Has your system ever lost its Mojo?

cfrizz

This says it all right there. If you were listening to the music & not the equipment you would be just fine!

You are simply looking for another excuse to upgrade something. Just be honest with yourself & your wife & say you want to spend more money, but there is nothing wrong with your equipment!:rolleyes::p:D

Polkitup2 wrote: »

Heck, maybe I've just hit the point where my brain says I'm tired of listening to the same equipment.

mantis

Mojo is something that comes and goes. My system can sound like the best system to me in the world and a boom box in the same week.

Most of the time if the systems mojo is gone, I replace the weakest link and get everything back and then some.

Sometimes you just need to feel juicy, new always adds some level of juice.

Dan

Ferres

I remember when I first got to test the DC2's. The store let me demo them for a week or so, swapping out the Lsi9's.

At first, I thought they were just ok but I felt the polks where better. After a week of listening, I swapped them back and the store took back the DC2's. But after a day or so, I could no longer stand the Lsi9's sound and I got the DC2's back.

hearingimpared

Yashu wrote: »

You seem to be looking for mojo, well that means musicality, and with digital, you get that with non-oversampling DACs.

How do you get musicality with "non-oversampling" DACS? That makes no sense. How then does it become musical if the digital signal isn't smoothed out?

Yashu

I am going to describe the process:

Non oversampling DACs take the bitstream and immediately convert samples to "vector-like" waveform, very smooth, like a bezier curve, if you know what that is. The waveform is going to be very smooth, and some say that non-OS DACs lose a tiny bit of detail to the advantage of having a more analogue sound. If you feed a 24/96 signal into a non-os DAC, you are pretty much throwing that idea out the window as the bistream is already extremely detailed to begin with. The thing is... even at 44.1khz, the resulting waveform is very pleasing... it is entirely non-fatiguing.

Oversampling DACs use digital processing to increase the bandwidth for the purpose of anti-aliasing, and by it's very nature, you are going to get the "digital shimmer" that people often speak of. NON-OS DACs are a completely different way of approaching digital. It is like... trying to compare vector to raster, if you are familiar with any part of graphics design, you may understand what I mean. If I drew a curve in a vector program with a certain number of sample points, I could scale it infinitely and it would still be a curve, where if I was to do this in a raster program, even with all the anti-aliasing and filters in the world, you are going to end up with a pixilated/distorted image eventually, not a perfect curve.

That is the best analogy I can give as to what NON-OS DACs are all about. Right now there are a good handful of makers that have taken the NON_OS approach and applied it very successfully. I prefer it, because I love to listen to music for hours sometimes, and I never get fatigue. My last CDP, it was a NAD player, it was very nice, but after about an hour or so I would get a headache. I have tried others... and I just am not happy with the "digital shimmer".

I guess the NON-OS approach is in the "less is more" camp. It's not like there aren't any filtering output caps or anything on the DAC... you aren't going to hear ultrasonic crazyness or anything... just a liquid pleasing sound. To me, it *is* more musical, because I get more engaged with the music, rather than trying to nitpick at every last detail. Sometimes digital is like the "uncanny valley" of audio. I remember with my NAD player, sitting back and hearing what seemed like something real... but my mind kept trying to read into every little sound or transient, it didn't *feel* real... I don't have that problem with the NON-OS DAC. I kindof forget that I am listening to a stereo sometimes. It's nice.

I mean... you could always go vinyl?

Polkitup2

steveinaz wrote: »

Usually when this happens to me, it's because I've made more than 1 change in my system at a time, and it seriously screws with the synergy--did you change anything else?

No other changes. I re-checked all connections and everything is as it should be. Speakers are where they have always been. I think my system just needs time to heal.

Polkitup2

Yashu wrote: »

Give the gain adjustable pre-out a shot too if you can, I don't know how sensitive your speakers are, but if you can't turn the volume knob more than 1/5 before your ears are bleeding, you may want to notch the pre out gain down 3-6db. The class A stage of your pre should be used to it's fullest, and it would also give you a reason to try more cables between the pre out and main in. Try directional cables with a little capacitance (those little jumper bars work for the little NAD amps, but you basically have a set of separates, so treat them right)

Oh, and one more thing. Turn the soft clipping off. It gives those amps a harsh edge to the sound and only makes them hotter than they need to be. Unless your speakers are really bad loads, you aren't going to need soft clipping, and it just increases THD for no reason, and not in a good tube way. I hate how mine sounds with it enabled. It makes it fatiguing.

I don't use the soft clipping but that is a good idea about trying the adjustable gain.

hearingimpared

Yashu wrote: »

I am going to describe the process:

Non oversampling DACs take the bitstream and immediately convert samples to "vector-like" waveform, very smooth, like a bezier curve, if you know what that is. The waveform is going to be very smooth, and some say that non-OS DACs lose a tiny bit of detail to the advantage of having a more analogue sound. If you feed a 24/96 signal into a non-os DAC, you are pretty much throwing that idea out the window as the bistream is already extremely detailed to begin with. The thing is... even at 44.1khz, the resulting waveform is very pleasing... it is entirely non-fatiguing.

Oversampling DACs use digital processing to increase the bandwidth for the purpose of anti-aliasing, and by it's very nature, you are going to get the "digital shimmer" that people often speak of.

I mean... you could always go vinyl?

I get none of that digital glare ("shimmer") that you speak of with my Timbre DAC as a matter of fact, and I have many other ears that can attest to this, it is very analog sounding.

I know what my ears tells me not what some theory says it should be.

Yashu wrote: »

That is the best analogy I can give as to what NON-OS DACs are all about.

I disagree.

Yashu wrote: »

I mean... you could always go vinyl?

Vinyl is much more pleasing to listen to for hours on end.

lightman1

I haven't listened to my 2ch for around two weeks. Just wanted to see if I could hear anything different. Amps have been powered up 24/7 and the VU meters keep staring at me from across the room.

Yashu

I know what my ears tells me not what some theory says it should be.

That's fine. There are many good DACs of all kinds. NON-OS is not some panacea technology, it is just another way of doing things. There are good oversampling DACs, good upsampling DACs, and good non-oversampling DACs... just like there are good tube amps and good SS amps and there are good sub-categories of each. There are good class A, Class AB, Class D, and even Class T, there are good SET, Push pull, ultralinear class A, and so on.

Everyone has different ears. I have ears that are tuned to very HF sound... so I kindof like the pleasant, musical, rolloff that my non-os DAC gives me with 16bit audio. Like I said, it isn't for everyone. I enjoy it, and you enjoy your DAC. I was offering the OP a suggestion that was *different*, since that is what he seems to want to do... try something new and exciting. I don't know very many people that dislike the sound of a non-oversampling DAC. There are people that prefer the super-hyper detail of some other DACs, but again, it might not be for everyone. I am going to use the word "synergy" here. A system with a certain type of speaker and other components might do very well with either, it all depends. The only way to know is to try. I just know that, right now, non-oversampling DACs are at a price range that makes them a bit easier to experiment with. Scott Nixon, MHDT, Monica II, and so on... You can get a lot of DAC for your money.

Non-OS DACs take the source and directly convert to vector curves... so the issue is that jitter becomes more of a factor with these. That is the thing to watch out for. Oversampling DACs are less prone because of the way they take the signal and apply anti-aliasing and filtering. IF you can get a source with very low jitter, or perhaps a reclocker (then you can use any source you want), it will give you a very fine sound. I like it, and I know many that like it as well. That doesn't mean it is for everyone... just a suggestion.

reeltrouble1

hearingimpared wrote: »

How do you get musicality with "non-oversampling" DACS? That makes no sense. How then does it become musical if the digital signal isn't smoothed out?

you just had to do it didn't you..............

Justin should make you pay for the added server space.

Spent three hours in the Shed last night, so much mojo I bottled the shite for shipment to Polkitup. Dude needs to get tubed.

RT1

Early B.

Here's what happens sometimes that affects the mojo -- a change is made in your system and it sounds great. You're all excited, grow accustomed to the sound, and look forward to listening. After a couple of weeks, the change you made breaks in and you begin to hear a "new" sound. Then you scratch your head and wonder where the music went.

hearingimpared

Sorry, LOL!

venomclan

Fat **** and Dr. Bose traveled back in time to when I was a baby, they played Weird Al Yankovic through the Bose speakers on a continuos loop. Now I think Bose speakers are the best and I am white and nerdy.

Mojo gone.

madmax

hearingimpared wrote: »

How do you get musicality with "non-oversampling" DACS?

The AudioNote DAC I use is non-oversampling. They had a big writeup about how this makes it sound more musical but I don't remember all the hype. I'll look for a link later.
madmax

Yashu

What about the stress factor. If you come home stressed and *expect* your system to sound good and take it away... it may not. Sometimes, the best sound is late at night when you are least expecting it, or during the day when you come home happy, the sound feels right.

I don't know. They say a watched pot never boils, well I notice a similar thing about audio. Audio Nirvana is like a woman, when you are desperately looking is when you are the least likely to score.

AudioFilet

venomclan wrote: »

Fat **** and Dr. Bose traveled back in time to when I was a baby, they played Weird Al Yankovic through the Bose speakers on a continuos loop. Now I think Bose speakers are the best and I am white and nerdy.

I had a very similar nightmare once. Recovery was difficult.

venomclan

AudioFilet wrote: »

I had a very similar nightmare once. Recovery was difficult.

Years of therapy, years.

reeltrouble1

yea, years, dont forget all the little pills...........

major mojo ****

RT1