Day of DACs and cars on the side

Posted by: BigH47 on 16 August 2015

An interesting day a Julians H's today first a short country tour over Ashdown Forest in a Lotus Elise and then change over to J's Caterham. At my age the 7 was just a bit too hair shirt and literally fly in the teeth stuff, (micro aeroscreen). Great fun though.

 

Originally a session to compare my 2qute and John's Hugo with various input and output connections.

 

System used 552/555/500/SL2s

 

Overall Chord Electronics 2 - NAIM NDX 0.

Inter Chord battle result, Hugo 1 - 2Qute 0, close in sound,  but 4 -0  from the jury.

 

Interconnects Chord Crimson Plus vs Linn silver win to Chord.

 

USB to DAC (converter for the Hugo):-

 

Wireworld Ultraviolet, surprisingly beaten by the standard Chord supplied cable, Chord Silver Plus beats both.

Chord Signature Tuned array (I think) it was Black and about £400 blew all away. 

 

So my stuff came second, 2qute a plucky second to Hugo, Ultraviolet was really well stuffed it was strangling the sound.

 

I have the loan of a couple of cables and will speak about what they do in my system soon.

 

Thanks to Julian for hosting, great to see John and Kevin, excellent curry too. 

 

Posted on: 17 August 2015 by Mayor West
Originally Posted by james n:
Originally Posted by Mayor West:
Thanks James. I followed you Uptone Regan topic with interest and look forward to your final verdict. Interesting that you say it reduces the difference between USB cables rather than improving each cable in it's own right

Hi MW - I'm not quite saying that. As well as a general SQ improvement, it reduces the SQ differences between cables (so the DAC is effectively more cable agnostic) hence my recommendation to try this rather than splashing out on an expensive Ethernet cable. Both will improved but the bang for buck may be greater on the Regen. Saying that, mine now has a new owner due to a change in source for me. Hopefully its new owner will be able to chime in with their experiences as i know they use a hi-end USB cable and i'll be interested in their findings 

Hi James, thanks for clearing that up for me!

Posted on: 18 August 2015 by james n
Originally Posted by AllenB:
Originally Posted by james n:
 

Being the new owner  I'll certainly post my findings on the Regen, but in the meantime, I can verify that the Chord Signature TA USB does indeed make a difference, it's a great cable if USB is the primary conveyor of your music. It will be interesting to see / hear whether the Regen can boost it even further. Hopefully have something posted by the weekend.

 

Cheers

Allen

Look forward to your findings Allen 

Posted on: 18 August 2015 by mackb3

Boy, I'm learning much with this 2Qute trial. With Audirvana/USB (just USB cord the one that comes with the 2Q) found out that the MacBook Pro has a primary USB that sounds better than the other and sure enough the USB toward the back clearly sounds superior. Haven't tried the new Audirvana remote but it has to be better than the Apple remote. Learn something everyday. Still the NDX BNC into the 2Qute sounds damn good.

 

M

Posted on: 19 August 2015 by tonym

That Gemini cable sounds interesting Mr Wat. I've an iFi supply but it's a long distance from the DAC. However, I'm thinking of gonig back to a Mac Mini so that will work. Do you use this cable? I wonder if its advantage might be lost with a galvanically isolated USB input.

Posted on: 22 August 2015 by mackb3

How much $ will Dave be? In GBP ok as well and I'll convert. Assume substantial over Hugo TT which is approaching $5k in the USA. However thinking of getting a demo TT as well. 

 

M

Posted on: 23 August 2015 by tonym
Originally Posted by Wat:
Originally Posted by tonym:

That Gemini cable sounds interesting Mr Wat. I've an iFi supply but it's a long distance from the DAC. However, I'm thinking of gonig back to a Mac Mini so that will work. Do you use this cable? I wonder if its advantage might be lost with a galvanically isolated USB input.

Hello Tony 

 

Yes I use a Gemini & iPurifier, but unfortunately Hugo needs an adapter (AudioQuest), I also have the iUSB Power (not necessary for Hugo USB) which I can use to power a Stello U3. My plan if I go with Dave is to use the Stello U3 as USB -> AES/EBU convertor. Though I'm far from convinced all this is worth the effort & may just use my Wireworld UltraViolet. [I definitely won't be buying a Chord Company USB cable, as I feel I already have a much better design in the iFI]. 

 

 

I play music by dragging albums to the Mac Mini SSD & from there drag them to Audirvana Play Queue - so I don't access external storage during listening session: nor do I need TCP/IP. So my setup is similar to CD transport except that it has no moving parts & can play DSD & high resolution PCM & support parametric equalisation. It makes me happy. 

 

If I do end up Dave'd then that'll be it for HiFi - my system will be done. If Dave doesn't meet my expectation then I'll go for the Hugo TT. I'll keep Hugo for portable duties. 

 

All the best, Wat 

Hello Mr Wat,

 

I decided to buy one of these cables, having moved to a Mac Mini located closer to the system. Despite my cynicism, it works well, so thank you for the recommendation. All very strange...