The fellow who sold me my R-28 included an aftermarket USB cable but forgot to ship the power cord. I bought a $10 generic cord from an office supply store, and it’s fine. I’m absolutely confident that if I had the original or a “special audiophile” AC cord I would experience zero difference in sound or reliability.
I guess that’s an expense that you don’t have to worry about then. Which USB cable did you get?
ok, thank you for sharing that. I find that stuff reassuring, but it’s hard to disagree with someone like Beekhuyzen, he really seems to know what he’ talking about. I’ve also experienced the difference today with the iPowerX, but that has an Active noise cancelling implementation. My makeshift headphone cable definitely sounds better to me than the stock sundara cable,
the power cord is a different beast I suppose, first of all because its passive, and secondly because I wonder if the whole transistore ladder setup of the r2r implementation is the reason that all the differences a power cable can make would be simply overridden.
Maybe that’s why you wouldn’t hear any difference?
good question. I’m curious too
I’ve dabbled a little bit with cables and I would say that I have heard the largest difference in speaker/headphone cables, then less with USB, then interconnects, and the least with power cables.
interesting. I’ve heard the same in reverse order. Especially with the power cable connected to the source
I actually don’t believe a cable makes any difference with headphones or power, unless the original/stock cable is garbage. Speakers, there is absolutely a difference, at least with my experience.
I was thinking about this the other night. For analog signals, the internal wiring on lots of equipment is not built to the “standards” of hifi aftermarket cables.
This being a discussion specifically about Ladder DACs, I’d be curious if the resistors would in any way be sensitive to an electrical difference if say larger gauge wire was used? I would assume a decent power supply would flatten any difference there. But I could be wrong
Well going by the internal layout of Ladderdacs and most high end dacs there is no point to point wiring to change out as its all on a printed circuit board so I dont think wiring will help you or even possible
Could you explain why “point to point wiring” wouldn’t be possible on a ladder dac? Or at least what you mean by saying it’s not possible on the circuit board [quote=“PABastien, post:89, topic:13176, full:true”]
Well going by the internal layout of Ladderdacs and most high end dacs there is no point to point wiring to change out as its all on a printed circuit board so I dont think wiring will help you or even possible
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Does that mean that ladder dacs by design cannot be affected by the power supply and quality of the power cord?
I’m watching the reviews you posted @Kierkegaard and at least the one covering the soekris 1541 the descriptions, to me at least, lack any grounding in reality. However Steve Gutenberg’s review of the first Denaftips ares dac handles the difference in an extremely detailed way. No wonder this can be a confusing thing to understand.
To me, the difference in methodology and the resulting sound can be compared to photo gear. Fuji has put sensors out with a different pixel array (X-trans) than a typical Sony/Nikon or canon sensor (Bayer array). There are also various resolutions and aspect ratios that impact the end result. Some folks (myself included) enjoy the look of lower than max resolution (64 megapixels it too many) in trade for color reproduction that has a specific color reproduction that looks good to my eye.
Because of the limitation of our language around sound, the visual analogy maybe opens up some ability to contrast the approaches of DACs.
Just some thoughts
Re power supply, I don’t know if the cord itself has any relevance, bu after getting the Furman AC-210 A E Power Conditioner, my sound changed.
It is more clean and with less background noise and my monitor got a more calm picture as well. It is due to the more clean power that the conditioner provides. For some it sounds like nonsense, but all I can can say is, that I gave me a clear difference in sound and picture.
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Whats the cheapest multibit DAC out there? how does it compare to the delta’s like the E30?
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I think it might be the modi Multibit?
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There is a reason that large portions of higher end audio gear costs go into the PSU.
Power conditioners absolutlely change sound for most people.
There is some debate if it’s for the better.
I use one FWIW.
If you put a scope on your power (I have) it’s not usually the pretty sine wave they tell you it is, the power conditioner cleans mine up a bit, but the gross issues with it don’t get fixed which is why a regenerator appeals.
The only impact I can see a power cable having IF YOU DON’T HAVE A REGENERATOR is acting as an additional antenna in a potentially noisy environment. But that really oughtn’t make a lot of difference because you already have thousands of feet of antenna in your walls and running back to the substation.
I would certainly buy shielded power cables, but it’s not something I’d splurge on.
If you have a Regenerator, it’s the only Antenna and it’s the only additional impedance between you and the source, so YMMV.
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There used to be a number of cheap DIY DAC’s using NOS multibit chips, most would be 16/18 or 21 bits depending on the chip. I don’t know is anyone is still selling them, nor do I know if they were anygood.
how does the modi multibit compare to delta dacs like the e30 or su8?
Yes but the thousands of feet of “antenna” in your wall are not within quarters of an inch of your signal cables like the power cords coming out of your equipment are. I’m not saying this makes a sonic difference because I’ve never A/B tested with an expensive power cord. What I’m saying is there is a logical argument for replacing the power cords and not worrying about the electric grid on the other side of the wall socket.
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I guess as I’ve said before I consider not passing the power cable over your interconnects is just common sense.
But I’m not arguing they can’t have an effect, I’ve tried mid priced ones here with no audible difference to me, but the people I know who have multi hundred dollar power cables swear by them, but they also have regenerators, so it’s the only run of wire from the source of the power.
True. But sometimes it’s not possible to run things the way you want. As soon as you stack more than a couple of components things get complicated pretty quick. It would be nice if there was an industry standard of power on one specified side, signal on the opposite.
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