On Friday my Habst 75 ohm BNC cable arrived. If I am honest I am not a great believer in spending vast sums of cash on cables, I tend to think the money is better spent elsewhere. So I dithered with respect to getting a Habst cable, after all, it is not far off the same cost as the Mutec MC3+USB that I would connect it to. Anyway, in a moment of weakness I ordered the Habst, it arrived Friday, and yesterday I installed it between my Mutec REF10 and Mutec MC3+USB. The cable it replaces is a Pasternack RG216 cable. The Pasternack cable is the specification that Mutec recommend in the REF10 manual (RG216), it is also respectably short at 600mm. So for these reasons I was pretty confident that the Pasternack cable was allowing. things to perform somewhere near to the optimum level. My plan was to set up the Habst, and then maybe do a back to back test with the Pasternack cable next week, to see if I could discern a difference.
I left the system running for a couple of hours so everything could settle in, and I sat down for a listen with some familiar tracks. To be honest, I was pretty staggered by what I was hearing. I recall someone posting a while ago that adding the Habst cable was not far off the same hike in performance that you get from adding the REF10 itself. I felt that this was probably a slight exaggeration, but had taken it as an indicator that the Habst might afford some improvement. The thing is, to me the Habst has probably delivered more than this, it is like I am only now discovering what the REF10 can add to the system. The things that lept out at me at first were mostly bass related, the bass was more dynamic, powerful and had gained some real punch. Better defined too, with drums sounding more realistic. This is an area that I think my system is good at anyway, so to get an obvious improvement here is tremendous. In fact, it is dynamics everywhere, everything sounded more alive, real and exciting. The improvements were throughout the range, percussion instruments sounding more alive, real and engaging. All this from a clock cable. What I can say is that I have gone from thinking the Habst was a bit of a nice to have luxury item, to thinking that this is the best 800 Euros I have spent on my system for a while. So for me, going from Habst to Pasternack is maybe a bigger hike that adding the REF10 with the Pasternack. Quite remarkable.
Digressing a bit, I can say that yesterday my system sounded as good as I have ever heard it. Perhaps more importantly, it was more enjoyable to than it has been for a while. So flicking through some demo tracks, sometimes I might listen to a minute or so of one track, then skip to the next. Not this time, I was enjoying things so much I just kept listening and whole tracks were played, I then started listening to whatever took my fancy, this was good stuff. My set-up at the moment is PC, Roon HQPlayer (Upsampling to 24/192), microRendu, Mutec MC3+USB/REF10, AES/EBU to Devialet.
The SOtM bundle somewhere between the UK and Korea at the moment for Neo upgrade and clock cable replacement. I never did really gell with the SOtM kit, it was highly impressive in many respects, details, dynamics, but somehow it messed up the tonal balance of my system, so it was better, but less enjoyable to listen to. The mR is clearly inferior to the SOtM bundle, but somehow it sounds just right, and adding the REF10 and Habst to the mix has taken "just right" to a whole new level. In fact, it is not really a spaghetti system anymore, just the mR feeding bits to a REF10 referenced MC3+USB, so quite a simple set up really, and to me it really seems to work well. We tend to discuss component A sounding better than B, but sometimes system synergy matters too, and somehow the mR works in my system where the SOtM kit did not.
There is a bit of a story to the SOtM kit as well. I had agreed with SOtM that I would send back the sMS-200Ultra for Neo upgrade, and send back my tX-USBultra too, such that I could have shorter internal clock cables fitted. Three weeks ago I took the parcel to my local Post Office, together with another package to send to my brother in Canada. Both were sent by UK Parcel Force. For the SOtM kit, I requested the cheapest service with tracking. The person on the counter gave me my receipt and even circled the reference number for the tracking. A few days later, I checked the tracking, and the website advised: "this is not a tracked service". Oh dear! The parcel to my brother took one day short of three weeks to arrive, much longer than it should have taken. The SOtM kit has not arrived yet. If you take the absolute longest transit time in working days and allow for a week in customs, in theory, it is not actually late, not yet. If it does not arrive next week I think I will be seriously worried that it has gone missing. Ironically, even with the SOtM kit missing in action, my system has never sounded better or more enjoyable, I am absolutely loving it at the moment. Maybe fate is sending me a message!
I other news, Oxford Audio called me last week to advise that the cover for my turntable has finally arrived. I shall visit Oxford next weekend to collect. Not the most exciting thing, a lid for a TT, but it will allow me to get rid of the very tall rack in the corner of my room, which upsets the right-hand speaker a little. (as picked up by Thierry's analysis of my REW files) This will also allow for the addition of bass traps in the room corners behind the speakers So if all goes to plan, the TT lid might offer very real hike in sound quality, for all the right reasons.
I left the system running for a couple of hours so everything could settle in, and I sat down for a listen with some familiar tracks. To be honest, I was pretty staggered by what I was hearing. I recall someone posting a while ago that adding the Habst cable was not far off the same hike in performance that you get from adding the REF10 itself. I felt that this was probably a slight exaggeration, but had taken it as an indicator that the Habst might afford some improvement. The thing is, to me the Habst has probably delivered more than this, it is like I am only now discovering what the REF10 can add to the system. The things that lept out at me at first were mostly bass related, the bass was more dynamic, powerful and had gained some real punch. Better defined too, with drums sounding more realistic. This is an area that I think my system is good at anyway, so to get an obvious improvement here is tremendous. In fact, it is dynamics everywhere, everything sounded more alive, real and exciting. The improvements were throughout the range, percussion instruments sounding more alive, real and engaging. All this from a clock cable. What I can say is that I have gone from thinking the Habst was a bit of a nice to have luxury item, to thinking that this is the best 800 Euros I have spent on my system for a while. So for me, going from Habst to Pasternack is maybe a bigger hike that adding the REF10 with the Pasternack. Quite remarkable.
Digressing a bit, I can say that yesterday my system sounded as good as I have ever heard it. Perhaps more importantly, it was more enjoyable to than it has been for a while. So flicking through some demo tracks, sometimes I might listen to a minute or so of one track, then skip to the next. Not this time, I was enjoying things so much I just kept listening and whole tracks were played, I then started listening to whatever took my fancy, this was good stuff. My set-up at the moment is PC, Roon HQPlayer (Upsampling to 24/192), microRendu, Mutec MC3+USB/REF10, AES/EBU to Devialet.
The SOtM bundle somewhere between the UK and Korea at the moment for Neo upgrade and clock cable replacement. I never did really gell with the SOtM kit, it was highly impressive in many respects, details, dynamics, but somehow it messed up the tonal balance of my system, so it was better, but less enjoyable to listen to. The mR is clearly inferior to the SOtM bundle, but somehow it sounds just right, and adding the REF10 and Habst to the mix has taken "just right" to a whole new level. In fact, it is not really a spaghetti system anymore, just the mR feeding bits to a REF10 referenced MC3+USB, so quite a simple set up really, and to me it really seems to work well. We tend to discuss component A sounding better than B, but sometimes system synergy matters too, and somehow the mR works in my system where the SOtM kit did not.
There is a bit of a story to the SOtM kit as well. I had agreed with SOtM that I would send back the sMS-200Ultra for Neo upgrade, and send back my tX-USBultra too, such that I could have shorter internal clock cables fitted. Three weeks ago I took the parcel to my local Post Office, together with another package to send to my brother in Canada. Both were sent by UK Parcel Force. For the SOtM kit, I requested the cheapest service with tracking. The person on the counter gave me my receipt and even circled the reference number for the tracking. A few days later, I checked the tracking, and the website advised: "this is not a tracked service". Oh dear! The parcel to my brother took one day short of three weeks to arrive, much longer than it should have taken. The SOtM kit has not arrived yet. If you take the absolute longest transit time in working days and allow for a week in customs, in theory, it is not actually late, not yet. If it does not arrive next week I think I will be seriously worried that it has gone missing. Ironically, even with the SOtM kit missing in action, my system has never sounded better or more enjoyable, I am absolutely loving it at the moment. Maybe fate is sending me a message!
I other news, Oxford Audio called me last week to advise that the cover for my turntable has finally arrived. I shall visit Oxford next weekend to collect. Not the most exciting thing, a lid for a TT, but it will allow me to get rid of the very tall rack in the corner of my room, which upsets the right-hand speaker a little. (as picked up by Thierry's analysis of my REW files) This will also allow for the addition of bass traps in the room corners behind the speakers So if all goes to plan, the TT lid might offer very real hike in sound quality, for all the right reasons.
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
