What was the last bit of gear you bought in 2026?

[AltaMarshall]

David- Still cold out of the box (new) so hard to pass real judgement.

Confirmation bias or not, I feel confident it beats OC 282 with SuperCap DR. 332 without external PS.

All the Naim signatures, just MORE of everything

[Taake]

Crystal Cable Diamond Series 2 Ultra 2 RCA interconnect. For my headphone amp.

[Emrah]

I have a 25 m fibre optic connection between where the router and the streamer are. I was not able to get a Corning SMF 28 in that length and had to use the optic connection adapters to link two fibre optic cables.

Finally, yesterday i recieved a full 25 m Corning SMF 28 and got rid of the connectors. I am shocked how much better the sound is

So, DON’T use these connectors in your hifi chain

[naimophile]

How does the optical sound compare to data cable ? And what improvements/difference from data ? Interesting …

[Emrah]

Everything improved. Bass is more detailed and tight, more space, more detail and less harshness. Surprising…

[naimophile]

I just checked w my nordost dealer, Nordost don’t do optical cable aiyaya

[Emrah]

Corning SMF 28 Ultra are great. I tried many different ones. But surprised that the connectors are so problematic

[naimophile]

My IT guy was telling me that optics are very good .. so it’s true one of our member he did optics and there’s improvements too

[naimophile]

Shall take a serious look at this thx

[naimophile]

Hi Taake, how does the crystal cable sound? That makes you get them?. I am showing interest in the Da Vinci range ethernet cable to tie up with my Valhalla 2.
And congrats on getting them

[Emrah]

For short runs DAC cables work even better in my view. And dirt cheap - no Nordost version i am afraid A 12€ DAC cable beats very expensive ethernet cables and are smoother than fibre optic cables in my experience. For very long runs fibre optic works best in my system. But there are many threads on this in our forum

[Taake]

Running them in so can’t comment yet but based on other Crystal Cable (and Siltech) cables in my system the overall sound would best be described as “balanced” and “complete.” I’ll report back once these particular ones have bedded in.

[Jamiewednesday]

Just bought one of these at about half price.

No idea if it will improve anything but returnable if not…(AI tells me it’s a steal!)

[Emrah]

You will not return it

[Jamiewednesday]

You have one?

[Emrah]

It was first powerdistributor that i had and loved it. Have had several different ones since then..

[Stephen_Tate]

Nice.

[Bluesfan]

I do like a bit of linear noise-dissipation…

… even though I don’t know what it is

Best regards, BF

[Jamiewednesday]

Likewise, but apparently that’s what it does rather than ‘conditions’ things.

Still, lots of people have them and say they’re good and I can return if it adds nothing…Otoh bargain if it does something positive.

And these sorts of things can be weird. I just reassigned some cables to different boxes and then reordered the plugs in my Matrix 2 block yesterday and it defo sounded a little better! Changed it back again and I missed something. So, who knows..?

[Blacknote]

I agree with your choice, personally I wouldn’t go beyond that unless I get a very special and tempting offer. Personally I’m already very happy and delighted with my Freys. However I’m pretty curious to hear how the Tyr and Valhalla sound.

@Emrah

But the Tyr2 have a holographic sweetness paired with punch where needed, which is really nice in my system

The Freys have that character too, I do love the result.