[audio philestine]

I will most likely epoxy them, as careful as I am soldering, it can still show.

One trick I learned soldering copper pipes for making amateur radio microwave dish feeds, is to use a heat gun on the high setting. It doesn't discolor the copper nearly as much as a propane torch would. Unless you were talking about gobs of solder, I can help you much with that other than saying less is more, you're just looking for a modest mechanical connection, not anything water tight. Keep a damp cloth handy to wipe up any excess while the solder is still wet.

After the soldering, a bit of a cleaning with "barkeepers friend" to polish, and then a quick coat of Krylon Clear to seal. You might want to skip that step, antenna feeds tend to get exposed to a lot more weather than you headphone stands hopefully ever will. And it would probably interfere with you custom patina process.

 

[porchwizard]

Maybe such a program is an American thing, but I really don't understand why Schiit would do that, and why you would want it. If you want to save money, there are zillions of banks to choose from. Why would Schiit want to play for bank? I would add, if a customer doens't have the discipline to save money, he better acquires that first, and then look around to shop.

I think lay-away's are mostly dead but they were popular before the rise of easy credit. Eventually large retailers started offering credit purchases, then came credit cards, and of course, the latest adaptation of loan sharking, quick loans. A few banks still offer special christmas savings accounts to help you prepare for the most important spending season of all.
It is, of course, not new that a significant portion of the population are not good at saving. Been there, done that

 

[Paladin79]

One trick I learned soldering copper pipes for making amateur radio microwave dish feeds, is to use a heat gun on the high setting. It doesn't discolor the copper nearly as much as a propane torch would. Unless you were talking about gobs of solder, I can help you much with that other than saying less is more, you're just looking for a modest mechanical connection, not anything water tight. Keep a damp cloth handy to wipe up any excess while the solder is still wet.

After the soldering, a bit of a cleaning with "barkeepers friend" to polish, and then a quick coat of Krylon Clear to seal. You might want to skip that step, antenna feeds tend to get exposed to a lot more weather than you headphone stands hopefully ever will. And it would probably interfere with you custom patina process.

great info and I have several heat guns so I will try it out!

 

[Paladin79]

Gotcha, thanks.

Do you send them the whole cable once it's assembled or do you just send the contacts?

If you would like to check out both cryo and cable cooking I will most likely make up some sample AC cords for people to try out. Say six cables with an undefined amount of them both cooked and cryo treated. They will be numbered, if you can distinguish a difference and identify which obviously sound better, you keep the cables. I may run this by Jason since he does shootouts once a month. In his case I would just let him keep the cables and let him try them on a longer basis. I am skeptical about such things but I try to keep an open mind. If you keep them for a while and cannot tell a difference, or few of your choices are correct it might let you know if such things are worth your while.

 

[bcowen]

If you would like to check out both cryo and cable cooking I will most likely make up some sample AC cords for people to try out. Say six cables with an undefined amount of them both cooked and cryo treated. They will be numbered, if you can distinguish a difference and identify which obviously sound better, you keep the cables. I may run this by Jason since he does shootouts once a month. In his case I would just let him keep the cables and let him try them on a longer basis. I am skeptical about such things but I try to keep an open mind. If you keep them for a while and cannot tell a difference, or few of your choices are correct it might let you know if such things are worth your while.

I can't help with the Cryo, but I'll be happy to lend you the Audiodharma for cooking if you get any takers for a blind shootout.

 

[darkarn]

portable recorder is using the +5VDC supplied by the USB connector, but has poor power supply noise rejection (analog issue), recording is quietest using the Apple iPad charger since it is only powering the recorder, whereas computer power supply has a lot of noise from the CPU, video card, disk drives, etc.

USB audio playing through the DAC when hub is added is improved because the hub buffers the audio frames.

An SMPS may be quieter than a PC with all of its inherent electrical noise, but I didn't use one for that purpose. I used an externally powered hub to regenerate and reclock the signal to overcome the effects of an excessively long USB run. A powered USB hub is pretty much the equivalent of a Wyrd and can help up to a point. EITR is the ideal solution for isloating and eliminating power related noise, IMHO.

Thank you both of you, I was surprised to see that computer power supply still affects the USB devices even though the USB hub already has its own power supply but it seems I misunderstood why the USB hub will help. Am I right to say that using an USB hub is more for making the signals accurate rather than trying to make the power "cleaner" (which makes sense for something like a Modi Multibit that has its own 16V power supply)?

 

[darkarn]

As an aside, I was checking out for decent Analog to Digital devices that are suitable substitutes to the Jil but found not much other than say, this device by Behringer
https://www.behringer.com/Categorie...io/Interfaces/UCA202/p/P0484#googtrans(en|en)

Seems like this will be a tough search

 

[Paladin79]

I can't help with the Cryo, but I'll be happy to lend you the Audiodharma for cooking if you get any takers for a blind shootout.

I was hoping you were still willing to lend me that device.

My thinking is, if a cable cooker helps, then why not add cryo to make the cables even better??

It would be a free chance to try the effects and see if anyone could tell a difference. I would not disclose the results till several people tried them, at their leisure. I would treat at least one cable, and no more than five.

It will give folks a chance to decide for themselves if such things can help.

 

[Rensek]

I can't help with the Cryo, but I'll be happy to lend you the Audiodharma for cooking if you get any takers for a blind shootout.

I was hoping you were still willing to lend me that device.

My thinking is, if a cable cooker helps, then why not add cryo to make the cables even better??

It would be a free chance to try the effects and see if anyone could tell a difference. I would not disclose the results till several people tried them, at their leisure. I would treat at least one cable, and no more than five.

How about you send me the cooker in January. Then when it's -70 with the wind chill I can cook some cables, get them really hot, then hang em out to dry on my clothesline.

Two birds with one shot.

 

[Paladin79]

How about you send me the cooker in January. Then when it's -70 with the wind chill I can cook some cables, get them really hot, then hang em out to dry on my clothesline.

Two birds with one shot.

Omg when will you guys ever learn!!! Cookers are not space heaters, if you want to get warm you need a class A tube amp. geesh!!

As far as takers, you have little to lose, I will pay for everything and ship you the ac cords, continental US only please. You would have to pay return shipping to me, or shipping on to the next person involved. This will cost me about $250 plus labor so $10-$15 to ship the cables on is perhaps reasonable.

Hopefully cryo treating does not change the appearance of the AC plugs otherwise I may have to get creative. If several people try the cables, and there is a tie, I will give the cables to the first person who chose to participate, who got the correct answer.

 

[darkarn]

Speaking about the Eitr, I am unsure if I can make it in time so I am thinking of getting either this Toslink to Coaxial converter (https://www.amazon.com/Optical-Conv...ax+to+toslink+converter&qid=1572878310&sr=8-3) or this Asus soundcard that can do USB to coaxial (https://www.asus.com/us/Sound-Cards/Xonar-U7-MKII/) to tide over until I can afford both the Hel (for mic) and Biifrost 2

 

[bcowen]

How about you send me the cooker in January. Then when it's -70 with the wind chill I can cook some cables, get them really hot, then hang em out to dry on my clothesline.

Two birds with one shot.

Sounds like a plan. Only one condition: you have to do the listening tests outside.

 

[Rensek]

Speaking about the Eitr, I am unsure if I can make it in time so I am thinking of getting either this Toslink to Coaxial converter (https://www.amazon.com/Optical-Conv...ax+to+toslink+converter&qid=1572878310&sr=8-3) or this Asus soundcard that can do USB to coaxial (https://www.asus.com/us/Sound-Cards/Xonar-U7-MKII/) to tide over until I can afford both the Hel (for mic) and Biifrost 2

I use something similar on my TV rig to send sound to the coaxial on my schiit dacs.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06XCTGZFT?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

USB powered, works great, not the final word on SQ, but good enough for my needs in that space.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

A few banks still offer special christmas savings accounts to help you prepare for the most important spending season of all.

The most important spending season of all is from approximately 1 to 18 March. The weeks before my birthday on the 19th of March.

 

[yonson]

If you would like to check out both cryo and cable cooking I will most likely make up some sample AC cords for people to try out. Say six cables with an undefined amount of them both cooked and cryo treated. They will be numbered, if you can distinguish a difference and identify which obviously sound better, you keep the cables. I may run this by Jason since he does shootouts once a month. In his case I would just let him keep the cables and let him try them on a longer basis. I am skeptical about such things but I try to keep an open mind. If you keep them for a while and cannot tell a difference, or few of your choices are correct it might let you know if such things are worth your while.

I was actually more interested in the cryo process for another hobby of mine that cannot be spoken of here because of "feelings"

I probably could not tell an aural difference in the cryo'd/non cryo'd parts personally...