Silver alloy solder can make a difference, and you can get some very good connectors such as those from ETI Research…
Welcome to the world of rolling your own cables… it’s great fun, can be rewarding, and not expensive. Hi-Fi Collective is another source of good high quality/esoteric audio cable at realistic prices.
One thing I haven’t invested in yet is a cable burner… but can speed up ‘burn in’ significantly. Some cables can take quite a time, and others are almost instant… seems perhaps down to dielectric/insulation used in my experience.
One thing I’ve noticed. Made two cables, same cable and connectors etc just one was 3.5m long and one was 1m. I checked for voltage drop… which is why I went for 18awg as it kept the drop very low but the difference between them is quite significant.
The longer one was flatter, touch brighter sounding. It was as if the difference between low and high wasn’t as great.
The shorter one seemed darker, felt like a lower noise floor but just seemed to have a lot more to it. Certainly had better bass.
My take from this is that the convenience of the longer cable (for power bank placement) results in a drop in sound quality for DC cables. Would that be right? Or, is something else at play?
Basically, the longer one was worse than the standard cable whereas the shorter one is better. Improved detail, texture in the bass.
I saw Santana play this live at Wembley Empire Pool (now Arena) in 1973 (I was very young)… great musician(s) - nicely replicated.
The STi7 Server and OpticalRendu bridge are both running SonicOrbiterOS with HQPlayer / NAA endpoint controlled via roon - into TT2 - another route to scaling up (96 to 384kHz here) and filtering… the system is dealing very well with this complex jazz-rock album and this favourite track
I’ve been using the Krisdonia for the last few days. It’s been interesting. Apart from scaring myself to death for the first few days there was a very obvious reduction in noise floor and a sharpening of leading edges. Impressive given that both are very good without the krisdonia. I suspect I’m used the the affect now as I don’t notice it, when at first, on simple music especially it was a little disconcerting how quiet it was in between notes. Will be interesting to go back to the power supply and see what difference I notice, if any
Could be… it was running past computer hardware. I’m just going to keep it in it’s current location. No real problem and I can keep the cable to 1m or bit less.
It’s a bit odd using a large battery to begin with. I wasn’t too worried as I’d seen Rob Watts doing the same thing… as well as many others on Head Fi.
The sharpening of leading edges is the first thing I noticed. It was like removing the audio equivalent of a stigmatism. Before there was a slight bluring of the edges but afterwards clear and sharp. As you mentioned, lower noise floor and a bit of an improvement in soundstage depth. While I can listen to it without it, I do notice it and for critical listening it’s always on. For background stuff I’m not so worried.
I keep looking out for deals on them… I’m going to buy a backup, replacement just in case they stop making them. Great value and provide great backup for when you are away from home. Easy to power laptops, phones and the TT2 or MScaler. I’ve converted a camera bag as a travel bag for the TT2 and MScaler for when I’m on my travels… The Empyrean has it’s own secret service bombproof case already
@T-elmi I’ve tried HQPlayer but didn’t really get into it. A bit problematic when I wanted to travel and listen. Some of the software I use for work is already demanding so adding something else that used memory wasn’t an option… I sort of like the plug-and-play feature of the MScaler less taxing on my brain
Sorry, had some family issues to give some close attention to over the past week. The cable looks good.
Did you notice an difference in sound quality?
–looked further down the thread.
My quad star DC cables are made up of 26awg silver/ptfe cables - 3" long. They go on the end of PoE adapters with a network cable giving the distance required between the battery/LPSU and the component. And yes, different network cables do effect the sound quality.
@anon23154165 I completely agree that MScaler is much more plugnPlay than HQPlayer. HQP is also niche because most ‘retail’ streamers/bridges do not have HQP NAA (‘endpoint’) capability as standard.
I had considered HQP a while ago only when I saw it referenced from within roon’s settings - and put it rapidly into the ‘too hard box’. The Desktop version is no beauty to use, and I have dodged that.
I have tried HQP because it is downloadable within the SonicOrbiter OS for server (’ HQP 4 Player [Linux embedded]’) and streamers (‘HQPlayer NAA’). Without a licence key a 30-minute trial is then available, which can be reset with a server re-boot. The setup is certainly not intuitive, but I eventually got the HQP server config to recognise the HQP-NAA combined with the TT2 as its ‘backend’. After a few tests I decided it was worth the £241.82 incl VAT.
‘Appswitching’ on SonicOrbiterOS and in ‘roon->settings->audio’ between HQP and roon output to the OpticalRendu is quite straightforward.
@Fourlegs will probably have the same HQP trial capability in the two-computer Antipodes K50.
I am still using ‘roon ready’ for daytime and casual listening with the roon endpoints being OpticalRendu into TT2, Uniti Atom, and Qb2.
Yes, it has HQP preinstalled. To be honest, I am still getting to grips with all the other options available with the K50, not all of which are easy to set up. Battling with HQP at the moment night be too confusing but I will try it.
I’ve been running the krisdonia at 9 volts, assuming it would make no difference as the m scaler reduces it to 5 volts anyway. Today I ran it at 12 volts; could be my imagination but I didn’t like it. Too lively and aggressive. Have just flicked back to 9 volts and it all feels calmer
I think it does make a difference. Depending on your system and preferences and music being played, some will prefer one or the other. I do recall some on Head Fi saying 9v was a little too laid back for them. And they preferred 15v… but settled on 12v when Rob and others warned that 15v probably meant a little more than 15v which was risky!
No problem… hopefully everything’s was sorted out ok👍🏻
I think I’ll try to keep the DC cable to around the 1m mark… I do have a lot of electrical gear in the office so probably best to keep the cable away from it. It’s one of the reasons all my HiFi gear is at the opposite side of the room to the computer etc with separate power supplies.
Each of the wires of the Canare 4S6 is 20awg and is supposed to go well with the plugs so hopefully it’ll be even better than the current practice ones. Which I have to say the short version is a lot better than the standard one. The standard is about 1.5 - 2m long and thinner of course.
The sound seems to have more energy compared to the standard. The reduced RFI & voltage drop may explain that. The noise floor is certainly lower.
Yes I was thinking more the RFI radiating from the DC lead coupling with other things… either way if it is harder to get out, then it’s as hard to get in.
One thing you could try is 100nF capacitors wired in parallel both ends of the DC lead… (that is between both conductors). I have not done this recently, but way back I used to do this to effectively short out high frequency noise from digital circuits on the DC lines.
The PSU and powered device should be doing this anyway… but no harm doing yourself on the DC lead… and recommended especially if using aftermarket powersupplies like linear powersupplies.
Cheers… do you have any recommendations in terms of power cable? Could fancy putting together a decent power lead for the Etude…which I’m loving more and more!
I don’t I am afraid… I leave as is and all seems to work rather well here… but if I had a job to do I would look up on RS or Farnell… ah sorry I thought you meant DC…
As far as mains I rather like the Naim Powerline… and so use that on the Etude.
