Hello,
I have been doing a lot of messing around through the week.
A couple of notes :
I forgot to say earlier that i have an SBooster feeding the fanless NUC.
Also, previous to the latest update i was running the NUC from Wifi with my Devialet Master connected to the NUC through shielded Ethernet.
After the update (which was a while ago) i could not get Roon to work through Wifi which is why everything is now connected via ethernet.
The first thing i did was rearrange the room a few different ways and played with the exact speaker location.
First reflection points turned out not to be a problem due to furnishings.
I ended up with the speakers against the same wall and at the same .75 meters from the wall.
They are now 2.3 meters apart with a slight toe in and the listening position is now forward at 2.8 meters.
This helped a lot. I am now getting some sound stage depth and the the overall tone is much better.
I have not been able to achieve that locked in imaging yet but will keep playing with slight adjustments.
On some recordings it is pretty great but on others such as Keith Jarret's Koln Concert it just doesn't come together.
Obviously all recordings are different.
I have turned SAM down to zero for all the changes and once i get everything else baselined i will start to adjust it.
In ROON i turned all DSP off and turned off the track processing along with a couple of other tweaks i read about.
I don't know if any of this made a difference apart from turning the DSP off which audibly softened the presentation a tiny bit.
The iFi power supplies used to be pluged into the Isotek Sigmus but now they are pluged into the wall.
I bought all new Ethernet cables. All Cat 6 UTP just because they are cheap and it is worth the exercise just in case there was an issue somewhere. I also added two iFi Lan Silencers. One into the NUC and the other into the switch. The Acoustic Revive one goes into the Devialet Master. This exercise did reduce a touch of the brittleness. Just occassionally previously i could also hear distortion but that now seems to have vanished.
I have also experimented with the various speaker cables i have laying around.
These include Mogani 3103 and 3104, Canare 4S11, The Artisan Silver and Neotch 3001 8AWG OCC Copper.
Not sure yet which i prefer.
The Silver is by far the clearest hear through sounding. It is a big margin and why i bought them in the first place.
The Neotech puts more meat into the presentation and increases sound stage depth...bass is tremendous, so deep and also textured.
However voices lose detail and separation is reduced. To me i would rank these two as equal but different.
Then comes the Mogami 3104, then the Canare and 3103.
At this stage though i am just noting the differences between them rather than which i ultimately prefer.
So, upshot is everything sounds much better through a combination of changes.
It is not where i want it yet, particularly in terms of sound stage imaging.
Tonally things are much better regardless of which speaker cable i am using.
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I will keep experimenting with the fine speaker position adjustments.
James
I have been doing a lot of messing around through the week.
A couple of notes :
I forgot to say earlier that i have an SBooster feeding the fanless NUC.
Also, previous to the latest update i was running the NUC from Wifi with my Devialet Master connected to the NUC through shielded Ethernet.
After the update (which was a while ago) i could not get Roon to work through Wifi which is why everything is now connected via ethernet.
The first thing i did was rearrange the room a few different ways and played with the exact speaker location.
First reflection points turned out not to be a problem due to furnishings.
I ended up with the speakers against the same wall and at the same .75 meters from the wall.
They are now 2.3 meters apart with a slight toe in and the listening position is now forward at 2.8 meters.
This helped a lot. I am now getting some sound stage depth and the the overall tone is much better.
I have not been able to achieve that locked in imaging yet but will keep playing with slight adjustments.
On some recordings it is pretty great but on others such as Keith Jarret's Koln Concert it just doesn't come together.
Obviously all recordings are different.
I have turned SAM down to zero for all the changes and once i get everything else baselined i will start to adjust it.
In ROON i turned all DSP off and turned off the track processing along with a couple of other tweaks i read about.
I don't know if any of this made a difference apart from turning the DSP off which audibly softened the presentation a tiny bit.
The iFi power supplies used to be pluged into the Isotek Sigmus but now they are pluged into the wall.
I bought all new Ethernet cables. All Cat 6 UTP just because they are cheap and it is worth the exercise just in case there was an issue somewhere. I also added two iFi Lan Silencers. One into the NUC and the other into the switch. The Acoustic Revive one goes into the Devialet Master. This exercise did reduce a touch of the brittleness. Just occassionally previously i could also hear distortion but that now seems to have vanished.
I have also experimented with the various speaker cables i have laying around.
These include Mogani 3103 and 3104, Canare 4S11, The Artisan Silver and Neotch 3001 8AWG OCC Copper.
Not sure yet which i prefer.
The Silver is by far the clearest hear through sounding. It is a big margin and why i bought them in the first place.
The Neotech puts more meat into the presentation and increases sound stage depth...bass is tremendous, so deep and also textured.
However voices lose detail and separation is reduced. To me i would rank these two as equal but different.
Then comes the Mogami 3104, then the Canare and 3103.
At this stage though i am just noting the differences between them rather than which i ultimately prefer.
So, upshot is everything sounds much better through a combination of changes.
It is not where i want it yet, particularly in terms of sound stage imaging.
Tonally things are much better regardless of which speaker cable i am using.
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I will keep experimenting with the fine speaker position adjustments.
James
