Master/slave link

[Foggy916]

First post here. I'm a new owner of a 400 and am loving it. Driving my Raidho D2s with great success. Been doing some tweaks and wanted to report my findings on the link cable. I love the stock Crystal in the sense of it's great detail but it does seem that I'm getting a little bit of harshness at louder volumes. So, after reading this thread, I decided to give the RCA to AES/EBU a try and purchased a very inexpensive Monoprice cable for $5...yes, that's $5!!!! http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=11...1&format=2

Surprised by the quality for $5 and even more so I'm surprised by the sound. Initial impressions are that the harshness is totally gone and I get what most others are reporting which is a warmer more analog sound. Sounds great. Only down side is that I might be getting slightly less detail and separation but if so, it's a very small difference. The benefits far outweigh the loss of detail. Tone is perfect and non fatiguing even at higher volumes. Would love to try out the Audioprana and see how that compares. More to come.

Been trying out different power cables as well. Shunyata Alpha Digital, JPS Labs Kaptavator and PS Audio AC-12 (which fits under cover). Need to decide which one to go with so I can start the search for the second matching cable.

[wikeeboy]

Interested in how you go with power cables. I've read the Ps Audio is quite 'slow'. Shunyata make a specific cable for the devialet which is basically th same as the Alpha Digital but with a smaller connector that fits under the rear cover.

[Atomjohan]

I have had the Audioprana RCA to AES/EBU cable now for 2 days.  Only have had a few quick sessions but I have to concur about
the more analog sound and the harshness (that occurs in some music with my Diablos) almost fully gone away.


I will have a longer listening sessions this week and will report back my findings, but so far very positive!


//Johan

[amabrok]

I have had the Audioprana RCA to AES/EBU cable now for 2 days.  Only have had a few quick sessions but I have to concur about
the more analog sound and the harshness (that occurs in some music with my Diablos) almost fully gone away.


I will have a longer listening sessions this week and will report back my findings, but so far very positive!


//Johan

Hi Atomjohan

Did you get the all silver cable? I have the Audioprana all silver XLR-RCA with the same excellent outcome like you outlined. Add to that less lag between slave and master and improved stereo image


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Confused]

I recall that it was Guillaume who first mentioned the Audioprana cable on this forum. It looks like very many of us have now purchased, I think Audioprana should be giving Guillaume some commission, or at least sending the man a freebie!

[GuillaumeB]

I recall that it was Guillaume who first mentioned the Audioprana cable on this forum.  It looks like very many of us have now purchased, I think Audioprana should be giving Guillaume some commission, or at least sending the man a freebie!

Haha I've never even spoken to them. You can all just thank me instead. I'm the mug that spent £3500 on a 1m cable whilst you guys all spent £200!!!   

Anyway I'm quite happy with my choices, honest!

Guillaume

[miro]

I recall that it was Guillaume who first mentioned the Audioprana cable on this forum.  It looks like very many of us have now purchased, I think Audioprana should be giving Guillaume some commission, or at least sending the man a freebie!

Haha I've never even spoken to them. You can all just thank me instead. I'm the mug that spent £3500 on a 1m cable whilst you guys all spent £200!!!   

Anyway I'm quite happy with my choices, honest!

Guillaume

Which £3500 1m cable are you using between your master and slave units?

[Mikeeo]

Hi, 

Me too have been trying and testing different link cables but for me it has always been a question of coherence between channels (latency) and not so much of SQ in general. Though going AES/EBU instead of SE in to the companion made the companion channel sound slightly better. I am a bit surprised than no one (correct me if I'm wrong) reported lower SQ in the companion channel before going AES/EBU.
For me it was 80 % latency and 20 % SQ.
However, the hike in SQ when connecting my Unitiserve to the AES/EBU input of the master, was quite impressive, with both more analogue as more detailed and dynamic SQ.

But all reports here is strong proof for how important the coherence between channels actually is.

Still didn't get the latest firmware from December, I'll try it tonight and then I hope May and Munich will bring some well needed updates to Expert liners.


/Mike

[mauidan]

I think part of issue people are having with the stock Crystal cable is digital cables take a long time to burn-in.

I put mine on my Hager-Tech Frykleaner for three days before using it.

[Foggy916]

First post here.  I'm a new owner of a 400 and am loving it.  Driving my Raidho D2s with great success.  Been doing some tweaks and wanted to report my findings on the link cable.  I love the stock Crystal in the sense of it's great detail but it does seem that I'm getting a little bit of harshness at louder volumes.  So, after reading this thread, I decided to give the RCA to AES/EBU a try and purchased a very inexpensive Monoprice cable for $5...yes, that's $5!!!!  http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=11...1&format=2

Surprised by the quality for $5 and even more so I'm surprised by the sound.  Initial impressions are that the harshness is totally gone and I get what most others are reporting which is a warmer more analog sound.  Sounds great.  Only down side is that I might be getting slightly less detail and separation but if so, it's a very small difference.  The benefits far outweigh the loss of detail.  Tone is perfect and non fatiguing even at higher volumes.  Would love to try out the Audioprana and see how that compares.  More to come.

Been trying out different power cables as well.  Shunyata Alpha Digital, JPS Labs Kaptavator and PS Audio AC-12 (which fits under cover).  Need to decide which one to go with so I can start the search for the second matching cable.

My apologies but I believe I got ahead of myself a little.  After a serious sit down and repeated switches between the inexpensive Monoprice RCA to AES/EBU and the stock Crystal cable, I have realized that my initial positive reaction was a bit overdone.  Was so happy with the loss of harshness at loud volumes that I was initially fine with the loss of detail.  Now that I listen more, I have to say that the loss of detail and separation is not small and there is a big trade off for the warmer analog sound on the Monoprice cable.  My guess is that this is more to do with the inexpensive cable than the actual interface of the different connections.  Will have to give a higher quality (such as the Audioprana or maybe the Acoustic Zen Absolute 110 custom terminated) a try.