Wavelength Brick

jc51373 happy that you are happy now with your BRICK , i have made myself
a tube rolling with no real changes , the better result i had with it was to replace the stock wallwart power supply with a EXTERNAL "laptop" battery pack (you need a 16V model max) ..
with this power supply the sound was equal , if not better than with the excellent altmaan ATTRACTION dac.

Cheers.

thx Jaunitox...Intersting, I will take it under advisement.

I think the next thing I will look into a swapping out a tube or two to see what happens, just for the fun of it I guess. Although, this thing is sounding better and better and better. I am very happy, very satisfied.

Tonight I tried a different decoupling product, the Cardas blocks instead of my Audioquest Q-Feet under my Pre-Amp, and I did not like it at all. Thinned it out too much, felt like I was closer to listening to the PC again. That was under my Preamp, so maybe under another component, but for now I will stick with the q-feet. Everyone told me Sorbo muddied up the sound, but not in my case. In my case it deepens the sound stage, and add just a smidge of darkness, which I like. Not too much darkness, but just a dollop, which can be nice. Kills any fatigue.

Tonight I A/B'd Apple Lossless against Wav and AIFF files. Frontrow makes these really easy. : ) I honestly have to say Apple Lossless might be the best to my ear, and it takes up alot less space as well.

So all is well that ends well...Now on to my next exploration, which is listening to some DynAudio speakers. Considering, (emphasis on Considering) trading my b&w Nautilus for a two-way Focus DynAudio speaker. I remember listening to them a few years back and I just loved them, but gotta give em another shot. The b&w's have been very good to me.

Boy do I love a happy camper!

IMHO the Opticis does provide complete isolation from the Mac, and a USB cable does not - I proved this to my satisfaction pre-Brick and owning the Opticis never considered using anything else. I do have a Sprocket battery pack on it.

All that said, Gordon is a very smart guy and one of the few who will not say you don't need something to make his product seem complete.

FWIW he did tell me that he prefers the RCA Cleartops to the Telefunkens in the Brick - that will save you a buck or two if you are undecided about where to start.

Lossless has some significant advantages from a file management point of view since it provides a robust tagging environment which WAV and AIFF do not. Also a lot more reasonable to load on an iPod should you wish to etc. All but the most golden-eared EAC/FLAC/Foobaristas seem to be happy with the choice - but then they are dealing with PCs...

Steve at Empirical Audio did a comparison of some of the formats you might want to take a look at. Apple Lossless is like 2nd or 3rd.

Ck, so my question to you on the Opticis is, do you feel it makes a difference in sound? Albe it small, or placebo, what are your thoughts on it?

I got two new CD's, Cassandra Wilson (blue light till Dawn) and Sarah Vaughn (Jazz Profile) and they sound amazing. Two great reference CD's for sound thats for sure. This thing is getting quieter and quieter, and better sounding.

Gordon actually mentioned he was using cleartops, so maybe I will give one of those little puppies a shot at some point. Maybe Opticis first then Tubes...But first I need to know how you rigged the battery supply.

Here is what I have found using a 65 foot Opticis powered by a Socket battery with a 12 inch USB cable from the folks who sell the Opticis VS a 6 foot Kimber USB Cable:

I'm using a Wavelelngth Audio Crimson DAC with a new MacBook Pro.

The Opticis has a bigger soundstage and sounds more open. The sonic picture seems more real and dyanamic.

Steve