10-Mar-2018, 16:50
An update of my adventures with the Mutec REF10 and SOtM 'bundle'. One week ago I was posting that whilst I could detect some real magic with the SOtM kit, I did have some reservations, specifically a slightly unpleasant 'glassy' characteristic, or a slight 'digital edge'. I have said before that I am not a great believer in 'burn in', but the advice from quite a few people was that the SOtM kit needs 100 hours, 200 hours, maybe more. I have spent the vast majority of last week 'away from my system', but I did leave the SOtM kit streaming away. It says something about the stability of the SOtM kit that fed from Roon with a playlist many days long, it was still streaming away this morning, five days straight without a hitch.
Anyway, due to my reservations about the SOtM kit, I had decided that today I would try running some experiments, switching my old faithful microRendu in and out of the system. Prior to doing this, I spent some time simply listening to the new set-up, which is sMS-200Ultra to tX-USBultra (sPS-500 Powered), to Mutec MC3+USB, with each of these devices clocked from the REF10. First to say, I was a lot happier with the way everything was sounding today. In addition, I had had a few thoughts during the week. I run Roon / HQPlayer, and my preferred HQPlayer settings have been honed by many months experimenting using my previous mR / MC3+USB front end. So what I was thinking is that maybe with the SOtM bundle & REF10 in place, maybe I could get a more satisfactory result with different HQPlayer settings. So for a while this morning I tried a few different options in HQPlayer, and even tried simply running Roon RAAT direct. This was an interesting exercise. First to say that I planned to do this to see if the 'glassy' treble could be tamed, but listening this morning indicated that the glassy treble was nowhere near as big an issue as it appeared to be last week. Nevertheless, this was still an interesting exercise. The main conclusion is that with the SOtM bundle and REF10 in place, the system seems far more sensitive to changes in HQPlayer, and the delta between Roon RAAT and HQPlayer is now far more apparent. So I definitely need to spend more time fine-tuning in this area. For the record, HQPlayer provided far more satisfying results than RAAT direct. RAAT did nominally sound a little more 'full fat', but via HQPlayer everything sounded far more nuanced and articulate. At this point I realised that I could spend the rest of the weekend playing with HQPlayer settings, but what I really wanted to do was the mR comparisons, so for now I reverted back to my previously favored poly-sinc-xtr.
In order to establish the influence of the SOtM kit, I planned to try the following:
1. sMS-200Ultra to tX- USBultra to MC3+USB (all REF10 clocked)
2. microRendu to MC3+USB (MC3 clocked by REF10)
3. microRendu to tXUSBUltra to MC3+USB. (tX and MC3 REF10 clocked)
OK, this may appear to some as a little bit of a 'David vs Goliath' test, with the little mR being a fraction of the price of the SOtM kit, and as a spoiler alert, the result is pretty much as you might guess, but there are some subleties in the results that were certainly very interesting and informative to myself.
Going from 1 to 2, there was a loss of detail and subtlety, so where layers in the bass are revealed by 1, this is replaced by a nice solid bass with 2, but some nuances lost. That said, microRendu to MC3+USB (2) was a really good listen, yes some subtleties were lost, but it was not like going from a good front end to a bad one, it was terrific to listen to. So you could say that the microRendu to MC3+USB was a nice easy listen, but ultimately lacks the resolution and subtleties of the sMS-200Ultra to tX- USBultra.
Then on to 3, adding the tXUSBUltra in between the mR and the MC3+USB. This was actually a bit of a revelation, adding the tXUSBUltra somehow retained the pleasant character of the mR, but everything was so much sharper and in focus, plus overall dynamics were improved. I actually spent quite a lot of time listening to this set-up, somehow it suited me, just plain thoroughly enjoyable to listen to.
Having enjoyed 3 so much, it was then back to 1, and yes, it is the best, with the sMS-200ultra back in the chain simply adds in those subtle nuances.
So am I 100% happy with the SOtM bundle? No, but I am now an order of magnitude happier with it than I was a week ago.
Plus, I am not finished yet. A couple of hours ago Mr Postman arrived, delivering the 12v 3A Lithium Ion battery pack that I had ordered. I bought this for a number of reasons, one of these reasons is that I have a non-audio related use for it, but the other reason results from a suggestion from a guy on Computer Audiophile. OK, before anyone jumps in on this one, I know enough about audio power to know that a battery is no substitute for a decent LPSU, low output impedance and all that good stuff. But it does offer the chance to get an idea of what an LPSU might do. Let's say for example that the battery kills dynamics, but does help clean up that last touch of glassy treble, then maybe I should be looking at adding a LPSU or two. (Now where is that rabbit hole....) I have other things to do now, so that is an experiment for tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I am now pretty happy, with a bit of fine tuning I should be there. Plus, I still have the SOtM modded switch to try. After installing the SOtM kit, I deliberately left this out of the system, a case of me not wanting to change too many things at once, but now I think I am ready to give it a go.
To be continued ......
Anyway, due to my reservations about the SOtM kit, I had decided that today I would try running some experiments, switching my old faithful microRendu in and out of the system. Prior to doing this, I spent some time simply listening to the new set-up, which is sMS-200Ultra to tX-USBultra (sPS-500 Powered), to Mutec MC3+USB, with each of these devices clocked from the REF10. First to say, I was a lot happier with the way everything was sounding today. In addition, I had had a few thoughts during the week. I run Roon / HQPlayer, and my preferred HQPlayer settings have been honed by many months experimenting using my previous mR / MC3+USB front end. So what I was thinking is that maybe with the SOtM bundle & REF10 in place, maybe I could get a more satisfactory result with different HQPlayer settings. So for a while this morning I tried a few different options in HQPlayer, and even tried simply running Roon RAAT direct. This was an interesting exercise. First to say that I planned to do this to see if the 'glassy' treble could be tamed, but listening this morning indicated that the glassy treble was nowhere near as big an issue as it appeared to be last week. Nevertheless, this was still an interesting exercise. The main conclusion is that with the SOtM bundle and REF10 in place, the system seems far more sensitive to changes in HQPlayer, and the delta between Roon RAAT and HQPlayer is now far more apparent. So I definitely need to spend more time fine-tuning in this area. For the record, HQPlayer provided far more satisfying results than RAAT direct. RAAT did nominally sound a little more 'full fat', but via HQPlayer everything sounded far more nuanced and articulate. At this point I realised that I could spend the rest of the weekend playing with HQPlayer settings, but what I really wanted to do was the mR comparisons, so for now I reverted back to my previously favored poly-sinc-xtr.
In order to establish the influence of the SOtM kit, I planned to try the following:
1. sMS-200Ultra to tX- USBultra to MC3+USB (all REF10 clocked)
2. microRendu to MC3+USB (MC3 clocked by REF10)
3. microRendu to tXUSBUltra to MC3+USB. (tX and MC3 REF10 clocked)
OK, this may appear to some as a little bit of a 'David vs Goliath' test, with the little mR being a fraction of the price of the SOtM kit, and as a spoiler alert, the result is pretty much as you might guess, but there are some subleties in the results that were certainly very interesting and informative to myself.
Going from 1 to 2, there was a loss of detail and subtlety, so where layers in the bass are revealed by 1, this is replaced by a nice solid bass with 2, but some nuances lost. That said, microRendu to MC3+USB (2) was a really good listen, yes some subtleties were lost, but it was not like going from a good front end to a bad one, it was terrific to listen to. So you could say that the microRendu to MC3+USB was a nice easy listen, but ultimately lacks the resolution and subtleties of the sMS-200Ultra to tX- USBultra.
Then on to 3, adding the tXUSBUltra in between the mR and the MC3+USB. This was actually a bit of a revelation, adding the tXUSBUltra somehow retained the pleasant character of the mR, but everything was so much sharper and in focus, plus overall dynamics were improved. I actually spent quite a lot of time listening to this set-up, somehow it suited me, just plain thoroughly enjoyable to listen to.
Having enjoyed 3 so much, it was then back to 1, and yes, it is the best, with the sMS-200ultra back in the chain simply adds in those subtle nuances.
So am I 100% happy with the SOtM bundle? No, but I am now an order of magnitude happier with it than I was a week ago.
Plus, I am not finished yet. A couple of hours ago Mr Postman arrived, delivering the 12v 3A Lithium Ion battery pack that I had ordered. I bought this for a number of reasons, one of these reasons is that I have a non-audio related use for it, but the other reason results from a suggestion from a guy on Computer Audiophile. OK, before anyone jumps in on this one, I know enough about audio power to know that a battery is no substitute for a decent LPSU, low output impedance and all that good stuff. But it does offer the chance to get an idea of what an LPSU might do. Let's say for example that the battery kills dynamics, but does help clean up that last touch of glassy treble, then maybe I should be looking at adding a LPSU or two. (Now where is that rabbit hole....) I have other things to do now, so that is an experiment for tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I am now pretty happy, with a bit of fine tuning I should be there. Plus, I still have the SOtM modded switch to try. After installing the SOtM kit, I deliberately left this out of the system, a case of me not wanting to change too many things at once, but now I think I am ready to give it a go.
To be continued ......
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
