Christiaan Punter
Well-Known Member
LOVE the aesthetics of this setup. The system as well as the wall and panels. It's all very well-balanced and harmonious.
Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème
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Christiaan Punter
Well-Known Member
Yes, absolutely! The switch makes a HUGE difference for local files as well.another question;maybe a stupid one, but it´s very late here in Sween
Do the extreme switch + extreme network card alter the sound on local files (Flac,dsd, SACD an wav)
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Good morning Kris,
Let me start with explaining the reason for my comment which is a bit out of character. It's just to get ahead of an inrush of questions to our support department if they should buy more then one switch which is not what we recommend. As an example your previous comments about a "huge difference' in sound between DAC cable lengths caused led to a significant amount of orders AND returns of just DAC cables in various lengths. Furthermore people are now ordering switches with multiple DAC cables lengths to subsequently return the surplus cables. As we don't resell returned products as new, and our employees receive a salary, if this keeps up we will actually have to raise our prices! Now if there actually was a significant difference there that would be absolutely fine, and I don't doubt you are hearing what you are hearing, but for the vast majority it's just not there. Luckily we have not had many people buy a second switch yet, which they will likely end up returning, so I just took the bold road and made a comment that your experience does not match the experiences of the vast majority, of which we do keep track as much as possible.
With that said, although you can use your network to "tune" your sound to a certain degree, I don't feel it's the most effective terrain to do so. What's really going on is you're using noise as a tuning measure. This can actually have a surprisingly large effect, and most of the time you're not lowering noise, but you're increasing it. Let me give you an example of using noise for tuning in music server software. You can use your system memory bank as a type of "resonator". By generating activity in system memory in varying patterns, you create different noise spectra, which modulate sound, to a shockingly large degree. You can also manipulate this from a hardware approach by altering memory refresh which is a necessary process which causes the maximum current draw of a memory module which by default happens every 7.8 microseconds. Now you can spread and vary this over time, the more modules / memory rows you have, the more you can spread this for a more even noise pattern, which is generally preferred, but your preference may actually be different if you're using this mechanism deliberately to ALTER your sound. Touching on a post I made yesterday on USB, the 8KHz packet rate can be manipulated to alter sound as well. It can be used to change the perception of incisiveness and dynamics (punch), or it can be manipulated to sound smoother, basically by altering (distorting) the data waveform traveling through the conductors. Interestingly worse technical performance can be preferred audibly, which absolutely presents some engineering challenges, aiming for optimal technical performance, or for a more pleasing sound.
"noise" tuning is just an unavoidable significant part of high-end audio. We all are aware that the best technical specs do not always translate into the best sound. There's a vast array of tuning devices out there which deliberately inject or manipulate noise into our systems to create an effect. Your additional switches are not lowering noise, they are increasing it. The 5M DAC cable is a little bit worse technically and a bit noisier then a 2M DAC cable, but can controversially sound a bit smoother. However you are manipulating a whole pool of noise, think of cooking a big pot of soup adding lots of ingredients, each adding to the final flavour. If you accidentally added too much salt, it's very hard to get the flavour right again, now you can add sugar to mask the overly salty taste to a degree, but you won't get rid of it and the final dish won't be that great. If it need to be perfect the only solution is to start over again. Luckily we don't have to start over again in our systems, but you do need to find the salty component or part which is causing this severe disbalance, which just is a better approach then to trying to mask it by adding sugar.
A few questions:
1) Do you notice a large difference between daytime and nighttime listening?
2) Do you have friends who when listening to your system agree with this imbalance?
3) Do you use tilted up components like for example Furutech NCF Rhodium plugs or outlets, or Silver/Rhodium plated plugs / outlets from other companies?
USB does indeed use a fixed data packet rate, the amount of data in each packet varies, so there are things you can manipulate like the fill rate by adjusting buffers and things like that.
AES/EBU is a "fixed" implementation with a more or less continuous data rate, the smaller intervals do however affect things ahead of that.
When it comes down to music collection and storage, I have around 30-40TB worth of music. I find local files to sound better than streaming.
From what I understand, 16TB is the standard maximum of storage when ordering, but 96TB is the maximum what can be possible installing. I heard it´s a "service job" to expand, but as an IT-guy I´m pretty sure I manage
So two cards will be used if 16tb is ordered? and for the 3rd disk I can insert 32tb for example? So if 16tb from start, I can then get 48TB maximum.
I can always use external discs if I want, but would it be any difference in some other way if I go for the larger disks?
The cost of larger storage drives fluctuates almost daily and sometimes very significantly where 2Tb drives are reasonably constant hence we need to quote for larger drives. As these can be fairly expensive what happens frequently is customers shop for deals on these and buy them their selves which is not something we can do for multiple reasons like personnel costs and practical things like warranty.
@Kris:If you have a good power company provider a recording device can be installed at the meter. They can dump the data once per week for awhile. My company did it for a month. the device measures THD, voltage swings, DC offset, and a number of other parameters. Its worth a try and shouldn't cost anything. Reason I went to this length is, without mentioning the company. I had a noisy monoblock a several years back, the company said it was coming from the panel. B---S---. When I sent them all the data that was collected they sang a different tune and admitted it was a bad transformer. Hope this helps...
Indeed!
Electricity and the listening room's acoustics are two key elements whose impact is huge and often overlooked.
We could think of them as the first and last components in the musical reproduction chain.
Do you know what were exactly the "other parameters"? Since long we have well known techniques to solve the ones you have enumerated. BTW, any DIY minded audiophile can easily measure them with minimal expense.
It was awhile back and I cannot recollect the other parameters. I only remember the ones I referenced. DC offset was the main target...
Kris, what measurements have you taken on your power? Have you tried an isolation transformer or regenerator?
I'll defer to Rex and to the other electricians, but this does not make sense to me. I have trouble believing that power alone has turned tonally bright every system, regardless of constituent components, you have assembled for the last 25 years.
I think electricity surely can affect the sound, but I myself have never heard it affect the sound in the major, wholesale way you describe. In other words, I have trouble believing that the power has a greater impact on the tonal balance of the system than, for example, loudspeaker selection. (Perhaps I am not understanding you.)
...great band name: Rex and the Electricians. 'Cause you can't cut loose, without that juice. 1,2,3...
Dear Emile,
Thanks! Great information!
Regarding your question, "3) Do you use tilted up components like for example Furutech NCF Rhodium plugs or outlets, or Silver/Rhodium plated plugs / outlets from other companies?", which was not a question you made for me, but I happen to have many Furutech NCF Rhodium outlets and some power cables. What is your recommended outlet brand/model?
Cheers,
VPN
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Totally system dependent IMHO. I also use NCF Rhodium outlets for the Gryphon Mephisto/Pandora which requires 2 power cables each and for the Horizon. For the Extreme all copper, both outlet and power cable. Copper for subwoofers. I know several knowledgeable members who hate Rhodium. Audioquest sent me 2 High Current Dragon power cables awhile back for the Mephisto, I hated all 300 hours of listening to them. Point being what ever sounds good to your ears...
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To add to what John T wrote --
In my civilian career I worked professionally in electrical power generation and distribution. Most developed countries have set standards for electrical power quality and by permitting and regulation require power companies to deliver to their customers electrical power that meets these standards. As John wrote, these standards cover a variety of important parameters. FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) are such standards setting organizations.
In John's case DC offset was key because it can cause customer equipment containing transformers to audibly hum, it causes transformer heating, and it is less efficient (wastes power) because of this transformer heating. In worst case scenarios excessive DC offset can lead to transformer failure.
However, other parameters can be just as important and can have equally audible effects on consumer audio equipment. A good Wikipedia article giving insight into electrical power quality is here:
Electric power quality - Wikipedia
While it is possible for an individual to borrow, rent or buy equipment to measure the various parameters associated with electrical power quality, most regulatory jurisdictions require the power company to provide this monitoring free of charge in response to customer complaints and concerns, and more importantly, the power company is required to correct problems and repair or replace distribution equipment up to the point of entry in the case of non-conforming power quality.
It is worth contacting your power company if you suspect a power-related problem because most power companies do not have the sophisticated equipment to continuously "look" out into their distribution and detect anything other than high-level problems. They likely are not aware of a problem at a specific pole-mounted distribution transformer, cracked or arcing insulators, or missing ground leads. This last can be a real problem in areas where copper or aluminum theft is lucrative enough and transformer ground leads are stripped right off wooden power poles.
Steve Z
