[Patrick82]

I have taken out my 9 years old digital camera from my closet and made some videos.

DualValhalla power cord 2 MB DOWNLOAD

Ignore the beginning where I bend over table, it was my previous hobby.


Valhalla projector + audio system 11 MB DOWNLOAD

In the end you see a glimpse of Valhalla digital XLR, soon it becomes worthy! (More testing required)

 

[Patrick82]

Here is a 29 MB video of me re-terminating Valhalla power cord with Marinco plug. The cutting and twisting of the conductors isn't included, but that's the easy part. Before I did the twisting by hand so that the silver plating of the ends didn't get scraped off, but now I just don't care and just grip the ends with a tool and twist it many turns. It goes faster too.
The correct way to insert the conductors into the holes is where the shape of the 3 conductors is the opposite of the shape of the hole that grips them. Otherwise it comes loose.

This is going to save someone thousands!

 

[Tachikoma]

Why not buy a source 2x better (stock) than the DAC-1, then plug in power cords for the gear to scale up to 4x its value?

DAC-1 + powercord = source 4x DAC-1's value
Source 2x better stock + powercords = source 8x DAC-1's value but only at 2x the price of the DAC-1

 

[Patrick82]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tachikoma Why not buy a source 2x better (stock) than the DAC-1, then plug in power cords for the gear to scale up to 4x its value? DAC-1 + powercord = source 4x DAC-1's value Source 2x better stock + powercords = source 8x DAC-1's value but only at 2x the price of the DAC-1

I don't need better than DAC1 because it lets me hear problems in the system so I can fix them. And I don't think the DAC1 will ever become the weakness, it's very sensitive yes but that doesn't make it a weakness IMO, it makes it a strength!

Imagine buying 1 Valhalla power cord used for $1300 and cutting it into 4x 53cm lenghts or 3x 70cm. It's possible with small headphone gear because you can stack them next to each other. If this isn't the greatest bang for buck I don't know what is!

 

[tourmaline]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 This is scary. As a joke I hardwired Valhalla into projector and wrapped the ends with ERS paper. I'm using a cheap Tupplur screen from Ikea and cheap 720p projector, this projector is way too soft so it is hard to read text. Panasonic PT-AE900E -> 1 meter Valhalla -> JuiceBar -> 2 meter Valhalla -> Ultimate Outlet -> 1 meter Valhalla -> wall. First impressions: OH MY GOD! It is super sharp all over the screen instead of only in the centre, what is going on?? Are my eyes different now? Colors look too bright that it's unreal, it doesn't look like real life. Colors are much cleaner than before. What has happened to picture? OMG how is this possible? I don't believe it. Do I need to buy another Valhalla power cord now? Arghh, I need this one for my computer damnit!! Uh, now I also need to buy Stewart Firehawk screen to take advantage of this, I don't have the cash!

No wonder if you buy that much valhalla's.

but i know how good Nordost kabels are, i have some myself, also reference.

In my opinion the differences between analogue kabels are more evident then between digital cables. The differences between analogue kabels kan be night and day but between digital cables differences are minimal to noticable.

 

[Patrick82]

Wow, I haven't been tweaking my audio rig for 8 days! It's not that I'm too lazy or anything, it's just that I don't need to. It sounds good enough. The previous tweaks really made a huge difference, especially bypassing the fuses of amp!

I can't remember it ever sounding this good a couple weeks ago. The only thing that beats this was my power conditioned "ValhallaPC" with the fat Valhalla power cords and computer's thin black hairs.
In other words, 3 conductor Valhalla has a blacker background because it hides detail (and reduces more RFI?). Computer makes everything thinner which emphasizes subtle detail. When I get the Premier Power Plant I will bring the ValhallaPC back!
With Cary as transport I have to use less conductors to compensate for the extra body. I still don't think 3 conductor Valhalla is neutral, 1 conductor is, it just needs the ERS toilet paper roll treatment. I have collected 8 rolls already.

I'm starting to get used to the Valhalla digital XLR cable now, soon I will make blind tests, it should be easy to just let someone flip the switch of the DAC1. Maybe the test will be too easy though. Does anyone want video of me making the blind test? Maybe someone will say it is fake video anyway, so why bother. I will put camera up anyway, I have 60 minutes of tape.

Edit: Wow I have made 1092 posts already, when did I go over 1000? I tweak too extreme I don't even see!

 

[Patrick82]

The background noise didn't come from the cables after all! When I went from 4step to 5step isolation for DAC1 the background was much blacker, amazing. I don't need to do the ERS toilet paper roll mod for the Valhallas then! Unless my ears improve that is.

For every conductor that I disconnected from Valhalla power cables I needed to add one extra isolation step to compensate for it!! With the stock 3 conductor Valhalla I needed 3 step isolation to get a black background, with 2 conductors I needed 4 steps, and with 1 conductor I need 5 steps. Numbers add up to 6! (3+3, 2+4, 1+5)






DAC1
5) Feet Of Silence
metal plate
4) Feet Of Silence
GCC-100 amp
3) Feet Of Silence
2) Suspension shelf
1) Disc Of Silence

 

[Patrick82]

OH MY GOD!!!!! The difference between digital cables is now night and day! I flip the switch on DAC1 bending down under table with headphones on, and I hear huge differences!!

Coax: HORRIBLE brightness and edginess. Lots of background noise. Highs sound very cheap and thin.
Toslink: Edgy and bright but sounds acceptable. No background noise but jitter. Blackness + thin edgy brightness. This explains why I like it for computer!
Valhalla digital XLR: Smoother, faster and more detailed. Very warm but not muddy. Background is dead black! Amazing cable!!!


I don't need to make the blind test anymore, it would be kinda pointless. I need to find something harder.

 

[HumanMedia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 OH MY GOD!!!!! The difference between digital cables is now night and day! I flip the switch on DAC1 bending down under table with headphones on, and I hear huge differences!!

After thinking digital cables shouldnt make any difference, I tried swapping some and found major differences also. Differences that cant just be jitter. There is absolutely no correlation to cost. A cheap Monster optical is noticeably better than the popular 'glass' brand. And a cheap 75 ohm BNC coax from the hardware store walks all over a custom made Furutech/Pulsar that I put together. There was so much difference here I thought I had a fault in my assembly, so I stripped it down completely and rebuilt it. It had the same sonic characteristic after it was rebuilt and triple checked.

And speaking of digital connections, replacing the RCA connectors on source and DAC with proper 75ohm BNC, and using coax from the connectors to the PCB, along with a BNC coax interconnect was one of the most effective (and cheapest) upgrades I have ever done. Just make sure that all the components are 75ohm which can be a bit tricky because 95% of the BNCs out there are 50 ohm and not recommended.

 

[yo2tup2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HumanMedia After thinking digital cables shouldnt make any difference, I tried swapping some and found major differences also. Differences that cant just be jitter. There is absolutely no correlation to cost. A cheap Monster optical is noticeably better than the popular 'glass' brand. And a cheap 75 ohm BNC coax from the hardware store walks all over a custom made Furutech/Pulsar that I put together. There was so much difference here I thought I had a fault in my assembly, so I stripped it down completely and rebuilt it. It had the same sonic characteristic after it was rebuilt and triple checked. And speaking of digital connections, replacing the RCA connectors on source and DAC with proper 75ohm BNC, and using coax from the connectors to the PCB, along with a BNC coax interconnect was one of the most effective (and cheapest) upgrades I have ever done. Just make sure that all the components are 75ohm which can be a bit tricky because 95% of the BNCs out there are 50 ohm and not recommended.

what is the length of the pulsar/furutech you made?

i'm using a 1.5m bluejeans digital cable w/ bnc teminations.. which replaced the more expensive 1m stereovox hdvx cable i had. i've been considering building 1.5m pulsar/furutech. i read that the pulsar cable in the digital position is really prone to reflections, so at least a 1.5m cable is a must.

 

[HumanMedia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yo2tup2 what is the length of the pulsar/furutech you made? i'm using a 1.5m bluejeans digital cable w/ bnc teminations.. which replaced the more expensive 1m stereovox hdvx cable i had. i've been considering building 1.5m pulsar/furutech. i read that the pulsar cable in the digital position is really prone to reflections, so at least a 1.5m cable is a must.

Its 0.5m. Yes I know about the length issue. I checked in with Chris VH before I made it and whilst he originally specified 1.5 for digital pulsar, he now says 0.5m and less is absolutely fine and not inferior to 1.5 (this was about 5 weeks ago). I had 1.5m of pulsar on hand and specifically decided to go with the shorter length on Chris's advice.

Maybe the length really does make a difference. Or maybe those bulky bling Furutechs are not the best bnc's.

Ya know, all this talk of the Furutech/Pulsar Im thinking that maybe I didnt give it long enough to burn-in. Now that I have some new interconnects to the poweramps, I might put the Furutech/Pulsar back into the system and let them burn-in some more. (Although the cheap hardware store connector needed very little time to settle sonically)

 

[yo2tup2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HumanMedia Its 0.5m. Yes I know about the length issue. I checked in with Chris VH before I made it and whilst he originally specified 1.5 for digital pulsar, he now says 0.5m and less is absolutely fine and not inferior to 1.5 (this was about 5 weeks ago). I had 1.5m of pulsar on hand and specifically decided to go with the shorter length on Chris's advice. Maybe the length really does make a difference. Or maybe those bulky bling Furutechs are not the best bnc's. Ya know, all this talk of the Furutech/Pulsar Im thinking that maybe I didnt give it long enough to burn-in. Now that I have some new interconnects to the poweramps, I might put the Furutech/Pulsar back into the system and let them burn-in some more. (Although the cheap hardware store connector needed very little time to settle sonically)

Did you ever get to try this cable again?

 

[Patrick82]

Time to tweak Power Plant to pieces too

. I had to melt the plastic connectors inside to hardwire the Valhallas there (the pins were too deep inside the plastic).


1) Removed the stock "Monster Special" internal wiring from the path that I had previously soldered my amp's Valhalla power cord into.
2) Removed step-up transformer of Power Plant for DAC1. Removed Marinco plug and Power Port from path. Changed DAC1 from 220v into 110v.
3) Hardwired amp and DAC1 into pins inside Power Plant.

4) The plate of the Power Plant is a few cm open at the side.
5) Removed "Monster Special" wiring (hardwired to UO) between Ultimate Outlet and Power Plant. I replaced it with 55 cm Valhalla but I added Wattgate plug and Power Port into the path.
6) Computer and Power Plant share the same Power Port in the Ultimate Outlet.
7) Changed Cary transport's Valhalla from 55cm into 105cm. Changed Wattgate into Marinco plug.

[size=xx-small]Green = Better
Red = Worse
Magenta = Both[/size]


First impressions: More low-level detail. More smoothness. Faster bass. Less fatigue. More vocal information, I hear new words. More open.
More background noise. It sounds blacker and noisier at the same time.
It got better and worse at the same time, it sounds weird.

It was disappointing, I had expected more. Bypassing fuses inside amp made a bigger difference. But it still made a bigger improvement than Valhalla digital cable.



I couldn't get camera to work so I can't post pictures yet. It has been slowly dying for a few months now. Too much picture taking of my tweaks!

Edit: Projector is now using stock cord again. Uh, I didn't expect it to be this blurry, I get headache from trying to read blurry text, bottom of screen looks very bad, only middle is sharp enough. But audio is more important than video anyway, who cares of headache when it sounds like this!

 

[HumanMedia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yo2tup2 Did you ever get to try this cable again?

Yes I put another 100 hours on it and still no joy. The basic Pulsar cable is fine but I dont have faith in the Furutech BNCs (I love just about all of their other stuff). Even a Blue Jeans BNC coax sounds better.

Better still (methinks) is a commercial variant on John Risch's digital interconnect from DIY Cable - "Bitstream Digital Cable" with high spec coax, foil and braid shield tied to ground with a capacitor and terminated with canare BNCs.

http://www.diycable.com/main/product...roducts_id=135

 

[Patrick82]

Removing pounds of blocky plugs and AC receptables really made a difference. Burn-in now makes the biggest difference in my system! It's amazing what a few hours can do to the solder joints.


2nd impressions hardwired Valhalla power cords: It's like listening to music for the first time, a new world of detail has opened up. I need to keep pausing music every few seconds to confirm that the sounds come from the recording and not real life. It's kind of annoying. I keep writing the improvements into my logs like crazy.



Fanless Power Plant

Because the plate of Power Plant is open I tried it fanless again and it works! It's just barely warm after running my system 6 hours. (DAC1, GCC-100, Cary 303/300.)
Now my room is quiet with no noise anywhere.

Problems: The background noise in music is giving me a headache!
Cary transport uses more watts than my amp and DAC combined, so using 1 conductor Valhalla (1+1+1) didn't make sense. It sounded little dull and lifeless, but man the detail was crazy.
I went back to 2+2+1 conductors and OMG so heavy and black it sounds like, but all the detail is gone. That's why it sounds black with fake dynamics. Hmm colored music, oh well, at least it doesn't sound annoying anymore, I think I will keep it.