This update feels like getting a new DAC. Connected direct to Classé amp and into Avalon loudspeakers. Listening via Bridge II via Roon. Reminds me of my first hifi, hearing details I’d never noticed before in familiar recordings. love attack of instruments, depth of field, and what I detect as less noise.
Music feels as if it’s been brought closer. I’ve caught myself crying twice today moved by the music which is unusual.
I am thankful to have purchased a device that has brought this much enjoyment, and has gotten better over time. It speaks to the company’s values re: music and return on investment.
High end detail is remarkable, like upgrading tweeters. Congrats an a stelar upgrade.
As I listen to Keith, Gary, and Jack at the Blue Note once again, it’s as if I’m there, in the club, 1995. Thank you Ted!
Can someone please provide me with a description of the DSD Sr. SQ improvements of the Sunlight + Edcor XS4400 mod combo, or point me to such a post if one already exists.
I may keep my DSD Sr. for quite a while longer especially since the buy-back program with the PS Audio Canadian distributor KimberCan is not has generous as the program offered in the USA.
Therefore, doing the XS4400 would hopefully bring my DSD Sr. SQ closer to the upcoming DSD MKII without having to spend too much money.
I thank you in advance for any valuable comment on the Sunlight + Edcor XS4400 mod.
Any of the comments in modding the Directstream DAC about The EDCOR XS4400 still hold true with or without Sunlight. Sunlight in my opinion was not as startling an upgrade as the transformer replacement. Either by themselves is remarkable. Sunlight is just an easier execution. I enjoyed the transformer upgrade more in my pathway of upgrades. Someone that did Sunlight then Transformers may have another opinion.
Edcor upgrade was like adding new bigger speakers with more bottom end and better isolating and transparent mids and wider deeper soundstage. Where sunlight feels like electronic refinements in quietness and a touch more depth and smoother HF. Sunlight makes me want to start tweaking-speaker position or cables again, which I never felt I needed after the transformer upgrade. So far I am resisting speaker movement, but did order another set of Iconoclast SPTPC speaker cables and jumpers to try biwire of LF from MF and HF before speaker position and experiment with different amp autoformer impedance, and use good wire versus plates to jumper my speaker triwire taps. Sunlight makes me feel the balance shifted too much and my uppers and mids need something. Whereas the better Edcor transformers, I thought no position or cable tweaks were needed.
I know exactly what you mean about wanting to tweak my system since loading Sunlight. So far I’ve replaced the unshielded Acrolink 6N 4030/Oyaide P-/C-046 power cord with a Bybee Golden Goddess with Oyaide M1/F1 connectors and moved my speakers about 5" farther away. The jury is still out as to whether the change in sound is positive. negative or a mix of the two.
I have been considering moving my speakers closer together versus apart. Toe in with line arrays usually is not needed and my mids and woofers are already angled in. I just feel the HF wants some help for tonal balance. I don’t know the answer yet and maybe just burn in of firmware. I am traveling for work a lot and might just be ears not cleared yet from all the flying and mixing of climates. But the tweaking need surprised me.
Sunlight does seem brighter to me (an interesting name for the new OS, indeed) but not excessively so. My description on the speakers was incomplete: I moved them 5" farther away from me and closer to the front wall. There distance apart from each other has stayed the same.
That seems to have put a little more heft to the bass.
No matter what I’ve tried in the past with toe-in I’ve always come back to what MartinLogan recommends which is to have the speakers just a little toed-in so that a flashlight shining on the electrostatic panel is about at the one-third point from the inside of the speaker.
The change in power cords seems to have been a wash. The Acrolink 6N4030 are unshielded and thus favor the higher frequencies but the M1/F1 connectors on the Bybee cord are more transparent sounding than the P-/C-046.
OK, so back to Sunlight… and I am getting happy… wha??? I swapped my interconnects between the DAC and Prima Luna integrated… I retired my old Cardas Quadlink 5 for Cardas Presence.
Sheesh!!! the “hyper” definition around the high frequencies is gone. Wow… I never… I have had those Cardas cables for thirty years… yes thirty years… and have swapped others in an out and they just were fine… did nothing badly… a good neutral cable. So why the heck now I hear an elevated high end were massed strings were a bit strident? I do not know.
I did this testing in a controlled way… I put Sunlight back in and played the few tunes that really stood out with Sunlight… yep same… gave it a chance and played it for a few days… nope… ain’t doing it for me. So I just swapped out my cables and gone… the issue is gone. World Trade Federation (WTF).
I am not kidding, for thirty years (on and off), those Quadlink cables were fine… and with thirty years of equipment swaps. I could honestly say I know what those things sound like. Cripes this hobby will make you nuts.
BTW, I am listening to Gil Scott Heron / Brian Jackson’s It’s Your World. What a great album. Just great.
So… all good now? Not so fast… it still presents itself a bit… um forward… jurry is still out… at least now it is about my taste and not something being “wrong”.
Bass is more defined and articulated with transformer upgrade. It is more impactful bass. Not as much of a noticeable change after Sunlight in bass region. More space on other instruments after Sunlight maybe a foot more.
I have been thinking I need to check whether my DS went out of phase after a power loss. I had not pulled the SD card. Since some report phase switches at reload. I won’t be able to check until I am back in TX this weekend. That might explain why it was off sounding this past weekend.
After three weeks or was it four? Sunlight has finally settled in and it sounds just wonderful. The first week it was sounding okay but a bit “edgy”. Now it sounds smooth and full. It’s a big improvement over previous FW.
Here is where I throw out my deterministic, “bits is bits” card… I think this “settling in” has more to do with our ear-brain systems than the technology.
I read about a study… oh I dunno, thirty years ago?.. where it was discovered that your ear-brain system masks frequency imbalances after just a “short” amount of listening. Your ear-brain system actually compensates.
I know when I was younger and getting into Pink Floyd, I found their recordings to be unbelievably clear and balanced… wow. Now I play Dark Side of the Moon and it clearly sounds like a 70s recording. Today, I never would hold it in the regard I did then. But… if that was all I had… Anywhooo…
I agree, Sunlight has settled in and sounds amazing now. The whole break-in process was like a rollercoaster, going from good to better, and sometimes vice versa. The top end no longer sounds bright or etched in the least. I had to tear myself away from listening last night at 1am.
I, too, suspect a good deal of firmware “break-in” is the acceptance by the ear-brain interface.
But I also find credible Ted’s comment the FPGA may exhibit audible break-in as previously unused aspects of the FPGA are now used. Given the amazing sensitivity some here have for other firmware changes I have no problem accepting some hear FPGA break-in.