Last week something occurred to me. Two years ago we had the introduction of firmware 8.X.X and SAM2. As things turned out there was an issue with the KEF Blade SAM profile for SAM2, for a while I had all sorts of bass issues. During this time I kept a playlist of tracks where bass was problematic in my system. To cut a very long story short, the SAM issues were resolved, but almost one year ago I discovered an unexpected use for the 'problematic bass' playlist. The words below are an extract from a post I made in August 2016:
Since then I have been using SAM, usually somewhere between 20% and 40%. Last year when I was first pondering the SAM V2 issues I set up a little playlist, so if I happened to be playing a track that I found to be particularly problematic with SAM V2, I shoved it into the playlist. Last weekend I just wanted to play some random tracks, and for no particular reason selected the playlist of SAM V2 problematic tunes. The thing is, they all seamed to sound quite good. Ummm. What has changed? Well one thing has changed, I was listening via the microRendu & Mutec MC3+USB With a chunk of free time this morning I tried a little experiment, SAM wound back up to 100% I played the tracks again via AIR3 / JRiver WASAPI. I made some notes re the bass for each track, here are some examples of the words used 'horrific', 'Rumble', 'unnatural', you get the idea, all was not good with some of the bass. I then played again via Roon / mR / Mutec. OK, for some tracks there was too much bass, with this material SAM could still do with winding back a bit, but the thing is, everything sounded OK, nothing odd or unnatural, maybe a tad too much bass but it did all sound good. The bass was natural, clear no rumble or overhang, all good. So after all, it looks like SAM V2 with the Blades is working just fine, exactly as it should, only with AIR / WASAPI the source signal was not up to the level of performance that the rest of the system can deliver. A definite bits are not bits moment! I have been singing the praises of the Mutec recently, I guess from subjective listening, but this was a real eye opener!
Zooming back to 2017, it occurred to me that this playlist might be useful in gauging the difference between AIR3, AES3 input and USB input with the Pro. Consider that some of these tracks sounded utterly horrific via USB and AIR2 on the Expert, but OK via Mutec AES3, would this relationship change with the Pro? At a similar time I had also tried kit like the Melco N1Z, this sounded superb, but again I picked up some slight issues with the lowest bass. A case of plenty of bass via USB, but better bass via AES3. One explanation for lack off bass definition is jitter, so you could argue that a decent USB source was being held back a little due to Devialet's implementation of USB, casing a little bloating of the bass.
So this morning I revisited my playlist of tracks which are either problematic or challenging with bass, depending on how you look at it. These were tried via mR/Mutec/AES3, Roon AIR, and mR direct to USB. If the results were the same as with the 'old' Expert I would expect mR/Mutec/AES3 to be best, AIR next up, and mR direct to have lots of bass but to sound fairly poor with these tracks due to some bloating of the bass.
What I can say is the results with the Pro were very different!
I ran through the tracks and made notes, just to record if a particular track sounded OK, slight bass bloating, and so on. The end results for mR/Mutec/AES3 and Roon AIR were pretty much identical. With some tracks I think I might put Roon AIR ahead as sounding best, after more listening, too close to call. I suspect the mR/Mutec/AES3 is perhaps going an absolute fraction deeper making Roon AIR sound cleaner with these tracks. To be honest, the clearest observation I can make is that in real terms there was absolutely nothing in it.
The big surprise was then trying the mR direct via USB. Not an easy one to rapid A/B test, as it requires a cable swap, an mR reboot, the PC then cannot find the mR and so on, then a PC reboot, Roon settings get confused, and so on. ARRRGG! Anyway, I got everything sorted and, much to my surprise, the run through of the tracks with mR direct via USB showed less bass issues than either Roon AIR or AES3. So all good? No, not really, because there was slightly less bass and it was not digging as deep. In fact, versus Roon AIR or AES3, everything sounded a bit softer and less distinct, just plain not as good everywhere.
This does then beg a question. How would the Pro sound with one of the more 'state of the art' USB sources? Different than versus AES3 than with the Expert I would say, which means all my past accumulated experience with Aurenders and Melcos, AES versus USB, is perhaps of limited use with the Pro.
Speculating, I think that via AIR and USB, the asynchronous performance of the Pro is better versus the Expert. I cannot really say how good the USB input is because I have nothing better to hand than an mR. That said, definitely a lot of the clarity and magic had gone with the mR /USB, previously I quite liked the mR even direct to USB, lowest bass issues apart. So I suspect that AES3 remains king. The thing is, Roon AIR pretty much matches it and might even be a touch better in some respects. This then begs another question, how would things compare with a top level source via AES3, such as the Aurender W20 with master clock or dCS Vivaldi?
For me, I'm done for a while now. The problem now is that the above question might become historic very soon if the Core Infinity board is good. So it's time to sit back, enjoy the tunes and see what the future may bring.
Since then I have been using SAM, usually somewhere between 20% and 40%. Last year when I was first pondering the SAM V2 issues I set up a little playlist, so if I happened to be playing a track that I found to be particularly problematic with SAM V2, I shoved it into the playlist. Last weekend I just wanted to play some random tracks, and for no particular reason selected the playlist of SAM V2 problematic tunes. The thing is, they all seamed to sound quite good. Ummm. What has changed? Well one thing has changed, I was listening via the microRendu & Mutec MC3+USB With a chunk of free time this morning I tried a little experiment, SAM wound back up to 100% I played the tracks again via AIR3 / JRiver WASAPI. I made some notes re the bass for each track, here are some examples of the words used 'horrific', 'Rumble', 'unnatural', you get the idea, all was not good with some of the bass. I then played again via Roon / mR / Mutec. OK, for some tracks there was too much bass, with this material SAM could still do with winding back a bit, but the thing is, everything sounded OK, nothing odd or unnatural, maybe a tad too much bass but it did all sound good. The bass was natural, clear no rumble or overhang, all good. So after all, it looks like SAM V2 with the Blades is working just fine, exactly as it should, only with AIR / WASAPI the source signal was not up to the level of performance that the rest of the system can deliver. A definite bits are not bits moment! I have been singing the praises of the Mutec recently, I guess from subjective listening, but this was a real eye opener!
Zooming back to 2017, it occurred to me that this playlist might be useful in gauging the difference between AIR3, AES3 input and USB input with the Pro. Consider that some of these tracks sounded utterly horrific via USB and AIR2 on the Expert, but OK via Mutec AES3, would this relationship change with the Pro? At a similar time I had also tried kit like the Melco N1Z, this sounded superb, but again I picked up some slight issues with the lowest bass. A case of plenty of bass via USB, but better bass via AES3. One explanation for lack off bass definition is jitter, so you could argue that a decent USB source was being held back a little due to Devialet's implementation of USB, casing a little bloating of the bass.
So this morning I revisited my playlist of tracks which are either problematic or challenging with bass, depending on how you look at it. These were tried via mR/Mutec/AES3, Roon AIR, and mR direct to USB. If the results were the same as with the 'old' Expert I would expect mR/Mutec/AES3 to be best, AIR next up, and mR direct to have lots of bass but to sound fairly poor with these tracks due to some bloating of the bass.
What I can say is the results with the Pro were very different!
I ran through the tracks and made notes, just to record if a particular track sounded OK, slight bass bloating, and so on. The end results for mR/Mutec/AES3 and Roon AIR were pretty much identical. With some tracks I think I might put Roon AIR ahead as sounding best, after more listening, too close to call. I suspect the mR/Mutec/AES3 is perhaps going an absolute fraction deeper making Roon AIR sound cleaner with these tracks. To be honest, the clearest observation I can make is that in real terms there was absolutely nothing in it.
The big surprise was then trying the mR direct via USB. Not an easy one to rapid A/B test, as it requires a cable swap, an mR reboot, the PC then cannot find the mR and so on, then a PC reboot, Roon settings get confused, and so on. ARRRGG! Anyway, I got everything sorted and, much to my surprise, the run through of the tracks with mR direct via USB showed less bass issues than either Roon AIR or AES3. So all good? No, not really, because there was slightly less bass and it was not digging as deep. In fact, versus Roon AIR or AES3, everything sounded a bit softer and less distinct, just plain not as good everywhere.
This does then beg a question. How would the Pro sound with one of the more 'state of the art' USB sources? Different than versus AES3 than with the Expert I would say, which means all my past accumulated experience with Aurenders and Melcos, AES versus USB, is perhaps of limited use with the Pro.
Speculating, I think that via AIR and USB, the asynchronous performance of the Pro is better versus the Expert. I cannot really say how good the USB input is because I have nothing better to hand than an mR. That said, definitely a lot of the clarity and magic had gone with the mR /USB, previously I quite liked the mR even direct to USB, lowest bass issues apart. So I suspect that AES3 remains king. The thing is, Roon AIR pretty much matches it and might even be a touch better in some respects. This then begs another question, how would things compare with a top level source via AES3, such as the Aurender W20 with master clock or dCS Vivaldi?
For me, I'm done for a while now. The problem now is that the above question might become historic very soon if the Core Infinity board is good. So it's time to sit back, enjoy the tunes and see what the future may bring.
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
