@hilde45 Great topic!
I generally agree with what @oregonpapa said. Room acoustics is definitely the first priority.
Being a vinyl diehard for the last 32 years, I’ve learned a lot about digital having built a digital source in the past year having been at home for days on end during COVID. Having a friend that was eager to loan me cables and other equipment to try out in return for my sharing my impressions was helpful as well. In terms of tweaks, I’m definitely all about value-for-money meaning ’Can I get my existing equipment to sound noticeably better without spending money that would be better spent on more expensive equipment’.
From a digital (instead of analog) perspective, I do think that the reduction of EMI and RFI is critical. My impressions are that there are some fairly inexpensive things in the digital realm that can be done that provide outsized benefits relative to their cost. I would probably do 1-5 below no matter what equipment I have in my system. This is my ranking of digital audio tweaks that have made the most improvement for me:
1. Creating an Ethernet access point with a TP-Link RE230 Wi-Fi Extender & turning off Wi-Fi & HDMI on my streamer (total cost $40 for the RE230 and an AmazonBasics Cat 6 Ethernet cable)
2. Switching to a Supra Cat 8 Ethernet cable (cost of $65) provided about 60-80% of the improvement that I heard from going from Wi-Fi to Ethernet.
3. Adding a pretty reasonable $135 Shunyata Venom power cord to my Denafrips Pontus II DAC from a $15 Tripp-Lite Heavy Duty power cord that I bought as a benchmark for comparison. I also tried a Synergistic Research UEF Blue power cord (loaned by a friend along with the Shunyata power cord). The Synergistic cord was best sounding on a Denafrips Ares II DAC, but the Synergistic cord tended to erase some of the dynamics and resolution from my current Pontus II DAC. The Shunyata provided a better balance of resolution and clarity on the Pontus. Perhaps the Ares II benefitted more from noise reduction than my current Pontus II DAC,
4. Going to a Stordiau Lush USB cable (~$200): Smoother but also more resolving sound.
5. Adding a Audioquest Jitterbug USB noise filter to my streamer’s USB output. ($60): Added clarity, resolution, solidity to voices and instruments.
Other things I’ve tried for digital:
6. Isolation devices under my DAC: Daedalus isolation devices (like Symposium Acoustics Rollerblocks) added a level of clarity but they probably aren’t the best value at $480 for a set of three. These were loaned to me by a friend so my net cost was $0. Perhaps when these go back to my friend, I’ll see if I notice their absence. I saw a homebrew design for a roller based isolation system that I might try with Shepherd’s 3697 Furniture cups & 1/2" ball bearings: https://www.stereophile.com/content/make-your-own-roller-bearing-isolation-system-1650-1
Other things I intend to try for digital:
7. Uptone Audio ISO Regen: I’m wondering how this might sound versus my fairly basic Audioquest Jitterbug. The Jitterbug does sound better to my ears than the Wyred4Sound Recovery which seemed to sand down the dynamics and sparkle of music. Uptone says they are creating a new and improved version of the ISO Regen as the chip on which it is based has been discontinued.
8. Power conditioner: I'm considering the Audioquest Niagara 1200
In terms of other tweaks, my first tweak was speaker cables. I went from 10 or 12 gauge zip cord to a set of Nordost Flatline Gold cables. Nordost was just starting out in the early 90s so the cost of $125 or so was still affordable on a student budget. WOW, hearing the added clarity after adding in the Flatline cables was a revelation as to how much my 12 gauge zip cord speaker cable were blocking the potential sound that could come from my system. A friend recently asked to borrow these cables thinking how different could speaker cables sound. Bad move on his part. Haha. He’s now figuring out how to justify spending $300 on speaker cables.
I generally agree with what @oregonpapa said. Room acoustics is definitely the first priority.
Being a vinyl diehard for the last 32 years, I’ve learned a lot about digital having built a digital source in the past year having been at home for days on end during COVID. Having a friend that was eager to loan me cables and other equipment to try out in return for my sharing my impressions was helpful as well. In terms of tweaks, I’m definitely all about value-for-money meaning ’Can I get my existing equipment to sound noticeably better without spending money that would be better spent on more expensive equipment’.
From a digital (instead of analog) perspective, I do think that the reduction of EMI and RFI is critical. My impressions are that there are some fairly inexpensive things in the digital realm that can be done that provide outsized benefits relative to their cost. I would probably do 1-5 below no matter what equipment I have in my system. This is my ranking of digital audio tweaks that have made the most improvement for me:
1. Creating an Ethernet access point with a TP-Link RE230 Wi-Fi Extender & turning off Wi-Fi & HDMI on my streamer (total cost $40 for the RE230 and an AmazonBasics Cat 6 Ethernet cable)
2. Switching to a Supra Cat 8 Ethernet cable (cost of $65) provided about 60-80% of the improvement that I heard from going from Wi-Fi to Ethernet.
3. Adding a pretty reasonable $135 Shunyata Venom power cord to my Denafrips Pontus II DAC from a $15 Tripp-Lite Heavy Duty power cord that I bought as a benchmark for comparison. I also tried a Synergistic Research UEF Blue power cord (loaned by a friend along with the Shunyata power cord). The Synergistic cord was best sounding on a Denafrips Ares II DAC, but the Synergistic cord tended to erase some of the dynamics and resolution from my current Pontus II DAC. The Shunyata provided a better balance of resolution and clarity on the Pontus. Perhaps the Ares II benefitted more from noise reduction than my current Pontus II DAC,
4. Going to a Stordiau Lush USB cable (~$200): Smoother but also more resolving sound.
5. Adding a Audioquest Jitterbug USB noise filter to my streamer’s USB output. ($60): Added clarity, resolution, solidity to voices and instruments.
Other things I’ve tried for digital:
6. Isolation devices under my DAC: Daedalus isolation devices (like Symposium Acoustics Rollerblocks) added a level of clarity but they probably aren’t the best value at $480 for a set of three. These were loaned to me by a friend so my net cost was $0. Perhaps when these go back to my friend, I’ll see if I notice their absence. I saw a homebrew design for a roller based isolation system that I might try with Shepherd’s 3697 Furniture cups & 1/2" ball bearings: https://www.stereophile.com/content/make-your-own-roller-bearing-isolation-system-1650-1
Other things I intend to try for digital:
7. Uptone Audio ISO Regen: I’m wondering how this might sound versus my fairly basic Audioquest Jitterbug. The Jitterbug does sound better to my ears than the Wyred4Sound Recovery which seemed to sand down the dynamics and sparkle of music. Uptone says they are creating a new and improved version of the ISO Regen as the chip on which it is based has been discontinued.
8. Power conditioner: I'm considering the Audioquest Niagara 1200
In terms of other tweaks, my first tweak was speaker cables. I went from 10 or 12 gauge zip cord to a set of Nordost Flatline Gold cables. Nordost was just starting out in the early 90s so the cost of $125 or so was still affordable on a student budget. WOW, hearing the added clarity after adding in the Flatline cables was a revelation as to how much my 12 gauge zip cord speaker cable were blocking the potential sound that could come from my system. A friend recently asked to borrow these cables thinking how different could speaker cables sound. Bad move on his part. Haha. He’s now figuring out how to justify spending $300 on speaker cables.