I wish I were there. But I literally experienced the dog ate my homework experience. I wasreceently lost for explanation in that my music had lost emotion and kick. I blamed it on allergies and nasal congestion. Did not listen for a week. Came back same lifelessness. So I redid my Bacch head tracking algorithm. No change. By now Ii was extremely frustrated. I went to every 3M absorber placement low and behold the piece on the Bacch4mac, I not stuck down and my 6 month old Cavalier King Charles Puppy had snatched it for teething after exhausting all other chew toys.
Cutting a new piece and placing it was a two night adventure to get to what I had Despite havingI had a photo template. An odd shape and every sliver trimmed and placed was different sounding.
I wish I had better gear but in no way does it suck nor is it considered budget, by most people accounts . I have yet to match the experience in demos at dealerships and elsewhere. To come close it seems to take multiples of six figures
It all boils down to set up and taste. No way can I match experience many that have been on a gear merry go around for years and have decades in experience. But I can say no one else curated my system for me. It has been a journey earned toiled and sweated over. It is priceless fun to watch expressions of others once set in the-sweet spot. The amazement on their face says it all.
I have learned lots here from everyone’s shared experiences for that I am grateful.
So I did your little trick by adding 3M squares into AQ RJ45 caps. This morning the system sounded a bit flat and unfocused as the result of break in (2nd day is usually rough from my experience), and I figured I need to do something about it.
One cap went into Orbi satellite, and the three caps went to Orbi router upstair. The sound cleared up! Was the improvement from the cap trick or from the normal break-in process? I have no idea, but for sure the trick does not hurt the sound.
Also, I noticed on the first day MK2 bottom was hot (where APS transformers are located). After 30 hours the bottom is not as hot as before. I guess the current goes through miles of the new conductors on APS created more heat. In a few days I hope the temperture will go down even more.
I’m not sure about the amethyst but quartz is a piezoelectric crystal and is supposed to absorb EMI/RFI. Acoustic Revive uses it, for example, as the filling in a board used to support electronic components.
CORRECTION: I misremembered the way it works. The quartz works by absorning vibration. Sorry.
“The Acoustic Revive RST-38 and TB-38 Under-Boards are stands, or more correctly, vibrational energy dissipation platforms, to place your audio equipment upon, and are offered as alternatives to the more expensive RAF-48 Air Floating Board. The RST-38 and TB-38 Under-Boards are designed to quickly route vibrational energy away from audio components and dissipate it. They feature a composite wood chassis that is filled with quartz granules, upon which a birch plywood top plate is placed to sit components upon.”
There whispers about Amethyst’s EMI reative properties. I’ve playing with crystal oscillator lately, hence started to look into how different crystals retact to electricity and EM fields.
Then, looking at some of the fillings in our endearing fuses, something clicked so decided to play with raw uncut crystals. It’s a fun experienment.
It didn’t dawn on me until later that I have for years been using a tray of ametrine positioned on the top case of my DS DAC over the unit’s display. I find the effect to be very subtle and when I remove the tray and then reintroduce it later the full effect seems to take a few days to come into its own. There seems to be a small increase in very low-level detail.
Here is a description of what ametrine is followed by a couple of shots of the tray.
Ametrine, also known as trystine or by its trade name as bolivianite, is a naturally occurring variety of quartz. It is a mixture of amethyst and citrine with zones of purple and yellow or orange. Almost all commercially available ametrine is mined in Bolivia. Wikipedia
I also found the geometry/shape/orientation of the crystal do affect the sound in very subtle ways. I suspect if I spend big $$$ to get a huge mono uncut crystal, the effect would probably be more pronouced.
I’ve tried to add “stones” on top of my streaming chain components, started with the streamer, then moving upstream to switchs and power supplies, if the stone structure is too rough, the effect isn’t pleasing and vise versa. and the effect is additive/suppercomposing.
I also wondered what the “sand” inside audiophile grade fuses are, now I can have a pretty good guess.
After trying out the Epplugs plugs, I built my own RJ45 plug today to eliminate interference. I used a link-up cat 8 connector. I mounted four solid silver wires on the connections for 100 Mbit without them touching the housing or themselves. Since I don’t have any tourmaline powder, I had to crush the tourmaline tumbled stones in a plastic bag on a steel base with a hammer. This works quite well. I filled the fine tourmaline granules that were created into the plug. The plug is covered with self-adhesive thermal hose. After filling it with the tourmaline, I sealed the opening with wax. Next time I might try a mix of tourmaline and a rock crystal at the end of the connector.
You are really into the streaming tweak! Don’t you have the AQ RJ45 caps already that supposedly do the same thing? I like them on my router and satellite. They are doing something, I think.
The Audioquest caps shield the open inputs. This is the first step. The plugs with black turmaline have an active effect and absorb interference. It also makes a difference which wire is used, whether copper or silver. RCA connectors are easier to manufacture because they only have one anode. I first installed 4 silver wire for the 100 MBit in the RJ45. I found 8 a bit tight in the connector at the beginning. Maybe I’ll try it next time. The plugs calm the sound, voices sound fuller… everything sounds more organic.
I’ll make a few more attempts. I first used a tea light as wax. According to Audi Magic, beeswax should have a positive effect.
Tonight I tried the Aliexpress Orion 2 power cord with the new Furutech F50 NCF plugs, and I used it on BHK pre. It has had a few days of high power break in, so I want to see how it compares to AQ Dragon Source resides there now.
Playing PST, the SQ is bright, aggresive, and fuzzy. My ears were hurting. These plugs needs another month to break in it seems! AQ Dragon just sounded much smoother and calmer. I hope Orion 2 will improve more later since the plugs are like $800, 10 times more than the cord itself!
If it doesn’t get better you might want to just put a set of these on and save the F50’s for a more worthy cable. Something like a Neotech NEP-3200 or Oyaide Tunami.
At least you can keep the wine chilled while you wait it out. I bought a second Puritan 156 for the new room that’s being built at the house in Greenville, SC and for the last week it’s been running the chest freezer and beer fridge.
The Furutech NCF plugs sound a little harder for a few days. The sound is created by the combination of plug/cable. But the Fi 50 ncf are among the best. Perhaps the character of the cable will now come to light. Good interesting cables from the roll are the Furutech Dps-4.1, Oyaide Vondita, Acoustic Revive Power 8800 / 18000, Nanotec 309 (unlubricated)
I would be interested in the Oyaide Vondita. According to a dealer it sounds like a Shunyata.
