Hi,
Hope this is the right thread: it all started with the purchase of QUAD ERA few months ago – thus here, although I wish to comment on my whole setup.
The question that triggered this post was: “would lavricables ultimate balanced cables make a noticeable difference compared to the Quad ERA 1 stock cable on my ibasso DX150?”
Summary:
I notice some difference between the standard cable delivered with the QUAD compared to the lavricables „Ultimate Silver Quad ERA-1 upgrade cable” – but very subtle, less than I expected it to be.
- I believe to hear differences when changing components, even if there should have been none based on “science and measurements” – I sometimes hear difference when tube rolling, changing NF and speaker cables and even when using sorbothane pads under a (tube) CD player
So I got the ibasso dx150.
Huge improvement - in every regard.
Ok, I expected that.
But still was disappointed with the sound – “is this state of the art today, what everyone is so excited about?!?”.
Updated firmware and installed Lurker update - in particular the USB Audio App brought big improvement. Again: in every regard.
In the meantime, even newer firmware came out, I updated of course and purchased a neutron music player.
Now we are talking… things started to make sense… The ERAs started to shine. They are really enjoyable and involving. Fun. They do seem to be made for giants – I have a normal head (at minimum) and am using them at the smallest setting. But I do like their sound. Prefer the leather earpads. I expected the soundstage to be more “in front of me” but that is the only con I can think of. I love the vocals and instruments. Nothing gets confused or fuzzy.
But unfortunately, once I start fiddling around it is hard for me to stop… and reading about other people’s experience made me think there might be a bit more potential in the system I got I could tap by using symmetrical connection / cables.
I remembered reading a comment from user jkorn about the improvements due to new “lavricable” cables.
Contact was friendly, obviously enthusiasts running the business – I do not believe Lavricables is an international corporation … cables arrived well packed, just few days after ordering and made a good first impression.
I let them “burn in” for about a day and a half before plugging in the original cables and listening to few songs to set a reference and then changed to Lavricables.
At the beginning I was disappointed, I expected a huge leap – and did not get it. I had to listen to music repeatedly and switch back and forth to hear (feel?) the difference.
Even now, after two weeks of use I cannot describe the difference properly – with the Lavricables / symmetrical output, it sounds (appears to be?) just a bit “deeper”, “slightly less strained – with more reserve, easier presented”. Every now and then, I change back to original cables (prefer the black colour and the haptics of the original cable) but after a while change back to Lavricable – can unfortunately not say or describe why, for me it sounds somehow a bit “righter”, more enjoyable for longer listening sessions. Every now and then I smile touched by the flow of the music.
But honestly: I can imagine I would fail a proper blind test.
The biggest problem with the current setup is that it is ill suited for “background listening” – I planned to use them when working on the computer, but it constantly makes me want to play music “just a bit” louder and “just a bit more” and just “hear that once again” and ….
I wanted my first review to be OK, studied the helpful Forum guidelines for describing the sound in reviews, but unfortunately still cannot be more professional or helpful…. I cannot speak about “uplifting of a veil”, it was never there, or “wider soundstage” or “treble improved” or … it is the “integrity” of the presentation that makes listening a more enjoyable experience for me.
My daughter (early 20-s, plays piano since 4) also made the cable test (“OK, but only 5 minutes, just one try” – but then spend over an hour listening): “phew, difficult…. toughest one you ever asked”; complete setup: “wow, WOW…. I loved the sound of the piano in …, hope to have one like that one day”. If she could have only one cable, she would also take the lavricable / balanced port.
Another Problem: I believe ERAs can deliver much more and am looking for some stationary DAC/Amp.
Thanks for all your comments in the forum and for reading,
igor
Hello Igor:
I think cable differences are very, very slight, and most people should be doing an A/B/X double blind listening test before reaching any conclusions. My idea of a good cable is a short, and noise free one. Twisted pairs, and foil shielding, are both proven techniques in noise abatement, and don't require expensive, exotic materials. Or perhaps electrons really do prefer traveling through silver instead of copper in my system, and this would be audible in the form of lower distortion in my headphone cable, where the whole rest of the system has copper? Most people won't pick up much noise at all in their headphone or speaker cables, unless they put signal cables right by noisy power supplies (switching is higher the linear), or VFD's. Most of it is jewelry.
Balanced vs. unbalanced I feel is a bit more tricky, as the produced power is higher for a given setup with balanced as opposed to unbalanced. I do see some benefits to having fully balanced circuits (we want to lower the noise floor, and each channel has a unique ground), but feel that the idea is being over-marketed in high end gear. XLR was originally designed for the specific case of long cables in a studio, where signals levels are lower than the 2 V Redbook standard (like the output of my DAC), and we are more likely to pick up noise. What I've seen some people do is mistake the higher power (and resulting loudness) balanced offers over unbalanced, for a sound quality difference. People should be matching the levels carefully in doing their comparisons, with a multimeter or a sound pressure meter.
I read the data sheet for my Burr Brown DAC, and it says to use separate power supplies for the analog and digital sections of the circuit, and to use a 10 nF capacitor between the + and - power supply rails to lower noise. My $1000 DAC board appears to have neither of those things, and that wouldn't be helped by using balanced circuitry. I suspect that it's the DAC's that are over $1500 that have followed all of the designer's suggestions completely. A $500 one is probably going to have more cut corners. Enthusiasts should be reading the data sheets carefully for op amps, and DAC's they have, and inspecting the circuits of their gear. I have highly ripple tolerant solid state components, where getting a better power supply may not get me anywhere.
You had brought this up late in your post: once you get over the $800 price point with headphones, you could do better than the ibasso dx150. You are dealing with equipment that will in most cases be more revealing than $500 mid-fi headphones like the Sennheiser HD660s, revealing enough that you will notice coloration caused by cheap circuitry in any point in the audio chain more readily. I would be inclined to pick the Chord Mojo at the same price point. I feel that it was worth spending over $1000 for my amp and DAC combination. My personal favorite at the $1500 price point is the Questyle CMA-12, but am not in a position to upgrade just yet. That's an all one one unit. In using separates, you know that there aren't any issues in sharing the power supply between the amp and DAC, but there's well designed circuits and less than optimal ones in both cases.
I had almost bought the Quad ERA-1 at $799, but ended up going with the Focal Clears instead as they had more detail (they are also more lively in the upper midrange, with a cold sheen, which can be fatiguing with some music). ERA-1 I felt was well balanced tonally, but with an especially good mid range (like my Quad power amp), and a bit warm, and definitely not cold and clinical. I will be looking for a planar in coming months to supplement my collection, ending up with three pairs of headphones in total. In general, I felt that only headphones that were $1200 and up had offered more detail than the ERA-1, but only with certain music. Its closest peer is probably the Mr. Speakers Aeon Flow Open.
The Audeze LCD-2 sounded dark in comparison to both the Focal and the Quad (like a certain frequency range was "hiding").
