Dear All,
The other evening i invited a hifi buddy,his wife,both daughters both over 21 and one of the daughter's husband. This was to play a silly game of simple upgrades to a simple system,so as to see if any differences could be heard.
The hifi buddy is a NAIM enthusiast and has a very substantial NAIM system. His family are all into music and aspire to owning a good system when finances allow.
The system for dem:
Orelle cd 100 cd player
Kelvin Labs Integrated 18w amp
a pair of my own design speakers using 2x 2" Bandor units per cab in a asealed box.
dodgy mains leads dodgy mains block,crappy interconnect and Belden 9272 interconnect as speaker cable,to start.
then put reef knots into all mains cables and listen.
then put in sexy home made mains cables and mains cleaner and listen.
then put reef knot into crappy interconnect and listen.
then put in Sterling silver interconnect and listen.
then earth braid of 9272 to amp chassis and listen.
then put in Van den Hul cs 122 speaker cable and listen.
then return to original setup in one go and listen.
we used the same piece of music and the volume control was not altered at any time during the dem.
What fun this was and a lot of illusions and pre conceptions were shattered.
At each stage of the dem differences were heard and i am pleased to say there were incremental improvements at each change. The reef knots caused most laughter and comment as a change was not expected by my listeners.In fact one daughter who is a fair musician was staggered at the differences heard, and asked her father why this was happening.
Going back to the original setup and hearing the sound collapse become edgy and less musical brought wonderful reactions from the listeners.
This was great fun.
My hifi buddy i hope will go home and look at his system setup and his mains cables and signal cables and the relationship physically between the signal and mains cables. I hope that he tries reef knots in his mains leads to see if on his system he can hear differences.
Why dont you forum members try this and see how you get on.
remember this is a bit of fun and i hope that it is taken by you in this manner.
If you hear differences or not please let me know.
regards david
Posted on: 30 December 2001 by DAVOhorn
Dear Manu,
it is a simple knot.
right over left ,left over right.
a bit like the first part of tying a shoelace, before the bow. Except you do the first part twice but the second knot is the reverse image of the first.
it is a non slip knot.
other than that look in any book on sailing and it will be beter described than i have just done.
regards david
Posted on: 30 December 2001 by DAVOhorn
Dear Omer,
as i believe cables can make a difference and you can fine tune a system using cables, I would agree with your comment.
I happen to like the sound of many of the vdh cables and have cs 122 in 3 of my systems.
so as you can see i have put my money where my mouth is.
But it is important to use cables that work in one's system that you can afford and like the sound of.
i would if i could afford it ,use 1.5 mm pure silver in ptfe insulator woven 3 core. This i use in one of my systems but as the run is only a pair at 1 m i can afford the 12 mts needed to make this particular cable. but not in my other systems.
regards david
Posted on: 03 January 2002 by DAVOhorn
Dear all,
as a follow up to the above a hifi buddy has put reef knots into all his mains leads that go from wall sockets to hifi units.
In his opinion has it made a difference?
well after a few day's he still hasnt taken them out. In fact he even let me put one on his fridge mains leads.I wanted to do the central heating pump as well bit this was not possible.
In my opinion the system is better. The noise floor is lower ,the sound is "easier" and more musical. So for a tweek that costs nothing to do i believe it is a very positive result.
I was hoping that one or two of you out there would have given it a go and told me what if anything you heard.
regards david
Posted on: 04 January 2002 by Duncan Fullerton
But isn't a reef knot used to tie
two bits of stuff together? Do I need to cut my mains leads in two before reef knotting them? Don't think that'll work ...
A half hitch would sound better.
Posted on: 04 January 2002 by sceptic
I suspect he means a half hitch, but a reef knot would be possible leaving a loop out of one side and the two ends out of the other.
Posted on: 04 January 2002 by DAVOhorn
Dear Martin,
many thanks .
As they say a picture saves a thousand words.
My skills with computers arent up to putting in photo's,also santa did not deliver a digital camera.
Still my birthday is in april so i may get one then.
And yes you have to unplug one end of the cable in order to tie the knot.
Will some body please try this in theyre system and tell me if they hear a difference.
It works well in my system.
regards david
Have a good one! 