Higher End DACs

bo1972

Very exciting and interesting posts....Thanks...

It is the first times I read someone here that insist about "electro-smog" ( I will borrow your word if you give the right to me) with conviction and knowledge from experiments, what I had called in my thread, noise in the house electrical grid... My living experience is, at least 40% of the S.Q. ( Sound quality) comes from a cleaning of the house electrical grid...The other 30% comes from the passive treatment of the room with reflective and absorbent materials and active modifications of the acoustical space with also mechanical controls of vibrations-resonance...Only 30 % comes from the main electronical components for me, assuming an almost or relative equality or equivalence,a variation in quality instead of a transformation amongst all the products that are on the same rung; I assume 3 rungs scale price/ quality between products : low, mid, high...( These numbers are not science ,only metaphor to communicate my experience and experiments)

Then the most important upgrade of all, living with products somewhere in a rung of this scale, is the cleaning of the electrical house grid, after that, passive and active modifications of the acoustical space and resonance controls....The third upgrade in an audio system is the change of a main electronic component ( turntable or dac, amplifier, speakers) but this upgrade is generally the least powerful of the three, contrary to the majority opinions, especially if your change remains in the same rung of the scale.


In spite of this fact most people who talks upgrade speak about changing an electronic component , unbeknownst to them the powerful degradation induced by what you called the electro-smog in the electrical grid of house and room and in the electronic component also, all being linked in all including one audio system....


You create some new electronic component to clean this noise, Sbooster and Bonn N8, I use homemade low cost methods....I dont say that my cheap methods are equal in power to your research top of the line products, I only say that even with cheap homemade solutions I think the same exactly about what you call electro-smog....Most people like you said

People have no idea how much you loose in dynamics, layers, and resolution due to the influence of electro-smog, high-frequent nose, and magnetism on sound and stage of an audio system.

I am no scientist at all, only someone with no money that dreamed to create his own sound heaven....I make my dream comes true and want to communicate my enthusiasm to others and some solutions... My best to you ….

hahahaha....anyone can use the words he or she wants and like to use.

The Sbooster is a power supply and the Bonn N8 is a switch. And have both nothing to do with electro-smog, high-frequency noise, and magnetism. I work full time in audio for over 21 years of time. I am often surprised at how little people who work in audio about all the aspects which influence sound and stage.

When I aks (I have done this many times) to a manufacturer: what are all the aspects which influence sound and stage?

They often only can name the acoustic. The main reason why audio is so ineffective is based on the fact how little most people know.

There are more things which also effect sound and stage a lot, which people also don’t even know like the level of humidity. I am addicted to music and I am addicted to researching as well. I want to understand why things are as they are.

When you see how poor the average level is of most digital sources and DACS, there is always a reason why? The biggest problem at this moment is that most network players and DACS are limited in revealing diversity in sound. In this part, we made the biggest improvements. When we do a shootout between our modified network players and those of clients, we can easily let them experience and hear so many more details and most of all layers in the whole frequency range. We are also a lot further in the level of a 3-dimensional stage a source can create.

When you judge (I have done so many tests of products) an audio product on how voices and instruments sound in reality, most differ a lot. And again there is a reason why?

When I ask manufacturers: "What are all the different aspects of sound?"

"What are all the different aspects which negative influence sound and stage?"

" How does human emotion works regarding music and sound?"

They have no idea, how for God’s sake you want to prove that you understand audio when you do not even understand sound and music? And all the aspects which negatively influence sound and stage.

We use parts in our modifications who limit the influence on electro-smog, high-frequency noise, and magnetism. But we also use many tools who also limit these negative aspects. This gives us access to a much higher level in dynamics, layering, and resolution of each individual component and also the loudspeakers.

I am grateful to all the different specialists in over 21 years of time I used for their expertise. When you want to understand audio, you need to understand everything that influences sound and stage. Even the weekend before I started to work fulltime in audio (3rd July 1998) I was aware that I needed to be able to think in the aspects/properties of sound. So I started to learn this all by myself.

When I would not have a photographic memory in sound I would never have been able to think in patterns. This is also needed to understand all the different connections. I know why a sound and a stage of each system is what we all hear. Because I learned how to relate sound. When you are not able to relate sound, it is 100% impossible to understand audio at all until you die!

People have no idea that they only have access to a very limited level of the full potential of every single part within their system. For a source, this is the same story. We use shootouts to let people hear and experience how much more dynamics, layers, and resolution we can get out of our sources compared to their own sources.

The biggest difference is that I always can overrule and outperform any audio shop or company in emotion. That is why; EMOTION IS THE ONLY KEY TO SUCCESS IN AUDIO. There is no discussion even possible, period! I can reproduce sound because I only work by all the different aspects of sound. Reading about human emotion made me understand what I need to create a more emotional and realistic sound and stage.

Trail and error fooled all people all around the world in audio. And still is the main reason why audio has become a decreasing market. Trial&error mains you connect an amp, loudspeaker, source, and cables together. And you listen to the end result.

Instruments and voices sound as they sound during the recording. This has 100% nothing to do with any kind of silly personal taste. Instruments and voices even have their own dimension and delimitation in space. So you need an audio system that is able to reveal this.

This means on facts that you need a system that is able to reveal all aspects of sound. This has nothing to do with personal taste. Each audio system that can reveal all aspects of sound will be experienced as more emotional and intense than any incomplete (a system that lacks different aspects of sound) audio set.

But when I ask each human on this planet; When I take that loudspeaker out, which aspects of sound I take out? And when I replace them by those loudspeakers. Which aspects of sound did I place back?

No one has any idea. What proves on 100% facts that trail&error has no real foundation at all. It is 100% pure audio gambling how people work. When I discuss this with manufacturers they all start to laugh and even say; YOU ARE 100% RIGHT! I even don’t care about the fact that I am right.

People need to learn and become aware that trail&error will never make them create the system they would like to own.

Everything a human does without a real foundation can never be done effectively. People are often aware that they do not like an audio system. They use the words; I feel nothing, it is not involving or I miss the connection with the music. Again this has nothing to do with any kind of personal taste.

It is all based on the fact that this system lacks emotion. And why does it miss the emotion? Because that system can not reveal all the different aspects of sound. We are talking about 100% facts. Emotion will always be the only key to success in audio.

Most sources and DACS can also not reveal all aspects of sound. Because these products do not own these aspects/properties of sound. And what is missing can never be revealed. When we modify a product, we can only improve the aspects/properties is already owns. We can not add missing aspects of sound.

This means there is only one option: you need to create an audio system that will give you access to all aspects of sound. There is no other option possible to get success in audio, end of discussion!

I make that with homemade cheap solutions addressing :

1-The mechanical environment of each electronic component (vibrations-resonances controls)

2-The electrical grid of the room and of the house

3a-the "passive" room treatment with materials absorbant and reflective ones

3b-the "active" acoustical space modifications with reflectors, Helmholtz resonators, Schumann generators,etc


The emotion coming from the sound of an audio system is for me directly linked to the way we address these 4 points...Not only to the source like a dac....

The biggest problem in audio is the 100% fact that most audio products can not even reveal all aspects of sound. This can easily be proven by sound and stage. 

People do audio by trial and error. So they never have an idea why the sound and stage is what they hear. What they do is replacing a part (amp, source, loudspeaker, conditioner, cable, etc) for another one. But they forget that they replace it with a product that also can not reveal all aspects of sound.

This is why each trial&error system will always be incomplete and miss different aspects of sound. So people will experience and describe it as less emotional and intense.  

The biggest problem in audio is the 100% fact that most audio products can not even reveal all aspects of sound. This can easily be proven by sound and stage.

People do audio by trial and error. So they never have an idea why the sound and stage is what they hear. What they do is replacing a part (amp, source, loudspeaker, conditioner, cable, etc) for another one. But they forget that they replace it with a product that also can not reveal all aspects of sound.

This is why each trial&error system will always be incomplete and miss different aspects of sound. So people will experience and describe it as less emotional and intense.

Wow! this is a first for me here.... You are right on the spot...

I say that in my thread for the last year...And I describe there my own experiments and experience that lead me to the exact conclusion your just write...

The only difference between you and me, I am only an ordinary guy with no background in science, I conduct my own experiments with my ears and listenings experiments without any knowledge... And I devise solutions homemade, new, and low costs a step at a time to please my ears ...Your solutions are probably better, but my own solutions drives me to the same conclusion than you.... I wrote the same thing in my thread....

Buying a new electronic component is not the way to upgrade a system because most people dont even know the real potential of their actual audio system and they dont even know that they dont know....

You said: «most audio products can not even reveal all aspects of sound» and for me the reason is linked to the deficient manner with which most people worked with the 4 points I described in my precedent post....Any relatively good product can reveal emotion and a good S. Q. if these 4 points are addressed.... The most important one being the electrical grid of the house( breaker panels, wall plug unused, router, box of optical cables etc). This is the reason why I think your product is probably very good...The electrical grid produce this electrical-smog that plague all audio system and is underestimated even by pro in audio....


I will not say something more here, because I dont own a high end dac and I dont want to derail this thread ….And people who are interested in high end dac are not interested by homemade low cost solutions in general.... My best to all...