An update on my Aqvox switch. It has been in my system over two weeks now. Last weekend I managed to get much listening in with quite a variety of music, and I have to say that there were times I was thinking that maybe the Aqvox was offering some improvements. This was generally with less complex and more ambient music, in particular where you can hear the ambience of the room, little things. Ambience, a more natural soundstage, this kind of thing was catching my attention. It is at times like this that I am glad I stick to my never change two things at once rule, if say I had loaded the new 10.1.0 firmware, I would have had no way are knowing if these slight improvements I thought I was detecting were firmware or switch related.
I have also made up a earth lead for the Aqvox case. Now, some have advised that it's best to connect to the grounding pin on the amp (best for eliminating leakage loops), others to the power strip, (why connect a noisy earth to your amplifier?) OK, I had to choose one option, and I made up a simple earth lead to the power strip where the Aqvox is connected. Why? It was the simplest and neatest way of doing it for me, and to be honest, ground is ground, the amp's ground pin, the earth connections on the power strip, they are all connected together.
This morning I had some quiet time on my own, so I tried another run of direct A/B tests against the old switch, with the ground cable added, and of course quite a few more hours on the Aqvox since I last tried. My conclusion this time around is very similar to my original conclusion. Does it make a difference? Yes I think it does, but for me in my set up, it is very small. When comparing items with a very small differences in sound quality, there is always the possibility of placebo effect and 'expectation bias' being an influence. Am I 100% sure that my brain is not tricking me and I'm just imagining any improvements? To be honest, the improvements I am picking up probably are in the range that I could be kidding myself.
Anyway, I don't want to spend the rest of my years A/B testing things, so I am almost done with testing the switch now. There is one last thing I want to try, and that is an A/B comparison with the old switch and running AIR, rather than via mR/Mutec. The Aqvox will stay in my system, I am reasonably happy that it may be affording some improvements, but overall I have to say I'm a little disappointed with it too.
Once I have had a quick try with the Aqvox and AIR, it will be time to try that lovely firmware 10.1.0 that everyone is raving about! At least that one is free. Plus Mr Postman has just arrived and delivered the new firmware 2.5 SD card for my microRendu, it never ends!
I have also made up a earth lead for the Aqvox case. Now, some have advised that it's best to connect to the grounding pin on the amp (best for eliminating leakage loops), others to the power strip, (why connect a noisy earth to your amplifier?) OK, I had to choose one option, and I made up a simple earth lead to the power strip where the Aqvox is connected. Why? It was the simplest and neatest way of doing it for me, and to be honest, ground is ground, the amp's ground pin, the earth connections on the power strip, they are all connected together.
This morning I had some quiet time on my own, so I tried another run of direct A/B tests against the old switch, with the ground cable added, and of course quite a few more hours on the Aqvox since I last tried. My conclusion this time around is very similar to my original conclusion. Does it make a difference? Yes I think it does, but for me in my set up, it is very small. When comparing items with a very small differences in sound quality, there is always the possibility of placebo effect and 'expectation bias' being an influence. Am I 100% sure that my brain is not tricking me and I'm just imagining any improvements? To be honest, the improvements I am picking up probably are in the range that I could be kidding myself.
Anyway, I don't want to spend the rest of my years A/B testing things, so I am almost done with testing the switch now. There is one last thing I want to try, and that is an A/B comparison with the old switch and running AIR, rather than via mR/Mutec. The Aqvox will stay in my system, I am reasonably happy that it may be affording some improvements, but overall I have to say I'm a little disappointed with it too.
Once I have had a quick try with the Aqvox and AIR, it will be time to try that lovely firmware 10.1.0 that everyone is raving about! At least that one is free. Plus Mr Postman has just arrived and delivered the new firmware 2.5 SD card for my microRendu, it never ends!
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
