What did you do to your stereo rig today?

I decided to solder the crossover harness to the pcb.

Thanks Trey @VR3 for giving me the push to do this. I wanted to for awhile but just wasn't ready to commit, I have no plans to remove the crossover anytime soon but removing will be easier than this was.

It was a pita for sure, but once I had it setup, it went somewhat quick, the Panavise was definitely a huge help.




To answer a couple possible questions, the Erse in the background was/is for A/B testing, and the .5 ohm Path resistor is mounted under the pcb.





I figure with the labor involved in fabricating the Cardas Litz harness, it's worth the try to take 3 connection points of bronze and tin down to 1, including removing a friction fit, the speaker tabs were soldered as well when I installed the harness.

One down, one to go.

I like the idea of directly soldering to the crossover boards. Molex connectors are convenient but too much relies on the tension of the pins, etc.

Upgraded the Auralic Altair.

Luther, we miss you.

Here is the back room. I am running out of room to put stuff.

Luther, MY man!!

I went much deeper into the digital domain rabbit hole. Completely replaced my digital front end:

1. dCS Debussy DAC replaced with dCS Rossini Apex DAC.
2. Bryston BDP-3 digital player and Synology DS718+ NAS replaced with Aurender N30SA digital music server.
3. dCS Puccini U-Clock replaced with Mutec MC3+USB.
4. AfterDark Giesemann Emperor Double Crown 10 MHz reference clock replaced with Mutec REF10 SE120 10 MHz reference clock.
5. Windows 10 Dell tablet replaced by Samsung Android tablet to control Rossini DAC and Aurender server. dCS and Aurender don't do Windows. The Rossini DAC and N30SA server can also be controlled with apps on my Android phone.

With this clocking setup, all my digital gear, including the EtherREGEN switch, is now tied to a single clock reference. The result with the former gear and the Mutec clocks was like sending the Debussy DAC and Bryston player to military boot camp. The result with the Rossini DAC and Aurender server was not as dramatic, but still a substantial improvement over running with no external clock reference. With the former gear, I compare it to sending recruits of above average physical fitness to military boot camp. With the new gear, I compare it to sending recruits of excellent physical fitness to military boot camp.

The Mutec REF10 SE120 clock has an excellent internal linear power supply. The Mutec MC3+USB had an internal switch mode power supply. Since my main stereo rig is a "SMPS Free" zone, I had to replace the MC3+USB's SMPS with a linear power supply kit from AfterDark. The AfterDark kit included a 6V Farad Super3 linear power supply. With the LPS mod, the Mutec combo took my stereo system to Seal Team training.

The N30SA server has an internal 8 TB solid state drive. With the replacement of the Synology NAS and its 6 TB hard disk drive, I am now completely "disc free"!

With regard to detail, clarity, bass response, and dynamics, the digital upgrades put sound on my vintage (seriously hotrodded) 35 year old Polk Audio Signature Reference System Stereo Dimensional Array speakers that I hadn't thought possible.

In the future, when I am more dedicated to audio than I am now, I will replace my SDAs.

Granite slabs to add weight to more rigidly couple the components to the isolation platforms below them.

treitz3 wrote: »

Alex had eluded to me that someone "a prominent member of AS" had purchased an SE 120 and the first person to come to mind was you..... but I hadn't heard anything. Congratulations!

Yes, Alex was speaking of me.

treitz3 wrote: »

Being able to clock the entire digital chain to one master clock is one of the reasons I wanted it. Clarify something for me though, please. If the DCS and Aurender both have BNC 75ohm digital cables, what is the purpose of the Mutec MC-3 plus USB? Couldn't you have just hooked them straight up to the SE120, or does the word clock serve another purpose? If so, what does it do or what is it utilized for in your system?

10 MHz reference clocks and word clocks are both master clocks, but they serve different purposes. A reference clock synchronizes (or replaces) the clocks of other devices. A word clock synchronizes the timing of individual data samples flowing between devices.

A reference clock, such as the REF10 SE120, serves as a clock reference for the clocks in other devices, or, in some cases, the reference clock replaces the clock in other devices. When connected to a reference clock, the device's internal clock synchronizes with the external reference. This reduces jitter because all devices are synchronized to the same clock reference.

A reference clock serves the same purpose as a conductor in an orchestra. He/she sets the pace timing and rhythm of the music. The supervision of the conductor results in a more coherent sound. The more complex the music, the greater the need for a conductor.

Another example is, I have four watches that periodically synchronize with the clock reference radio signal generated by radio station WWVB. WWVB's reference clock is a cesium atomic clock. All four watches always show the exact same time down to the second.

A word clock, such as the dCS Puccini and the Mutec MC3+USB, synchronizes each sample (word) coming from a source component to a receiving component. This reduces jitter since the timing relationships between samples will theoretically be the same at the transmitting and receiving end. The word clock frequency must be identical to, or some exact multiple of, the data stream sample rate. In my case, the word clock frequency is 44,100 kHz. All my music is DSD64 with a sample rate of 352,800 samples per second, or 8 times 44,100.

Referring to the last chart in my previous post, the REF10 SE120 feeds a 10 MHz reference clock signal to the MC3+USB, which then generates 44,100 kHz word clock signals based on the 10 MHz reference signal. It then sends the word clock signals to the Rossini DAC and Aurender server. The Rossini DAC and Aurender server DO NOT accept 10 Mhz reference clock signals. The EtherREGEN switch can use either its internal 10 MHz clock or and external 10 MHz reference clock that will replace the internal clock.

treitz3 wrote: »

I will soon be losing my Marantz Reference SA-7S1 shortly (can't hook it up to the SE120) and replacing it with an Esoteric P-01 transport. I planned on hooking that directly up to the SE120 via a BNC/BNC 75 ohm digital cable.

Looking at page 25 of the Esoteric P-01 manual, it appears that it accepts word clock signals and not 10 MHz reference signals. I did not find any mention of the P-01 being compatible with 10 MHz reference clocks. Check with Esoteric to make sure.

Remind me of a couple of JBL wood infused speakers.
And pioneer’s exclusive speaker?

Someone is off their meds if that is off topic lol.

Off Topic?

I didn't even know that was a tag option.

If it matters (when used correctly), to tag truly off topic posts, I'll go spend a few hours flagging and tagging actual offenders

On topic:

Mineral spirits for gummy goo on vinyl = good to know.

And those crazy modded RTA/SDA look neat