April 2013 update

I will start with a small apology for a total lack of updates to this blog and to the podcast.

There were two main reasons for this – just too much pressure on my personal life most importantly, but also some kind of system failure for podcast #6 which resulted in the whole thing becoming corrupted and me throwing my hands up in frustration and walking away for a short while.

Which became a long while of course!

By way of update, not much has changed; I am still using the Tron DAC and a Macbook/Audiophilleo2 front end, but I will describe one interesting event which caused me to once again re-evaluate the reality of expectation bias.

I had advertised my DacMagic for sale on the Pink Fish Media internet forum some time ago and, out of the blue, had an enquiry from someone who worked locally to me and wanted to come over to hear it prior to buying. He had an old Meridian 203 ‘bitstream’ DAC that only accepted 16 bit 44.1 kHz data, and was looking to supplant it with the 24/96 capable DacMagic for a computer based systems.

So he came over one evening after work with this Mediain 203 in a bag, plus his modified Logitech Squeezebox front end and some ripped files on memory stick, and two special SPDIF cables plus one special mains cable for the Meridian. I’d had the DacMagic plugged in and warming up for most of the day so he could compare and contrast the two.

Much to my surprise and regret (since I didn’t make the sale), the Meridian 203 simply blew the DacMagic away. It wasn’t a subtle  difference – the thinner, nasal and bright DacMagic was simply outclassed by something that managed to sound extremely real and tonally rich in comparison.

This was a surprise to both of us, since the 203 had also been over to my pal IWC’s system for a trial against other DACs including the Naim DAC, a Weiss and a Bryston (I think) and failed to sound anything other than bland in his system. But in mine… very good indeed. And, clearly, only performaing that well with the custom mains cable and custom SPDIF cable that my potential customer had carefully crafted for it.

We also had a go at comparing it with the Tron DAC and I was, at that point , almost embarrassed to have to admit the 203 actually sounded slightly better than it.

What was going on? The Tron sounded bland in comparison.

Later that week I unplugged the Tron and took it back to GT for inspection. He tested it, pronounced it measuring fine, with valves well within parameters, and handed it back; I plugged it in, switched it on and was amazed at how much better it suddenly sounded than before.

I don’t know what happened here. The act of unplugging, moving and re-plugging in the component made such a difference. Who knows?

What I do know is that I am paying much more attention to my systems’ performance now, and taking careful note of when it sounds bland; which seems to be related to mains power supply and certain times of day. The effect is subtle but manifests as  a feeling as if the music has leeched out of the system and it is just making sounds rather than evoking a desire to sing along..

I need to spend more time working with power cables, funds permitting; what I have done is swap in a Nordost Shiva power cable I previously had plugged in to one of the subs in the Avantgarde Duo loudspeakers with the PHY power cable I had on the DAC, and by switching them over I seem to have improved the DACs performance enough to reduce the likelihood that the system underperforms like this.

There is also this nagging feeling that the underperformance of the system aligns to what has been going on for me personally, with the result that I can now further confirm that listener participation in the audiophile experience is critical. Put another way, unless you are receptive to the quality of the sound (for example, by introducing a sexy new piece of kit) you can end up enjoying it less.

Cue the normal solution – wine!