Coherent's blog: It's just not cricket old bean

Well yesterday I finially managed to get near the new arrivals that top up the drive on Monday with their delivery pallet and was very pleasantly surpised at the condition of them! The 'fresh off the boat' Big W's are in rather spiffing condition, in fact the 27ix looks like it just been let out of the box the condition is that good, was seriously stunned and that doesn't happen very often Also it came with the optional dedicated remote, and it's a real parler of remote which was a dedicated version specifically for the 27ix dac you even get a certificate with it (on the yanks could conjure that one up lol). Ony ever seen one of these before, this is a non pussy remote!

The three box new 9 series is in almost as good condition and even for me they are heavy man!

Time is just slipping away this year, I can't believe it's October already The days just seem to cascade into each other and weeks arn't far behind madness! So feeling like a dog's dickin a whisk I thought I wouldcatch up with some social media an blog posts.

So its been a while sine I updated the blog, our work load is quite something these days, we have taken on two extra staff (plus a new brach in the North West opening on 1st November).

Here is a snippet of what we have been upto, with new projects/servicing/repairs and upgrades in the last five weeks or so.

As it's a very pleasant Sunday morning EN, the sun is out, feeling a lot better today so here are few more Nagra images for you

I really wish I had more time to catch up with these blog posts, in the last six monrths I really have no idea where the rtime has jusat gone to its quite bonkers and worrying at the same time

Hope all of you have had a good start to the new year and its being kind as well.

Currently we are heavily involved with some none audio projects that's been taking up my time all be it very interesting work with some new quardriture 32bit ADC's tied into some new PDN's we are working on for T&E devices and maybe a new piece of audio .

Our North West branch under the experianced hand of Peter Wolliscroft has been going from strength to strength and is proving a good move from the Coherent family group.

Anyone wishing to benefit from Peter great wisdom & knowledge sould give him a call, he's a throuighly bloody nice bloke with the time and patience of professional.

Or service centre has seen some real interesting pieces of audio in this time and we have also expanded this area as well with another first class electronics engineer Steve joining the team as well.

I will find some time in the next copuple of weeks to bring you fully up to date with tales for the labs and weat we'e been up to.

Last week we had three more DCS owners join the growing ranks of Mutec Ref 10 owners and it really delivering music greater realism and naturalness to their systems which given their status in the world of hifi is proving to be a real winner for them.

One very lucky chap had a Rockna/Mutec combo installed last week it's a cracking musically engaging combination, the smile on his face was a wide as the Mersey tunnel.

You know how time marches on, another week rolls by and suddenly its summer, and the birds are as happy as larry, people have smiles on their faces and gnerally life is that bit better I feel Maybe that's simplistic but it feels that way, althought this afternoon its been a trifle damp and a little discombobulating. But it could be worse so lets crack on with it.

Its all hands to pumps this week with the superb North West Audio Show happening this weekend, we really rate and like this show and have supported it since it's inception. Lots to see and do, good food sensible costs, great grounds and hotel plus one of the few shows that exhibitors make a good effort for. Right in the heart of Whipper thrasher & toe tapper land, its the anti-thesis of Bristol. Great atmosphere & a relaxed musical environment with very little hifi pap imho.

audioshow.co.uk/

Over the weekend I thought I'll just try and see if I could cajole W25 into giving some more of its rather special musical moxy up. Recently while working on some aerospace projects and an idea had sprang to mind, so I felt it was worth a try. you know when you get that itch, you just jave to break out the inductrial grade back scratcher

This also gave me change to try out a new set of H & E field sniffer probes plus one of the bench essential the spectrum analyser from those masters of RF Rhode & Schwarz (due to some new projects I'm on the hunt for a nifty slick version, so while you chaps were enjoying the superb weather yesterday I was playing hunt the RF noise if I could find any given the lengths i have been going to lol

Anyway the upshot is quite noticebale even after 14 hours of use, the sheer presence this dac now exudes is most grin inducing like a honey badger taking a chunck out of a lion's ball sack whilst flipping him the finger and dancing on his hind legs

Depth on this dac has always been one of the strongest traits in stock form, it never disappoints big wide and DEEP now its plain old intoxicatingly cavernous in the least, also the noise floor has reduced a little (lol) not that it was high in any way, I have managed to reduce the noise between the fudemental harmonics to deep, deep, way down in the mud. Even Qoboz sounds like the old days with files now, quite listenable.

I did spot some mains coupling from 50 to 500Hz, although this was between -88 & -115 dBc with the ref level @ +20dBc and that was with the lab supply and not the system power supply. Given this is the stock Tx I'm quite please with this

Here you can see how we look at the dac while on the analyser & using the EMI spurrious noise location app on the spectrum analyser at the same time.

Also a new lens for the Nikon as well, the H field probe is virtually sat on one of the clocks this is purely for illistration, you can see the probe holder in the background but the shot didn't look right so some artistic license was used! However not shabby a result in any way.

Thought this maybe of interest to you chaps

Ok, inbetween the bouts of soldering iron twirling, diagnostic work and large amplifier disection I finially managed to fit the new power & sink modules to my new bench toy. Slight issue is that the enw load can handle 40 amps and the front panel bindings are 'only' rated for 20 amps so I fabicated a new daul loom that exits from the rear of the analyser plus a pair of sense wire (fully sheilded) for extra precision measurments.

Also got to try out the new Pathwave power analyser software, it's rather natty including a scope view/datalogger and arb generator for designing ramp up on / down waveforms for testing swicth on and on's currents etc.

This is going to save a lot of timing when designs power/communications and IoT circuits in the comming months.

Below I am testing out a power supply for a Leo Bodnar clock,  note the four wire sense connections for utimate accuarcy. Second image is of the data logger.

Recently one of clients had us accquire a Playback Designs MPD-6 with the optional internal X streaming module for his high quality system. Spent some time with this superb dac. We also spent time indepth measuring & listening. The MPD-6 is rather good and then some a real DCS killer with attitude and insight. Very interesting and enjoyable sound. If you ever get the chanced to listne to one please do, it will make you think what an off the shelf unit properly designed can achieve.