a guy from the same town called me to propose a discount in exchange for 2 products. So basicly instead of giving me the price I was asking he offered me an iFi iGalvanic3.0 + iFi nano iUSB3.0 and a smaller amount of money. After thinking a bit I realised that a mid-end DAC like 2Qute without amplification is not easy to sell here and this exchange might be a good idea, since these iFi products are quite popular here and will be much easier to sell after I test them and the sum will bring me the discount back. So, voila, I have 2 new white boxes here with me:

And inside of them 2 grey devices:

Now, honestly, I feel that I am exagerating with all these filters. I have already an ISO Regen, a JCAT on order and now I received another 2 units.
The good part is that I will be able to test several devices and evaluate the differences and then come back to you guys to inform. Of course, in the end I will decide which one I will keep and I will sell the rest to refund my latest upgrades. Anyway this will happen after my holiday in Lisbon because I need a break from work and also audio. This hobby sometimes needs a break.

What I can do, and this is really interesting, is to chain all of them like:

PC => nano iGalvanic3.0 => nano iUSB3.0 => ISO Regen => Qutest.

And if the JCAT will arrive next week to add it also to the chain. Crazy isn't it? But it seems there is a God of Noiseless Sound and he is bringing me all these devices to test. Incredible.

 

[teknorob23]

Good evening people,

The Enemy of Noise has returned. This time by luck. I had a week filled with work, salesman activities and music. I sold my Littledot MK2 alongside with a big collection of tubes, my Chord 2Qute and also some not used cables. For the 2Qute a guy from the same town called me to propose a discount in exchange for 2 products. So basicly instead of giving me the price I was asking he offered me an iFi iGalvanic3.0 + iFi nano iUSB3.0 and a smaller amount of money. After thinking a bit I realised that a mid-end DAC like 2Qute without amplification is not easy to sell here and this exchange might be a good idea, since these iFi products are quite popular here and will be much easier to sell after I test them and the sum will bring me the discount back. So, voila, I have 2 new white boxes here with me:

And inside of them 2 grey devices:

Now, honestly, I feel that I am exagerating with all these filters. I have already an ISO Regen, a JCAT on order and now I received another 2 units.
The good part is that I will be able to test several devices and evaluate the differences and then come back to you guys to inform. Of course, in the end I will decide which one I will keep and I will sell the rest to refund my latest upgrades. Anyway this will happen after my holiday in Lisbon because I need a break from work and also audio. This hobby sometimes needs a break.

What I can do, and this is really interesting, is to chain all of them like:

PC => nano iGalvanic3.0 => nano iUSB3.0 => ISO Regen => Qutest.

And if the JCAT will arrive next week to add it also to the chain. Crazy isn't it? But it seems there is a God of Noiseless Sound and he is bringing me all these devices to test. Incredible.

I'll be very interested to hear your findings with this selection of USB cleansers. I had both the ifi's and found their effects to be negligible, but the ISO regen did have noticeable effect on darkening the noise floor but to my ears this was slightly to the detriment of the overall dynamics. In the end i gave up on using computer based source and have found with the auralic aries, and even more so with the SOtM sms200 ultra neo that noise is no longer an issue... sorry i know you've just been on whirlwind upgrade spree, but is this something you've considered?

 

[OctavianH]

The problem is that I have 2 hobbies: I am a gamer and I like to listen to music. This means I have a quite powerful gaming rig with a lot of storage space for my digital collection (8TB or so).
This means I need a clean way to bring this collection via USB to the DAC. I do not really want to start with streamers or another PC made for audio, it will complicate too much my life. You see, I always start my PC when I am at home and I have a great monitor to use (2K, 27", 144Hz) so I do not want another unit or a player different than my Foobar2000 from this PC. My plan was to add a JCAT (PCIex USB card) and to keep the ISO Regen when needed, but these iFi devices arrived in my possession by chance. Plan is to test them and sell them...

Later Edit:
But until then, tests ongoing:

 

[DecentLevi]

To manage notification settings system-wide, hover your mouse over your HF username, then click "alert preferences", one of many options available under the Your Account section. You can also subscribe / unsubscribe to threads or entire forums at the top right, as mentioned above... but one shalt not unsubscribe from the Euforia thread, as this is one of the most unique and awesome threads out there, Haha. And notification alerts never stop over time, they just may get filtered by the spam settings of your email provider so whitelisting the emails from HF can prevent that.