System Pics

[u72]

hi, heres some Pictures of my Current System - its a Fully Digital Front end
Playing through a menu driven Apple TV (soon to be replaced by a MAC Mini)

AppleTV (Fitted with a 250gig HD with Lossless albums)
Marantz KI63 Mk2 (Ten Years young! )
Altmann Attraction DAC (With Paul Hynes PSU)
Border Patrol Control Unit Pre-Amp (Tweaked! )
Border Patrol P20 (Western Electric 300b) Power Amp
ProAc D38 Speakers in Ebony (spiked)

Cables are:
Chord Sig Digital (CD to DAC)
Kondo KSL-Vc (DAC to PreAmp)
Chord Sig Interconnects (PreAmp to Power Amp)
Chord Sig Speaker Cables (Going to try some pure Silver cables soon)
Nordost White Light Glass Optical (Apple TV to DAC)

I Keep swaping the Kondo and Sig Interconnects around - Just can't
make up my mind which way sounds better...

Racks are Sound Organization - spiked (Looking to 'Upgrade' these soon)

The Sound Panels are Swedish Snow Crash 'Lunas' - They have really sorted the Bass Problem out that I was Having!

I listen to a Very Wide Selection of Music from 70'/80's/Pop/Rock/Jazz to Modern House/Electronic/Rock & Pop & Acoustic

Sound Quality is very nice - and the Altmann 'De-Jitter' Circuit seems to Work well, The Apple TV is a great solution as a jukebox!

I'm looking to add another DAC at some point in the near Future,
the Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC looks very Promising!

I'll probably try to Audition the new Chord QBD76 DAC also

the BP Pre has been rewired with Silver Kondo Cable (The Silver and Brown Cables in the pics below)
and had a few caps added! it sounds crystal clear, Open and wonderful

I've included some internal shots of the BP Pre as it may interest some of you

[Marco]

Quality stuff, Andy - superb pictures!

We hope to see lots of contributions from you in future and get a handle on your views on audio throughout the main forum

Get stuck in!

Marco.

[Steve Toy]

This looks like an excellent system and it ticks quite a few of our boxes - it's valve pre/power and it's fronted by computer audio.

We're into computer audio and valves and this does seem to be quite a rare (and yet completely logical) combination.

The computer route is oine I want to go down but am completely ignorant of how to go about it other than to get a decent DAC that can take hi-res formats.

As for your stand upgrade, we can think of at least one that could significantly improve the performance of your system...

[u72]

This looks like an excellent system and it ticks quite a few of our boxes - it's valve pre/power and it's fronted by computer audio.

We're into computer audio and valves and this does seem to be quite a rare (and yet completely logical) combination.

The computer route is oine I want to go down but am completely ignorant of how to go about it other than to get a decent DAC that can take hi-res formats.

As for your stand upgrade, we can think of at least one that could significantly improve the performance of your system...

hi, thank for the reply! the apple TV and iMac I use pass 'Bit Perfect' Data to the DAC via Optical and when I use CDs the Marantz Transport Works just fine.
the altmann DAC has JISCO Jitter correction - and it does make a noticable difference (remove a mistimed haze when on).
I now think i'm in need of either a re-clocker or probably a new DAC (i'll keep the Altmann as its a good NOS DAC) there seems to be a lot of new DACs due
that are geared towards Computer audio (24bit/192 etc.)
it is the future... and has the potential to reignite the hi-fi industry!

i've used Granite and 'FlatFeet' as Isolators on my current Rack - they work quite well but I know I can get a better Solution!
what was the rack you were thinking of?

[Steve Toy]

what was the rack you were thinking of?

This one - the acrylic Quadraspire Reference but with the guitar-shaped shelves and larger holes available from The Audioworks (see Mr Ed who posts here.)

Mine has a mixture of AW and QS shelves to accommodate awakward-shaped/sized components as you can see below. The AW ones are definitely better though if you can use them.

[u72]

Hi All,
Not posted for a few weeks - Been Busy and Listening to Music!
Lots of things have changed in my setup I have a New and Much better Rack, all £55 of her!...
I've substantially modified my Altmann DAC By Upgrading the Power even Further (It Had Already been upgraded with one of Paul Hynes' PSU's)
Now its the turn of the onboard Regulators Charles used Cheaper off the shelf models in his DAC so he could make a profit! (LOL!)
Anyway they have been upgraded to Paul's Custom Shunt Regulators
(3.3v + 5v) to say there was an improvement is a vast understatement !
EVERYTHING has improved - timing, Attack, Jitter Rejection (Which was great to begin with) Low end Bass is Tighter Soundstage is VERY wide now - its truly a revelation!.. but could I stop there?? erm.. no
I decided to throw Some better caps at the Output stage!
After doing some reasearch I settled for Mundorf 3.3uF Silver/Oil 1200v!
Hmmm....... Silk is the word! I now have the DAC I Always Wanted at any Price!
i've enclosed some Pics so you can see the Support this 1543 Chip Has now!

Oh and if you want your DAC taking up to the next level try paul at

http://www.paulhynesdesign.com/ Nice chap to deal with and knows His Stuff!

All Pics will open to 'Supersize' If clicked!



This is the Rack I settled for - I wanted a Low Profile Rack made of Wood (well sorta wood! ) its very cheap and solid especially once Glued! - i'll be spiking it once the new curtains are delivered and I have to move everything I didn't bother with the centre Support as I wanted My preamp there
And it looks all nice and symmetrical!










^^^ Views of Regulators they get Warm - But not too hot to touch.



The Petite litttle caps I Fitted - Charles! I need a bigger Piece of Spruce!!



Any Questions feel free to ask - Any Major PSU Questions would be better thrown at Paul though!

[leo]

Very nice!

I'm glad you posted some impressions of Pauls regs, currently playing about with a Sabre based dac and having a look around for some decent regulation options

Leo

[u72]

Very nice!

I'm glad you posted some impressions of Pauls regs, currently playing about with a Sabre based dac and having a look around for some decent regulation options

Leo

Hi, if there are any Regs that can be replaced easily it is well worth doing
once these DACs/Control chips get Clean, super wide bandwidth, Quiet power
they are transformed! - The Altmann was good to begin with, But now its truly Stunning!

I've dealt with Paul on 3 occasions he Has been very helpful and even offers a Money back Guarantee on his PSU's - so no real risk

[leo]

Great stuff!

Voltages I need are +3.3v for the VD, 1.2v for the core and +/-15v for the output stage

At the moment pre regulated psu's are used to supply the onboard smd LDO's for the dac and oscillator

[leo]

BTW, did you have to alter any of the onboard capacitance for the dac after installing the PH shunts?