My Rega player had input and output tubes but I don’t know about your Ayon 07 ?
“I am still on the stock tubes”…! I have in the past rolled tubes in other makes of equipment - but it got to the stage I spent more time burning-in tubes and analysing tubes than actually listening to the music ! I would find a set of tubes I liked but then after a while I’d miss aspects from another set of tubes, etc, etc… Cost me a lot of money just to drive myself crazy.
This being the reason I haven’t strayed from the BHK’s stock tubes…
Yes audio Neurosis is something I’m quite familiar with. For the last 3 years I’ve been a recovering audiophile and born again music lover. Ever since I bought the VR 35’s, I’ve forgotten about stereo equipment and just enjoyed the music. Looks like I’ve fallen off the wagon again.
“……is by adding the BHK preamp, which would add some tube bloom, which I’m lacking, compared to my Ayon cd player.”
BHK preamp - it isn’t so much as simply adding some tube bloom, warmth, it’s creating a whole new level of musicality - far exceeding what you are used to. You would be blown away. BHK preamp will take your system to another level…………
Oh boy I was afraid of that. Looks like the BHK preamp will be my next major upgrade. Although I’m a little tempted to try the Ayon CD 35, which has a DAC that converts PCM to DSD, and a built-in analog to preamp, and streamer, all in one unit.
You really “need” to experience what the BHK Preamp brings to the party. It surprised me and I have owned some stellar equipment… Really transforms the BHK power amplifiers… It’s a wonderful addition. !!
The Cary is back in play. Noise is now an innocuous, very low-level hiss…still more than I’ve heard with other SS and tube amps (where I didn’t hear any hiss at all with my ear at the tweeter).
I’m currently using the Gain Cell Preamp/DAC as a usb DAC and source switcher. RCAs out from GC to one of the Cary’s line level inputs.
The original problem may have been a NuWave DAC/GC/Cary/M700 issue.
Dirk you were right on in regards to break-in. The SQ of my DSD DAC continues to improve. I’ve lost count of how many hours I have on it, but I think I stopped keeping track around 800 hrs, and that was probably at least 200 hrs ago. Even with what I consider an inferior pair of ic’s, for this level of gear, which I plan on upgrading, listening to music has not only become extremely satisfying, but has risen to a level none of my previous systems have attained. This DAC should come with a warning…Please don’t judge me or do any critical listening, until I’ve had at least a thousand hours on me.
Gary, it’s great to hear you are getting even more enjoyment after 6 weeks running the DS.
Just recently someone made contact with me asking questions about the DS as he had just bought one - initially very pleased with it, but after a two weeks he thought he had made a mistake…! The comment: “it is very good but, it doesn’t hold my attention, it isn’t drawing me into the music” ! I told him it was burn-in but he simply couldn’t get his head around the burn-in, he couldn’t/wouldn’t see how it takes such a long time, etc.
It was pointless trying to convince him so I told him to bring his DS to my house and I would temporary swap it for one of my two DS boxes… Long story short; after 5 days he phones me telling me he is blown-away with how wonderful my DS sounds compared to his new DS…And, wondering if his brand-new one could be faulty ?! I couldn’t get through to him…
Anyway, I have an old Arcam CD player and I’ve put it on repeat and I will let the new DS play 24/7 and give the DS back just before the Christmas holidays…
I am a brand new owner of DS Sr and its good to see this extensive discussion about burn-ins. I never was a big believer in burn-in until i bought the DS. I am at about 200 hrs of burn-in. I followed Ted’s suggestion of playing music in a loop (using Tidal on Bluesound via coax - the coax is decent quality from bluejeans - 75ohms and all that), unpluging the output cables and engaging the 20db attenuator. The overall SQ seemed to improve marginally everyday - becoming more open, airy and 3D. Today I sat down after a long week’s hard work (its friday - what better thing todo??) - hooked up the pre-amp and amp and warmed up the system for an hour and played some Friend N’ Fellow (What a Wonderful World) & Diana Krell (Cal Dreaming) - my heart sank! The bass was just wimpy - I cant even begin to explain how bad it was. It almost felt like i went back by a hundred hours back in time. I frantically played a few more songs with desperation and was disappointed more. At that very moment - I thew in a Miles Davis Vinyl and sure enough he lifted my spirits posthumously! I am hitting bed now - putting the DS Sr back in loop with the hopes of seeing a different personality tomorrow :(. I see Paul saying that the output stage of the DS Sr needs a longer burn-in. But has anyone else had such a roller coaster? btw - i upgraded to Snowmass early on during the burn-in.
500 hours will be a turning point, but for me, the real deal in sound quality was about 750 to 800 hours. Hang in there and the reward in sound quality will be well worth the wait…
FWIW, some have reported a drop in (perceived?) bass with Snowmass. In my experience, the bass was cleaned up a bit (seems less “muddy”), compared to Red Cloud. I can imagine some would hear the better (?) bass resolution as “less bass”. For me, its just “cleaner”, more percussive with less “boomyness”. YMMV. Peruse the Snowmass threads a bit to read other’s opinions regarding Snowmass and bass response. Several have written about rejiggering speaker locations and subwoofer settings to dial their systems back in to their liking. I seem to recall others noting that they needed to listen at higher volume levels to get the most out of Snowmass in their systems.
Cheers.
PS. If you believe Snowmass is less than impressive at this point and have not yet re-loaded a previous software and then gone back to Snowmass at least once, I recommend that you give that a try. I had to cycle back down to Red Cloud and back up to Snowmass twice before the Snowmass update “took” in my system. I can’t explain how doing so could make a difference but Snowmass was not a great improvement in my system until I did this.
As you can see from this thread, it does take a long time for the unit to burn in.
And make sure that all your polarities are correct.
Finally, although the attenuator is not supposed to effect sound, I think it does.
Only lasted about 15 days: I asked that my 2nd DS be retuned so that I could update it to Snowmass and at that point we just decided to swap back to our respective DS boxes. During the time I was burning-in the new DS I could hear it was changing but it still would have required a few more weeks. DS always takes a few weeks to come on song. I’ve burned-in two DS dacs and I also had to fit a new main card to one of my DS boxes and that too took about 6 weeks.
After a week or so the worst is over (or so it would seem!!) but it continues on through cycles of good and bad days. Musically just going through the motions but lacking in engagement.
When I stripped out the faulty main card to fit the new replacement card: I couldn’t see any sign of heat discolouration to anything and all the electronic components looked as fresh as the components on the new card… That’s a testament to Ted and how well he designed the DS, possibly the main reason that it takes so long to burn-in. DS runs so cool…!
Yes, definitely. During the two weeks he used my well played DS he was over the moon with it. And it brought home to him that his new DS indeed required many more hours playing time… He is “very happy” with his DS.
I meant to send the previous post to the member asking about the length of burn-in time. I got them mixed up.
I’ve been on a wild ride with SM. Initially I wasn’t impressed, so I let things run overnight. The next day there was some improvement, but still not hearing what others were. I then realized my sitting position had slid back 6" from its optimal equilateral position from the speakers. When I corrected that, I immediately heard a huge improvement. Soundstaging and bass to die for, were the first things that caught my attention. But shortly after that experience, I’ve been on a roller coaster ride with SM, mainly with the bass. Right now I’m less than impressed with it, and it’s bumming me out. What happened to the marvelous bass I previously had? I’ve been running the DSD non stop for the last four days, in hopes it just needs more time to settle in. I may give your suggestion a shot, and reload Redcloud, then back to SM.
FWIW, Snowmass is, IMO, an improvement over Red Cloud overall. However, for me, it has not been the, “OMG!/Holy Cow!/Unbelievable!” (pick your own superlative) transformative step up from Red Cloud as exclaimed by others. Be that as it may, the DS Sr. with Snowmass is THE BEST digital (and overall) sound I have ever heard in my system(s). Can’t wait to see what Paul, Ted & Co. come up with next…
I can’t get my second system to sound good/musical at all with Snowmass. I am suffering from slightly too much bass… Hence the dynamics are suppressed and as a whole the system sounds more ponderous and boring. I spend my time listening to the HiFi and not the music!
I have tried a few things like speaker positioning, the seating area, acoustic treatment, etc. but all to no avail… Switch to Redcloud in my other DS and the music is pumping out, tuneful and its engaging with me. Go back to Snowmass and all I do is concentrate on the HiFi and what is bugging me with the bass in the room…! But when I go upstairs to my big system Snowmass is a different beast…
- I cant even begin to explain how bad it was. It almost felt like i went back by a hundred hours back in time. I frantically played a few more songs with desperation and was disappointed more. At that very moment - I thew in a Miles Davis Vinyl and sure enough he lifted my spirits posthumously! I am hitting bed now - putting the DS Sr back in loop with the hopes of seeing a different personality tomorrow :(. I see Paul saying that the output stage of the DS Sr needs a longer burn-in. But has anyone else had such a roller coaster? btw - i upgraded to Snowmass early on during the burn-in.
