Hi team,
I'll add pictures later, but I thought I would do a little write up about the evolution of my system.
It all started in 2010 I believe when I purchased a Devialet D-Premier, one of the first 100 sold worldwide. At the time my source was a Mac mini outputting through firewire to a Weiss Int202 and then XLR digital in. The speakers were a pair of B&W 804s that I heard sound good for the first time.
A year later I replaced the B&W by a pair of Wilson Benesch Vectors and my system pretty much stayed the same for the next 8 years. I stayed up to date on Devialet with an upgrade to 240 first, and then to 250 Pro CI when it became available.
Other than that, the only noticeable changes were the replacement of my Viard Audio speaker cable by Chord Sarum T in 2017 or 2018, the replacement of my stock power cable by a Shunyata Sigma NR and the replacement of Audirvana by Roon together with a new Mac Mini modified by Mojo audio with their great Illuminati V2 power supply. I also switched to wired ethernet pretty much in the same time frame.
Things were sounding good and I was at peace till an early day of 2020 when I came across a pair of Wilson Benesch ACT One Evolution P1 speakers at a really incredibly low price point in Tokyo where the brand is pretty much unknown. I purchased the speakers, really loved what I heard and decided it was time to go from very good to great.
I started to look for a second D250 and quickly found one here on Devialetchat and here I am with a D1000 Pro CI sounding even better.
After a few weeks wondering about companion temperature and understanding that a stereo trigger cable was needed between the 2 units, after finding a like new Chord Sarum T RCA-RCA digital link cable I thougth I was all set...
Then I researched the drop outs sometimes occurring even with Roon Air... and I replaced my aging stock Netgear router by a brand new Melco S100 equipped with audio optimized 100 Mb/s ports that were supposed to by-pass the issue with drop outs. i think the sound got even a bit better, but it may be my imagination speaking. Overall, it has been a good experience with fewer drop outs that tend to only occur after I change some network cables,... leading me to think that I probably need to reboot the Melco to clear its buffer each time I change something in the network. Still investigating this one.
Time for a break? Well... not quite. How about the possibility that the network cable from my home 10GBe netgear switch to the Melco may introduce some electric noise in this finely optimized system?... Worrying thought that could trouble my otherwise sound sleep. A bit more research taught me that some people add fiber optics stretches to electrically isolate the hifi section of their network from the rest... Why not? Amazon came to the rescue and allowed me to acquire a cheap RJ45 to SPF LC optical converter from 10GTek as well as a short optical cable and a tranceiver for the SPF port of the Melco S100. I installed this between the wall and the Melco in a few minutes and things work surprisingly well.
Has it made a difference? Really not sure but boy... do I sleep even better. :-)
Done for good? Well... I now have a plan to replace my aging Mojo Mac mini by the next gen Deja Vu server Mojo is currently finalizing. It promises to be one of of the most optimized music server ever designed with a remarkable degree of interference isolation and super optimized sub-systems tuned for Roon ethernet replay... a Roon Nucleus on steroids if you will. More to come in a few weeks/months...
Wouldn't it be amazing if Devialet came up with a magical firmware/DOS upgrade that fixes the outstanding issues and further improves the sound of these great units?
Cheers,
Bernard
I'll add pictures later, but I thought I would do a little write up about the evolution of my system.
It all started in 2010 I believe when I purchased a Devialet D-Premier, one of the first 100 sold worldwide. At the time my source was a Mac mini outputting through firewire to a Weiss Int202 and then XLR digital in. The speakers were a pair of B&W 804s that I heard sound good for the first time.
A year later I replaced the B&W by a pair of Wilson Benesch Vectors and my system pretty much stayed the same for the next 8 years. I stayed up to date on Devialet with an upgrade to 240 first, and then to 250 Pro CI when it became available.
Other than that, the only noticeable changes were the replacement of my Viard Audio speaker cable by Chord Sarum T in 2017 or 2018, the replacement of my stock power cable by a Shunyata Sigma NR and the replacement of Audirvana by Roon together with a new Mac Mini modified by Mojo audio with their great Illuminati V2 power supply. I also switched to wired ethernet pretty much in the same time frame.
Things were sounding good and I was at peace till an early day of 2020 when I came across a pair of Wilson Benesch ACT One Evolution P1 speakers at a really incredibly low price point in Tokyo where the brand is pretty much unknown. I purchased the speakers, really loved what I heard and decided it was time to go from very good to great.
I started to look for a second D250 and quickly found one here on Devialetchat and here I am with a D1000 Pro CI sounding even better.
After a few weeks wondering about companion temperature and understanding that a stereo trigger cable was needed between the 2 units, after finding a like new Chord Sarum T RCA-RCA digital link cable I thougth I was all set...
Then I researched the drop outs sometimes occurring even with Roon Air... and I replaced my aging stock Netgear router by a brand new Melco S100 equipped with audio optimized 100 Mb/s ports that were supposed to by-pass the issue with drop outs. i think the sound got even a bit better, but it may be my imagination speaking. Overall, it has been a good experience with fewer drop outs that tend to only occur after I change some network cables,... leading me to think that I probably need to reboot the Melco to clear its buffer each time I change something in the network. Still investigating this one.
Time for a break? Well... not quite. How about the possibility that the network cable from my home 10GBe netgear switch to the Melco may introduce some electric noise in this finely optimized system?... Worrying thought that could trouble my otherwise sound sleep. A bit more research taught me that some people add fiber optics stretches to electrically isolate the hifi section of their network from the rest... Why not? Amazon came to the rescue and allowed me to acquire a cheap RJ45 to SPF LC optical converter from 10GTek as well as a short optical cable and a tranceiver for the SPF port of the Melco S100. I installed this between the wall and the Melco in a few minutes and things work surprisingly well.
Has it made a difference? Really not sure but boy... do I sleep even better. :-)
Done for good? Well... I now have a plan to replace my aging Mojo Mac mini by the next gen Deja Vu server Mojo is currently finalizing. It promises to be one of of the most optimized music server ever designed with a remarkable degree of interference isolation and super optimized sub-systems tuned for Roon ethernet replay... a Roon Nucleus on steroids if you will. More to come in a few weeks/months...
Wouldn't it be amazing if Devialet came up with a magical firmware/DOS upgrade that fixes the outstanding issues and further improves the sound of these great units?
Cheers,
Bernard
Room: Gik Acoustics | Vibration: Townshend pods | Power: Shunyata Omega XC + Everest + Sigma NR v2 + Sigma ground cables | Source: Mojo Audio DejaVu EVO linux server running Roon core (Raat) | Ethernet: Sonore Optical module + Melco S10P with dedicated LPS + Shunyata Omega Ethernet x 2| Synchronous: Mutec MC-3 + USB (Paul Hynes SR7T LPS) + Cybershaft OP21A (Shunyata Omega USB, AES/EBU, clock cables) | Dac/Pre/Amplification: Devialet D1000 Pro CI (Chord Sarum T RCA-RCA link) | Speakers: Chord Sarum T cables + Wilson Benesch Act One Evolution P1
