Spock system (the importance of fine tuning)

S

Spock

Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2017
Messages
593
I already presented to you my system here

http://www.audioshark.org/introduce-yourself-6/hi-portugal-13316.html

but I decided to open this thread to highlight some aspects that, in my opinion, are very important to achieve a good sound reproduction. Beside the quality of the gear of course, it is clear to me that depends a lot from 3 factors:

- Electricity
- EMI and RFI interference
- (Micro)Vibrations

So, it all starts with the fuel of the system, the electricity. From my experience, a dedicated line makes a huge difference. In my case with a 4 mm cable. Of course your electrician man gonna say that 2.5 is enough. Believe me 4 mm is better. And maybe more will be better but I can not guarantee because I have not tried. :scholar:

After that, switching the circuit breaker through a fuse holder was a clear step forward. What's more, this will allow you to do fuse-rolling and try the fuse you like. They will sound all different, believe me!
attachment.php


Many times i think i probably was not fair in evaluating some equipment that went through my house when I did not have this dedicated line and the fuse system. I tell you, if our goal is a wider range of frequencies, with clean and crystalline treble, where different cymbals sound different and is obvious the crash of metal against metal, these modifications where everything is born are the right and necessary step.

Check out the video

https://vimeo.com/247688095

(to be continued) ;)
 

Attachments

  • 3.jpg
    3.jpg
    412.9 KB · Views: 1,214
Hello Spock. So many people just don't get the importance of clean power. I was very upset at a Stereophile article where the reviewer said he plugged his equipment into a Home Depot power supply. That is a sure way to limit the performance of all your gear. I am an electrician by trade. I have a decent stereo here in the USA. I would not say I have done a comprehensive study on power but I have done enough experimenting to know what works to improve sound. I am not sure why going from a CB to a fuse is giving positive results in your setup. In my experience, less is better as far as connections. I consider a fuse 2 more connections. You have the terminations to the fuse block and you have the clamps around the fuse ends. I would believe you are using the fuse to tune the color of the music to work with your gear.

I do very much agree, bigger wire is better. I have experimented with 10AWG solid core wire and stranded wire ran in either PVC or Steel. I have also experimented with a 10 AWG OFC cord direct from my panel to a power distribution box. I do not have cord ends on the distribution box. It is clamped to the end and the wires are terminated with split bolts. This was by far the best installation in my setup. I have professionally installed a similar setup for a client with very positive results.

Grounding is also king. You need at minimum a UFER ground at your house. Otherwise a chemically potted ground bar is necessary.

Just a few observations I have made while tuning my system.
 
Kingrex said:
Hello Spock. I am not sure why going from a CB to a fuse is giving positive results in your setup. I would believe you are using the fuse to tune the color of the music to work with your gear.
Click to expand...

Hello kingrex
Thanks for your comments.

I really do not know how it works. But it works. Maybe, just maybe, the fuse is acting as a filter as you say. But in a positive way.
Let me tell you that before buying this “audiophile” fuse, I tried a regular one. Even so, it was a clear up grade to the circuit breaker. So this made me want to go further and try the “audiophile” option.

Kingrex said:
Grounding is also king. You need at minimum a UFER ground at your house. Otherwise a chemically potted ground bar is necessary.
Click to expand...

I ´m glad that you mention the grounding, because I forgot to say that I have a dedicated ground to the system.

Kingrex said:
Just a few observations I have made while tuning my system.
Click to expand...

You´ re welcome. Thanks :hi:
 
Some people say that a power cable don´t matter because is the last meter in the long way electricity has to travel to our house. I say they matter, because they are not the last meter, they are the first! :scholar: Or maybe less than a meter. My pre and power cables are half of a meter, and yes, it´s enough to make difference.

After trying some brands (*) like Supra, QED; Furutech; Analysis; RodFig (Portuguese), Stealth, Gigawatt; Nordost, none seems to satisfy. All of them have positive and negative effects on the sound, so, i decided to try to make my own power cables because trying more expensive market cables was out of question ($$$$$).:weird: And it´s complicated, believe me. The conductor makes difference and heavier gauge is better. A thin cable can work ok in the source and not so good in the amplifier. With heavier gauge, it works well in both cases. So, from my experience, a good power cable must work equally in every equipment. But, maybe more important than the metal, is the construction. The distance between the conductors, the shielding, etc. Talking about shielding, there are some opinions who says that we don´t need to shield power cords. From my experience, we need shield in all types of cables. But it must be careful aplicated or it can have negative interference with electromagnetic field created by electricity. Trial and error brought me to a good result.

attachment.php


Other important thing (in all the cables) is the termination. A bad connection can destroy a good cable. And, im my opinion, forget plated silver or rhodium. Yes, I assume my fascination for gold! And is not to the eyes only, no, gold give a much correct timbre.
After trying similar ones from Furutech, my option are these from Elecaudio.

attachment.php

attachment.php

http://www.elecaudio.com/fr/

So, power cables are fundamental to assure a good sound, especially without compression. Some audiophiles are always talking about bad recordings full of compression. Of course they exist. But most of them do not know what a good power cable can do about. A long time ago, in a portuguese forum I beg for examples of bad and compressed recordings. Someone says “black album” from Metallica.
Wow! Where is the compression in this fantastic recording?

https://vimeo.com/248601717

(*) the most expensive about 750 €.
 

Attachments

  • cabo1.jpg
    cabo1.jpg
    446.7 KB · Views: 1,119
  • cabo2.jpg
    cabo2.jpg
    411.3 KB · Views: 1,114
  • cabo3.jpg
    cabo3.jpg
    418 KB · Views: 1,107
Hello Spock. Did you make the cable in the pix. They look very professional. I did not see anything about the conductor or the geometry. Can you share some on what you made. I tried to make cables. I bought a few different brands. In the end I bought 2 cables that are only 14 awg for my amps that work well for the price, $125 per cable. They bested my Cullen cables that are 10awg. I still have some Siltech and Signal Cable to preamps and phono stages.
 
Kingrex said:
Hello Spock. Did you make the cable in the pix. They look very professional.
Click to expand...

Thanks but that´s the easy part. As you know, we can buy all the stuff that provides this good looking on the internet (cables, connectors, sleeves, etc).

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/fich...r-schuko-carbon-gold-24k-3-o165mm-p-6843.html

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/nylon-sleeves/viablue-gaine-tressee-rouge-1325mm-p-5269.html

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/gain...ielding-sleeve-100-copper-10-20mm-p-3625.html

Kingrex said:
Can you share some on what you made.
Click to expand...

Speaking about the power cable... A friend of mine told long time ago that we can make a good power cable using speaker cable. We can easily buy a cheap but good copper speaker cable. Now i´m using Kimber and audioquest.
About the geometry… I do the individual shielding in each conductor (phase, neutral and earth). Under the shielding sleeve I put another thin cotton sleeve to prevent that the shielding sleeve do not touch the conductor. All the shielding sleeves are connected to earth in the schuko side. Finally I put another individual cotton sleeve to prevent the cross talk between each other. A slight twist to ensure flexibility and the rest is just cosmetic to provide the final looking...

Thanks. Have a good new Year!
 
The source.

attachment.php


When i bought the Lyngdorf CD1 i was looking for a neutral sound. Could this exist at an affordable price?
When i had the chance to listen to the Lyngdorf, I thought: that´s it! I heard some other players in the same league of prices, but when compared with Lyngdorf, all of them seemed to have some kind of veil, or at least, some kind of sonic signature. The Lyngdorf it had (has) an open but not aggressive or fatiguing sound. So I bought it.
With time, I started to find the sound a little “cold”. Then I discover fuses, and their influence in the sound (I´ll talk later about fuses – can they be the missing link in audio chain?), so I change the fuse in the power zone of the CD and the sound became more natural and full body. Of course if we want a more refined sound we must pay for that. But at this price, i´m still very satisfied.

About 3 months ago, the optical group died. But thanks to the excellent service of the Portugal dealer of Lyngdorf, the CD player went to Denmark where they brought him again to live.

So, this is a moment of rebirth.

https://vimeo.com/249192299
 

Attachments

  • CD1.jpg
    CD1.jpg
    362.8 KB · Views: 1,030
joeinid said:
Seems okay to me :)
Click to expand...

Thanks. I hope for many years.



Beyond the fuse and still talking about fine tuning…
As you can see in the photos below, the SPDIF output is covered. The plug is wrapped with a piece of metal that is connected to ground.
Do not ask me why…:weird: I just did as someone told me to do, and it really works. This has improved the resolution and cleaned the sound.

attachment.php


attachment.php


attachment.php



https://vimeo.com/249993637
 

Attachments

  • spdif1.jpg
    spdif1.jpg
    422.5 KB · Views: 961
  • spdif2.jpg
    spdif2.jpg
    394.6 KB · Views: 946
  • spdif3.jpg
    spdif3.jpg
    407.4 KB · Views: 931
Ortofon 7NX- AIC X1 Premium (RCA)

7NX-AIC X1… What´s that? :bonkers: I always have to do copy / paste of the name, because I can´t memorize it. I think the one who thought to this name deserved with a wet cloth in the face until it gets dry. :D

Since I noticed the differences in cables, I became obsessed with this passive component, for I wondered if the differences in performance of the active equipment were so obvious, how could I judge them? Only with the best cable I could be able to do it, but what would be the best? What was the limit? Of course there was the limit of my pocket. But, in time, from what I read in several audio forums, we should spend in cables no more than 10% of the total value of the system. So, in no time a cable could cost more than active components. So I tried several interconnect cables from different brands like QED, Atlas, Transparent, Nordost; Mission; Kimber; etc., etc. One day the dealer of Ortofon let me try out at home this 7NX-AIC X1 Premium :skeptical:It was an expensive cable, but he had just received it, and wanted to know my opinion. The cable cost then € 900 (later it came to cost € 1,450), and by comparison, I had at the time a Marantz SA7001 as CD player, which had cost me close to 700 €. The power at time was a Roksan Caspian that had cost me in 2nd hand about 500 €. As you can see, this cable made no sense in my system. This was until I heard it. I think, even today, it is perhaps the element of my system that is not in question. Why? Because it gives me the truth about the components it connects. The soft nuances in the music, the detail, the balance and the extension of frequencies, the silence of the background ... everything.
Oh, of course the ground connections are there to be use.

IMHO: The interconnect cable between the source and the (pre) amplifier is the most important in a system. No speaker cable can correct the signal that has been lost between the source and the amplifier.

attachment.php

attachment.php


https://vimeo.com/252418411
 

Attachments

  • ortofon1.jpg
    ortofon1.jpg
    456.8 KB · Views: 647
  • ortofon2.jpg
    ortofon2.jpg
    481.7 KB · Views: 640
I too find off brand quality power and interconnects to be far better than named products. The ones you mentioned are trash. I don't know the Ortofon unit, but I do have one Genesis interconnect by Gary Koe. Hands down put all the Analysis Plus In the trash. Its hard to describe until you hear the difference. When you do its like WOW. That is so, so, so much better. Unfortunately a good interconnect is $1,400 or so. The materials are expensive and they are usually hand built in the USA.

Congrats on a nice find.
 
Hi kingrex ;)

Thanks for your feedback. Is good to know i´m not talking alone :cool:

Now you made me very curious about Genesis Clabes. Sadly there is no dealer here in Portugal. But when i get the chance, i will listen with all attention. What i look for in audio is exactly what you describe: the wow factor. So simple, isn´t it ?! :scholar:

A big hug

https://vimeo.com/252605189
 
Hi spock,
Very nice sound !
Really enjoyed reading your finetuning journey!
Recently i upgraded the power supply of my modem, router, and switch with ifi power and this brought a signficant jump on sq and this just out of the box.
My next step was, isolating my system electrical plug by a seperate elcb and a proper mcb.
Let me tell you i m far to be an expert in electricity but a dealer adviced me to do it.
After checking my electrical panel, i found out that my hifi is within a seperate elcb including 3 plugs situated in the living room, so my dealer concluded that i was lucky; cause i wasn t exposed to electrical leak or noise coming from the like of fridge disturbing my hifi system.
So, by reading your comments, i was thinking may be i can improve the cable from my hifi plug and the electrical panel and may be change the elcb to a fuse
System, but i have no clue how to do it.
Can you please explain in details how to do it so i can direct my electrician how to do it.
Thks




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top