So say We All.
4 Likes
Thatās why all my PCs are higher end Wireworld,
This stuff matters and their guy, David Salz knows his stuff.
(other cables are available)
this means,that you listen whole day long? i do listen even while i am sleeping whole night almost and whole dayā¦i have turned on my audio system 24/7ā¦i do listen allmost without stoppingā¦
1 Like
This is the exact 3M material I used on transformers. It is thin easily shaped and doesnāt affect Edcor transformers negatively if you fully encapsulate them. I brlieve because of shield layer and less thickness.
The thicker AB7050HF is most magnetic materials that can adversely affect toroidal supplies if more than half donut is covered R core supplies or capacitors. It works well on chips or absorbing transformer EMF on toroids see my regenerator tweaking thread. Some have used it on the DS. I used a piece to soak up Display RF and EMzi on the DS.
1 Like
The tape would probably work better on a thinner cable. It wouldnāt work on my Zavfino or Stealth dream as well as Culler for sure, because they have thick tubes around the conductors that act as RFI blocker already.
I tried the tape on a Silnote Orion M1 Reference PC and the improvement is not as obvious as the Cullen Crossover2 PC. So, I tend to think the tape shielding works better on a cheaper cord than a expensive cord. Or maybe Silnote has a better shielding design.
1 Like
Not counting LP listening, hereās my listening stats from Roon. This is listening while I am awake and am mostly actively choosing what I am listening to. I do let Roon Radio kick in, but that probably only accounts for 10-15% of these numbers:
1 Like
I agree with you. When looking at the construction of āhigher end cablesā, many have multiple shields. In the case of this drawing thereās five. Stranded, foil, and each of the three cable bundles are shielded as well:
2 Likes
well,you have only 90hours cca in Roonā¦that is not much,i do listen 20hours cca per day mostlyā¦so,in one working week i do listen 100hoursā¦you are too good listenerā¦what kind of system do you have?
sorry,110hoursā¦i listen that in one week,that is pretty much,i thinkā¦
That is where the big bucks went! The copper tapes cost less than $5 per cord and it has an improvement over $500 easily!
2 Likes
I actually built my own custom very NON-UL approved fully shielded power cable for my DS for which I used twin high-power RF coaxial cables (held together in shrink tubing) with the thickest inner-conductor insulation I could find (in an attempt to be safe with a fundamentally unsafe design). The hot and the neutrals flow through the center conductors of each of the 2 cables cables, and the shield is used for the safety ground.
I absolutely CANNOT recommend that others try this (due to safety reasons), especially if you are running 220V power. But so far I havenāt burned my house downā¦ yet. And honestly, Iām not sure whether the tiny differences I hear are all my imagination or not.
1 Like
I donāt want you to take my comments in any way authoritative or negative. Whatever you decide you want to do, thatās entirely up to you. It is clear to me you understand the risk.
What youāve described above is pretty far outside what Iām personally comfortable with. But then again, Iām also not comfortable with riding motorcycles anymore. I have too many trust issues.
3 Likes
This seems like a super-bad ideaā¦ Even though the DSD doesnāt draw all that much current, thatās got to be a very small gauge cable, so would have a very low power carrying capacity.
Does it perform wellā¦? 
1 Like
As I have said, I absolutely do NOT recommend that anyone else try this! The gauge of the inner solid-core conductor on the particular coax cable I chose I would estimate to be ~22 gauge. And this is more than sufficient for the very small current draw that this DAC pulls.
FWIW: I originally built this cable to use with another DAC about 25 years ago, and it has has never had any problems over the years, despite how strange of a thing this is to do. The theory of operation of this cable is that it should act as a pass-through capacitor which should perform some degree of RF filtering of the power-line.
I havenāt done any A/B comparing in so long that I canāt remember anymore what I heard back when I did the testing. But it was enough at the time for me to keep running my experiment rather than throwing it away.
I am very careful about never, ever kinking this cable though! I have always been afraid that the solid core conductor could potentially fatigue, and penetrate the insulation which was never designed for AC power. So it only ever goes around corners in nice wide arcs.
1 Like
RG11 coax, the type used by cable companies to connect your house from the street, has a 14awg solid core center conductor. Within the house, it is usually RG6 or RG59 depending on use.
Solid 14awg is the same size conductor used in home electrical wiring for 15amp runs (20amp being 12awg). NOT to say itās advisable because technically coax is NOT approved for such use by any code I know of. The insulation around the center core is technically more flammable than NM wire, so in theory, would burn if sufficient current traveled through the wire at lower than 15 amps since coax is just not meant to carry such current. RG11 is rated up to 80C, whereas NM wire is rated to 90C.
Now that THATās out of the way. Iāve made my own cables using plenum rated stranded wire (silver coated copper with teflon jacket). Twisted hot/neutral with straight ground. Then covered with nylon braiding, which in turn was covered by braided, tinned copper braiding (shield). Covered yet again with double layer of polyester braid. The copper braid was connected to ground on the male end and floating on the female (C13) end. The double poly braid was to keep contact away from the copper braid, since under certain circumstances, if there is a ground fault elsewhere in the house wiring it could allow grounds to carry current, so if the ground is carrying current and you touch it, you then become the ground to earth (unless youāre floating in the air).
I have since just switched to industry standard 14awg shielded iec power cords (3 prong male / C13 female).
Edit: the 80C rating on coax is the INSULATION, not the material surrounding the core.
2 Likes
I got my DSD upgraded yesterday with the Edcor Transformers by Wayne (WCTADUSIO). He does an incredibly clean and perfect job and I highly recommend him. I had the external power connected a few days ago and it feels like I have a new DAC. Thanks to all who have done and recommended these upgrades. Listening beautifullyā¦
11 Likes
Hello,
Like to know if anyone has replaced their full-wave rectifier on the stock PS Audio power transformer PCB ?
Not sure what PS has used for rectification as yet, since I cannot see any bridge rectifiers, so I will assume 4 standard diodes mounted on the pcb.
Owners, here, have replaced the 4 voltage regulators also.
Iām fairly confident my Purple fuses are fairly settled in and I have played around with power cords on the Farad Super 3 and settled on the Belden BAV 10 gauge as the best fit of those I have on hand. Nice neutral sound, not as bland as I have found this cable in other applications.
Iāve played around with āfootersā under the unit as well and settled on the Herbieās Audio Lab āGabon ebony domes,ā with two flat side down in the rear and one flat side against the Super 3 in the front. I tried Herbieās Tenderfeetātook them right out, sounded smeared and edgy in comparison. It was a close call between the ebony domes and the Synergistic Research MIGāvery similar sound, the ebony having just a bit more āeaseā to the presentation. Theyāre much cheaper!
2 Likes
So the purple is an improvement over the Orange? I presume you use the Farad for driving a Matrix?
Yes, Iām very happy with the Purple. I had only two Oranges before, in my Monoblock amplifiers, otherwise I had Audio Magic Super and the Orange were different, perhaps not better. The Purple though. . . I bought one for the P15, and one then two for my preamp, then two for my Monoblocks and one for my Decware ZRROCK2 (tubed adjustable EQ preamp).
The Farad Super 3 I am using to connect to the audio power board inside my modded DirectStream DAC.
1 Like