[pkny]

Very interesting, someone measured the Ifi Elite? Or the Ifi power X? I would love to see those measurements.

There is one in Japanese:
https://www.phileweb.com/sp/review/article/202208/24/4855.html

It only shows up to hundreds KHz range, not the GHz range that we concern.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

There is one in Japanese:
https://www.phileweb.com/sp/review/article/202208/24/4855.html



It only shows up to hundreds KHz range, not the GHz range that we concern.

Very interesting.

 

[Hiyono]

I just got the bixpower. First thing I notice was soundstage sounded wider and instruments more separated. Vocals seem a bit pushed back.

I had the ifi elite psu with ifi cable before. I think it sounded pretty good. Only tad behind battery in sq.

I switched back to stock psu to compare and soundstage was more narrow. Instruments were harder to focus on. Vocals were more forward and closer. It sounded more harsh and fatiguing. After couple of songs, started to have a light headache.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

I just got the bixpower. First thing I notice was soundstage sounded wider and instruments more separated. Vocals seem a bit pushed back.

I had the ifi elite psu with ifi cable before. I think it sounded pretty good. Only tad behind battery in sq.

I switched back to stock psu to compare and soundstage was more narrow. Instruments were harder to focus on. Vocals were more forward and closer. It sounded more harsh and fatiguing. After couple of songs, started to have a light headache.

Wow, that is amazing. I have to say that I am quite surprised by the crappy quality of the Chord power supplies, to me the weakness of Chord is in the power supplies of their DACs. I hope that for the next DACs they get this fixed, using crappy SMPS is just not up to snuff.

 

[Mediahound]

Wow, that is amazing. I have to say that I am quite surprised by the crappy quality of the Chord power supplies, to me the weakness of Chord is in the power supplies of their DACs. I hope that for the next DACs they get this fixed, using crappy SMPS is just not up to snuff.

Keep in mind that Chord stuff is less likely to be influenced by the power supply due to Rob Watts pulse array design. As we have seen, yes, minor changes could be noticed, but much of the time you will be struggling to hear a difference.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

Keep in mind that Chord stuff is less likely to be influenced by the power supply due to Rob Watts pulse array design. As we have seen, yes, minor changes could be noticed, but much of the time you will be struggling to hear a difference.

I can hear a clear difference with Batteries, which means the power supplies can be improved, that is my humble opinion.

 

[Mediahound]

I can hear a clear difference with Batteries, which means the power supplies can be improved, that is my humble opinion.

I meant between different power supplies there will be less if any difference where you will struggle to hear any differences. The stock one is best.

 

[Arnold Schwartz]

@GuiltyRocker Don’t let your neurosis get the best of you, or at least don’t pass it on to others. Do you worry about the quality of the AC current in your home affecting your toaster and how your bagel tastes? How about your drinking water that likely comes from filtered waste and fresh water? Don’t you trust that Rob/Chord has more than enough access to our collective human knowledge and technology to over come through engineering whatever short comings there could be from the DC power supply? You have no faith in them I guess, we humans haven’t been able to easily solve these “issues” so we need other solutions, is that what you’re proposing? SMPS is not good enough? Why? What data do you have? If it makes you feel better there’s lots of companies that will gladly take your money, but please stop spreading the idea that chord power supplies are a weakness when the designer himself - you know Rob Watts the person you trust when buying his creations, already said he tested many power supplies and the one they ship is the best one for the product.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

@GuiltyRocker Don’t let your neurosis get the best of you, or at least don’t pass it on to others. Do you worry about the quality of the AC current in your home affecting your toaster and how your bagel tastes? How about your drinking water that likely comes from filtered waste and fresh water? Don’t you trust that Rob/Chord has more than enough access to our collective human knowledge and technology to over come through engineering whatever short comings there could be from the DC power supply? You have no faith in them I guess, we humans haven’t been able to easily solve these “issues” so we need other solutions, is that what you’re proposing? SMPS is not good enough? Why? What data do you have? If it makes you feel better there’s lots of companies that will gladly take your money, but please stop spreading the idea that chord power supplies are a weakness when the designer himself - you know Rob Watts the person you trust when buying his creations, already said he tested many power supplies and the one they ship is the best one for the product.

Oh I love Rob Watts and trust him 100%, I did say long live Rob Watts several times . I don't eat Bagels, so relax, in this hobby we tend to tinker with things, after joining this community I've seen a lot of people here try batteries and other power supplies so I've been doing the same. If we can get more performance out of the device why not? The differences are there for sure between battery, stock supply and something like an Ifi, they are not night and day however, so Rob has done a great job.

 

[Rob Watts]

Good question, maybe Rob Watts can help here?

You can turn off the Hugo M scaler and turning it back on and it will be fine - there is no warm-up time on the scaler. Curiously, I used to think that there was maybe a 10 minute warm up time on the Hugo 2, as on flights it takes 10 minutes for the best sound - but repeating the test when in a hotel room at NYC canjam I could hear no change after 30 minutes when playing back the track I used after turning on Hugo 2. So the change when flying is most likely my ears getting used to the pressure change.

Note that Rob Watts only uses a battery pack while traveling without access to mains power. I think he even doesn't use it on a plane if he is going by Business Class where he can plug in. When at home, he also plugs in to mains, but does use upgraded BNCs.

I always use the battery when flying because it will work. The mains on planes often do not work or are not turned on.

On short flights in economy (2 hours say) I just stuff the scaler in my man bag with the battery. After two hours it gets a bit toasty, but the thermal trip has never been triggered - I put the thermal trip in because of this mode of operation. On long haul, premium economy, (prices on business class has sometimes been outrageous recently) I choose a window seat, and lean the battery, Hugo M scaler and Hugo 2 against the wall. In business you have plenty of room to site the gear.

Someone did measurements on those iFis and they run just as quiet as a battery.

A battery on the AP will be the same as a short, i.e. 800nV - absolutely nothing like those measurements which are hundreds of times worse. And anyway, the SQ issue here is 2GHz ground loops via the mains, for which you can get complete isolation with a battery and an optical input.

 

[musicinmymind]

A battery on the AP will be the same as a short, i.e. 800nV - absolutely nothing like those measurements which are hundreds of times worse. And anyway, the SQ issue here is 2GHz ground loops via the mains, for which you can get complete isolation with a battery and an optical input.

Here you are referring to optical input for MScaler right?
if we have battery and optical input on MScaler which is connected to Dave using BNC cables, we still get complete isolation?

My current setup is MSacler with battery and usb input and BNC connection to Dave, is this not complete isolation?

 

[GuiltyRocker]

You can turn off the Hugo M scaler and turning it back on and it will be fine - there is no warm-up time on the scaler. Curiously, I used to think that there was maybe a 10 minute warm up time on the Hugo 2, as on flights it takes 10 minutes for the best sound - but repeating the test when in a hotel room at NYC canjam I could hear no change after 30 minutes when playing back the track I used after turning on Hugo 2. So the change when flying is most likely my ears getting used to the pressure change.



I always use the battery when flying because it will work. The mains on planes often do not work or are not turned on.

On short flights in economy (2 hours say) I just stuff the scaler in my man bag with the battery. After two hours it gets a bit toasty, but the thermal trip has never been triggered - I put the thermal trip in because of this mode of operation. On long haul, premium economy, (prices on business class has sometimes been outrageous recently) I choose a window seat, and lean the battery, Hugo M scaler and Hugo 2 against the wall. In business you have plenty of room to site the gear.



A battery on the AP will be the same as a short, i.e. 800nV - absolutely nothing like those measurements which are hundreds of times worse. And anyway, the SQ issue here is 2GHz ground loops via the mains, for which you can get complete isolation with a battery and an optical input.

Hi @Rob Watts, how about something like this that can sit in between the stock M scaler power supply and the M scaler, it is supposed to filter 2Ghz, let me know your thoughts.

https://ifi-audio.com/products/dc-ipurifier2/

 

[Meridian7]

On the chance of being called neurotic etc, HMS is served well by a batt compared to stock smps, in my setup. Switched back and forth HTT2's smps supply and HMS's batt supply. Mains polution would not differ in that test, and no ground loop as 1 of the 2 always had a batt. On smps hms it sounded harsher more fatiguing highs, absolutely. Maybe wave storm cables could anticipate but I don't know.

However I can't detect differences for htt2, must be the supercaps. Had both htt2 & hms on batt and htt2 only on smps, no difference.

*

Depending on your streamer and usb-cable quality (mine is Pro-ject Streambox S2 ultra battery driven by Accubox S2) the Singxer SU6 DDC bridge beats usb-only big time all the while the streambox S2 is known for an audio wise cleaned up usb section.
(The little Douk U2 ddc was of little to no help, cheap as it is. I keep it to better my phone's audio usb jitter.)

With usb-only setup I've found joggling (Supra - Audioquest carbon - uber cheap ones) usb cables differ sound. SU6 seems very resilient to whatever cable used like it's buffering usb vulnerabilities effectively.

*

I can wholeheartedly suggest the SU6 + HMS (voltage unregulated) battery combo at 1k surplus to very effectively harnest a very high level out of the htt2 hms combo.
I can't speak for ferrited coax cables so far, maybe later.

PS: heard no difference (in my setup!) using SU6 optical or bnc out to HMS input.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

On the chance of being called neurotic etc, HMS is served well by a batt compared to stock smps, in my setup. Switched back and forth HTT2's smps supply and HMS's batt supply. Mains polution would not differ in that test, and no ground loop as 1 of the 2 always had a batt. On smps hms it sounded harsher more fatiguing highs, absolutely. Maybe wave storm cables could anticipate but I don't know.

However I can't detect differences for htt2, must be the supercaps. Had both htt2 & hms on batt and htt2 only on smps, no difference.

*

Depending on your streamer and usb-cable quality (mine is Pro-ject Streambox S2 ultra battery driven by Accubox S2) the Singxer SU6 DDC bridge beats usb-only big time all the while the streambox S2 is known for an audio wise cleaned up usb section.
(The little Douk U2 ddc was of little to no help, cheap as it is. I keep it to better my phone's audio usb jitter.)

With usb-only setup I've found joggling (Supra - Audioquest carbon - uber cheap ones) usb cables differ sound. SU6 seems very resilient to whatever cable used like it's buffering usb vulnerabilities effectively.

*

I can wholeheartedly suggest the SU6 + HMS (voltage unregulated) battery combo at 1k surplus to very effectively harnest a very high level out of the htt2 hms combo.
I can't speak for ferrited coax cables so far, maybe later.

PS: heard no difference (in my setup!) using SU6 optical or bnc out to HMS input.

Interesting...

 

[Jawed]

However I can't detect differences for htt2, must be the supercaps. Had both htt2 & hms on batt and htt2 only on smps, no difference.

So the remaining problem in this configuration is the RF noise generated by HMS and transmitted electrically (or by proximity) to the TT2. This noise is capable of "masking" possible sound quality differences with TT2 when comparing battery operation and SMPS operation.

I'm not saying you're wrong in your conclusion, merely that there's a variable in your setup you haven't accounted for.

For example you can try connecting HMS to TT2 using TOSLINK. This will cut down the amount of taps, but it will improve the isolation of TT2 from HMS.