@teajay I forgot to mention that one of the reviewers of the Lab12 Dac1 SE said there was no anti jitter circuitry after the inputs. I can’t verify that but nevertheless I put a iFi spdif iPurifier at the input end of the Bluejeans coax.
Subject to my own bias I felt there was more ‘air’, better leading edges and sustain. It seemed reproduction was more ‘organised’ and at the same time more relaxed. More ‘body’ and timbres. I have not removed the iPurifier to verify my impressions as I suffer discomfort from osteoarthritis and tend to avoid crouching at the installation, hence my qualification at the outset.
Maybe you might acquire a iFi spdif iPurifier and if so report if you experience benefit and if so how it might affect your comparisons.
Regarding tubes I already have the necessary converter and seven different NOS tubes two of which are Western Electric 396A, the rest being 2 GE 5670 5-Star, CBS, Raytheon, and Tung-Sol. I had these for experimentation with an iFi iTube. I’m encouraged by your comments and will experiment fairly soon starting with the WE396A.
Subject to my own bias I felt there was more ‘air’, better leading edges and sustain. It seemed reproduction was more ‘organised’ and at the same time more relaxed. More ‘body’ and timbres. I have not removed the iPurifier to verify my impressions as I suffer discomfort from osteoarthritis and tend to avoid crouching at the installation, hence my qualification at the outset.
Maybe you might acquire a iFi spdif iPurifier and if so report if you experience benefit and if so how it might affect your comparisons.
Regarding tubes I already have the necessary converter and seven different NOS tubes two of which are Western Electric 396A, the rest being 2 GE 5670 5-Star, CBS, Raytheon, and Tung-Sol. I had these for experimentation with an iFi iTube. I’m encouraged by your comments and will experiment fairly soon starting with the WE396A.