Tidal La Assoluta system

Audiocrack said:
Happy for you that are enjoying yourself so much after inserting (more and more) copper platforms in your audio system. In the past I experimented in my LA set up with three high purity copper slabs as platform as well as three high purity copper slabs for mass loading. Both these steps resulted in significant sonic benefits, inter alia I experienced more density.

Have you already started with grounding your copper platforms with your Tripoint Audio ‘grounding’ stations and grounding cables? Believe me, such a step will increase your enjoyment in a even more significant way than adding the third copper platform under your streamer.
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I haven't started wiring the copper platforms to the Tripoint NG yet. Of course, this will be the next step, but I want to enjoy all the changes, so I will wait a little longer with it.
In the meantime, my Aardwark Ultra Rev1 ethernet splitter arrived from Eduardo. It's a really positive change from the Ultra, and it's immediate. Fantastic! It improves the sound in all areas and gives an even darker background. Classical complements each other perfectly! Big thanks to Eduardo!
 
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A while back I had the good opportunity to listen to the Kondo Gakuoh mk ii amps in my LA set up. My listening experiences and some photos can be found at the beginning of this thread. Although the Gakuoh ii amps I listened to were practically new at the time and - only - came with stock tubes supplied by the Kondo factory (including PsVane 300b valves) I was really impressed by what I heard (at the good moments; these amps were still ‘drifting’ when I returned them).

So far I am familiar with (only) one review of the Kondo Gakuoh mk ii 300b amps and the reviewer ‘fell in love’ with these remarkable power amps. Recently they received a statement reward (best product of 2023): see https://highfidelity.pl/@main-1342&lang=en
 
A lot has happened on my side lately. First of all - as I have mentioned before - I replaced the Aardvark classic isolator, which was connected to my switch, by the latest version of the Aardvark ultra isolator. Because this new ultra isolator is superior to the classic isolator this brought a very nice improvement in sonic performance.

In addition, yesterday I connected the Aardvark classic isolator to my router. This is not an easy procedure (due to a. the placing of my router and b. the various connections at the back are very near to bottom of my router and as a consequence not very ‘cooperative’). So an a/b comparison is difficult to achieve and therefore I just plugged in the Aardvark classic isolator in my router. In all honesty I am not sure if this brought any meaningful sonic change for the better.
 
More importantly however is the following. As you all know I am working closely together with Miguel Alvarez of Tripoint Audio as regards the development of my La Assoluta system. In my view he is a brilliant audio designer and does not get the credits in the audio world he deserves. It was his idea to start using high quality, oxygen free copper slabs (each 2.5 cm thick) as 1. platforms for all my audio components and 2. for mass loading my audio equipment.

As regards the mass loading Miguel was from the start very clear about the following: it is not only a matter of putting these copper slabs on top of the various audio pieces (just to be sure: these slabs are not placed directly on my audio equipment; I am using three RevOpods between the copper slabs and my audio components). Something additional is needed to dispensate the distortion - created by our audio components - more effectively.

Therefore I experienced in the last half year or so with one one copper piece on top of the two copper slabs which are being used for mass loading my server: this full copper piece was first chemically treated by Miguel, then meticulously sanded (partly by hand) and thereafter silver plated. In addition we added one final ‘trick’ that I am not allowed to talk about and share with you.

The sonic benefits of this one silver plated piece were so impressive that we decided to add five additioneel copper pieces (of different lengths and weights). These extra five pieces were again chemically treated and meticulously sanded by Miguel. Due to the costs involved I skipped (at least for the time being) this time the process of silver plating. These additional five copper pieces arrived last week and I have added them one for one to the LA system.

After various experiments as regards the most effective placement of these six copper pieces the configuration at the moment is as follows:
- one large silver plated piece on top of my Wadax reference server.
- I mass loaded each of my two Kondo Gakuoh power amps with one (smaller) copper slab: on top of each slab one small copper piece is placed.
- one large copper piece of top of my Tripoint Audio Emperor NG ‘grounding’ station
- one large copper piece on top of my two PSU’s of my Wadax reference dac
- one small copper piece on top of my dedicated Wadax PSU of my Wadax reference server.

I will add a few pictures of these (copper) pieces separately.
 
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Hopefully these pictures give you a good idea about the mass loading and the various (copper) pieces placed on top of the copper slabs.
 
And finally (for today anyway): just received confirmation that my third (and last) Wadax Akasa reference dc cable will be delivered today. This last Akasa reference dc cable will be used to connect my Wadax reference server with its dedicated PSU.
 
Although I had already experienced the positive sonic impact of the Wadax Akasa reference dc cables when I inserted them between my Wadax reference dac and its two PSU’s many months ago, two reviewers (Roy Gregory and Robert Harley) wrote about their positive impact in their reviews and various WBF members shared also their positive experiences, I am - again - amazed. Of course this third Akasa reference dc cable needs to be played in much more, but to mention ‘just’ three aspects that stand out immediately: added transparency, more serenity and (for me the most important of all) more beauty of tone, in particular noticeable in the highs. Wow, these Akasa reference dc cables are quite something!
 
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So the Wadax Akasa reference dc cable between the Wadax reference server and its dedicated PSU has been in the system for about 75 hours now. In comparison to when I just started I hear inter alia more smoothness, refinement and liquidity. To my ears a significant improvement versus the standard Akasa dc cable: the reference version sounds clearly more natural / fluid.
 
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Last weekend I did some tests with grounding one PSU of my Wadax reference dac versus grounding the main chassis of this dac with a Tripoint Audio Thor se grounding cable connected to a Tripoint Audio Elite NG mk ii ‘grounding’ station. And what I was afraid of - and I mentioned this ‘fear’ a while back in this thread - actually happened when I grounded only one PSU : the effect of my grounding with these two Tripoint Audio components is so profound / ‘strong’ that a disbalance was created with inter alia a nasty loss of transparency as consequence.

This test clearly demonstrated that it will not be possible to ground one PSU with the third Tripoint Audio statement grounding cable (this top of the line Tripoint Audio grounding cable is much more sophisticated and much more ‘powerful’ that the Thor se). So when this third (and last) statement cables arrives - that will still takes a while - I need to connect it to the main chassis of the Wadax reference dac. That is going to be a challenge because of the weight of this cable. I need to talk with Miguel how to ‘fix’ this ‘issue’.
 
Audiocrack said:
Last weekend I did some tests with grounding one PSU of my Wadax reference dac versus grounding the main chassis of this dac with a Tripoint Audio Thor se grounding cable connected to a Tripoint Audio Elite NG mk ii ‘grounding’ station. And what I was afraid of - and I mentioned this ‘fear’ a while back in this thread - actually happened when I grounded only one PSU : the effect of my grounding with these two Tripoint Audio components is so profound / ‘strong’ that a disbalance was created with inter alia a nasty loss of transparency as consequence.

This test clearly demonstrated that it will not be possible to ground one PSU with the third Tripoint Audio statement grounding cable (this top of the line Tripoint Audio grounding cable is much more sophisticated and much more ‘powerful’ that the Thor se). So when this third (and last) statement cables arrives - that will still takes a while - I need to connect it to the main chassis of the Wadax reference dac. That is going to be a challenge because of the weight of this cable. I need to talk with Miguel how to ‘fix’ this ‘issue’.
Click to expand...
Rudolph,

i've been using a single Thor SE Master Ref grounding cable attached to one of the dac PSU's now for a couple of years. at least with the original Tripoint Elite i have i've not heard any discontinuity or loss of transparency; only positive's. i had been concerned about some sort of imbalance only being able to ground one side, but never heard anything like that.

i'm not entirely clear about what you are suggesting. exactly what action with exactly which specific Tripoint components (you simply say "these two Tripoint Audio components") caused this nasty loss of transparency?

i very much appreciate your sharing these developments, even though you are way at the crazy bleeding edge of things. and i say this only in the most positive sense. :)
 
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Mike Lavigne said:
Rudolph,

i've been using a single Thor SE Master Ref grounding cable attached to one of the dac PSU's now for a couple of years. at least with the original Tripoint Elite i have i've not heard any discontinuity or loss of transparency; only positive's. i had been concerned about some sort of imbalance only being able to ground one side, but never heard anything like that.

i'm not entirely clear about what you are suggesting. exactly what action with exactly which specific Tripoint components (you simply say "these two Tripoint Audio components") caused this nasty loss of transparency?

i very much appreciate your sharing these developments, even though you are way at the crazy bleeding edge of things. and i say this only in the most positive sense. :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for your kind words, Mike. As regards your question: I have done lately a lot of things to raise the (fidelity) level of my LA system significantly. And just to be sure I list here what I have added in say the last two years or so:
a. the new Tripoint Audio Emperor NG ‘grounding’ station (Tripoint’s top of the line ‘grounding’ box),
b. two new Tripoint Audio Emperor NG statement grounding cables (Tripoint’s state of the art grounding cable),
c. two Tripoint Audio - large and silver plated - filters for grounding my La Assoluta loudspeakers separately,
d. two pure, oxygen free copper platforms of in total 5 cm for all my audio components (while these platforms are placed on high quality footers such as for example from Hifistay)
e. mass loading all my audio components with (mostly) again two slabs (of in total 5 cm) of pure, oxygen free copper resting on RevOpods,
f. six pure copper pieces (one of which was silver plated) placed on top of the mass loading slabs in order to maximize the positive effects of mass loading,
g. a new audio device which is not yet completely played in and on which I will elaborate later on in this thread, and
h. Wadax reference PSU for the server and three Wadax Akasa dc cables.

All these steps combined resulted in my LA system being ultra transparent, that is clearly more transparent as well as much better sounding than ever before.

Last weekend I connected one of the PSU’s of the Wadax reference dac to a Tripoint Audio Elite NG ‘grounding’ station with the latest Audio Thor se grounding cable (that is a grounding cable with a separate drain cable). This resulted in the imbalance and the nasty loss of transparency I reported before.

Because of this result I removed the Thor se grounding cable from the PSU and connected it to the main chassis of the Wadax reference dac. The imbalance was immediately gone and the transparency was spot on again (or actually better than ever before; please keep in mind that I was not grounding the Wadax reference dac before this experiment).

The new Tripoint Audio Emperor NG statement grounding cable is superior to the Thor se cable. And top notch grounding of source components like a server and dac is in my view of the utmost importance in order to achieve top notch sound. Therefore the third - and last - Emperor NG statement grounding cable will be used for grounding the Wadax reference dac (my other two Emperor NG statement grounding cables are currently being used for grounding my Wadax reference server and the PSU of my Kondo g-1000 linestage).

As a consequence of my experiment last weekend I have to find a way to connect this - still to be received - third Emperor NG statement grounding cable in an effective way to the main chassis of the Wadax reference dac.

Hopefully this clears everything.
 
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Audiocrack said:
Thanks for your kind words, Mike. As regards your question: I have done lately a lot of things to raise the (fidelity) level of my LA system significantly. And just to be sure I list here what I have added in say the last two years or so:
a. the new Tripoint Audio Emperor NG ‘grounding’ station (Tripoint’s top of the line ‘grounding’ box),
b. two new Tripoint Audio Emperor NG statement grounding cables (Tripoint’s state of the art grounding cable),
c. two Tripoint Audio - large and silver plated - filters for grounding my La Assoluta loudspeakers separately,
d. two pure, oxygen free copper platforms of in total 5 cm for all my audio components (while these platforms are placed on high quality footers such as for example from Hifistay)
e. mass loading all my audio components with (mostly) again two slabs (of in total 5 cm) of pure, oxygen free copper resting on RevOpods,
f. six pure copper pieces (one of which was silver plated) placed on top of the mass loading slabs in order to maximize the positive effects of mass loading, and
g. a new audio device which is not yet completely played in and on which I will elaborate later on in this thread.
h. Wadax reference PSU for the server and three Wadax Akasa dc cables.

All these steps combined resulted in my LA system being ultra transparent, that is clearly more transparent as well as much better sounding than ever before.
Click to expand...
:) ;) if i had the rack height i might try the copper slab mass loading. i'm very happy with my RevOpods beneath my Wadax chassis as it is. but nice to hear about your efforts that are delivering for you.
Audiocrack said:
Last weekend I connected one of the PSU’s of the Wadax reference dac to a Tripoint Audio Elite NG ‘grounding’ station with the latest Audio Thor se grounding cable (that is a grounding cable with a separate drain cable). This resulted in the imbalance and the nasty loss of transparency I reported before.

Because of this result I removed the Thor se grounding cable from the PSU and connected it to the main chassis of the Wadax reference dac. The imbalance was immediately gone and the transparency was spot on again (or actually better than ever before; please keep in mind that I was not grounding the Wadax reference dac before this experiment).
Click to expand...
thank you Rudolph, for the detailed explanation. i understand and if i venture into your realm of Tripoint i will be cautious about it.
Audiocrack said:
The new Tripoint Audio Emperor NG statement grounding cable is superior to the Thor se cable. And top notch grounding of source components like a server and dac is in my view of the utmost importance in order to achieve top notch sound. Therefore the third - and last - Emperor NG statement grounding cable will be used for grounding the Wadax reference dac (my other two Emperor NG statement grounding cables are currently being used for grounding my Wadax reference server and the PSU of my Kondo g-1000 linestage).

As a consequence of my experiment last weekend I have to find a way to connect this - still to be received - third Emperor NG statement grounding cable in an effective way to the main chassis of the Wadax reference dac.

Hopefully this clears everything.
Click to expand...
exciting stuff for sure.
 
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Audiocrack said:
Last weekend I did some tests with grounding one PSU of my Wadax reference dac versus grounding the main chassis of this dac with a Tripoint Audio Thor se grounding cable connected to a Tripoint Audio Elite NG mk ii ‘grounding’ station. And what I was afraid of - and I mentioned this ‘fear’ a while back in this thread - actually happened when I grounded only one PSU : the effect of my grounding with these two Tripoint Audio components is so profound / ‘strong’ that a disbalance was created with inter alia a nasty loss of transparency as consequence.

This test clearly demonstrated that it will not be possible to ground one PSU with the third Tripoint Audio statement grounding cable (this top of the line Tripoint Audio grounding cable is much more sophisticated and much more ‘powerful’ that the Thor se). So when this third (and last) statement cables arrives - that will still takes a while - I need to connect it to the main chassis of the Wadax reference dac. That is going to be a challenge because of the weight of this cable. I need to talk with Miguel how to ‘fix’ this ‘issue’.
Click to expand...
I think I know what you're talking about. I experienced the same as you. I use two Tripoint Troy Signature NG ground stations in my system. One on the analog side, one on the digital side. I use one Farad super3 LPS each for the service router and the Melco S100 switch. There is a small screw at the bottom of the Farad LPS to which the ground wire can be connected. When I connected the Farad to the Troy NG ground box used on the digital side, the audio crashed. The tone disappeared and the stage disappeared. I tried to connect the two LPS separately and together, the experience was the same: bad sound. After I disconnected the ground cable, everything was back to its original wonderful sound. I used a Tripoint Signature Silver SE ground cable for the connection. I don't know what causes this phenomenon, but I thought I'd share it with you.
 
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alex3 said:
I think I know what you're talking about. I experienced the same as you. I use two Tripoint Troy Signature NG ground stations in my system. One on the analog side, one on the digital side. I use one Farad super3 LPS each for the service router and the Melco S100 switch. There is a small screw at the bottom of the Farad LPS to which the ground wire can be connected. When I connected the Farad to the Troy NG ground box used on the digital side, the audio crashed. The tone disappeared and the stage disappeared. I tried to connect the two LPS separately and together, the experience was the same: bad sound. After I disconnected the ground cable, everything was back to its original wonderful sound. I used a Tripoint Signature Silver SE ground cable for the connection. I don't know what causes this phenomenon, but I thought I'd share it with you.
Click to expand...
Sorry for not coming back earlier to you, but yesterday I visited the ‘Concertgebouw’ in Amsterdam and listened to Brahms violin concerto as well as Mahler’s first symphony. Great stuff.

I was home very late yesterday. Attached a picture of the ‘grote zaal’ (= big hall) which I took half an hour before the concert started: a beautiful concert hall with gorgeous acoustics.

IMG_4759.jpeg
 
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alex3 said:
I think I know what you're talking about. I experienced the same as you. I use two Tripoint Troy Signature NG ground stations in my system. One on the analog side, one on the digital side. I use one Farad super3 LPS each for the service router and the Melco S100 switch. There is a small screw at the bottom of the Farad LPS to which the ground wire can be connected. When I connected the Farad to the Troy NG ground box used on the digital side, the audio crashed. The tone disappeared and the stage disappeared. I tried to connect the two LPS separately and together, the experience was the same: bad sound. After I disconnected the ground cable, everything was back to its original wonderful sound. I used a Tripoint Signature Silver SE ground cable for the connection. I don't know what causes this phenomenon, but I thought I'd share it with you.
Click to expand...
As regards your listening experiences: all the binding posts in your Tripoint Audio Troy signature NG are completely isolated from each other. So there can be no crosstalk between components connected to different binding posts. However, I am wondering: are you perhaps connecting multiple audio components (including the Farad) to one binding post of the Troy NG? This could have created some kind of crosstalk between these components and might explain your bad sound. In addition, may I ask which grounding cables you are using?
 
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