[Capri87]

Nice clock you got there, the measurements you refer are valuable, certainty as to phase noise performance. Something that I don’t have with my LHY - there’s a story there but let’s not go there today .

Two things that are really important to get the most out of your external clock are a high quality power supply and clock cable. Generally AD hope you’ll buy one of their matched 12v DC units to go with it but a more affordable but high regarded quality 12v linear PS from another manufacturer like LHY would likely do the job.

https://www.beatechnik.com/product-page/lps25va

What clock cable did you get with it? One they included or a particular model you paid more for?

As I’ve found to quite some expense from trying some 6 (six! ) BNC cables in the six months I’ve had it they vary a LOT. The best of the bunch by some margin - even over the Gustard C2 and LMR400 - is the Harmonic-Technology DC III, 50 ohm Single Crystal Copper at USD150 landed cost from HK. Highly rated over in the Master Clock thread.

I would suggest you ask for advice over on the Master Clock thread on both the cable and PS front from the many AfterDark owners there.

thanks Jake! Did some read up and seems like afterdark is one of the more well-received clocks so just went for it. Guess sometimes it beats having pain once and get a better one than spending more money from progressive upgrades

currently just plan to use the clock cable that came with it. What are the 6 BNC cables that you tried?

 

[Jake2]

I also have the Concentus I2S and can confirm, it’s excellent. If memory serves me correctly I believe burn-in recommendation is 100hrs up to 300hrs for optimum performance.

After running the Semperfi pure silver USB cable for much of the last 24 hours it has definitely improved - more refined no question. Gap with ethernet has narrowed. Will leave it playing.

I've also ordered a Holo Titanus USB processor (active isolator) as recently favorably reviewed by Hans to try with the cable.

 

[Jake2]

thanks Jake! Did some read up and seems like afterdark is one of the more well-received clocks so just went for it. Guess sometimes it beats having pain once and get a better one than spending more money from progressive upgrades

currently just plan to use the clock cable that came with it. What are the 6 BNC cables that you tried?

Best to worst - all 50 ohm unless stated otherwise:
- The three above - HT DC III (easily most refined and resolving); LMR400 (> C2 only once burnt in for a week): Gustard C2 (smoother, warmer, less resolving and dynamic than the first too)
- In the middle a 60cm MiniCircuits semi rigid cable I ordered from Mouser purely based on specs re reflectivity etc. Ok but not great.
- And bringing up the rear a pro audio/video 50ohm and a 75ohm 'hifi' digital coax cable I'd had for a fee years.The last two seriously handicap an external clock.

Best price/performance ratio- LMR400.

 

[Beatles1966]

I have never heard that someone from the negative side appeared who personally saw, with his own ears, that any cable does not need burn-in. All detractors refer to the theory, or others. In this case, if USB cables, unlike other cables, do not need burn in, then all these cables should sound the same. And they don't sound the same, even though they carry a 1 and 0 signal, basically it's a completely analog current that flows through the cable.

 

[milkdudd]

For us who are "Hipster-ically" challenged, can you interpret these emojis for us? I'm so behind the times I'm not even sure emoji is the right word. Heavens to Betsy!

 

[milkdudd]

Tubulus Concentus line of cables are high on my list.

My list too but in my case I'd be looking at their i2s cables.Their Argentus i2s Cable is 170 Euros cheaper than Concentus and their description seems the same. Must be some difference, maybe cryo treatment or something like that. Does anybody know for sure? If nothing else you get the pretty purple sleeve! And while I'm sure their USB cables are phenomenal, my opinion is that DH Labs Mirage is too. It also separates the power and signal wires. It's on sale right now 20% off (through March) which has it costing only about 1/3 of what the Tubulus does. That's for the one meter length, the price difference is much larger as you go longer with the cable

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

This year had to move my room pc setup to my home office since the old PC was gaving signs it had enough. So bought a new set of PC, OLED Monitor, and Soundbar + Sub. My budget for the Tubulus cables went all there. . Oh well...

 

[Deleeh]

Hello,

I've been keeping this rather small until now.
I have also tested silver against copper usb cables.
The price has remained at around 80$/€.

In the beginning I found the Inakustik cable very good.
When the Supra usb cable came along, which I ordered out of curiosity, I stuck with it and never went back.

Even on the R26 it provides enough warmth and volume for me personally as it is.
Copper has a nice lush midrange and contrasty low end for me on the R26.
The silver sounded a bit flat and unbalanced in the midrange to me, but the bass is a bit tighter and more contrasty, and the upper low end has a bit more sparkle out the top.

I can't say exactly why,after A/B testing I went back to the Supra,probably out of personal preference.
In the meantime, I make sure that I stay completely on copper, that the cables are emi and Rfi protected and that they have sensible connections.

The only other thing that would appeal to me would be to try a Wireworld or Audioquest.

Silver is okay in a way, but you probably get more effect if it has a generally dark tone in the equipment and opens up the presentation much better.
At least that's what I found out for myself.
I think on the R26 silver is suboptimal if you like its charm, as it generally has a relaxed way of reproducing the music, silver can make it seem a bit nervous.

However, I had the impression with both cables that they were not so great in the first few hours but later got better with time.
I would also honestly say that part of the reason is that it is psychoacoustic and you get used to it.
In the meantime I just give things time, you learn that very well when you have tube amps and change tubes.
Often the first impression is sometimes right sometimes not and then you are positively surprised the next day or days.

 

[m-i-c-k-e-y]

Got a Supra Excalibur in mine as well. Got it from AV-Connection. Service and price are top notch.

 

[rodthebod]

My experience is similar, but not quite the same. I had a MacMini. I connected it with a Wireworld Platinum USB cable, and I also tried a Wireworld Starlight LAN cable on the switch. However, it did not perform better than my Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H PC motherboard. That board works better with the Seasonic Platinum power supply. With the fact that the PC had a good power cable, while the Mac Mini has an original Mac cable. However, no other PC I've tried performs anywhere near as well as that board, and not even close to the Mac Mini. Unfortunately, that series of boards is no longer produced. Nevertheless, the LAN connection proved to be better even in that case. But by far the best sound is when I avoid an additional computer and stream via LAN directly from the Synology NAS, and control via BubbleUPnP from an Android tablet. The most natural sound with the least noise. But Wireworld LAN cables and LHY switches also help here. As for fuses, I recommend that you buy an SR fuse. Orange has a clear, detailed and dynamic sound. I haven't tried Purple, reviews say it has a better midrange. I am happy with Orange on DAC, preamp and amp. They are worth every cent for me, especially since I bought them with a 50% discount.

This is interesting, prior to owning the R26 I used to prefer USB from a tweaked Allo USBridge with custom cable to my preferred DAC (Philips TDA1541A) it gave me the most involved detailed presentation, midrange to die for.....

Since owning the R26 I now prefer using the streamer LAN connection, things have moved on in a very positive way now.
To get the most from the R26 it has been vital to separate the (dirty end) router from the (clean end) music server MinimServer on the Allo USBbridge just as a file server. Power supplies to the clean end should be the best linear psu you can get your hands on which I have found to be the Allo Shanti LPS. If it's part of the audio chain then LPS or Lipo battery supplies are crucial to reduce noise to give resolution and dynamics.

Most important, I use an isolated, by wifi extender, old server/switch which is only 100base to help reduce noise (powered by LPS and using Cat5/6 so isolated ground) via a wifi extender so the router is electrically isolated. I use fibre optic FMC, powered with a LPS or LiPo battery then finally to the R26 (0.5m cat8) this can't be beaten.......yet!
I am using Jplay or Bubbleupnp as the controller to select music from my MinimServer. This setup enables the fileserver and R26 to be electrically isolated as much as possible. If you haven't tried using a wifi extender in the chain to isolate the R26 and file server (I use an old TPlink WA855 300mbps) then try it, it makes a big improvement as others have already testified.

A note on FMC's, interestingly, the use of FMC once the router has been 'separated' by using wifi doesn't seem to have nearly as much a dramatic improvement on sound.
When the router was the main distributor or data without the use of an isolated switch via wifi extender the FMC made a large improvement to the sound. Stripping the noise from the signal, so more separation and minor detail and thus more listenable.
But FMC still seems to improve things over using just the cat8 link cable so it's there. I also still use the ISOLATOR block in the LAN path to the R26, can't remember what it's called now....

So....moving to an isolated system as described above makes more of an improvement to the whole system with the best music presentation and never before heard detail.
Music flows better and finally I am not always thinking could it be better when listening, I'm just playing whole albums one after the other enjoying the sound......
This all boils down to filtering noise from the system, using a file server (under clock the CPU) that is powered by the best LPS's such as the Shanti.

But I may try the USB with a custom cable.......... you never know!

 

[Fluty]

Has anyone using the optical input of R26 connected to a CD transport found it worthwhile to use a more upmarket / expensive Toslink cable? I've found a basic $15 optical cable beats my $400 silver coax by a significant margin, and am wondering if an optical upgrade is worth investigating?

 

[Forgisound]

Edit

 

[Forgisound]

This is interesting, prior to owning the R26 I used to prefer USB from a tweaked Allo USBridge with custom cable to my preferred DAC (Philips TDA1541A) it gave me the most involved detailed presentation, midrange to die for.....

Since owning the R26 I now prefer using the streamer LAN connection, things have moved on in a very positive way now.
To get the most from the R26 it has been vital to separate the (dirty end) router from the (clean end) music server MinimServer on the Allo USBbridge just as a file server. Power supplies to the clean end should be the best linear psu you can get your hands on which I have found to be the Allo Shanti LPS. If it's part of the audio chain then LPS or Lipo battery supplies are crucial to reduce noise to give resolution and dynamics.

Most important, I use an isolated, by wifi extender, old server/switch which is only 100base to help reduce noise (powered by LPS and using Cat5/6 so isolated ground) via a wifi extender so the router is electrically isolated. I use fibre optic FMC, powered with a LPS or LiPo battery then finally to the R26 (0.5m cat8) this can't be beaten.......yet!
I am using Jplay or Bubbleupnp as the controller to select music from my MinimServer. This setup enables the fileserver and R26 to be electrically isolated as much as possible. If you haven't tried using a wifi extender in the chain to isolate the R26 and file server (I use an old TPlink WA855 300mbps) then try it, it makes a big improvement as others have already testified.

A note on FMC's, interestingly, the use of FMC once the router has been 'separated' by using wifi doesn't seem to have nearly as much a dramatic improvement on sound.
When the router was the main distributor or data without the use of an isolated switch via wifi extender the FMC made a large improvement to the sound. Stripping the noise from the signal, so more separation and minor detail and thus more listenable.
But FMC still seems to improve things over using just the cat8 link cable so it's there. I also still use the ISOLATOR block in the LAN path to the R26, can't remember what it's called now....

So....moving to an isolated system as described above makes more of an improvement to the whole system with the best music presentation and never before heard detail.
Music flows better and finally I am not always thinking could it be better when listening, I'm just playing whole albums one after the other enjoying the sound......
This all boils down to filtering noise from the system, using a file server (under clock the CPU) that is powered by the best LPS's such as the Shanti.

But I may try the USB with a custom cable.......... you never know!

I currently have HiFi connected to a local HiFi switch, which is connected to the router with a LAN cable. Only tablet management goes through the router. The computer audio signal comes from the NAS to the switch and to R26. LAN cables between NAS and switch and switch to R26 are Wireworld Starlight. The sound is very transparent, resolute, I don't hear digital noise, there is no dynamic compression. I'm not sure if WiFi between the router and the switch would help in this configuration? When only file management goes through the router?

 

[rodthebod]

A little off subject, but there has been mention of a music player called JPlayer (I think) and I was wondering if anyone could provide with me a link? The Google Playstore has two JPlayers one has two arrows pointing to the right, the other has some music notes. Is it one of these? I'm really struggling these days running Tidal through Bubble UPnP and I can't quite afford to go with Roon at the moment, but I'd like to try something! Thanks.

It's Jplay not JPlayer, but this one is only available on IOS. The guy behind the very well established Jplay FEMTO for Windows (Marcin Ostapowicz) decided to launch an Apple version, sadly no Android.....yet. Jplay for IOS does do things better than Bubbleupnp, it has good search facilities remembers and suggests music albums and works with fan art that may be on your music server, plays very nice with MinimServer with a nice radio function. But it does cost, 51euro a year.

 

[rodthebod]

I currently have HiFi connected to a local HiFi switch, which is connected to the router with a LAN cable. Only tablet management goes through the router. The computer audio signal comes from the NAS to the switch and to R26. LAN cables between NAS and switch and switch to R26 are Wireworld Starlight. The sound is very transparent, resolute, I don't hear digital noise, there is no dynamic compression. I'm not sure if WiFi between the router and the switch would help in this configuration? When only file management goes through the router?

If the switch is directly connected to the router then damaging electrical noise will find its way to the switch from the router no matter how good the cables are. Try using a wifi extender to connect the switch to the router, you will be surprised how much more musically coherent everything sounds. This principal of keeping the main fileserver and R26 on a clean side from the dirty router side is very important. When I tried this the result is not subtle its...... 'wow' that just sounds much better. When I talk about removing noise it isn't digital noise as such it is like lifting a veil from the sound that makes everything more believable and natural. It's made me realise how much noise is inherent in a router sonically speaking. Power every device on the clean side (network switch and fileserver) with good audio grade linear power supplies or lipo batteries).
Look at what is actually passing to the router, if it involves the switch via a lan cable then just use wifi instead to transfer the data and you're there.