A pair of interconnects to replace an old Monstercable set that only just reached to connect a just repaired Audiolab CD8200, eleven caps and replacement drive.
I reckon I don’t have a cats chance working out what has done what. The cable change makes for more comfortable listening, or are the caps burning in, or…
Anything that doesn’t sound good out of the box gets returned immediately. I’ve only had to do this once with a cable and it wasn’t Naim. The bloke said it needs 300 hours to run in
If you bought a new TV and it was Black and White for a week would you be happy?
Just to report back, the Furutech DPS 4.1 LE have now been in my system for about a week.
They are far more impressive than I had even thought they would be. I’ll start by saying the NAP 135s sound more authoritative. There is, as expected a lower noise floor and altogether a more emotional presentation. The busy passages in songs make more sense and all the instruments are playing all of the time without any distortion.
Having said that, i will also report there is a slight hardness to the sound. There is a lot more detail but the sound is NOT settled as of yet.
As somebody reported Furutech cables have a very long burn in time so I’m expecting there to be a more soft and delicate sound when the cables eventually settle in fully.
Changing the fuses was a bit tricky as I couldn’t figure out where the fuse is located. Eventually I figured it out.
There is a very short window of optimabilty.
After a prolonged burn in - the systems will prove its optimal abilities which is the bit where you enjoy listening.
After a short while the systems abilities are heading towards burn out and getting closer to that service deadline.
Happens sooner than you would like.
I beg to differ. No component takes more than 6 months (cables and plugs far less) to optimise and none will deteriorate (phono cartridge aside) for a good ten years. I’m informed that my S1 is good for double that.
This is from an article on MCRU’s site called ‘The Conductivity of Metals Used in Hi-Fi’:
“* Rhodium plated plugs?
Rhodium is a precious metal from the platinum family. It is hard, acid-resistant, and has a very high melting point (1964°C). Compared to other platinum metals, it is a very good conductor, but still only half as good as gold and just one third as good as silver. Therefore, it is misplaced as a coating in a domestic environment.
Its sound characteristics are often described as harsh and analytic.
It does however have its justification in industrial environments with high temperatures, for instance near blast furnaces, where it reliably does its job at temperatures where gold would already start to melt (which it does at 1064°C).”
Yes I’m aware of this. My silver cables also had Rhodium plated silver connectors. Eventually the harshness does go away. It’s takes a bloody age though. I would imagine with the Furutech NCF plugs it’ll take longer as the coating seems to be thicker than on my other connectors.
I use a different plug on my TCS31 and I can tell you they will take a very long time to burn in. In my system, it initially sounded good but then not good in the first 2 months. Now in their 3rd month the sound is opening up with improved clarity and detail. During the bad days music sound muffled with leading edge showing roundness without bite, and the sound of certain instruments is not projected out from the speakers but subdued and drowned in the mix.
I suspect there may be potential for further improvement but it takes a long time. I now have a little hesitation in trying new Furutech cables because of the long burn in but no doubt they are good.