What have you purchased recently?

[Shiivu]

Oh absoultely, can’t wait for it tl arrive as I have some absolutely gourgous vinyls to try on it

[M0N]

@Snooze

Yeah I’m with you. I personally don’t think replacing an outlet will unfuck electricity nor stop anything that’s sharing a power strip from messing up. I think I’ll leave the power source stuff for last if at all.

Yep. I do think if you really tried you might be able to hear a difference with a nicer power cable depending on your situation, but for the actual socket I can’t even really detect a difference between plug sockets in my setup, the only reason I got better sockets is because I got a discount when getting other stuff and they seem to grab onto cables better which was helpful with more meaty power cables. But either way with what you have and your setup state, I wouldn’t spend any money on power related things unless you wanted to try something like a ps power plant (which I’d wait on doing anyways)

@Snooze

Yikes only “slightly above” the bifrost isn’t an appealing thought. My guess is that it fared better back 5-6 years ago when people were talking about it.

I should clarify, it’s better than most sub 1k dacs, but it’s also definitely showing it’s age, and I don’t know if I would buy one new. They go for fairly cheap used these days so it’s much more reasonable then, but I wouldn’t buy new since the value isn’t good in that case

[dB_Cooper]

@M0N

the only reason I got better sockets is because I got a discount when getting other stuff and they seem to grab onto cables better which was helpful with more meaty power cables.

Lotta truth here, I went with high grade hospital receptacles and the build quality was way better than the std. contractor grade stuff that was in there but when you plug a meaty audio grade AC plug in… it stays plugged in.

It’s a great DIY project.

EDIT: oh yeah, and get the stainless steel covers instead of the plastic ones, cause that would actually help in containing stray electromagnetic noise! They’re under $2 at your local h/w store.

[M0N]

I can see in theory the reason for them potentially sounding better, as having better contact/connection with the pins and whatnot, but I guess the ones I had in there previously weren’t doing that bad of a job in that regard lol. Also the ones I have in are basically like a hunting blaze orange, and that helps differentiate them from the normal ones so I know which is the audio breaker circuit and which isn’t, which can come in handy

[Draaly]

@M0N

I should clarify, it’s better than most sub 1k dacs, but it’s also definitely showing it’s age, and I don’t know if I would buy one new. They go for fairly cheap used these days so it’s much more reasonable then, but I wouldn’t buy new since the value isn’t good in that case

out of curiosity, you heard any more of the ayre stuff? Ive actualy been pretty currious about the QB-9 Twenty for a while but cant realy find anything on it

@dB_Cooper

Lotta truth here, I went with high grade hospital receptacles and the build quality was way better than the std. contractor grade stuff that was in there but when you plug a meaty audio grade AC plug in… it stays plugged in.

Yup. Whenever I do any work someplace I live I always opt for nice recepticals purely because of the ergonomics (and the fact they are like $5 more ea, not even that expensive)

[M0N]

@Draaly

Ive actualy been pretty currious about the QB-9 Twenty for a while but cant realy find anything on it

It’s respectable, although personally again nothing stand out, but that one is a well rounded and is worth it’s price used imo. That being said I’ve always been more impressed with ayre amps than dacs

[Souldriver]

The outlets in my house are starting to get loose after ~30 years but to be honest some of them have been abused with a lot of cord pulling and not unplugging.

@M0N i kind of know the answer but you dont just have one circuit for your audio right? Assuming with the amount you have there will be a few lines. Is the idea here to get the chain all on one line or each piece as isolated as possible.

Its crazy while looking at homes how screwed up some boxes are. Many houses dont even have grounded outlets, which feels insane.

[M0N]

@Souldriver

i kind of know the answer but you dont just have one circuit for your audio right? Assuming with the amount you have there will be a few lines. Is the idea here to get the chain all on one line or each piece as isolated as possible.

I have a few 20 amp circuits and they have their own isolation transformer on them too. 2 20s for my living room and 2 20s for my office? where I have most of my gear. A bit overkill but I figured if I was getting everything rewired I should make sure I don’t ever have to have it done again lol

[dB_Cooper]

@Souldriver

The outlets in my house are starting to get loose after ~30 years

Reminds me of a line from Borat. "my wife’s vagine is loose, like sleeve of wizard.

Sometimes there’s luck involved. When I moved in to our new apt, the room sharing my office and audio duties has one circuit dedicated to the four outlets in the room but the two lights in the room are part of another circuit that’s shared with the living room.

You don’t ACTUALLY need a dedicated circuit although it’s nice to have. What you want it to know what other things share the circuit your audio equipment is connected to and not use anything noisy there or better yet, not use anything there period.

The idea of a dedicated circuit is that there are not a lot of lines going all over the place so they’ll pick up less noise.

[Polygonhell]

@dB_Cooper

The idea of a dedicated circuit is that there are not a lot of lines going all over the place so they’ll pick up less noise.

The usual none audio reason they get run is because you need to power something that actually pulls most of the 20A from the circuit, I have 2 in my garage, one for a CNC Mill, the other for my air compressor, without the dedicated circuit, my air compressor will blow the breaker in my garage on it’s own if the lights get turned on at the same time.

There is technically no isolation between the circuits in your house, and isolation transformers don’t remove any noise, if you have a particularly noisy device (like say a fridge or AC compressor) you want to have as much wire between it and you and being on a dedicated line helps that.
There is also no isolation between you and your neighbor either, nothing you can do about this one.

[dB_Cooper]

@Polygonhell

if you have a particularly noisy device (like say a fridge or AC compressor) you want to have as much wire between it and you and being on a dedicated line helps that.

I’ve heard of a good analogy for this, someone peeing in the same swimming pool but they’re all the way at the other end.

[Draaly]

This is correct. If a clean circuit is realy what you care about you need to run it off os a separate transformer. I can see the effect of my tablesaw on my pc even when they are on completely separate breakers and runs

[Souldriver]

@dB_Cooper

Sometimes there’s luck involved. When I moved in to our new apt, the room sharing my office and audio duties has one circuit dedicated to the four outlets in the room but the two lights in the room are part of another circuit that’s shared with the living room.

Yeah when our upstrairs was added my dad had the rooms’ lights all one one circuit, then outlets on another. There is also a sub box up here as well.

[Gothique]

Another tangentially related keyboard post…

A bag of Gateron reds. Currently making them extra smooth.

[dB_Cooper]

Gabriel Gold Rapture XLR cables.

Hopefully these will live up to their name, it better be one hell of a listening experience.

[Draaly]

What are they?

[dB_Cooper]

Gabriel Gold XLR cables. I’ve picked up some Gabriel Gold RCA cables and enjoying them, and they don’t come up for sale often. The Rapture line was supposed to be their flagship so I’m going to be comparing/contrasting them with the Kimber Hero cable I’ve got.

They’ll go from the Weiss 502 into the LTA Ultralinear + and I’ll see which I like best in the chain.

[Draaly]

Ah nice. I didn’t recognize them. Hope you enjoy

[dB_Cooper]

I don’t even know if they’re sold any more, the company website seems to be in limbo but every now and then a new pair from the owner comes up for Auction on Audiogon.