It has been three weeks now since my last major update to this thread. Nothing much has changed in my system, I have simply been using and enjoying it. Enjoying it quite a lot as it happens.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to revisit HQPlayer settings. It was here I made a bit of a minor discovery. I had been leaving my HQPlayer settings alone whilst I tweaked other things, as it happened HQPlayer was set to poly-sinc-ext NS9. (not poly-sinc-xtr as I mentioned earlier in this thread) It turns out that this might be significant because poly-sinc-ext upsamples to 176.4kHz. With a bit of playing about, I found that a few of the other HQPlayer settings sounded better, specifically those that upsample to 192kHz. Speculating a bit, there is some logic to this. When HQPlayer is upsampling to 176.4kHz, the SOtM kit and the Mutec MC3+USB are all working their clocking magic producing near-perfect 176.4kHz feed, only for the Devialet to then have to do do the last conversion to 192kHz. Running poly-sinc-shrt, poly-sinc-xtr and others, HQPlayer is upsampling to 192kHz, so the SOtM kit and the Mutec MC3+USB are all working their clocking magic producing near-perfect 129kHz feed, and the Devialet can simply accept it, with no conversion of the clock feed via AES3. So that's the speculation. Today I tried another Roon AIR versus SOtM / Mutec head to head. This time it was far easier to decern the benefit of the SOtM / Mutec front end. Don't get me wrong, Roon AIR is still very good and we are talking small margins here, but whereas three weeks ago I was thinking was all this worth the hassle and money, today it is a case that I would not want to part with the Mutec / SOtM kit, it is definitely the way I prefer to listen now. It is better in all sorts of ways, subtle details, bass accuracy, punch, realism, and yes, spectacular treble.
Another curious thing is that I have on occasion been listening with Roon's DSP engine disabled, and I am now finding the HF far sweeter with the SOtM kit than I did a couple of months ago. In fact, switching between Roon AIR and the SOtM kit, it is definitely AIR that has the fractionally harsher HF. I am as convinced as I can be that the SOtM kit is simply improving, although it has taken a long time and a lot of hours to get here. Yes, I know some will say it is brain burn in, I am just getting used to it. OK, maybe, but the thing is that the comparison with AIR is now different, with AIR sounding just as bright, if not brighter, than the SOtM kit. As an example, at the time I first had the SOtM kit someone had given me a Goldfrapp album, I recall that a couple of tracks on this album sounded dreadful, overly bright with jarring presence range / HF. Today, with all DSP off, it sounds fine. I know that aural memory is fallible, but the difference between playing a track and thinking "this is borderline unlistenable" and then next time (a few months later) thinking "this sounds great" has to mean something. Curious. To be honest, a lot of little things have changed, multiple firmware updates have certainly changed how things sound with AIR, and of course, may change how things sound with other sources. Maybe AIR sounds more like the SOtM kit now, hence the closing of this apparent gap. If I can ever be bothered, I might try switching the microRendu back into the system, just to see if this still sounds darker versus the SOtM kit, it would be interesting to know. I am convinced as I can be that the SOtM kit has improved, so a revisited head to head with the mR would at least provide some interesting perspective.
Meanwhile, things are sounding great, which is good. So has this removed the desire to tinker? Actually no. Three weeks ago part of me was thinking that I had had enough, sell the Mutec and SOtM kit, just enjoy the music with AIR.
Today, I was enjoying the SOtM and Mutec kit so much that it seeds the "this is great, can it be improved more?" thought. There are a few ways that I can think to improve things a touch more, but no rush though, things are back to being enjoyable now.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to revisit HQPlayer settings. It was here I made a bit of a minor discovery. I had been leaving my HQPlayer settings alone whilst I tweaked other things, as it happened HQPlayer was set to poly-sinc-ext NS9. (not poly-sinc-xtr as I mentioned earlier in this thread) It turns out that this might be significant because poly-sinc-ext upsamples to 176.4kHz. With a bit of playing about, I found that a few of the other HQPlayer settings sounded better, specifically those that upsample to 192kHz. Speculating a bit, there is some logic to this. When HQPlayer is upsampling to 176.4kHz, the SOtM kit and the Mutec MC3+USB are all working their clocking magic producing near-perfect 176.4kHz feed, only for the Devialet to then have to do do the last conversion to 192kHz. Running poly-sinc-shrt, poly-sinc-xtr and others, HQPlayer is upsampling to 192kHz, so the SOtM kit and the Mutec MC3+USB are all working their clocking magic producing near-perfect 129kHz feed, and the Devialet can simply accept it, with no conversion of the clock feed via AES3. So that's the speculation. Today I tried another Roon AIR versus SOtM / Mutec head to head. This time it was far easier to decern the benefit of the SOtM / Mutec front end. Don't get me wrong, Roon AIR is still very good and we are talking small margins here, but whereas three weeks ago I was thinking was all this worth the hassle and money, today it is a case that I would not want to part with the Mutec / SOtM kit, it is definitely the way I prefer to listen now. It is better in all sorts of ways, subtle details, bass accuracy, punch, realism, and yes, spectacular treble.
Another curious thing is that I have on occasion been listening with Roon's DSP engine disabled, and I am now finding the HF far sweeter with the SOtM kit than I did a couple of months ago. In fact, switching between Roon AIR and the SOtM kit, it is definitely AIR that has the fractionally harsher HF. I am as convinced as I can be that the SOtM kit is simply improving, although it has taken a long time and a lot of hours to get here. Yes, I know some will say it is brain burn in, I am just getting used to it. OK, maybe, but the thing is that the comparison with AIR is now different, with AIR sounding just as bright, if not brighter, than the SOtM kit. As an example, at the time I first had the SOtM kit someone had given me a Goldfrapp album, I recall that a couple of tracks on this album sounded dreadful, overly bright with jarring presence range / HF. Today, with all DSP off, it sounds fine. I know that aural memory is fallible, but the difference between playing a track and thinking "this is borderline unlistenable" and then next time (a few months later) thinking "this sounds great" has to mean something. Curious. To be honest, a lot of little things have changed, multiple firmware updates have certainly changed how things sound with AIR, and of course, may change how things sound with other sources. Maybe AIR sounds more like the SOtM kit now, hence the closing of this apparent gap. If I can ever be bothered, I might try switching the microRendu back into the system, just to see if this still sounds darker versus the SOtM kit, it would be interesting to know. I am convinced as I can be that the SOtM kit has improved, so a revisited head to head with the mR would at least provide some interesting perspective.
Meanwhile, things are sounding great, which is good. So has this removed the desire to tinker? Actually no. Three weeks ago part of me was thinking that I had had enough, sell the Mutec and SOtM kit, just enjoy the music with AIR.
Today, I was enjoying the SOtM and Mutec kit so much that it seeds the "this is great, can it be improved more?" thought. There are a few ways that I can think to improve things a touch more, but no rush though, things are back to being enjoyable now.
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
