Nigel @TheFlash has just returned from a weeks cycling holiday and was yearning to recharge his hifi batteries with a cup of Fourlegs coffee and some hifi chat. He therefore invited himself around to Fourlegs Towers this morning and confessed his sins for staying away from hifi for a whole week.
After listening to Nigel recount his holiday highs and lows it was my turn and I suggested he might like to participate in a bit of hifi madness. My kitchen system for those who have not been here has pair of pimped Dali 104 speakers which @Lurch and the south coast posse will recall, driven by an old Musical Fidelity amplifier and connected to a Chord Qutest. The source is an Innuos Zenith running the new 2.0 app and this replaces the Zen Mini Mk3 bought yesterday by @DomT.
I suggested that Nigel might like to hear the Zenith playing a PGGB upscaled 768kHz track from the Opium Moon album because the ability to play these high res files is a new feature of the Innuos 2.0 app. After a couple of minutes we swopped over the USB output from the Zenith and converting it to dual BNC to take advantage of the Qutest’s dual BNC inputs. There was a difference but this post is not really about that.
So far, so good and all was pretty normal stuff for a couple of Wammers on a Sunday morning bake off with coffee to hand and plenty of catching up to do.
I’m not sure Nigel guessed the next offering and nor had I thought of it until just before he arrived but anyone who knows me will know that I carp on for ever and ever about the importance of power supplies. Indeed I use the Sean Jacobs DC4 with my Dave and I was using a Farad Super3 to power the Qutest.
The craziness of the morning kicked in when I suggested that Nigel might like to hear a Sean Jacobs DC4 powering the Qutest.
The Dc4 was ready and waiting having tried it myself only 10 minutes before Nigel arrived but I don’t think he had noticed it until I suggested the swop.
It was the same opening track from Opium Moon we had heard before. So both of us were familiar with the sound having just heard the track about 5 times in a row.
I knew what was going to happen and I was waiting for it. In reality it took rather less time than I had thought. I think it was about 6 seconds into the track. I don’t know, it might have been less.
Anyway, he turned to look at me with a crazy grin. Nigel said it just isn’t possible for that amount of change to the music to come from swoping the DAC power supply.
But it was possible and we had just heard it.
Plainly this is not not something that any sane person would do. Powering a £1,200 DAC with a £4,000 power supply is not a realistic prospect or proposal and we only tried it because we had to hand a DC4 power supply for the Dave which has a separate 5V output and which is perfect for the Qutest.
I don’t know though, maybe it isn’t so crazy if one might decide to upgrade the power supply to the Qutest rather than say adding and MScaler.
For any power supply sceptics, do not worry or fret, the DC4 is now back in the other room powering my Dave.
Move along, there’s nothing here to see.
After listening to Nigel recount his holiday highs and lows it was my turn and I suggested he might like to participate in a bit of hifi madness. My kitchen system for those who have not been here has pair of pimped Dali 104 speakers which @Lurch and the south coast posse will recall, driven by an old Musical Fidelity amplifier and connected to a Chord Qutest. The source is an Innuos Zenith running the new 2.0 app and this replaces the Zen Mini Mk3 bought yesterday by @DomT.
I suggested that Nigel might like to hear the Zenith playing a PGGB upscaled 768kHz track from the Opium Moon album because the ability to play these high res files is a new feature of the Innuos 2.0 app. After a couple of minutes we swopped over the USB output from the Zenith and converting it to dual BNC to take advantage of the Qutest’s dual BNC inputs. There was a difference but this post is not really about that.
So far, so good and all was pretty normal stuff for a couple of Wammers on a Sunday morning bake off with coffee to hand and plenty of catching up to do.
I’m not sure Nigel guessed the next offering and nor had I thought of it until just before he arrived but anyone who knows me will know that I carp on for ever and ever about the importance of power supplies. Indeed I use the Sean Jacobs DC4 with my Dave and I was using a Farad Super3 to power the Qutest.
The craziness of the morning kicked in when I suggested that Nigel might like to hear a Sean Jacobs DC4 powering the Qutest.
The Dc4 was ready and waiting having tried it myself only 10 minutes before Nigel arrived but I don’t think he had noticed it until I suggested the swop.
It was the same opening track from Opium Moon we had heard before. So both of us were familiar with the sound having just heard the track about 5 times in a row.
I knew what was going to happen and I was waiting for it. In reality it took rather less time than I had thought. I think it was about 6 seconds into the track. I don’t know, it might have been less.
Anyway, he turned to look at me with a crazy grin. Nigel said it just isn’t possible for that amount of change to the music to come from swoping the DAC power supply.
But it was possible and we had just heard it.
Plainly this is not not something that any sane person would do. Powering a £1,200 DAC with a £4,000 power supply is not a realistic prospect or proposal and we only tried it because we had to hand a DC4 power supply for the Dave which has a separate 5V output and which is perfect for the Qutest.
I don’t know though, maybe it isn’t so crazy if one might decide to upgrade the power supply to the Qutest rather than say adding and MScaler.
For any power supply sceptics, do not worry or fret, the DC4 is now back in the other room powering my Dave.
Move along, there’s nothing here to see.
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