rossop said
Here's the plan. I spoke to Mike from Magenta Audio. He is the dealer in Australia. I will run it for a couple of weeks 24hrs a day. I have a listen in the morning and run the burn in disc the rest of the time. PWT & DAC (in low gain) are the only things running all day. Then we will see. Mike said he might send me some attenuated cables(whatever they are). I have tried other ICs but no good. Then, if necessary, I will send it back to him for a listen. Not a happy camper
Ross,
Here’s one last suggestion. I have found with some digital cables that running a burn in disc begins to have deleterious effects after a while. To me, things sound very bright and, dare I say, sibilant, following long and continuous burn in disc sessions. Consequently, I now only use a burn in disc (in my case Isotek) for the first 100-200 hours. After that, I use sampler discs that are made up of a variety of musical styles. I won’t name names, but I got this tip from some folks in the digital sound reproduction business. The theory behind it was over my head, but I gave it a whirl and, sure enough, I got better results. So, you might dispense with the burn in disc during this last stretch and use a wide variety of music instead. I also stop the continuous playback after 350 hours and make sure I reboot the system every few days.
I was tossing and turning in my sleep on Thursday night when I had an epiphany. I thought I might pop the top of the DS just to have a look. When I pressed it down and removed the lid the lid earthing cable was just hanging there. The orange coloured stick on strap that goes on the digital board was in place. The lid earth strap may have come loose when I popped the top but I don't think so.
I didnt have a good listen at that time but the next day and again today and I believe I am now heading in the right direction. The edgy spitty esses and even ts that sounded so bad, particlerly at higher volume, are (almost) pretty well all good now. I will run things for another week before I make up my mind for good.
I wont be rushing to declare the matter resolved because, as some of you are aware, I have done that before & been ultimately disappointed. But feeling pretty groovy...!
best regards,
Ross
PS:
I am suffering bill shock on another level, not audio. My avatar requires a "dental" plus ancillaries! It's the extras that screw you the most!
I am not sure anyone really knows the “whole story” about burn in and maybe it is meant to be that way. Part of the fun?
I have a Jeff Rowland 6 channel amp that I only played in 2 channel stereo for many years. It has the ability to “LINK” not bridge, the amps in parallel for higher current. When I finally decided to try it Linked, I was immediately disappointed. WTF, This amp is not new and has 1000’s of hours of play.
It was only when a couple of friends got the Rowland 925’s and it took them over 2000 hours to settle down, that I realized I was just beginning the break in of the 4 unused additional amps. 5-600 hours later I finally began to hear an improvement over the 2 channel setting.
oddeophile said
Medwardo, have you received your new Anaconda digital from Shunyata yet? Received my new version yesterday. If not contact Richard at Shunysta for your free replacement cable.
Odd
Thanks, Odd. Yes, I received the new Anaconda digital last week…even when not broken in, it’s amazingly good and better than the old version.
Agreed, but curious. Some of us (including me) have PWD/DS covers with no earthing fingers or straps and (at least in my case) have not seemed to have suffered from this sonic issue.
For the ground - the DS is a completely different animal with different architecture and layout, and I’m assuming running at much higher frequency then the PDW. It’s probably more sensitive to noise, and/or puts out more high frequency noise, and that shield on the lid really makes a difference.
