I Know Nothing

It's funny isn't it? After so many years I thought I know at least something about audio. I like this or I don't like that. Thought I had my preference & bias down pat. Apparently not.

Bought a FireWire dac beginning of the year but somehow could not get into it. Upper frequencies sounded a littler harsh compared to my usual dac. Last night decided to give it another go. In between this time upgraded the line stage. So I thought probably same result but I am confused. The dac sounded pretty decent. Mind u the old linstage & new one belonged in the same make. What gives ?

Need to listen more to jump to further conclusions...

some say listening to hifi is like following a cult. the leader of the cult can switch company but his product follows his legacy.

maybe the house power supply had something to do with it.
Last time, it could have been 226.486293 V, so it sounded harsh and all.

Last night, the voltage could have been 240.275963V. So all the hardware behave nicely.

So there u go, here's the difference already!

i read reviews on lite dac, at least after a month it starts to shine over a Opera cdp 5.0 dac, so....

Here at home my A/C power can be anywhere from 210 to 250volts and 40.3 to 58.5hz. At least that's what the regenerator reports. But with the regenerator, it's a stable 230volts 50hz all the way. So, I can safely do away with the power supply variables.

But here's my problem now. Just like yourself Mr. Joeling, I made a change in my system some time back. I changed from Kimber KCAG RCA interconnects to DHLabs AirMatrix XLR. Initially I thought the DHLabs sounded fuller, better extended bass, more forward and richer midrange. But now after receiving Purepower (literally) the DHLabs seems to have rather shouty midrange while the KCAG seems like a more pleasant listen overall. Maybe I should have just converted my KCAG to XLR in he first place.

Just like yourself Mr. Joeling, after so many years of Hifi, I must concede... I don't know shite!!!

Well, everything is plugged into either a purepower or PS Audio pp300 to minimize the effect of the mains.

Purepower = good vitamin. Made that little bit of important difference that my tin ears could discern with this new upgraded line stage.

Bimmerman I share your enthusiasm on the purepower.

mugenfoo wrote:maybe the house power supply had something to do with it.
Last time, it could have been 226.486293 V, so it sounded harsh and all.

Last night, the voltage could have been 240.275963V. So all the hardware behave nicely.

So there u go, here's the difference already!

[quote]

perhaps some gears with built in regenerator will help. the costs of these regenerator is quite pricey. just to name the cd-7se ac regenerator costs 85% of the CDP alone (RM 3k). Some commeted that the AC regenerators can bring out finer details on high end gear.

How about humidity .... ? Maybe due to different humidity, the speaker woofer cones vibrate differently ?

...Or maybe ambient room temperature caused the equipment's metal chassis to resonate differently, so the sound also different already!

What about soil dampness ? We are all well aware that soil dampness in your home will affect the "earth" groundings. Earth-meter readings are definitely different on a hot & dry day vs just after raining.

AS we are older, our hearing response also changes.
The mental state also influences our perception.
kp93300

My combo also sometime heard nice and good but sometime like missing something....

kp93300 wrote:AS we are older, our hearing response also changes.
The mental state also influences our perception.
kp93300

No to mention the wallet "fatness" as well, which can cause more backside-itchiness too.

Amir wrote:My combo also sometime heard nice and good but sometime like missing something....

Well! You are not alone!

kp93300 wrote:AS we are older, our hearing response also changes.
The mental state also influences our perception.
kp93300

Physical body size also matters, thin hears lean and crisp sound, fat hears more body or warm sound....something to do with the thickness of the eardrum diaphragm

wah... i think i better eat more. system sounding tinny lately. so guys, buy more food if we can't afford tubes or high current gears.

no offense Soonthas, was just joking. anyway there might be some truth to the above claim.

or would you like me to do the legendary query:

"any facts or data to back this up?"

drife u need to get rid of those mp3s haha. listen to cd la

drife wrote:wah... i think i better eat more. system sounding tinny lately. so guys, buy more food if we can't afford tubes or high current gears.

no offense Soonthas, was just joking. anyway there might be some truth to the above claim.

or would you like me to do the legendary query:

"any facts or data to back this up?"

Kid, young and older person have different sound perspective is partly due to their eardrums flexibiltiy and sensitivity.
That's why some older person need more bass ..... younger person couldn't withstand high treble......

Age related hearing loss is call presbycusis.

Extract from the net:
How Does Presbycusis Happen?

As a person ages, their cochlear
hair cells may become damaged. This results in a high-frequency hearing
loss that can start as early as middle age. The adult male of the
species appears to be at greater risk, particularly if he is over 40
years old. In addition, there may be a genetic component to presbycusis.
Noise exposure is also known to play a role."


There is a loss of high frequencies gradually, as such you need more treble instead of bass...

tq Soonthas and CT-boy for the info. no wonder last KLAV, those little rooms with big tube amps on the floor, remember those rooms?

i walked into those rooms thinking it was gonna be those ultra thick, mellow, syrupy sounding setups but had to cabut in less than 2 minutes.

The sound was like, chhinnnnng, zzzzinnnnng, channnnng.
More like cymbals flying out of the speakers ready to chop your head off . And who else was there in those rooms? Otais, yes otais, quietly waiting turns to take the sweet center seat.

While the above "otai can take treble" claim holds true. I wouldn't say a 100% true coz i can take more ear-piercing transient and attack than my dad. he'd have the treble at 11oclock on an au70 with warm sounding speakers

bro Arremie, i do listen to CDs occasionally. That day when u were in my room, that player in front of you has got internals similar to this http://www.hifi4sale.net/audio-video-equipment-for-sale-f1/sony-xa-7es-cdplayer-used-t8326.htm?highlight=sony

Its just that i didn't wanna fire it up with an analogue-sounding recording. False impression is not my style ler. Unlike those who would connect RM3K cables and RM2K power conditioners to sell RM500 gears...

Since last year I've been getting lazy to get up and change CDs. After a hard days work i just wanna sit down and flip thru many many albums and pick the best songs on the lappy . mp3, m4a, flac, wav, convenient lah... to cover-cover a bit i sometimes have nordosts connected to an ext sound card. can lah, buat smentara boleh masuklah...

for more info, pls check the PC/USB audio tread. over there the discussion getting more and more high end. Scary...

How's your tube-pre going? Are they powered by Rotel 200w monos?

drife, currently my tube amp is sleeping. My mate this days is the Yamaha AX-640 integrated amp. Yup it's the one I pickup from you on behalf of my friend but somehow after listening to it I ended up buying from him instead haha

It's a little bit noisy at first but after a magic touch by Mr. Oh and also upgraded to IEC socket, the amp now has a almost quiet background noise, mid n high almost rival my tube amp but of course the best part from SS amp is the punchy bass

Now thinking of using a tube preamp or at least a tube buffer with it. Might be a very good combination but of course like the thread titled....I know nothing...except for what my seasoned ears like to hear

hehe. the ss punch is a must-have. the drum kick and double bass is more life-like right?

Regarding the IEC socket lower noise floor improvement, i think some of it is due to the 3rd pin (ground). Br@d once told me to change all 2pin plugs on all gears to 3pin.

Thanks to Br@d for this one... so there you go, I Know Nothing.

But my friend does know something. Whenever someone enters the shower and fire up that 3000w water heater, his system would suddenly sound strident and a bit caved-in.

I'd be sitting down there in a rellaxed mode enjoying his system and suddenly he'd go "ah... ah... you... see... someone just switched-on the shower" hahahahha LMAO.

drife wrote:
Regarding the IEC socket lower noise floor improvement, i think some of it is due to the 3rd pin (ground). Br@d once told me to change all 2pin plugs on all gears to 3pin.

Well Mr. Oh also told me the same thing so myself being "I know nothing"...I tend to agree with you and him. Only hope I will not have any ground loop problem later when I add another grounded equipment.

I who knows nothing,
I who knows no one,
Adore you, and love you so......(Shirley Bassey circa 1970s adapted)

Ditto me arremie, my tubey went bonkers a couple of months ago. Pioneer A400 brought in from the substitute bench assuming the midfield role as i've no time to get the Jadis paramedic attention.
Funny thing is after a long and painstaking upgrade path with the Pioneer I now dwell not in the qualitative aspects of sound but settled down to simply enjoying the music.
Reminds me when I was young listening to my dad's first stereogram. I was simply attracted to and enjoying music and songs, not how they come out from the wardrobe looking thingy then.
Do we then know anything at all? All things not being equal(read equipment and hearing defects) and one's holy grail is merely teh tarik to another.
I do miss my Jadis nevertheless and I know well what's missing but the Pioneer can keep me life going without distraction.

Or maybe in reality (quote Frank L Wright- Architect extraordinare) LESS IS MORE.