My 2019 Update Thread - My final system I think.

[Barry]

"That's audiophiles for you, they'll nick anything that's not nailed down. "
Like my new Avatar?

As they say Touché.

[CageyH]

As it is now yesterday’s tomorrow, has the postie emptied his sack in your box?

[Gazjam]

Yeah...

As expected its the Hana ML cartridge.
Preamps probably still a couple of weeks away.

[CageyH]

You sound excited about the new cartridge.

[Gazjam]

You sound excited about the new cartridge.

I am, but atm its just a piece of the vinyl puzzle still being put together.
Be a bit more buzzed when its fitted and Im spinning vinyl again!

The Serene KTE Pre is the biggie.

[Pigmy Pony]

Oi! Get your thieving mitts off my bog roll! It'll serve you right when you find I've already used one side then rolled it back up

[Gazjam]

Oi! Get your thieving mitts off my bog roll! It'll serve you right when you find I've already used one side then rolled it back up

[Gazjam]

Posties been,
Just a wee tweak nothing major.

[Jimbo]

[Gazjam]

With the new Holo Audio gear, I wanted to get the most out of it?

The sounds still all bit all over the place, but the "moving average" of sound quality is consistently getting better as the gear burns in.
When its on song its pretty wonderful. More to come I think.

Thought of stuff I had lying around to try to see if it would make any difference?
Had a bunch of isolation feet in my spares box.
All discarded as (as the time) not being the best sounding option.

The Herbies and IsoAcoustics stuff sounded better to me with the kit I tried at the time so everything else was discarded.

But as always one to experiment...

I tried a bunch of different isolation products I had kicking around.
Immediately obvious the best of the bunch was the old SDS constrained layer damping feet I had, particularly under the Holo Dac and its seperate power supply...

Always liked the Sound Damped Steel isolation feet, as they were based on sound engineering principles of MANAGING the vibrations (turning them to heat) through constrained layer damping,... and not some random "Audiophile" JuJu.

SDS's bread and butter is heavy industry scale vibration management, think power stations, fluid distribution systems and the like.
The hifi thing is a spin off.
(Great way to use waste material from industrial installs!)


Oh boy, this is better. A lot better.
The feet on the Holo gear have obviously not been an afterthought,
but the Dac and power supply sounded WORSE with the IsoAcoustics feet... and that usually means the gear responds better to managing the vibrations, rather than damping them like the IsoAcoustics stuff does.

The SDS stuff is the best example of that I've tried, and the match with the Holo Audio gear seems pretty fantastic.

Bought my isolation feet from them years ago?
2mm thick.

Turns out they brought out an improved version a short time back, had no idea.
So I got curious, and ordered a bunch!







Smaller in DIA at 50mm, so will look less bulky under my gear, and twice as thick at 4mm.
Getting my Mechanical Engineering head on for a bit, obviously the resonant frequency has changed - so a different proposition from the old ones?

Good email back and forth with SDS, no problem sending them back for whatever reason.

They are staying, turns out they sound a lot better too.
Bought a bunch and tried them out under my Holo Audio May dac and Red DCC Streamer.
Tried them one bit of Gear at a time and the effect was cumulative.

My System sits on a glass shelf rack, and thats never ideal.
These Sound Damped Steel isolation feet are maybe the solution to that?

Stuck em under my CD Transport and Topping Preamp, too, and it's all an improvement.
Great stuff, another wee nudge in the right direction.

Expect the incoming Holo Audio Serene KTE preamp (having same case design as the Dac) will benefit from good isolation as well, so have a play with that too.

Still enjoying the Journey