ack's system - end of round 1

[ack]

I read that the Unison USB was specifically designed to pair with an upcoming Schiit CDP/transport. If and when this product is released. If so, wonder if @ack and @Al M. would entertaining trying it out in their systems and comparing to their current transports feeding Yggy 2.

My guess is it'll be hard to be beat my transport, at any price; but sure, I'll try anything, you never know. At the end of the day though, you can't fix fix stupid and you can't fix USB. But I've been wrong before... You should see my son - the musician - how transfixed he is with the Yggy2 when the material is up to it.

 

[ack]

P.s analog still rules

Yeah, same here, after all the latest mods. But redbook is now also so incredibly good to listen to; really curious to listen to the Yggy2 with hi-rez digital.

 

[Lagonda]

I am just not into hi-rez, computers are for porn at my house ! I like my music of a drive

 

[spiritofmusic]

Yep Milan, like "sliding it in" ISN'T porn? That cd, I mean.

 

[BMCG]

Marc ....a White Snake fan!?...thought that was outside the purview of prog....but I did see White Snake in concert ...great show. Given the headliner was Quiet Riot....reminds that the night was memorable (i think ......hazy in parts)

 

[spiritofmusic]

Ha! Was always a Rainbow fan. Ronnie James Dio too.
God, i MISS the 70s and 80s.

 

[bonzo75]

I thought coverdale was a very poor vocalist on whitesnake, awfully off tune. Dio was a good singer but Rainbow was too poppish for me, though I was a Blackmore fan with Deep Purple, and I love Burn, despite Coverdale singing it.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Coverdale was great with the ladies, Ked. First rule of rock'n'roll.

 

[bonzo75]

Coverdale was great with the ladies, Ked. First rule of rock'n'roll.

Like David Lee Roth then

 

[bonzo75]

I am just not into hi-rez, computers are for porn at my house ! I like my music of a drive

You can use a powerful server with dedicated power supply for that too, you know. And Ethernet cable for streaming

 

[the sound of Tao]

You can use a powerful server with dedicated power supply for that too, you know. And Ethernet cable for streaming

Milan... They've released a new keyboard for us and it’s also ok to push the left button... you’ll like it!

 

[Lagonda]

Yep Milan, like "sliding it in" ISN'T porn? That cd, I mean.

I am a top loader !!

 

[Joe Whip]

I read that the Unison USB was specifically designed to pair with an upcoming Schiit CDP/transport. If and when this product is released. If so, wonder if @ack and @Al M. would entertaining trying it out in their systems and comparing to their current transports feeding Yggy 2.

The transport is still in alpha. I hope to have a beta unit to test with my Yggy and a couple of others I have access too. Should prove interesting. I hope to have a review when the transport is finally released.

 

[Joe Whip]

I think the transport would be out if it was designed to be used with Schiit products only. But it is not. The issue has been getting the a Unison out to work with a broad range of DACs, hence there will be an extensive alpha and beta program. as an example, it turned out the Unison in didn’t work with Aurenders. They do not want a repeat of that, hence the delay. I believe the final product will be out by the end of the year, but don’t expect Modius pricing.

 

[ack]

I'll be very curious what they'll recommend for a digital cable for their transport. With my transport/DACs, I can easily demonstrate significant drop in performance with cheap cables vs the MIT (AES/EBU) or Illuminati D-60 (SPDI/F).

 

[Lagonda]

I'll be very curious what they'll recommend for a digital cable for their transport. With my transport/DACs, I can easily demonstrate significant drop in performance with cheap cables vs the MIT (AES/EBU) or Illuminati D-60 (SPDI/F).

Al covered that earlier today, here is the link, check out the USB cable
https://www.schiit.com/products/pyst-cables

 

[ack]

MIT speaker cables, SD vs HD - yet again

I have a few thoughts to share:

MIT speaker cables, SD vs HD: I wrote a while ago in these pages that SD is it for me. Apparently, as it now turns out, HD was simply exposing and accentuating sonic deficiencies upstream, and once these are cleared, the HD setting with these extra F.A.T poles works just fine and also as advertised: life-like transients. Moreover, the treble cleanliness (especially the metalic cymbal character) & treble dynamics that you heard are directly attributed to it, and not properly corrected by the SD network - I should have demonstrated this, it is quite easy to tell. Treble dynamics are particularly hard to render correctly by any component.

Back in 2016 I wrote the above. So much has changed since then, from the preamp, power amps, speaker panels, speaker crossover, DAC, analog, phono... and only the cables remain the same.

I have been playing in HD mode on the MIT speaker cables for months now, and experimenting yet again with SD. So it's time to call bullshit on what I wrote years ago. I was apparently trying to compensate for deficiencies. With a much more resolving system now, and ultra-clean treble, HD is clearly sounding etched and unnatural this time around. It is bearable and sometimes welcome when the recording is kinda veiled, but with truly stellar recordings, it's anything but natural; the sound is actually distorted with loud crescendos, like those in the RR Symphonic Dances. SD is here to stay.

The funny thing is that my son noticed the other day, without having told him anything. "What did you change". We listened carefully to piano, and now having his own downstairs, he was so much into it. The kid was playing along. And that was digital through the Yggy2. This morning, he was gaga over the trumpets in the Proteus 7 Dorian CD that we have discussed before.

I really do have the Yggy2 to thank for guiding me in further voicing my modded Alpha DAC and speaker crossover, the SD/HD comparison here, and fixing the Pass XP-25 to be able to use its 76dB gain (over 66 dB, before) for an easily audible additional 2-3dB dynamic headroom, however subjective that estimate is.

One of the things I love about high end audio is the fact that, as much it is science, it is by so many other measures also high art.

 

[PeterA]

Ack, I never liked the HD setting and always preferred the lowest number of "articulation poles" possible. "Etched" is one way to describe it. The HD setting never sounded natural to me and usually extremely artificial. It took me a while, but I finally heard something similar with the Transparent cables. When at Goodwin's, I always turn the MIT cable settings to low or off if possible.

 

[zonto]

@ack, wanted to thank you for sharing your journey in this thread. I'm also in the Greater Boston area as it seems you may be. I'm also a Schiit Yggdrasil Analog 2 fan. I wanted to respond directly to the ancient quotes below.

Speaking of Shunyata, I am not convinced that the Zitron Alpha power cords will be better than my CX, simply because the CX were measured to deliver 200A in ~10us in this audiobeat article http://www.theaudiobeat.com/visits/shunyata_visit_interview.htm and the Alpha cords claim a rise time of something like 800ms for the same amount of current on their web site http://shunyata.com/index.php/power-cables-footer/84-alpha-pwr-cables/307-cobra-digital-4#!alphahc (again, no free lunch in electronics).

The other thing I don't like about the Alpha is the rise time which is FAR higher than the CX for the same amount of current, as per their specs and the famous AudioBeat article that measured the CX HC (see my most recent update to my own system's thread for the links).

I found these quotes recently via Google search and they sent me down a rabbit hole. I wanted to share my findings.

The Audio Beat screenshot at issue is:

The link to the Shunyata site no longer works as it was for the now-discontinued, original Alpha line. However, the same link is available on the web archive here: https://web.archive.org/web/2014070...ooter/84-alpha-pwr-cables/307-cobra-digital-4. This link states, in relevant part:

CURRENT RATINGS
- Max continuous current: 20 Amps (connector dependent)
- Max instantaneous current: >200 Amps (800ms)

I believe that in your original posts quoted above you have conflated the rise time measurement in the Audio Beat image with a measurement showing how long 200A of current could be sustained through an Alpha cable (rated for 20A continuous).

Per the Audio Beat image above, we see that the Black Mamba CX has a rise time to 200A of roughly 11.5 microseconds, while the Venom 3 has a rise time to 200A of approximately 33 microseconds. Were one to extrapolate the 800ms (milliseconds) measurement from the Alpha cable specs as rise time to 200A, it would be 800,000 microseconds once converted! This is of course an absurd result.

To avoid any confusion, I did reach out to Shunyata on this exact question. They confirmed that each new generation of cables subsequent to the Black Mamba CX meets or exceeds the standard set forth in those rise time measurements above. I wanted to share this to correct a misconception and in case other users found these threads via Google like I did. All the best.

 

[ack]

@zonto Thank you for your post and glad to have made your acquaintance. I am indeed in the heart of Boston, and we should meet up one day; fun group of middle-aged men here I am equally grateful that you apparently read my posts with attention to detail.

Yes, I agree with you that their Alpha spec really means to say: this is how long it can sustain this amount of instantaneous current. So I was wrong indeed. I just take a grain of salt when Shunyata says it has been able to best that CX rise-time specification, and I did try the Alpha that I still have (came with the Typhon) on one of my amps just for fun and preamp, with results not as good as the CX. I would like to see recent measurements from Shunyata to support that "cables subsequent to the Black Mamba CX meets or exceeds the standard set forth in those rise time measurements above" - but you did the right thing to ask them directly.

Regardless, coincidentally, I have a new Shunyata cord on order - the Venom V-12 NR2 - to use on my Alpha DAC, and I suspect it will be very beneficial. The hope is that, if it works well, I will get more for some of my source components. I also use a pair of Venom RCAs on this DAC and they are also sensational, but would also like to have seen a tighter fit in the plugs; performance-wise, they rock!