Raising HiFi (Optical Blog)

Actually it's 1 in 10,000. Which is an astonishingly high degree of accuracy.
Imagine getting 99.99% in an exam - you'd be proper chuffed.

Quick (honest) update:

Fitted a BNC input, replacing the rca coax input on the Lindell DAC (hard wired with RG179 cable)





Put some CCC wiring on the output RCA's



Replaced some "Mazda" (Brimer I think) PCC189 valves with some nice Valvo ones for the output buffer on the DAC, very nice they sound too.



Removed the class D amplifier board from my Cocktail Audio X30 (as I'm never going to use it).



Unfortunately this had the undersired effect of introducing some whine from the SMPS within the unit. I swapped it back in and the noise disappeared, I assume it must provide some sort of grounding or 'relief' circuitry for the power supply to discharge into as just to be sure I repeated the process and it's dead silent with it connected and super noisy (spewing cap sound) with it removed. So it's back in haha.

That platter mat looks the bizzo. I love that.

SAEC make proper stuff and no, I wouldn't put anything between the platter and the matt.

Great purchase!

That mat looks great, sure it sounds great too

Quick update:


So a few 'upgrades' have been happening in parallel with the arrival of the Arke Vader's . . . .

Firstly after my Lindell DAC was shown up somewhat by Oli's Aqvox a little while ago, I knew there was only one thing for it . . . . yes I have no shame in treading the exact same 'copycat' path, if it gets me to the desired level of SQ without me having to potentially spend large sums of money if only to possibly come to the same conclusion, I'm fine with that!

In some walks of life I am a firm believer in finding your own way but at the same time I'd be a fool (and a poorer fool at that) if I ignored the information made available to me by having a direct comparison of these two DAC's.

SO I found a Aqvox and got it for a fairly good price.

Upon opening it up I found it was in fact an earlier model (the "MK1") . . . oh dear, didn't even realise there were different marks for this DAC, note, do more research first . . . although on the outside they certainly look identical.

My version also looks to have had a clock mod (indicating the previous owner may have had an interest in maximising SQ also, probably a good thing . . . or not). . .

Anyway, good news is that it sounded good, really good actually. Plus it was only going to get better after the really cruddy (worse than the mkII version) SMPS was ripped out and replaced by an absolute monster power supply courtesy of mr firebottle . . . another awesome job.

Before:



After:




After a few days it's sounding pretty darn good. I'm now finding it difficult to pick fault with it actually . . . a good sign.


So what's next?

Well as mentioned on the clock thread, a few weeks ago, when I had my mutec at Oli's, we concluded that it was being held back by the fairly lacklustre power supply (even though it was a built linear one). Some of the parts we found in the supply were, slightly below par shall we say . . .

I also needed to put the clock in a proper enclosure and also feed it with a proper power supply, so really the solution presented itself in the form of packing it all together in one neat box utilising all the windings from a transformer to power two separate supply boards for both the Mutec and indeed the clock that re-clocks the Mutec . . . if that makes sense!

Here is the (nearly) finished item on Oli's bench:



All that was left for me to do was to add the umbilical lead for the Mutec and thread the 10mhz clock cable through the chassis, add a little gromet and connect the thing up.









Instant improvement in all departments, as simple as that. i was a little worried as I had been running both the Mutec and clock off a rechargeable battery pack, which sounded pretty good actually (although not that surprising given that they give a clean 5v supply with no induced noise possible) but I needn't have worried. Top build Oli (we did manage to completely knacker my other supply at Oli's as we quickly tried to improve it by adding a spare board Oli had laying around however the transformer proved to be a bit of a t**t . . . so it seemed a better solution to start again and do it properly!).


Lastly . . . . and potentially a bit of icing on the cake is this SAEC Dig-4000 mk2 coax cable.



Again, only because it did such a commendable job going up against a few other cables I tested against, although admittedly this is the most expensive of the lot. But it sounds miles better, so more than justifies it's price in my opinion.


These upgrades (along with the speakers themselves) have really changed my system, all for the positive. I'm still getting used to and adjusting to these massive changes to be honest and I've got all sorts of new power supplies (as well as cables) settling down/burning in (whatever you want to call it) as well as the speakers themselves . . . so I feel there is even more to come.


This is not the end of the current upgrade path either, to be honest I'm only really just getting started . . . .

Aqvox have a sale at the moment. I have picked up a new one for £850ish. MKI and MKII have different supply requirements.

Slightly different requirements but the same design for the MK1 and MK2 can be made to work thanks to a sprinkling of genius know how from Mr Alan firebottle . . . . The board requires 20v, -20v, 5v and 3.3v.

The board is this: (Its the "L" varient I believe).


www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002990996982.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.16.21ef1802JaXdS5


Although perhaps Alan could recommend a different version which may actually be more suited to the mk1 version. (I ordered the bits assuming the requirments were that of the MK2, then whan Alan got inside it he noticed they were not actually the same).

I don't have the transformer info to hand but I'm sure Alan can fill in the blanks at some point.

As you probably know the current version (mk2) is available brand new for a very good price . . . . (EDIT - as Oli says above  )

Yeah but.. no but..
What will the babies eat tonight?

Wow, that's more complicated than I thought! Can you really supply 4 separate voltages from one traffo? Alan must have tweaked the regulator board to get +/- 20V instead of the +/-15 V? The L version of the board supplies +5V and +/- 15V. How do you get an additional +3,3V?

Ah ok, I though about that also. This is so tempting.

Could you Alan tell how you got the plus minus 20V and if the  3,3V is regulated on the main board?

As has been said the Mk1 and Mk2 require different voltages.
The triple regulator board has to be tweaked to get the required voltages.

Mk2: Requires plus 16V, minus 16V and 5V. The 3.3V regulator is on the main board.
I changed the variable voltage setting resistors to get the extra 1V per rail.
The transformers used were all miniature toroids, one 8V secondary to supply the 5V regulator, plus two 9+9V transformers wired to give 18-0-18V for the 16V regulators.

Mk1: Requires plus 20V, minus 20V, 5V and 3.3V.
I added a variable regulator on the end of the triple regulator board, fed from the 5V output to give the required 3.3V.
I changed two 47K SMT resistors to 68K to give the +/- 20V from the regulators.
One 50VA transformer was used, the power rating is way above what is required but this results in just using one transformer, plus the loaded voltages are higher so an off the shelf transformer can be used.
The transformer is wired to give 0-9-18V on the secondaries, all rectification is half wave so one diode has to be removed from the bridge feeding the 5V regulator.
The 0V wire has to be wired to the common of the +/- 20V regulator after the bridge rectifier and the zero of the 5V regulator. The 18V wire connects to both AC inputs to the bridge for the +/-20V regulator.

Satisfyingly simple.

June update!

Well having been away for various reasons over the past few weeks you'd have thought that might kerb my hifi spending . . . quite the opposite (oh dear) . . . having sold a few bits and pieces here and there I was actually feeling quite good about thinning out the 'reserves bench' pile . . . .

However this purchase would be going straight into the starting line-up (hopefully) given it's pedigree.

Couldn't turn it down, enter a Holo Audio Spring 2 (level 3) DAC . . . .



Firstly I must state I was really happy with the performance of the Aqvox, my plan was to simply evaluate the two head to head and logically move one on after the comparison.

A comparison I'm still conducting only having had it for a few days (and not put as many hours as I would have liked into the comparison to be honest). However I'll give a few thoughts on the immediate impressions.


It's soundstage is enormous, it has very good texture and timbre on instruments and it's the smoothest DAC I've had to date.

Not overly smooth in a 'rolled off' sort of presentation, just in a way that naturally knits parts of the music together. This may also be due to a slight reduction in ultimate resolution compared to some recent DAC's (Soekris/Aqvox etc) but my system seems to have benefitted from some smoothing being applied in the digital realm.

I think when you get to a certain performance level with DAC's (lower high tear) you have to pick a couple of performance aspects you cannot possibly live without and plumb for one that fulfills those requirements . . . okay maybe 4 or 5 things you cannot live without . . . haha.

For me, whenever I've heard a valve buffer in a DAC (a decent one anyway) it immediately serves to highlight what I think is missing from most SS DAC's. Even if that means a reduction in resolution, detail or accuracy, the added air, decay and space within a recording (synthetic or not) which can be brought about by a valve buffer stage, is always a welcome addition. Not to mention the slight bump in perceived texture that low-mid frequency instruments seem to get from valves, so what if it is some added distortion, it can sound pretty good and can make instruments sound more realistic IME.

Then usually after further listening this 'imprint' on the music from the buffer stage becomes tedious when you don't want it applied to absolutely everything. Certain performances just seem to sound a little 'off' in some areas.

The Holo seems to apply enough of what I've highlighted above in a positive sense without imprinting that sound on all performances, just the ones where elements of those qualities are present in the recording anyway, it's just really able to bring them out in a natural way.

- DISCLAIMER - Now as some of you know my listening habits are not exactly what you would call 'mainstream' . . . . Yes I do like to listen to a wide selection of stuff but especially at the moment I would say that 80% of my listening is covered by electronica. Vinyl included. To be honest the main reason I have been sticking other stuff on is just to see that I haven't tweaked the system so far into the realms of gigantic sound staging and sounds appearing from absolutely anywhere, just to keep a reference somewhat close to a proper stereo image.

I'm happy to report that bands still appear within a soundstage, imaging is very good and singers are not unnaturally blown up out of all proportion. However I am able to maintain an absolutely gigantic presentation when the recording allows for it with ground rumbling bass from the Vader's.

I guess my goal has always been to have a system that can recreate a full THX theatre setup (able to touch upon those concert hall moments) whilst also performing as a hifi, able to provide nuance and intimate detail when required. I think it's pretty damn close to be honest.

I think the addition of the Holo has brought a nice balance between these two different camps, for now at least there is enough detail and resolution to accurately portray a band recording, whilst there is enough scale and macro dynamics to transport you to another dimension of soundscape (and escapism), by far the most important factor for me.


Fairly happy . . . for now.

Ohh, a Holo Spring!! Would love to get a listen to one of those, and possibly Benchmark my maxed out BI against it.

I gotta stop reading this forum. Drool! Congratulations on the Holo Spring and thank you for the great description of what you are hearing. "Training" hockey pucks, emmm. I guess they well suit the weight of the Vaders, noting that the Townshend and IsoAcoustics both do best in he weight range they were designed for.