STROP Posted April 9, 2021 Share Posted April 9, 2021 18 hours ago, evil c said: I add it to food and it works a treat Reminds me of this bloke... is he a chef ? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaynin Posted April 9, 2021 Share Posted April 9, 2021 Curtis Stoned. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hydrology Posted April 9, 2021 Share Posted April 9, 2021 22 hours ago, evil c said: Probably around time for an update. Don't know if others saw my Xmas GTG thread, so I happened to finally get around to buying the matching Astor centre speaker with stand. It has certainly elevated my Home Theatre front end, with all matched speakers being in perfect harmony. Even Radio Paradise sounds amazing now, that's how much it lifted everything! After a few weeks, sounds even better - honestly I'm happy to play digital far more which is a big win for me. Have been considering the Renolabs (but will have an Innuos PhoenixNET next week to try out). How much in the end did it cost inc shipping and how long from order to arrival (happy if you want to keep that in PM). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil c Posted April 9, 2021 Author Share Posted April 9, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Hydrology said: Have been considering the Renolabs (but will have an Innuos PhoenixNET next week to try out). How much in the end did it cost inc shipping and how long from order to arrival (happy if you want to keep that in PM). I tried to PM you but suspect your inbox is full. I can divulge that they are crazy good value for the quality of parts and construction. To the point of showing up many competitors ! Edited April 9, 2021 by evil c 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hydrology Posted April 9, 2021 Share Posted April 9, 2021 24 minutes ago, evil c said: I tried to PM you but suspect your inbox is full. Cheers mate made some space in me inbox!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil c Posted June 7, 2021 Author Share Posted June 7, 2021 Not much happening ,(or being allowed), very little at the moment- so have invested a bit of time into the trusty old DeThinn turntable. (Thorens/ Linn/ Denon DA- 401 arm) I have had it for several years and it has had numerous mods in it's life at evil springs. It originally had a primitive single speed PSU with a few caps, then l updated it to a Valhalla. It got forgotten about after I bought an LP12 Linn, then after buying the Soulines Kubrick last year l vowed to the wife I'd sell it. And after indeed putting it up for sale recently, the sale fell through after the buyer questioned the quality of it's spring suspension. So after licking my wounds and much thought, decided it was an omen ! So bought a Hercules and mose 33/45 PSU from Edmund and fitted it last week. Dug out a Zyx R50 Bloom with low hours l had and mounted on the arm. Then off to Andrew at HiFi Restorations for a new set of Springs plus setup. All done in a few days at a very reasonable price, fired it up today, and instantly a very different beast to the one l remembered! Several favorite albums later, and there's no way in hell this is going anywhere, way too much time and money invested to bail out now - great deck to alternate with to help keep it interesting! It mightn't be the same flavor as the Soulines , but it punches way above what you'd expect for the sum of its parts! Now how do I break it to the missus?? 7 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclemack Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 That red collar on the tonearm. I’d recognise that anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil c Posted June 10, 2021 Author Share Posted June 10, 2021 6 minutes ago, unclemack said: That red collar on the tonearm. I’d recognise that anywhere. Good to see someone else is paying attention! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hifigoose Posted June 12, 2021 Share Posted June 12, 2021 On 07/06/2021 at 5:03 PM, evil c said: old DeThinn turntable. (Thorens/ Linn/ Denon DA- 401 arm) Hereafter known has DeThinzy? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil c Posted July 23, 2021 Author Share Posted July 23, 2021 (edited) A simple red Ethernet cable I've just fitted into my system has thrown a cat in the worms! Here l was blissfully listening to my Turntable and analog gear, and smugly knowing my digital section couldn't come that close to competing with it! Previously I'd mistakenly thought my digital was very close, but with my Turntable/Arm and cart setup perfectly - there was still a sizable gap! Don't get me wrong, with repeated and prolonged periods of enforced isolation - it has been a great opportunity to wrack up the sort of hours normally stretched over a much longer period. And that has enabled better clarity , through lengthy listening sessions in tandem with a modicum of tweaking - on shortcomings and preferences. I've managed to fit dedicated power supplies to every single digital link, and with the turntable too(!) Power cables and interconnects have also been fine tuned, with a mixture of (mainly Nordost),plus Isotek,Audio Principe , Voodoo, Foilflex & Analysis Plus. With every day blending into the next, as a diversion @frednork and l made a deal to swap over his tricked up EtherRegen switch, ( with linear PSU and separate reclocker), for my ridiculously over engineered Renolabs switch . Initial impressions were modest, nothing to criticize or to write home about either! However by day two and three, l began to hear improvements utilising the B side to my Lumin U1 Mini streamer. Switching from the B to A side showed a distinct change, with the soundstage and clarity diminishing. While Mark was here, he had brought over his "box of tricks" and set up his testing gear and sent a full frequency sound sweep through the speakers then did an analysis of the results. Being a tad limited in the technical department, I'll leave it to him to better describe - however the prognosis overall was good on the room acoustics and performance. So at risk of being ridiculed by the cable denialists, back to the magic red Ethernet cable! @Assisi has been nagging me that I must upgrade my fairly stock LAN cables, (which are Afterdark, Elecom and bog standard $5 jobs) to Audio Revive with Telegartner plugs. After holding out for nearly a year, after buying my Rhein Z1 Roon core server and Lumin U1 Mini streamer - I finally bit the bullet and bought a single one to run between my Renolabs network switch and Lumin. So this is the final, and most important (?) , link in the chain. Having the EtherRegen switch still rigged up, l wasn't sure what level of improvement it would offer, as I connected it. Well l was in for a big surprise, the level was massive!! Suddenly I could hear much more micro detail previously buried , with a lot of layers of instruments and audio effects coming to the fore - plus considerably more dynamics, texture to the bass and punch. I was astounded at what I'd been missing before in comparison. After going back into lockdown, managed to swap back to my Renolabs, after an illicit rendezvous in a public park with @frednork, (honestly officer, it's an Audiophile reference quality switch to make lockdown more bareable ) , and on rigging it up the sound was noticably better again! Cleaner still and a little more depth in the imaging. Employed the "Golden ears" of my musician son to compare the new Ethernet cable vs. a $30 Elecom one. Even sitting off axis from the speakers, it only took a very short listen for him to pronounce that indeed there was more depth, sparkle and dynamics to the sound with the Audio Revive! Every single track I've played, whether from Qobuz, my NAS or just Internet radio - has sounded like a demo track ! I had most of the right ingredients, but like a great recipe it was missing one vital ingredient to make everything shine and bring out it's best! This simple cable has done that, and makes me wish I'd introduced it earlier - however l believe too many changes at once dilutes being able to pinpoint individual differences or improvements so think the timing was about right! Now I have other links in the chain to strengthen, in my network so still a work in progress and more Audio Revive cables to buy! Not cheap, but very good value weighing up the improvement they offer! Now I'm off to rediscover my music collection, might be gone for some time! Edited July 23, 2021 by evil c 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genkifd Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 awesome write up of your journey so far. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frednork Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 (edited) Firstly, who is that follicly challenged dork in the photo. 2nd, this visit was done pre covid lockdown just to be clear. Regarding the room measurement, Despite looking like no effort has been made to make this room an acoustic haven, it measures as one of the best rooms I have had the pleasure of testing. As far as I know there are no (intentional) physical or other treatments in this room. I suspect all the minor tweaking of speaker position for best listening experience has paid off and results in an excellent untreated result. All normal sized rooms in homes will suffer to some extent from the effects of their dimensions and there is a bit of uneveness in the lower couple of octaves but I was impressed. This is his left speaker with variable smoothing. This means the bass and sub bass is virtually unsmoothed and as you go up the frequency range the smoothing increases. Clearly the 40-80Hz area could be improved. But I havent seen better without something (physical or dsp treatment) being done to improve the situation further. Might have a bit to do with the way the Hulgichs have been designed also, presumably to work well in a normal house. Here is the waterfall plot, also very tidy IMO, it was a very chilly day when I visited so the ducted heating was going full bore and we had limited time, so suspect a lot of the noise below 100Hz is from the heating and you can see it extends out quite a long way (1500ms) and doesnt attenuate. and finally is the rt60, again a lot of the stuff below 100 is probably the heater. For a bit of fun I made an FIR convolution filter of his measurement for him to try. Some technical gremlins prevented me from measuring the actual filter so I made a simulation, which if everything else is correct will be very close. Here is the simulation vs the original with psychoacoustic smoothing to see the differences more easily Will need to try this ethernet cable if its brought Evil closer to the dark side. No-one can accuse you of being a boiling frog Edited July 23, 2021 by frednork 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil c Posted July 23, 2021 Author Share Posted July 23, 2021 @frednork thank you for your in depth analysis, l believe that the secret to my good acoustics is a well designed "random chaos concept"!! Lot's of break up, multitude of different materials hard and soft, excessive laziness in clearing up; plus a big dose of good luck!! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccuTidal Posted July 28, 2021 Share Posted July 28, 2021 Have you guys try out "AIM Shieldo NA7"? http://www.aim-ele.co.jp/avd/english/products/na7/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil c Posted July 28, 2021 Author Share Posted July 28, 2021 1 hour ago, AccuMagi said: Have you guys try out "AIM Shieldo NA7"? http://www.aim-ele.co.jp/avd/english/products/na7/ It looks expensive, even more so than the Audio Revive! Do you have a spare one l can try? Must say still enjoying the honeymoon period with mine, so no immediate rush! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Assisi Posted July 28, 2021 Share Posted July 28, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, evil c said: It looks expensive, even more so than the Audio Revive! It is. Maybe at least A$1,500 for 1.5mtrs I estimate. John Edited July 28, 2021 by Assisi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil c Posted July 28, 2021 Author Share Posted July 28, 2021 7 minutes ago, Assisi said: It is. Maybe at least A$1,500 for 1.5mtrs I estimate. John Succinct and to the point as usual, John!, I suspect l will be getting at least 90% of the benefit at a more (barely), affordable cost . More to come on this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccuTidal Posted July 28, 2021 Share Posted July 28, 2021 I queried because am using them atm post trailing so many others. In a shoot out, blind folded of course, it was well perceived as superior to the diamond…, at $3k+. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Assisi Posted July 28, 2021 Share Posted July 28, 2021 6 minutes ago, AccuMagi said: I queried because am using them atm post trailing so many others. In a shoot out, blind folded of course, it was well perceived as superior to the diamond…, at $3k+. I assume that with the Diamond you mean the Audioquest Diamond. I had a couple of Diamond. I consider that for me the Acoustic Revive put together in Melbourne with the Red Cable and Telegartner plugs to be superior and less expensive. No blind test though - just me. Acoustic Revive also make a cable in similar way to the NA7. Not easy to assemble and also expensive. I also understand a quality outcome but at a price? John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AccuTidal Posted July 28, 2021 Share Posted July 28, 2021 John, can I get the link to that red cable? am making arrangements to my digital domain agsin… might need getting more Ethernet cables. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stereophilus Posted July 28, 2021 Share Posted July 28, 2021 @Assisisold me on the acoustic revive red Ethernet cable too. They are not unreasonably priced, and are clearly better sounding than any other Ethernet cable I’ve tried. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunder_Snake Posted July 28, 2021 Share Posted July 28, 2021 Hi mate, @evil c do you have a link for where you purchased the Acoustic Revive cable? I know there are a lot of resellers on eBay, but was hoping you might have somewhere else I can go. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evil c Posted July 28, 2021 Author Share Posted July 28, 2021 (edited) 39 minutes ago, Stereophilus said: @Assisisold me on the acoustic revive red Ethernet cable too. They are not unreasonably priced, and are clearly better sounding than any other Ethernet cable I’ve tried. His influence is greater than l feared! 21 minutes ago, G_goodwin said: Hi mate, @evil c do you have a link for where you purchased the Acoustic Revive cable? I know there are a lot of resellers on eBay, but was hoping you might have somewhere else I can go. Cheers! Oh oh, infection is spreading! Just sent you a PM . Edited July 28, 2021 by evil c 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Assisi Posted July 28, 2021 Share Posted July 28, 2021 1 hour ago, AccuMagi said: John, can I get the link to that red cable? am making arrangements to my digital domain agsin… might need getting more Ethernet cables. 1 hour ago, G_goodwin said: Hi mate, @evil c do you have a link for where you purchased the Acoustic Revive cable? I know there are a lot of resellers on eBay, but was hoping you might have somewhere else I can go. Cheers! The cables come from Sound Gallery in Mackinnon in Melbourne. The owner John Ong makes them. Tomorrow is his normal day off. Try on Friday. https://www.soundgallery.com.au/brands John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joz Posted July 29, 2021 Share Posted July 29, 2021 14 hours ago, evil c said: His influence is greater than l feared! Oh oh, infection is spreading! Just sent you a PM . My interest has also piqued! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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