SB sounding too bright

[seanadams]

Have you tried any tests with the display turned off? My experience has been that it can be difficult to get noise from the HV up-converter that drives the display out of the audio circuits due to simple stray capacitive coupling between PCB traces.

When the display is set to minimum brightness (i.e. off) does the HV up-converter shut down?

Thanks,

TD

It's always running - it's a voltage multiplier that generates 55VDC and 11VAC for the display. We pull off approx 12-13VDC at one stage in the multiplier, filter it, and then regulate it down to 9V and 5V. Power is actually slightly quieter at _higher_ brightness levels because the regulator drop-out margin is increased.

[PhilNYC]

Nobody as far as I'm aware has attempted a proper double-blind subjective test, although I've done plenty of quick blind testing myself. If anyone has a sufficiently revealing system and good ears, I'd encourage you to try it double-blind and let us know what you find.

I've not done it in a double-blind test, but like you, I've done plenty of quick blind tests. In my system, the difference is pretty clear and consistent to the point where I'd seriously have to question my sanity if it was just placebo. As I said in another thread, there are tweaks where I definitely recognize the idea that a "difference" might just be poor listening memory. In the case when I switched out the stock power supply for the Elpac, it made previously sibilent/unlistenable female vocals smooth and enjoyable. I don't know technically why this might be...maybe its the design of the power supply, maybe it's the way everything is grounded, I don't know. But its consistent in my quick blind tests to both myself and my wife (who is not an audiophile)...

[P Floding]

I've not done it in a double-blind test, but like you, I've done plenty of quick blind tests. In my system, the difference is pretty clear and consistent to the point where I'd seriously have to question my sanity if it was just placebo. As I said in another thread, there are tweaks where I definitely recognize the idea that a "difference" might just be poor listening memory. In the case when I switched out the stock power supply for the Elpac, it made previously sibilent/unlistenable female vocals smooth and enjoyable. I don't know technically why this might be...maybe its the design of the power supply, maybe it's the way everything is grounded, I don't know. But its consistent in my quick blind tests to both myself and my wife (who is not an audiophile)...

The more I struggle to get the best out of various components, and the more I take seriously the subconsious listening fatigue that creeps in when things are not quite right (which is almost impossible to pick up during a quick A/B test, BTW!), the more I believe that the entire system as a whole has to be measured.

I think the interaction between various components is way more important than is normally considered.

A good test is to play at near-to-live levels, and if my wife doesn't ask me to turn down the volume, then things are right! (And in the long run this sound perfectly correlates to me not getting listening fatigue after prolonged listening.)

Oh, and turning OFF the SB3's display most definately seem to contribute to transparent, fatigue-free sound. (Using digital out over TOSLINK into a TacT RCS 2.2x, in my case.)

[Zten]

I think I can imagine what transparent might be. Does this mean you can't tell where it is coming from?

But Fatigue-Free baffles me. What does this mean?

Sean,
Any difference in system noise floor or audio distortion with VFD on vs. off? If there is no way to completely shut the VFD down with SW, you could always just pull the voltage multiplier off the board.

[Jacob Potter]

On 1/26/06, Zten <Zten.229j3b (AT) no-mx (DOT) forums.slimdevices.com> wrote:
> I think I can imagine what transparent might be. Does this mean you
> can't tell where it is coming from?

I think transparency means you can't tell the difference between the
recording and having the actual instruments and players in the room.

Of course, I tend to listen to death metal, so I can't imagine why
that would be a /good/ thing

- Jacob

[seanadams]

I think I can imagine what transparent might be. Does this mean you can't tell where it is coming from?

But Fatigue-Free baffles me. What does this mean?

Sean,
Any difference in system noise floor or audio distortion with VFD on vs. off? If there is no way to completely shut the VFD down with SW, you could always just pull the voltage multiplier off the board.

The noise floor is actually lowest (only by a very small margin though) when the VFD is at FULL brightness. This is because the internal voltage which feeds the DAC's regulator is increased.

[P Floding]

I think I can imagine what transparent might be. Does this mean you can't tell where it is coming from?

But Fatigue-Free baffles me. What does this mean?

Sean,
Any difference in system noise floor or audio distortion with VFD on vs. off? If there is no way to completely shut the VFD down with SW, you could always just pull the voltage multiplier off the board.

Well, this is the audiophile section after all..

[stone]

First of all, dont worry about the ECI-3, it is hardly the problem of my setup.

Heres what i did:

My SB came with a ferrite core (Euro 230V type power) at on the power cable (at the SB end). I connected another one; no detectible improvement to the brightness and high frequency ringing.

Then I attached two ferrites to the cable close to the power subbply itself. Now the SB is playing music! Can not believe the change. The setup still has a tendency toward details in the highs, but now it is musical.

What happened? Not shure but the power cord may have been acting as an rf antenna, or the power started behaving when the ferrites appeared. Any suggestions?

Enjoy,

[GaryB]

Then I attached two ferrites to the cable close to the power subbply itself. Now the SB is playing music! Can not believe the change. The setup still has a tendency toward details in the highs, but now it is musical.

What happened? Not sure but the power cord may have been acting as an rf antenna, or the power started behaving when the ferrites appeared. Any suggestions?

A lot of people have noticed that going from the stock switching power supply to a linear supply helps smooth out the sound. I've done that and noticed that when I've got my squeezebox running on the linear supply, just plugging in the switching supply but not having it connected to anything degrades the sound. So I think your theory that the cord is radiating high frequency noise that somehow is getting picked by your amps and causing noise is right. It seems you've found a nice way of eliminating that in your system without getting a new supply. It would be interesting to see how it compares to the cheap linear power supplies that others are using.
I've got some ferrites lying around - I'll see if I can find some time to do the experiment.
---Gary

[Simon]

I've fitted a mains filter too which has had a bigger effect than the linear suppy I also use. I built this one http://www.triode-systems.com/module...hp?articleid=4

Regards
Simon