Troy,
Check it out here: Lone Star Audio Fest
I Went only Saturday last 2 years running, I've been saving my pennies for a Fri-Sat-Sun trip this year.
Nice hotel, room rate not too high, make sure and let them know your there for the show to get the special rate.
John
Check it out here: Lone Star Audio Fest
I Went only Saturday last 2 years running, I've been saving my pennies for a Fri-Sat-Sun trip this year.
Nice hotel, room rate not too high, make sure and let them know your there for the show to get the special rate.
John
jERiCOh-
VERY nice.
Two minor things.
1. You could easily disconnect all the PWR wires and twist them for less radiated fields in the chassis.
2. You used the same Shielded twisted pair cable as I did but the shield appears to be floating on both sides. Is there a reason?
LOVE the Par-metal series 20 case. That is my choice for practical chassis.
My what large heat sinks you have...
VERY nice.
Two minor things.
1. You could easily disconnect all the PWR wires and twist them for less radiated fields in the chassis.
2. You used the same Shielded twisted pair cable as I did but the shield appears to be floating on both sides. Is there a reason?
LOVE the Par-metal series 20 case. That is my choice for practical chassis.
My what large heat sinks you have...
Very nice build!
1uF is the right value, 1.2 also good. I wouldn't go further.
Connect power ground of both moudles to chassis as a minimum, better with a low value power resitor in series or via a ground breaker.
First impressions on Sonicap Gen I
I've finally managed to listen to my Sonicaps that taken dust for months...
Mine are impressions on the brand new and not broken-in cap so they could change with time.
Well, these Sonicaps sounds simply GREAT, very musical and with fantastic timbre.
Soundstage is large and deep, they're engaging and gorgeous, I absolutely love the total effect of their sound and MyRef's one.
Since they complement so well the Ultimate MyRef they replace with no doubts the Obbligatos in my BOM but Zns remains my first choice.
Why?
It's simple, like Obbligatos they're coloured, in a very enjoyable way but coloured and last but not least they lacks too much detail versus Zns
One hint of it could be read also on Tom's words:
How can I say Sonicaps are coloured and not enough detailed?
I've simply compared them with DC-coupling and I've found again that Zns are the most transparent (=similar to DC couple timbre and detail) caps.
So if something it's wrong in Zns+Myref sound it should be fixed in the MyRef, IMHO
I completely agree with Tom but since Sonicaps are coloured I'll reopen the BOM to obtain a similar sound with the more transparent and detailed Zns.
One additional note on C6/C11, a fantastic and possibly better alternative to Silmics are same value (100uf 35V) Cerafines.
Sound have more body and presence, less reverbs than Silmics (which could be beneficial, actually) but it mantains most of the soundstage extension.
I've finally managed to listen to my Sonicaps that taken dust for months...
Mine are impressions on the brand new and not broken-in cap so they could change with time.
Well, these Sonicaps sounds simply GREAT, very musical and with fantastic timbre.
Soundstage is large and deep, they're engaging and gorgeous, I absolutely love the total effect of their sound and MyRef's one.
Since they complement so well the Ultimate MyRef they replace with no doubts the Obbligatos in my BOM but Zns remains my first choice.
Why?
It's simple, like Obbligatos they're coloured, in a very enjoyable way but coloured and last but not least they lacks too much detail versus Zns
One hint of it could be read also on Tom's words:
How can I say Sonicaps are coloured and not enough detailed?
I've simply compared them with DC-coupling and I've found again that Zns are the most transparent (=similar to DC couple timbre and detail) caps.
So if something it's wrong in Zns+Myref sound it should be fixed in the MyRef, IMHO
I completely agree with Tom but since Sonicaps are coloured I'll reopen the BOM to obtain a similar sound with the more transparent and detailed Zns.
One additional note on C6/C11, a fantastic and possibly better alternative to Silmics are same value (100uf 35V) Cerafines.
Sound have more body and presence, less reverbs than Silmics (which could be beneficial, actually) but it mantains most of the soundstage extension.
Dario
Nice to get your input on the cap change. You probably know the MyRef and Mauro as well as anyone. Why did he choose 10K as the value for the volume control? Would he have chosen a different one if the mains were US 120VAC and not 220VAC as they are in Europe? PJN has provided some listening impressions of a 20K DACT in this thread. Would you tell us how you attenuated your MyRef in that thread so it stays on subject?
Nice to get your input on the cap change. You probably know the MyRef and Mauro as well as anyone. Why did he choose 10K as the value for the volume control? Would he have chosen a different one if the mains were US 120VAC and not 220VAC as they are in Europe? PJN has provided some listening impressions of a 20K DACT in this thread. Would you tell us how you attenuated your MyRef in that thread so it stays on subject?
Mains voltage has no relation to the pot value. Different pot values sound different and it will depend on the amp and the source as well. Pick a pot that is in the general area of 10 times less than the amps input impedance and 10 times more than the source output impedance. You can dance around in that general resistance til you get the value that you like the sound of. For the MyREF I would go for something close to 5k but make sure the source can handle it. However, obviously we can take it up to 10k and even further and it still sounds good, but a bit different. You will find better dynamics/sparkle/slam with a lower pot value and you will find a more tube sound with higher pot value.
Uriah
I've always felt that Cerafines were better than Silmics for rail-to-ground bypass, and I have the 47uF Cerafine as an alternative for the 47uF/25V Black Gate PK for C6/C11 in my premium BoM. They're clear, detailed and maybe a bit analytical sounding. Perhaps the Elna Tonerex can be tried out as a warmer alternative to the Cerafine at C6/C11. I'll give it a try if I can get hold of some 47 or 100uF Tonerex caps.
my tube preamp (silvaweld swc-1000) is output trafo coupled, but can be bypassed by using the balanced output which's suppose to be more transparent sounding. so my dilemma is should i get bnc->rca interconnect to myref or remove the coupling cap and accept the signal from output trafo?
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It's not always true, particularly with opamps...
In the chinese AK4396 DAC opamp decoupling is best with Silmic while AK4396 VA decoupling is much better with Cerafines (which are better than BG STD also...).
Regarding C6/C11 both Silmics and Cerafines sounds great but with a very different timbre.
In these positions Silmics are more refined but probably with too much reverbs, Cerafines sounds bolder and less refined but somewhat more 'true', probably KZs are fine too.
In the the DCB1 Silmics sounds for sure with too much reverbs and Cerafines are way better but somewhat 'dirty', here Blackgate STD have the edge...
No silver bullet... each case is quite unique.
Last year, when I've tried KZs they were 100uF 25V ones and sounded a bit confused.
Now I'm burning in 100uF 50V (0.08 DF vs 0.12) and they sound VERY good.
Dynamics seems increased, timbre goes in the same direction as Sonicaps, even a bit further in fact, and detail is preserved.
Obviously these impressions are with Zns as coupling caps, with Sonicaps they tend to give too much of the effect...
I think I'm on the right path...
Cerafines and Silmics are going to be reused somewhere else.
Another note... last year somebody asked me about Amtrans film caps from PartsConnexion and I've discarded them... I was wrong!
I've tried those Amtrans with the AK4396 DAC and they sound very very good.
Compared to FKP2s they sound more refined with deeper bass (like plain copper versus OFC one) but a bit less 'powerful'.
It could be a matter of taste, they're a costly but valid alternative to FKP2s.
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