Ferrite beads believers thread

[ScareDe2]

One of my last inexpensive sound improvement was to install a ferrite choke on the SATA power cable where I think there was more chance of noise, and the sound quality has skyrocketed to my full satisfaction. I post a picture of the inside of the tower below :

I installed a second one and sound quality is still going up !

 

[redrol]

Or you could get a better power supply. There are folks that measure power supply ripple and other metrics.

Those beads influence things in the 1MHZ range not audio range.

Placebo is very powerful.

 

[ScareDe2]

This is a ferrite topic, not PSU. And these HPs doesn't like aftermarket PSU they work best within their OEM factory specifications. Back to the topic.

Here Paul talks ferrite and they indeed affect sound by way of output impedance, which was also explained in another video. Paul himself doesn't like increasing impedance and the effect it has on sound, while I do like it personally. Placebo is very powerful indeed some people think a cheap ipod sounds the same as a multiple thousands dollars DAC. Which side you take is not important as long as you enjoy your sound at the end of the day. And there are no reasons for you to contribute if you don't believe ferrite has an impact on sound.

 

[bluecar]

It's a bit blunt force, but should work - a ferrite bead like this is an RF low-pass filter - if it works for you, try some different types/sizes to get a broader range of RF suppression on your PSU connectors.

Off topic, but worth looking at your PSU - ATX/ITX power supplies are built to a standard - regardless of your OEM computer, an aftermarket supply will work if it delivers at least the same rated power as the one it replaces - maybe worth an experiment. In an extreme case, I saw a PC powered using nothing but aftermarket LPSUs - one for each voltage group in the ATX config - then again, he was Japanese and slightly Otaku obsessed.....

 

[ScareDe2]

There are four ferrites installed now and I never saw a picture like that, an explosion of colors, textures and resolution, very transparent. It looks gorgeous.

More offtopic discussion: I got this computer for the motherboard, the capacitors that I assume play an important role in delivering better sound quality and the realtek ALC888 chip. The sound is great. But I can't upgrade the CPU for decent gaming experience. I will probably try to get the 2.02 revision with AM2+. It would allow me to install a quad core and use this motherboard for all purposes not just for sound and some browsing. This onboard DAC in this MCP61PM-HM outperforms the soundblaster card, the Schiit modi, the Schiit Bifrost multibit and all the other onboard audio I had. Hence why it's my second MCP61PM-HM board.

I will buy this outdated board three times can you imagine!