The postman was very kind to me last week. A moderate coincidence, but the Mutec REF10 ordered from Germany, and the SOtM kit, which is custom spec from Korea, all arrived within two hours of each other on Wednesday.
So yesterday I was busy connecting this stuff up. The Mutec REF10 generates a square wave, rather than a normal sine wave. Mutec claim this improves accuracy, but it does have the slight disadvantage that it makes cable length more critical, basically the shorter the cable the better. I need three clock cables, for the Mutec MC3+USB, the sMS-200Ultra and tX-USBultra. I bought RG216 cables custom made, 1 at 6" length, 2 at 12" length. My idea was that I would use the super short 6" cable for the most critical link to the MC3+USB. In practice, this did not quite work out. The MC3+USB has a significantly shorter case compared to the REF10, so the 6" cable will only connect the two items if you more or less align the rear panels, if you position the units with the front panels aligned as you would expect them to be in the rack, the 6" is too short. As things turned out, the 12" cable works fine between the REF10 and MC3+USB, and the 6"cable just about works between the REF10 and tX_USBultra, so at least I have bought cables suitable to get me going.
Some pictures to give you an idea as to how all this looks in practice.
Yesterday I decided to set the REF10 up with the MC3+USB, I just wanted to make sure the REF10 worked as it should with the MC3 and I understood at least this part of the system, I did not want to be messing with this at the same time as setting up the SOtM kit, with new streaming software and all the rest of it, as it turned out this was a good idea.
Apparently the REF10 need 14 days to fully settle down, but is supposed to work OK from cold after 30 minutes. Mine has been plugged in and powered up since Thursday morning, so has had a couple of day's running.
Time for some listening. I am sure that some regular readers of this forum will know that I normally like to test and audition kit before buying, I will do my research, but will then want to listen for myself, preferably back to back with as many alternatives as I can get hold of. Once I am sure whats best, that is what will get my cash. The REF10 is different, it was not possible to audition, the best option is to buy from the UK distributor Thomann (who are German). They are a good company though, good communications, everything well packaged, and they offer a 30 day no quibbles refund. Basically, I had bought the REF10 based on specification, reputation and the advice of a few people both on this forum and Computer Audiophile. With respect to members of this forum, I had decided that if the REF10 turned out to be rubbish, both @SwissBear and @zdenes would be in big trouble!
So still using my microRendu feeding the MC3+USB, I sat down to listen though a familiar playlist of tracks. First to say, SwissBear and zdenes have nothing to worry about, they are both right, the REF10 is superb in combination with the MC3+USB and the Devialet. In fact, it was very good ineed. OK, it is early days with this set-up, but I think I had a kind of mental sense of how I wanted, or hoped, the SOtM / REF10 / MC3+USB would sound with the Devialet. Listening to REF10 clocked MC3+USB with just the microRendu feeding it seemed to me to be already yielding the result I was hoping for with all the SOtM kit included. It was quite superb, I guess you can get a little apprehensive that new kit might prove to be a little disappointing, it has happened to me in the past, but not his time. With some sections of music everything was sounding just so good, so much better, that I genuinely got a little emotional. What kind of improvements? Pretty much everything, and that's over and above a level of performance that was already good. Everything sounds so much more natural, more real, and is much easier to listen to. I think my system already had a high level of detail, but somehow with none of that detail lost it turns into something just so much more natural and real. A noticeable improvement in dynamics also, harder hitting bass, more detail in the bass. Everything.
So far my day was going very well, then to the SOtM kit.......
I got everything connected up, loaded up SOtM's Eunhasu software, my PC and network correctly picked up the sMS-200Ultra, selected my desired playback mode, hit play, silence! Something was wrong. I messed about with a few things, nothing but frustration, the system did not work. In order to eliminate possible issues, I took the tX-USBultra out of the chain and tried again, with success, now everything worked as it should. So something wrong with the tXUSBultra? I checked the connections, double checked the connections, there are little selector switches on the USB sockets, I checked these, but still could not get the thing to work. A quick post on Computer Audiophile, ten minutes later someone replied, he had had the same issue. The SOtM kit is available specified for different voltage inputs. I doubt there is much in it, but the 12v versions are supposed to sound best. I had bought a 'bundle' package of the sMS-200Ultra, tXUSBultra and sPS-500 power supply, all 12v. The thing is though, the sPS-500 has a voltage selector, and mine was set to 9v. Now that I know this, I feel a complete idiot for not checking this. That said, I am happy to post my idiocy on-line, I made this mistake, some guy on CA did the same, if you are reading this and considering the SOtM bundle, I guess you will not repeat our stupidity. Anyway, sPS-500 set to 12v, tried again, everything works! Although this experience has left me a little puzzled as the why the sMS-200Ultra works with low voltage and the tX-USBultra does not, curious.
Anyway, that is as far as I got yesterday. The SOtM kit is working away now as I type this, I have no idea if it needs 'burn in' time, but it's getting some anyway. One thing I did not do yesterday was install the SOtM modified switch, so this is my next task today. More later!
I shall sign off for now with some observations about the new kit. The REF10 is everything I expected. It is a little utilitarian looking, but it does have the look and feel of something very well built, it is quite heavy too. The SOtM kit was a bit of a surprise, the units are smaller than I was expecting. Also, they are a little bit cheap and cheerful with respect to build quality, although they are not that cheap to buy! It is obviously a very basic case, the power switch / LED has a very flimsy feel to it, this kind of thing. Is this a bad thing? Maybe not, it is a fact that huge percentage of the manufacturing cost of hifi is in the cases, the fancier the case, the bigger the cost, I think with the SOtM kit a bigger proportion of the cost and expertise is going on the electronics inside, so you could say that if you value sound quality over flashy looking boxes on your rack, the SOtM approach is the right way to go. I have an 80's Japanese amp lurking somewhere in the house, I might just cut the front panel off and glue it in front of the SOtM kit!
So yesterday I was busy connecting this stuff up. The Mutec REF10 generates a square wave, rather than a normal sine wave. Mutec claim this improves accuracy, but it does have the slight disadvantage that it makes cable length more critical, basically the shorter the cable the better. I need three clock cables, for the Mutec MC3+USB, the sMS-200Ultra and tX-USBultra. I bought RG216 cables custom made, 1 at 6" length, 2 at 12" length. My idea was that I would use the super short 6" cable for the most critical link to the MC3+USB. In practice, this did not quite work out. The MC3+USB has a significantly shorter case compared to the REF10, so the 6" cable will only connect the two items if you more or less align the rear panels, if you position the units with the front panels aligned as you would expect them to be in the rack, the 6" is too short. As things turned out, the 12" cable works fine between the REF10 and MC3+USB, and the 6"cable just about works between the REF10 and tX_USBultra, so at least I have bought cables suitable to get me going.
Some pictures to give you an idea as to how all this looks in practice.
Yesterday I decided to set the REF10 up with the MC3+USB, I just wanted to make sure the REF10 worked as it should with the MC3 and I understood at least this part of the system, I did not want to be messing with this at the same time as setting up the SOtM kit, with new streaming software and all the rest of it, as it turned out this was a good idea.
Apparently the REF10 need 14 days to fully settle down, but is supposed to work OK from cold after 30 minutes. Mine has been plugged in and powered up since Thursday morning, so has had a couple of day's running.
Time for some listening. I am sure that some regular readers of this forum will know that I normally like to test and audition kit before buying, I will do my research, but will then want to listen for myself, preferably back to back with as many alternatives as I can get hold of. Once I am sure whats best, that is what will get my cash. The REF10 is different, it was not possible to audition, the best option is to buy from the UK distributor Thomann (who are German). They are a good company though, good communications, everything well packaged, and they offer a 30 day no quibbles refund. Basically, I had bought the REF10 based on specification, reputation and the advice of a few people both on this forum and Computer Audiophile. With respect to members of this forum, I had decided that if the REF10 turned out to be rubbish, both @SwissBear and @zdenes would be in big trouble!
So still using my microRendu feeding the MC3+USB, I sat down to listen though a familiar playlist of tracks. First to say, SwissBear and zdenes have nothing to worry about, they are both right, the REF10 is superb in combination with the MC3+USB and the Devialet. In fact, it was very good ineed. OK, it is early days with this set-up, but I think I had a kind of mental sense of how I wanted, or hoped, the SOtM / REF10 / MC3+USB would sound with the Devialet. Listening to REF10 clocked MC3+USB with just the microRendu feeding it seemed to me to be already yielding the result I was hoping for with all the SOtM kit included. It was quite superb, I guess you can get a little apprehensive that new kit might prove to be a little disappointing, it has happened to me in the past, but not his time. With some sections of music everything was sounding just so good, so much better, that I genuinely got a little emotional. What kind of improvements? Pretty much everything, and that's over and above a level of performance that was already good. Everything sounds so much more natural, more real, and is much easier to listen to. I think my system already had a high level of detail, but somehow with none of that detail lost it turns into something just so much more natural and real. A noticeable improvement in dynamics also, harder hitting bass, more detail in the bass. Everything.
So far my day was going very well, then to the SOtM kit.......
I got everything connected up, loaded up SOtM's Eunhasu software, my PC and network correctly picked up the sMS-200Ultra, selected my desired playback mode, hit play, silence! Something was wrong. I messed about with a few things, nothing but frustration, the system did not work. In order to eliminate possible issues, I took the tX-USBultra out of the chain and tried again, with success, now everything worked as it should. So something wrong with the tXUSBultra? I checked the connections, double checked the connections, there are little selector switches on the USB sockets, I checked these, but still could not get the thing to work. A quick post on Computer Audiophile, ten minutes later someone replied, he had had the same issue. The SOtM kit is available specified for different voltage inputs. I doubt there is much in it, but the 12v versions are supposed to sound best. I had bought a 'bundle' package of the sMS-200Ultra, tXUSBultra and sPS-500 power supply, all 12v. The thing is though, the sPS-500 has a voltage selector, and mine was set to 9v. Now that I know this, I feel a complete idiot for not checking this. That said, I am happy to post my idiocy on-line, I made this mistake, some guy on CA did the same, if you are reading this and considering the SOtM bundle, I guess you will not repeat our stupidity. Anyway, sPS-500 set to 12v, tried again, everything works! Although this experience has left me a little puzzled as the why the sMS-200Ultra works with low voltage and the tX-USBultra does not, curious.
Anyway, that is as far as I got yesterday. The SOtM kit is working away now as I type this, I have no idea if it needs 'burn in' time, but it's getting some anyway. One thing I did not do yesterday was install the SOtM modified switch, so this is my next task today. More later!
I shall sign off for now with some observations about the new kit. The REF10 is everything I expected. It is a little utilitarian looking, but it does have the look and feel of something very well built, it is quite heavy too. The SOtM kit was a bit of a surprise, the units are smaller than I was expecting. Also, they are a little bit cheap and cheerful with respect to build quality, although they are not that cheap to buy! It is obviously a very basic case, the power switch / LED has a very flimsy feel to it, this kind of thing. Is this a bad thing? Maybe not, it is a fact that huge percentage of the manufacturing cost of hifi is in the cases, the fancier the case, the bigger the cost, I think with the SOtM kit a bigger proportion of the cost and expertise is going on the electronics inside, so you could say that if you value sound quality over flashy looking boxes on your rack, the SOtM approach is the right way to go. I have an 80's Japanese amp lurking somewhere in the house, I might just cut the front panel off and glue it in front of the SOtM kit!
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
