Fabulous use of the English language there jgwtriode, love the Giclee copy analogy. You make a compelling case for the AfterDark Black Magic 12S. How could I not get one now.
As a matter of interest, as it seems you've pretty good experience on the USB cable front, can you recommend a good step up from the likes of the Semperfi Outsider, if you're familiar with it, in, say the sub-USD300 bracket? (I'm not quite ready to scale the heights you have with USB cables)
Background is I've been pursuing the Gustard R26 internal render/direct streaming route of late with my U18 patiently waiting on the sidelines to have its potential unlocked with better cables and probably an even better USB source than the Ifi Zen Stream.
Thanks. Used to enjoy writing and poetry quite a bit back a few years ago. Done a few poems again a few years ago, but been in a slump after my last divorce. I sometimes get carried away when an audio product works really well.
Played with a few cheaper USBs and some home made ones using braided zenwave audio neotech 26awg solid silver gold. Those were pretty good. That wire is very hard to get. The normal DIY is stranded in a PTFE jacket. Good but not up to the solid core version which I believe Dave at Zenwave has an exclusive on. Used to buy wire from him. Pretty good stuff, but the Wywires clobbers it! I would possibly say wywires Silver level USB would be a good choice. Quite reasonable, very good but does not have the carbon/graphene insulator used in the Platinum or Diamond. I have heard very good about it. My other choice based on playing with a couple of there other cables would be DH Labs better USB. Its around 200 range and you can get 10% off if you go to their site and use their first time discount. Wywires Silver is $299.00 if your order from their site. They still have theri 40% discount going. Knowing what I do having played with the Platinum series and the Diamond and talking to Alex quite a bit, the Silver should offer most of what the Platinum does! I would recommend the Wywires. But DHlabs cables offer a hell of a lot at the price points.
If you can find one used the Mad Scientist Black Magic, not their Ultra. Its double the price. Black Magic is 400 dollar cable, you could find used for about half if anyone is selling. I really enjoyed that for about 3 years and then started getting into Wywires.
I would have really liked to get the R26. R2R and all. I bought the x26Pro along time ago, back in March. Had a used one that I got for $1200. Which Fedex scumbags lost. They nearly lost my ZMF VC leopardwoods the year before. They are miserable.
So bought a new one from China and had Ric Schultz, not the magnetic cable guy, EVS tweak shop; rebuild it for me. He rebuilt my old Oppo Sonica and so he rebuilt this for me.
Took 6 months to get back because of his health and a lot weird stuff. Anyway he ripped apart the Power Supply, eliminated everything between the tranformer and rectifier. Eliminated 6 layers of contact points all the voltage switching, fuse and power switch. Has a Furutech Rhodium power inlet to the toroids and that goes straight to the diodes. He yanked the bolts out of them that secure them to the frame. So they are basically loose, I put some dampers under them.
Those steel bolts play havoc with the sound of the transformers. I suppose i could put nylon ones in. But they just float now. All of the wiring that he replaced is that new mundorf angelique copper/silver/gold. Mostly jumpers and around a few caps he replaces and did some bypasses. He rebuilt the output stage to his high current class A variant.
The Gustard output stage is not really discrete, their are still opamps in it. There are about 4 stages all in all regardless of what they make a fuss about. It's good but his has two stages and though it uses extremely good custom opamps it is still is much simpler and very close to discrete. He has a unique way of voltage/current conversion that works a good bit better than Gustards. He also has a supper single ended mod where he rewires the outputs of the DAC's to only work single ended. They are not fully utilizing the ESS 9038 single ended in the normal configuration. So he gets a bit lower noise floor, more dynamic range, and more current out of them then how Gustard has them configured. This also requires some wired jumpers using the mundorf wire! My balanced outputs are useless. But not interested in balanced output anyway!
My output is direct to WBT nexgen copper RCA with chassis isolated grounds using that mundorf wire. And then I have his copper ground enhancers atached to the RCA grounds internally. So I am sure mine is likely to at least hold it's own or better the R26. He no longer is doing any mods. I also have the internal core components of his speaker RF filters in my ZMF VC's. They made a noticeable improvement. A little bit of a pain to solder them in. But got it done.
Love my U18. Considering MartinWT's recommendation of sending it off to England for upgrade. Sounds like it would be around $500. Have to wait till tax return.
If you haven't done it yet upgrade the fuses in the R26 and the u18. I am running a synergistic orange. It makes a pretty significant difference over stock. And do some good isolation under them. MartinWT likes Black Ravioli Pads. I like Mad Scientist blackpods which are no longer available. Looking at Terrastone/Bearing footers from Eden Sound now for my Amp. And definetly upgrade the power cord. That make a pretty significant difference as well.
Happy listening.
jgwtriode
) how do you attach them?
