zanash
19-04-2011, 08:09
Well this is not really modding as such ...but could definately be described as severe tweaking. Following the after the lord mayors ...thread I was contacted by An AOS member from Nottingham just a couple of miles down the road from myself . Alfie2902 was intrugued enough to invite me over with my foo after a brief chat via email I also brough over a few other bits and peices ..including my dax decade. Alfie has just got hold of one of those relatively new young dacs ...the one with he big led number displays and grating on the front.
His kit is impressive living voice somethings with external crossovers ....integrated valve amp using kt66 [new I should have writen all these details down !] audio note cd transport ....and a big denon dirrect drive tt with an fr64[?] arm and denon cart .
So we had a listen to the system sans tweaks as it warmed up .....
first out the magic box came the lathed cd's [cut using the gass audio cd lathe] and its duplicate uncut ..
This is the renown cowboy junkies trinity session ..
the uncut disc was slipped into the An ...and tracks 2,3
and4 were played ...track four has an excruciating harmonica solo [if played loud enough] we adjusted the volume to the point of discomfort ....
then we swapped disc for the lathed version ..
I'm not going to tell you what happened ...as I'm rather hopping alfie will be along shortly with a synopsis of his thoughts and feelings ....
we then played a cd or two that alfie uses when hes been messin with his system ...john lee hooker healing ..and in particular tracks 3 and 9.
an aside ...if you have this album ..play track 9 and listen to the hiss ...its very strange somethings been done to the recoring of the guitar solo ..maybe remastered or rerecorded as the hiss vanishes and then comes back. Alfies not going to be able to listen to that track again without hearing the hiss come and go now that I pointed it out !
opening the magic box again and there sat my silver puck ..the raumanimator ..
essentially this was going to be my main event ...
with some trepidation I prepared the room the windows and doors were close to prevent any foo from escaping ...
the snake oil was carfully wiped of the base so as not to stain the carpet ....ad then I topped off the fairy dust just to be on the safe side ...
alfie found a three pronged receptcal and inserted the foo charger ....
I then set about inserting the electron injection pins ....the blue led came on and then went out ...WTF ?
so scrabling round behind his telly I notted that alfie had trapped the x box power cable under the foo charges wall wart ....once removed the blue led shone like a good un !
So after a shacky start all was well ...and within three minute the air in the room had become full "polarised"..
we listened to a number of cd's repeating track 3 and 9 from healing ...carried out a few experiments ....
which included listening to one track whilst I lay on the floor and pull the charging plug from the unit ..so that alfie could listen to what happened to the music as the foo field decayed .
all I'll say is that its effects were not as bad as those in effem's room ...but it did give me the jitters and alfie felt very slightly nausious but not enough to put us off using it ...as time went on we both agreed that the ill effect wore off or we got used to them.
More foo was called for ...so out the box came my phonosophie cd flux. this was duely sprayed onto the offending john lee hooker cd ... tracks 3 and 9 repeated ...
ok so I did smile in a rather satisfied cheshire cat sort of way ....
the way this was demonstrated was a close to the heathrow demo as I could remember ...one track was played ...the disc removed cleaned and reinserted ...and the same track was replayed ..after a minute I asked him to stop the disc and we chatted about what if anything he had heard ...then we played the track again ...
the weird sh*t that is the cd flux means that whatever effect it has ..continues post cleaning for the next six months gradually reaching a peak and then tailing off to the standard cd condition ..where upon your supposed to reapply the goop.
I have no answers to why or how but you can speculate ...so we did a bit of that ..
Just to be clear we kept the blue foo led switched on right throught the extended listening session ...
As I'm more well known for my cables alfie asked if he could try some .....Alfie asked what did I think of power cables ? Suppressing some smart alec remarks..I said ets see !
first we swapped his kettle lead that was supplying the cd transport ....ok so this was bravado on my part [my thinking was whats least likely to effect the final percived sound] ..and we fitted an experimental solid core silver power cord ..with good plugs both ends ...
well it was soon swaped out for my "normal " power cable...are you certain thats the same track playing !
such was the effect ....cheshire cat returns !
Following this [and keeping it in place ] we replaced the ic between dac and amp, this was labled "silver sonic" thats what it said on the heat shrink anyway...it looked like a domestic iron lead ..with its cotton style jacket ....
http://www.silversonic.com/docs/products/Revelation.html
it looked very much like the one shown in the pic at the above web site ...
this is a £200 plus cable ...if my research is correct
lets assume this was a pucker unit and not a chinese fake [as I first thought]
anyway we swapped in my basic ..a simple copper twisted pair ....
sufice to say that alfie was now no longer uncertain about listening to the effects ic have on the sound.
did we both reusing the silver sonic ....alfie summed it up by saying ..."shall I bin it now !"...
We then swaped the basic for the foo version ...this is damped with quartz ..... the grin notches several points higher !
out went that ic ....after the nth playing of track 9 [oh god not again]
inserted in its place was my silver/gold and older version thats done the rounds as a demo unit .....
Then finally we poped in an experimental verion of my platalloy ........which was just oh so smooth and a little too laid back for the system ...
We the got round to replacing the young dac with my dax decade .....
it was clear straight away the young dac good as it was was not in the same league ...maybe with a decent psu and not the nasty wall wart things might have been different.
We then had a quick bit of munford brothers on lp ....very nice ...but I expected to be blown away oh well can't have everything !
by this time I'd been there a short five hours ....and concious that my dearest need her tea on the table when she gets in from a hard day at the coal face ...I made my exit.
I've deliberately not said what we heard ...because I think it only fair that alfie describes that ....
thanks alfie for a very interesting day !
His kit is impressive living voice somethings with external crossovers ....integrated valve amp using kt66 [new I should have writen all these details down !] audio note cd transport ....and a big denon dirrect drive tt with an fr64[?] arm and denon cart .
So we had a listen to the system sans tweaks as it warmed up .....
first out the magic box came the lathed cd's [cut using the gass audio cd lathe] and its duplicate uncut ..
This is the renown cowboy junkies trinity session ..
the uncut disc was slipped into the An ...and tracks 2,3
and4 were played ...track four has an excruciating harmonica solo [if played loud enough] we adjusted the volume to the point of discomfort ....
then we swapped disc for the lathed version ..
I'm not going to tell you what happened ...as I'm rather hopping alfie will be along shortly with a synopsis of his thoughts and feelings ....
we then played a cd or two that alfie uses when hes been messin with his system ...john lee hooker healing ..and in particular tracks 3 and 9.
an aside ...if you have this album ..play track 9 and listen to the hiss ...its very strange somethings been done to the recoring of the guitar solo ..maybe remastered or rerecorded as the hiss vanishes and then comes back. Alfies not going to be able to listen to that track again without hearing the hiss come and go now that I pointed it out !
opening the magic box again and there sat my silver puck ..the raumanimator ..
essentially this was going to be my main event ...
with some trepidation I prepared the room the windows and doors were close to prevent any foo from escaping ...
the snake oil was carfully wiped of the base so as not to stain the carpet ....ad then I topped off the fairy dust just to be on the safe side ...
alfie found a three pronged receptcal and inserted the foo charger ....
I then set about inserting the electron injection pins ....the blue led came on and then went out ...WTF ?
so scrabling round behind his telly I notted that alfie had trapped the x box power cable under the foo charges wall wart ....once removed the blue led shone like a good un !
So after a shacky start all was well ...and within three minute the air in the room had become full "polarised"..
we listened to a number of cd's repeating track 3 and 9 from healing ...carried out a few experiments ....
which included listening to one track whilst I lay on the floor and pull the charging plug from the unit ..so that alfie could listen to what happened to the music as the foo field decayed .
all I'll say is that its effects were not as bad as those in effem's room ...but it did give me the jitters and alfie felt very slightly nausious but not enough to put us off using it ...as time went on we both agreed that the ill effect wore off or we got used to them.
More foo was called for ...so out the box came my phonosophie cd flux. this was duely sprayed onto the offending john lee hooker cd ... tracks 3 and 9 repeated ...
ok so I did smile in a rather satisfied cheshire cat sort of way ....
the way this was demonstrated was a close to the heathrow demo as I could remember ...one track was played ...the disc removed cleaned and reinserted ...and the same track was replayed ..after a minute I asked him to stop the disc and we chatted about what if anything he had heard ...then we played the track again ...
the weird sh*t that is the cd flux means that whatever effect it has ..continues post cleaning for the next six months gradually reaching a peak and then tailing off to the standard cd condition ..where upon your supposed to reapply the goop.
I have no answers to why or how but you can speculate ...so we did a bit of that ..
Just to be clear we kept the blue foo led switched on right throught the extended listening session ...
As I'm more well known for my cables alfie asked if he could try some .....Alfie asked what did I think of power cables ? Suppressing some smart alec remarks..I said ets see !
first we swapped his kettle lead that was supplying the cd transport ....ok so this was bravado on my part [my thinking was whats least likely to effect the final percived sound] ..and we fitted an experimental solid core silver power cord ..with good plugs both ends ...
well it was soon swaped out for my "normal " power cable...are you certain thats the same track playing !
such was the effect ....cheshire cat returns !
Following this [and keeping it in place ] we replaced the ic between dac and amp, this was labled "silver sonic" thats what it said on the heat shrink anyway...it looked like a domestic iron lead ..with its cotton style jacket ....
http://www.silversonic.com/docs/products/Revelation.html
it looked very much like the one shown in the pic at the above web site ...
this is a £200 plus cable ...if my research is correct
lets assume this was a pucker unit and not a chinese fake [as I first thought]
anyway we swapped in my basic ..a simple copper twisted pair ....
sufice to say that alfie was now no longer uncertain about listening to the effects ic have on the sound.
did we both reusing the silver sonic ....alfie summed it up by saying ..."shall I bin it now !"...
We then swaped the basic for the foo version ...this is damped with quartz ..... the grin notches several points higher !
out went that ic ....after the nth playing of track 9 [oh god not again]
inserted in its place was my silver/gold and older version thats done the rounds as a demo unit .....
Then finally we poped in an experimental verion of my platalloy ........which was just oh so smooth and a little too laid back for the system ...
We the got round to replacing the young dac with my dax decade .....
it was clear straight away the young dac good as it was was not in the same league ...maybe with a decent psu and not the nasty wall wart things might have been different.
We then had a quick bit of munford brothers on lp ....very nice ...but I expected to be blown away oh well can't have everything !
by this time I'd been there a short five hours ....and concious that my dearest need her tea on the table when she gets in from a hard day at the coal face ...I made my exit.
I've deliberately not said what we heard ...because I think it only fair that alfie describes that ....
thanks alfie for a very interesting day !