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Confessions of a Wire Skeptic

Boomer Bill

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Are there real differences between DACs? Wires? Silly Questions? Oh Yeah, One Great Amp!

A friend of mine, Bob, has a home theater entertainment system featuring an Integra DTR 60.5 AV receiver. He uses Golden Ear Triton 1 main speakers, Emotiva T2 rear speakers in a 5.0 arrangement (the Triton 1s have powered “subs” built-in) and a Wharfdale Diamond 10-CS Center Channel speaker. Respectable gear, right? He’s an avid music collector and an amateur ethno-musicoligist. He plays several instruments, and is involved in several groups who perform live music. He records (digitally, 96/24) live music of all kinds every now and then and has good ears.

Recently, Bob called me up: “Hey Bill, I’ve bought eight (yes 8!) DACS over the years and I don’t hear much difference between them. What gives?

I read all kinds of reviews and read about big differences: ‘so and so has a clearer presentation’ and all that.” It seems he’s bought every small outboard DAC under $400 that has come onto the market. At last count, seven of them. (An eighth one set him back $1000.) He’s since given away a couple of them. Remember the original little red Music Streamer? It was inexpensive and got good reviews and was one of the first on the market. So he bought one and liked it. The company, High Resolution Technologies LLC, made a couple of other models later on; the Music Streamer II (surprise, surprise!), and the Head Streamer. He bought one of each. He won a much pricier ($450ish) ADL Cruise (by Furtech) DAC at a meeting of the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society, and it quickly became his favorite (maybe the fancy ads with the pretty girls influenced his opinion). Later on, he bought the original Dragonfly; later still, the Meridian Explorer 2; and recently, the newest Dragonfly Black.

Well, when he hooked them up to his laptop, and plugged them into the AUX INs of his Integra, he heard very little difference between them. He was beginning to think he’d been spending for no improvement worth the $$. Nobody likes to feel that way, right?

So I suggested he bring over the laptop, the DACs, and his music (on CDs and thumb drives with digital downloads, etc - not much more than an armful of stuff - not much to carry in from the car). We know (don’t we?) that the software we use to play music from computers is critical part of the “system” used to play digital music. If Bob was using Windows Media Player, the music would never sound good. (Personally, I use Media Monkey. For creating and editing, I use Wave Pad from NCH Software.)

Bob brought lots of music, but we’ll only talk (write/read?) about two: the simply glorious Handel Messiah from BR- Klassik 900510 (tracks 3, 14-21, 40, 46), and Jennifer Warnes “famous blue raincoat” 20th Anniversary 24K Gold Edition (track 4, Joan of Arc).

It was immediately obvious the Microsoft software would not do. It seems that simply (?) presenting the digits in a file to a USB port is NOT a simple thing. We put Media Monkey, version 4.1.24.1883 (it’s free!) on to Bob’s laptop and used it for all our listening. (Who knew people were writing software in 1883?)

Now I am a fortunate man with a tolerant wife. I have five systems in my home. The Main System in the living room has an electronic xover (miniDSP 4x8) and an amp (60 wpc, solid state) for each of the 4 speakers (per side) in a 4 way array (Linkwitz LX521-4) for the front stereo pair, a Wharfdale center channel speaker, and a pair of Golden Ear Triton 5s for the rear channels. The control center is an Emotiva MC-700. There’s a bedroom setup; the den setup has an Integra DTR 7.8 as a front end feeding a miniDSP 2x4, an Emotiva UPR-500 power amp for the Linkwitz LX mini front speakers and subwoofer, Carver satellites in the rear for a 4.1 system. There’s a 4.1 system in our double office also.

But there is another one in the double office that counts for our tale of woe (or Wow!). It’s just a stereo system featuring an EleKit TU-8600 power amp (is 9 wpc a power amp or just an amp?) which is an outstanding revealer of anything you feed into it. This my experimental, go-to, knows all - tells all system I use for developing speakers, testing cables and devices, and anything audio. It presently feeds a very efficient (100 db or so sensitivity) pair of 2 way speakers with horn tweeters (fed through a single Mundorf capacitor and one resistor) and 15’ woofers (run directly) in sealed cabinets that turned out way better than I had anticipated. The EleKit has its own input level control. This lil’ darlin’ tells the truth. And, if you turn it up, those efficient speakers will chase you out the room!

So, after we get the new Media Monkey software running on Bob’s laptop (feeding the laptop’s audio out straight into the EleKit TU-8600) and proving it’s better than the program Bob had been using, we plugged his HRT Head Streamer, into the laptop’s USB jack via a generic 12 wire. Much more on that later. The output fed the amp via a mini-phone one one end and phono plug on the other.

HRT Head Streamer

Joan of Arc Little tinkles at the beginning clear but faint, Very good depth, excellent separation of background voices (overdubs) and accompanying instruments, ranks first of the small units connected by short or no cords.

Messiah: pending - see below


Meridian Explorer 2

Joan of Arc: Louder overall, Little tinkles at the beginning clear but hardly there. Fair depth, fair separation of background voices (overdubs) and accompanying instruments, less bass, ranks third.

Messiah: pending - see below


ADL (by Furtech) Cruise

Joan of Arc: Wispy tinkles, good bass, half the depth of the Head Streamer, cardboard sound of the drums and block strikes, less character of accompanying instruments. poorer separation of backup vocals, ranks 2nd.

Messiah: pending - see below


Dragonfly Black v1.5

Joan of Arc: Opening tinkles absent, less “real” sound of piano & other instruments, bass OK, least depth of all, percussion “clicks” sounded ceramic, not dreadful but the worst of the batch, ranks 4th.

Messiah: The Dragonfly does not need or use a connecting cable; it plugs directly into the computer it is used with. So it is fair to rate it without waiting for a Starlight cable suitable for the other three DACs in this comparison. For whatever reasons, the Dragonfly Black performed much better with this recording than with the one above. The depth was good. The clarity was 90% of the Music Streamer II with the Starlight cable. Noticeable shortcomings: the attack of the harpsichord is there in track 40 (the Hallelujah Chorus) when it isn’t overwhelmed but the end of its notes are swallowed up by the mass of the sounds; the sopranos sing, “King of King” the final “s” on the second word “King” is simply not there it is lost in the immensity of sound. Pity.


Music Streamer II

Joan of Arc: Holy Smoke! Loudest of the batch. Opening tinkles barely there but extremely delicate and clear. Very good depth, an oriental - mysterious favor to the section immediately preceding the vocals, something very different was going on with this unit. Startling! It was so remarkable, Bob and I spontaneously changed our seating position. Actually, we practically jumped out of our seats! We expected the 10 foot wire would sound worse than 12 inch one. It sounded better; way better! Remarkable transparency! Way ahead of the others!

Messiah: Simply outstanding! How much of this is due to the Wireworld Starlight 7 cable (described below), we can’t say. The harpsichord is merrily plinking away as Hallelujah Chorus (track 40) floods the room with sound. You can hear its notes start and stop unless completely overwhelmed by all the other sounds. You can “see” the wall in the back of the stage. It is remarkable. The Meridian 2 with a Starlight 7 cable is slightly warmer (sweet) and very slightly transparent, and a bit more up front. You can probably get a Music Streamer II on the used market at a very low price.

(The three other DACs use a miniB connector and a Starlight 7 cable with the proper cable fitting for them is in the mail as I write this. We want to do a fair test.)

We think the Music Streamer II is the oldest unit in batch as it had the older style USB input on the device. It is shaped like a flattened tip ‘home plate’ and it’s called type B. With the exception of the Dragonfly Black, which plugs directly in to the computer, all the others connected with the “miniB” connector. We used the same 12 inch, white pigtail to connect the three other DACs to the computer. The wire is labeled “E205663 AWM STYLE 2725 28AWG/1P+24AWG/2C 80oC 30V VW-1 USB2.0 D&S.”

All the other (non- Music Streamer II) DACs had mini phone plug output connectors and were connected to the amp via a three foot Monster Cable “101XLN Standard XTRA Low Noise Audio Interconnecting Cable with Double Helix Construction” with a 3.5mm miniphone plug on one end and phono plugs on the other, all gold plated. These plugged into gold plated brass blocks containing two female phono jacks and one male phono plug. The wire to the amp, described below, plugged into the brass block’s other female phono sockets.

The Music Streamer II was attached to the computer with a 10 foot, red, “WIREWORLD :) STARLIGHT 7 HIGH SPEED USB AUDIO (STB) SILVER CLAD OFC SYMMETRICON DESIGN COMPOSILEX 2 24AWG/1P+ 20AWG/1C E301195 UL AWM2725 80oC 30V.” (No wonder it’s 10 feet long! And, yes, the smiley face is printed on the cable.) The outer parts of the connectors were gold plated. All those numbers means the 10 foot long wire had larger conductors in it than the 1 foot long connecting wire did. And perhaps the wire was silver plated.

We tested the Music Streamer II last because it used a different cable than the others. Here’s what we noticed immediately: each sound, from the tiniest tinkle to the sliding steel guitar string (in Joan of Arc) had its own distinct boundaries. Each sound was clean and clear. If sound was soup, it was Vietnamese Pho and not New England Clam chowder. You could look in the bowl and see all the ingredients all the way to the bottom. It was free of a sort of haze (milkiness?) or dust that seemed to be between us and the instruments which was present in EVERY OTHER UNIT (but less in the Firefly Black).

I know from many experiments that solid silver wire sounds better (to me) than anything else I’ve tried, including solid gold and gold plated wire. Yet I am a “wire skeptic.” It is hard for me to believe that a 12 inch wire can possibly sound worse than a 10 FOOT wire! Was it the wire or the DAC that sounded better? I will get a silver plated cable with the proper ends to check out this mystery. It is possible that the three foot miniphone plug cable and connecting brass blocks were responsible for the sound degradation as well. The amp’s interconnects phono plugs went directly into the Music Streamer II. Less likely than the USB cable to be a problem, I’m guessing.

Yikes! The USB cable makes a difference! Yes! A day or two after writing the above, I scoured the house for a short USB cable with A and B ends. Bob loaned me the Music Streamer II while he waits for the used Wireworld Starlight 7 cable he ordered online. I found a very generic 3 footer, black with a round cross section that looks very ordinary. No printing on it. I also found a five foot generic cable made by the same folks that made the white 1 foot lead. As you might guess from the paragraph title, both the black wires let less of the music through than the Wireworld Starlight 7. The Wireworld Starlight 7 looks flat and the heavier power leads are in a normal coaxial cable arrangement - while the twisted pair of data carrying wires are next to the power wires, not wound around or wound with them, and the two sets of wire are wrapped together, side by side, in a flat package. Basically, with the generic wires, the ends of a particular sound got mushed into the other sounds. And, the longer black wire was worse than the short one. That makes sense. As there is a magnetic field around the power wires and the data wires are handling very high frequencies (compared to audio), I can understand the observed results. There is No Doubt: the premium wire did offer improved listening. I ordered a used 6 foot (shortest one listed) Wireworld Starlight 7 with a miniB end for use the three DACs that use that connector. ALL the DACs are powered by the computer.

Were we prevented from hearing even bigger differences between the first three DACs because of a poorly performing 12 inch piece of cable? It does look that way! Wow!

Just as a confirming test, I took a 20 foot USB cable, A to miniB (so thin it made our suspicious white wire look fat, all conductors 28 gauge, from a company named Tongbao) that I got for a dollar or two from a surplus dealer and connected it to the Head Streamer. The outputs went to the EleKit TU-8600 amp via a mini phone plug to two phono plugs through two eight foot lengths of a Belden cable, very (less than 1/8 inch, white) thin, the best of the thin shielded signal wire. The Louvin Brothers played cardboard mandolins, the Messianic sopranos didn’t bother to articulate their high notes, and the attack of the harpsichords appeared occasionally for brief moments. If I was listening to a baseball game, I’d have known the score, but I might not have caught the advertisers phone numbers. Sonically dreadful, half a star! I will use it whenever someone asks if USB wires matter.

Important Note: There are many “high performance’ cables on the market. We do not especially endorse the Wireworld Starlight 7 cable; it’s discontinued now (that’s why we tried to get a used one). It was on-hand, in use already, and was an obviously better cable than the generic 12 incher originally used in testing the 3 other DACs. It was only fair that we get a comparable cable with the proper fittings to continue the test so the performance of those DACs could be fairly evaluated. BIG DEAL: The cable company from which Bob and I ordered used cables is USEDCABLE.COM. Not am imaginative name, but useful. Again, we are not endorsing anybody, BUT we were contacted the next day by Jason Ressler from this customer service oriented outfit who told us they didn’t have the 6 foot Starlight cable I had ordered (the shortest one listed at the time of my order. I really wanted an 18 incher.) but they had called Wireworld directly and Wireworld had a dusty, unsold one in the “Discontinued Products” bin. Wireworld shipped it to me at no extra charge. Now that is great service! They also kindly pointed out that the new cable (NOS?) needed 75-100 hours of break in to sound it’s best. (The 10 foot Starlight 7 has been in use with the Music Streamer II for three years or so.) It’s going to take four days of continuous use to accomplish that, and that will delay the completion of this article. The computer won’t mind (I’ll use mine [I have five], not Bob’s) and the Head Streamer (since it ranked the best of the three) shouldn’t mind either.

Now here’s the big thing our audio curiosity revealed: The EleKit TU-8600 amp let us hear differences that were not audible with Bob’s amp (and wires and speakers)! And the speakers (and wires) the EleKit tube amp was feeding and fed by, had to be excellent as well! For the record, the speaker wire was (still is) LOGiCO 14AWG/2C x 101 strands (copper) UV Resistant CL2 Rated. It is used for underground burial and is enclosed in a plastic sheath. The strands run side by side and are not twisted. Each cable is 8 feet long and terminated (soldered) by banana plugs on one end and big spade lugs on the other, all gold plated. The wire connecting the amp to the DACs is 22AWG balanced microphone cable trade named Talent. This is a Chinese copy of some well known Belden mike cable. The red wire is “hot” and the white wire is connected to the phono plug bodies at both ends. The red and white wires are twisted together inside the cable. We do NOT depend on the shield to carry the audio signal. Let it just be the shield. (The shield is a very differently constructed conductor than the single conductor in the center of most interconnecting wire. Since it is composed of spiraling wires, it is obviously longer than the wire in the center of the cable.) The run to the Elekit TU-8600 amp is 20 feet long and the left and right cables are twisted together.

I didn’t want this article to be about wires. I wanted it to be about an outstanding amp, the EleKit TU-8600. But I have some experience with wire. When I build an amp for somebody, I use 99.9999% pure silver jewelry wire for all connections. I have to put insulation on it and it is a tedious business. For decades I wondered about that flat, many conductors cable used in many computer applications. (I used to fix main frames for a living.) So I recently bought a 100 foot reel of stranded, 50 silver plated conductor flat cable. $65 bucks, sixty five cents a foot. I had noticed a very pricey flat cable that gets great reviews and begiNs with a certain letter. Hundred$ of $$ per foot. They use the first bunch of wires for the + terminal and the other half for the - lead. It’s easy to do. But I wondered what would happen if I used every other wire for + and the interleaved wires for the - line? Wire 1, 3, 5, etc are +; and 2, 4, 6, etc are -. Got it? Yes it’s tedious, but the result is the best speaker wire I NEVER heard. No magnetic field around the cable. It doesn’t have any negative effect on the music that I can hear. Try it; you’ll like it! I don’t want to believe it, but better wires do make a difference!

I don’t want to believe that wire needs to break in either, but it does. Make that 50 conductor stuff into speaker cable. Listen to it immediately. It changes constantly in the first two hours! It is very strange to hear. Even upsetting! The first time I heard it, I was sure I had connected it wrong. A piece of wire could not possibly sound that bad! It sounded good two hours later and stabilized in 8 - 10. Because it’s ugly and hard to hide, I don’t use it in situations were the speaker wire is visible. I use the 14 gauge buriable stuff on my big system and the experimental rig.

The main thing here is to realize that everything on the amp side of the DACs tested was better than the package of the DACs and computer (and the wires that connected them! And software!) at my and Bob’s homes or we would never have been able to hear the differences between them. (The software difference was obvious even with the dubious 1 foot wire.) I have a few DACs myself and have not been able to hear much difference between them when using solid state amps! Hmmm. Cables maybe?

Oooh Baby! Everyday I use that Elekit TU-8600, it proves to me there is something special about this amp. It’s easy to build high efficiency loudspeakers. It’s hard to build really good amps. But you can build a real winner with a little help from Elekit.

P.S. I just received a genuine NOS Telefunken 12AX7 tube from my friend, Victor Kung. It is generally believed that this is an exceptionably fine tube for audio use. It’s also the first tube in the TU-8600’s circuit. It just might make a great amp even better! They sell for $200+! I’ll let you know how it sounds as soon as I get that discontinued Starlight 7 USB cable with the miniB style end and break it in. It wouldn’t be fair to change the amp in the middle of the test. The result of the testing with the new cables comes next.

Keep smiling Audio Pals! (Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we await the arrival of the new cables and have computers ready to "break 'em in." That will take four days!

The Adventure continues! All cables from WireWorld: Starlight 7, 2 meter and 0.5 meter (silver clad OFC wires); Ultraviolet 7 (silver plated OFC wires); Chroma (OFC copper wire). I couldn’t help myself! The prices were so good I decided to see if there was a difference in a single manufacturers products. I even found a half meter Starlight 7 on line.

One or more of these wires may be obsolete. Just because a new model comes out doesn’t mean the old ones are now poor performers. The older models will available at a substantial discount. Highly recommended! I got the Chroma for less than $11. The Starlight 7, 2 meter was $55 ( the half meter was $50). All work very well compared to the generic wire they replaced. We also included a Furutech GT2, 4 meter USB cable, A to miniB found in the back of my main system cabinet. I had purchased it some time ago to replace a questionable generic cable and never got around to installing it. It performed beautifully.

Testing Procedure:

Using the half meter Starlight 7 USB cable (allegedly the best of the new cables), we tested the three DACs using the miniB input fitting to find the best one. Then we used that DAC to test all the cables under test.

Overall Results:

All the cables vastly outperformed the generic white cable, and the thin black cables mentioned above. The primary difference was overall clarity, improved depth-space-“air” and remarkable clarity on vocal material. The author plays with live musicians and vocalists an average of 10 times each month and is quite familiar with the sound of ukuleles, guitars, and banjos, as well of human voices.

Individual DAC Results: Differences were unmistakable.

HRT Head Streamer Opening tinkles missing. Later ones not clearly struck. One third of the stage depth of the Meridian 2. Voices less crisp.

Meridian Explorer 2 Each tinkle distinct, good separation of background vocals,good depth. Cohens words “Heart,” “Dress,” and “Brave”
were clear. Clearly the best of the three. Winner!

ADL (by Furtech) Cruise Half the stage depth of the Meridian 2. Tinkles present but weak and less distinct. Less vocal clarity. Second.

The USB Cables All the new cables were “broken in” for over 96 hours with a vast variety of music played on laptop computers through the cables into the various DACs in the test. Three cables, three DACs.

Evaluated with the most challenging music of the simply glorious Handel Messiah from BR- Klassik 900510 (track 40, the Hallelujah chorus). The ranking is not sup rising, given the placement in the product line from the manufacturer. Given the astronomical prices asked by some cable makers, all the ones tested here are great values. Both companies have been in the wire business for a long time and know exactly what they are doing. They do not claim that their copper comes from a secret mine high in the Andes unknown to civilized peoples until recently, and carried through almost impassible terrain on the back of specially trained donkeys who are fed a unique diet of Amaranth and Quinoa prepared by the priests of an obscure Bolivian sect whose special knowledge comes by way of civilizations which preceded the Inca by two thousand years.

(I always shop for cars late in December when the dealers MUST clear the lot of last model year’s leftovers. Shop for the best discontinued cable you can find. The most expensive cable in this test was $55. Many cables are available at much higher prices. Many cost more than my car. They may be even better.)

WireWorld Chroma, 0.5 meter (OFC copper wire) Least stage depth of the four tested cables (but still quite good). A trace of sibilance. Less vocal clarity compared to others. Less “bite” on the trumpets. I got this cable for less than $11. A stunning bargain!

WireWorld Ultraviolet 7, 0.5 meter (silver plated OFC wires) If the Starlight 7 is 100%, this cable is 96% (the Chroma is 91%). Very pleasant overall, excellent vocal clarity and natural sound of voices and all the instruments. Immediately a very natural sound. I’m sure the silver plating is a big factor here. This may be the best bargain of the lot.

WireWorld Starlight 7, 0.5 meter (silver clad OFC wires) Really interesting! Superior clarity and stage depth to all the others. Baritone and bass voices seemed slightly less rich in the Hallelujah chorus than the Furutech GT2 below. Glorious and stunning, it’s the “window to the studio” without the glass. First Place!

Furutech GT2, 4 meter USB (silver plated wires) Wow! Very close to, but different, than the WireWorld Starlight 7. Seemed to be slightly richer for the male voices in the Hallelujah chorus, but shallower stage depth. A very close Second. Very!

So, after hundreds of words and hours and hours of breaking in cables and listening to a limited number of tunes scores of time, the wire does matter. Different wires do sound different; and the world is full of fascinating mysteries. Experience beats theories every time. Keep listening; keep smiling.
 

BDWoody

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Are there real differences between DACs? Wires? Silly Questions? Oh Yeah, One Great Amp!

A friend of mine, Bob, has a home theater entertainment system featuring an Integra DTR 60.5 AV receiver. He uses Golden Ear Triton 1 main speakers, Emotiva T2 rear speakers in a 5.0 arrangement (the Triton 1s have powered “subs” built-in) and a Wharfdale Diamond 10-CS Center Channel speaker. Respectable gear, right? He’s an avid music collector and an amateur ethno-musicoligist. He plays several instruments, and is involved in several groups who perform live music. He records (digitally, 96/24) live music of all kinds every now and then and has good ears.

Recently, Bob called me up: “Hey Bill, I’ve bought eight (yes 8!) DACS over the years and I don’t hear much difference between them. What gives?

I read all kinds of reviews and read about big differences: ‘so and so has a clearer presentation’ and all that.” It seems he’s bought every small outboard DAC under $400 that has come onto the market. At last count, seven of them. (An eighth one set him back $1000.) He’s since given away a couple of them. Remember the original little red Music Streamer? It was inexpensive and got good reviews and was one of the first on the market. So he bought one and liked it. The company, High Resolution Technologies LLC, made a couple of other models later on; the Music Streamer II (surprise, surprise!), and the Head Streamer. He bought one of each. He won a much pricier ($450ish) ADL Cruise (by Furtech) DAC at a meeting of the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society, and it quickly became his favorite (maybe the fancy ads with the pretty girls influenced his opinion). Later on, he bought the original Dragonfly; later still, the Meridian Explorer 2; and recently, the newest Dragonfly Black.

Well, when he hooked them up to his laptop, and plugged them into the AUX INs of his Integra, he heard very little difference between them. He was beginning to think he’d been spending for no improvement worth the $$. Nobody likes to feel that way, right?

So I suggested he bring over the laptop, the DACs, and his music (on CDs and thumb drives with digital downloads, etc - not much more than an armful of stuff - not much to carry in from the car). We know (don’t we?) that the software we use to play music from computers is critical part of the “system” used to play digital music. If Bob was using Windows Media Player, the music would never sound good. (Personally, I use Media Monkey. For creating and editing, I use Wave Pad from NCH Software.)

Bob brought lots of music, but we’ll only talk (write/read?) about two: the simply glorious Handel Messiah from BR- Klassik 900510 (tracks 3, 14-21, 40, 46), and Jennifer Warnes “famous blue raincoat” 20th Anniversary 24K Gold Edition (track 4, Joan of Arc).

It was immediately obvious the Microsoft software would not do. It seems that simply (?) presenting the digits in a file to a USB port is NOT a simple thing. We put Media Monkey, version 4.1.24.1883 (it’s free!) on to Bob’s laptop and used it for all our listening. (Who knew people were writing software in 1883?)

Now I am a fortunate man with a tolerant wife. I have five systems in my home. The Main System in the living room has an electronic xover (miniDSP 4x8) and an amp (60 wpc, solid state) for each of the 4 speakers (per side) in a 4 way array (Linkwitz LX521-4) for the front stereo pair, a Wharfdale center channel speaker, and a pair of Golden Ear Triton 5s for the rear channels. The control center is an Emotiva MC-700. There’s a bedroom setup; the den setup has an Integra DTR 7.8 as a front end feeding a miniDSP 2x4, an Emotiva UPR-500 power amp for the Linkwitz LX mini front speakers and subwoofer, Carver satellites in the rear for a 4.1 system. There’s a 4.1 system in our double office also.

But there is another one in the double office that counts for our tale of woe (or Wow!). It’s just a stereo system featuring an EleKit TU-8600 power amp (is 9 wpc a power amp or just an amp?) which is an outstanding revealer of anything you feed into it. This my experimental, go-to, knows all - tells all system I use for developing speakers, testing cables and devices, and anything audio. It presently feeds a very efficient (100 db or so sensitivity) pair of 2 way speakers with horn tweeters (fed through a single Mundorf capacitor and one resistor) and 15’ woofers (run directly) in sealed cabinets that turned out way better than I had anticipated. The EleKit has its own input level control. This lil’ darlin’ tells the truth. And, if you turn it up, those efficient speakers will chase you out the room!

So, after we get the new Media Monkey software running on Bob’s laptop (feeding the laptop’s audio out straight into the EleKit TU-8600) and proving it’s better than the program Bob had been using, we plugged his HRT Head Streamer, into the laptop’s USB jack via a generic 12 wire. Much more on that later. The output fed the amp via a mini-phone one one end and phono plug on the other.

HRT Head Streamer

Joan of Arc Little tinkles at the beginning clear but faint, Very good depth, excellent separation of background voices (overdubs) and accompanying instruments, ranks first of the small units connected by short or no cords.

Messiah: pending - see below


Meridian Explorer 2

Joan of Arc: Louder overall, Little tinkles at the beginning clear but hardly there. Fair depth, fair separation of background voices (overdubs) and accompanying instruments, less bass, ranks third.

Messiah: pending - see below


ADL (by Furtech) Cruise

Joan of Arc: Wispy tinkles, good bass, half the depth of the Head Streamer, cardboard sound of the drums and block strikes, less character of accompanying instruments. poorer separation of backup vocals, ranks 2nd.

Messiah: pending - see below


Dragonfly Black v1.5

Joan of Arc: Opening tinkles absent, less “real” sound of piano & other instruments, bass OK, least depth of all, percussion “clicks” sounded ceramic, not dreadful but the worst of the batch, ranks 4th.

Messiah: The Dragonfly does not need or use a connecting cable; it plugs directly into the computer it is used with. So it is fair to rate it without waiting for a Starlight cable suitable for the other three DACs in this comparison. For whatever reasons, the Dragonfly Black performed much better with this recording than with the one above. The depth was good. The clarity was 90% of the Music Streamer II with the Starlight cable. Noticeable shortcomings: the attack of the harpsichord is there in track 40 (the Hallelujah Chorus) when it isn’t overwhelmed but the end of its notes are swallowed up by the mass of the sounds; the sopranos sing, “King of King” the final “s” on the second word “King” is simply not there it is lost in the immensity of sound. Pity.


Music Streamer II

Joan of Arc: Holy Smoke! Loudest of the batch. Opening tinkles barely there but extremely delicate and clear. Very good depth, an oriental - mysterious favor to the section immediately preceding the vocals, something very different was going on with this unit. Startling! It was so remarkable, Bob and I spontaneously changed our seating position. Actually, we practically jumped out of our seats! We expected the 10 foot wire would sound worse than 12 inch one. It sounded better; way better! Remarkable transparency! Way ahead of the others!

Messiah: Simply outstanding! How much of this is due to the Wireworld Starlight 7 cable (described below), we can’t say. The harpsichord is merrily plinking away as Hallelujah Chorus (track 40) floods the room with sound. You can hear its notes start and stop unless completely overwhelmed by all the other sounds. You can “see” the wall in the back of the stage. It is remarkable. The Meridian 2 with a Starlight 7 cable is slightly warmer (sweet) and very slightly transparent, and a bit more up front. You can probably get a Music Streamer II on the used market at a very low price.

(The three other DACs use a miniB connector and a Starlight 7 cable with the proper cable fitting for them is in the mail as I write this. We want to do a fair test.)

We think the Music Streamer II is the oldest unit in batch as it had the older style USB input on the device. It is shaped like a flattened tip ‘home plate’ and it’s called type B. With the exception of the Dragonfly Black, which plugs directly in to the computer, all the others connected with the “miniB” connector. We used the same 12 inch, white pigtail to connect the three other DACs to the computer. The wire is labeled “E205663 AWM STYLE 2725 28AWG/1P+24AWG/2C 80oC 30V VW-1 USB2.0 D&S.”

All the other (non- Music Streamer II) DACs had mini phone plug output connectors and were connected to the amp via a three foot Monster Cable “101XLN Standard XTRA Low Noise Audio Interconnecting Cable with Double Helix Construction” with a 3.5mm miniphone plug on one end and phono plugs on the other, all gold plated. These plugged into gold plated brass blocks containing two female phono jacks and one male phono plug. The wire to the amp, described below, plugged into the brass block’s other female phono sockets.

The Music Streamer II was attached to the computer with a 10 foot, red, “WIREWORLD :) STARLIGHT 7 HIGH SPEED USB AUDIO (STB) SILVER CLAD OFC SYMMETRICON DESIGN COMPOSILEX 2 24AWG/1P+ 20AWG/1C E301195 UL AWM2725 80oC 30V.” (No wonder it’s 10 feet long! And, yes, the smiley face is printed on the cable.) The outer parts of the connectors were gold plated. All those numbers means the 10 foot long wire had larger conductors in it than the 1 foot long connecting wire did. And perhaps the wire was silver plated.

We tested the Music Streamer II last because it used a different cable than the others. Here’s what we noticed immediately: each sound, from the tiniest tinkle to the sliding steel guitar string (in Joan of Arc) had its own distinct boundaries. Each sound was clean and clear. If sound was soup, it was Vietnamese Pho and not New England Clam chowder. You could look in the bowl and see all the ingredients all the way to the bottom. It was free of a sort of haze (milkiness?) or dust that seemed to be between us and the instruments which was present in EVERY OTHER UNIT (but less in the Firefly Black).

I know from many experiments that solid silver wire sounds better (to me) than anything else I’ve tried, including solid gold and gold plated wire. Yet I am a “wire skeptic.” It is hard for me to believe that a 12 inch wire can possibly sound worse than a 10 FOOT wire! Was it the wire or the DAC that sounded better? I will get a silver plated cable with the proper ends to check out this mystery. It is possible that the three foot miniphone plug cable and connecting brass blocks were responsible for the sound degradation as well. The amp’s interconnects phono plugs went directly into the Music Streamer II. Less likely than the USB cable to be a problem, I’m guessing.

Yikes! The USB cable makes a difference! Yes! A day or two after writing the above, I scoured the house for a short USB cable with A and B ends. Bob loaned me the Music Streamer II while he waits for the used Wireworld Starlight 7 cable he ordered online. I found a very generic 3 footer, black with a round cross section that looks very ordinary. No printing on it. I also found a five foot generic cable made by the same folks that made the white 1 foot lead. As you might guess from the paragraph title, both the black wires let less of the music through than the Wireworld Starlight 7. The Wireworld Starlight 7 looks flat and the heavier power leads are in a normal coaxial cable arrangement - while the twisted pair of data carrying wires are next to the power wires, not wound around or wound with them, and the two sets of wire are wrapped together, side by side, in a flat package. Basically, with the generic wires, the ends of a particular sound got mushed into the other sounds. And, the longer black wire was worse than the short one. That makes sense. As there is a magnetic field around the power wires and the data wires are handling very high frequencies (compared to audio), I can understand the observed results. There is No Doubt: the premium wire did offer improved listening. I ordered a used 6 foot (shortest one listed) Wireworld Starlight 7 with a miniB end for use the three DACs that use that connector. ALL the DACs are powered by the computer.

Were we prevented from hearing even bigger differences between the first three DACs because of a poorly performing 12 inch piece of cable? It does look that way! Wow!

Just as a confirming test, I took a 20 foot USB cable, A to miniB (so thin it made our suspicious white wire look fat, all conductors 28 gauge, from a company named Tongbao) that I got for a dollar or two from a surplus dealer and connected it to the Head Streamer. The outputs went to the EleKit TU-8600 amp via a mini phone plug to two phono plugs through two eight foot lengths of a Belden cable, very (less than 1/8 inch, white) thin, the best of the thin shielded signal wire. The Louvin Brothers played cardboard mandolins, the Messianic sopranos didn’t bother to articulate their high notes, and the attack of the harpsichords appeared occasionally for brief moments. If I was listening to a baseball game, I’d have known the score, but I might not have caught the advertisers phone numbers. Sonically dreadful, half a star! I will use it whenever someone asks if USB wires matter.

Important Note: There are many “high performance’ cables on the market. We do not especially endorse the Wireworld Starlight 7 cable; it’s discontinued now (that’s why we tried to get a used one). It was on-hand, in use already, and was an obviously better cable than the generic 12 incher originally used in testing the 3 other DACs. It was only fair that we get a comparable cable with the proper fittings to continue the test so the performance of those DACs could be fairly evaluated. BIG DEAL: The cable company from which Bob and I ordered used cables is USEDCABLE.COM. Not am imaginative name, but useful. Again, we are not endorsing anybody, BUT we were contacted the next day by Jason Ressler from this customer service oriented outfit who told us they didn’t have the 6 foot Starlight cable I had ordered (the shortest one listed at the time of my order. I really wanted an 18 incher.) but they had called Wireworld directly and Wireworld had a dusty, unsold one in the “Discontinued Products” bin. Wireworld shipped it to me at no extra charge. Now that is great service! They also kindly pointed out that the new cable (NOS?) needed 75-100 hours of break in to sound it’s best. (The 10 foot Starlight 7 has been in use with the Music Streamer II for three years or so.) It’s going to take four days of continuous use to accomplish that, and that will delay the completion of this article. The computer won’t mind (I’ll use mine [I have five], not Bob’s) and the Head Streamer (since it ranked the best of the three) shouldn’t mind either.

Now here’s the big thing our audio curiosity revealed: The EleKit TU-8600 amp let us hear differences that were not audible with Bob’s amp (and wires and speakers)! And the speakers (and wires) the EleKit tube amp was feeding and fed by, had to be excellent as well! For the record, the speaker wire was (still is) LOGiCO 14AWG/2C x 101 strands (copper) UV Resistant CL2 Rated. It is used for underground burial and is enclosed in a plastic sheath. The strands run side by side and are not twisted. Each cable is 8 feet long and terminated (soldered) by banana plugs on one end and big spade lugs on the other, all gold plated. The wire connecting the amp to the DACs is 22AWG balanced microphone cable trade named Talent. This is a Chinese copy of some well known Belden mike cable. The red wire is “hot” and the white wire is connected to the phono plug bodies at both ends. The red and white wires are twisted together inside the cable. We do NOT depend on the shield to carry the audio signal. Let it just be the shield. (The shield is a very differently constructed conductor than the single conductor in the center of most interconnecting wire. Since it is composed of spiraling wires, it is obviously longer than the wire in the center of the cable.) The run to the Elekit TU-8600 amp is 20 feet long and the left and right cables are twisted together.

I didn’t want this article to be about wires. I wanted it to be about an outstanding amp, the EleKit TU-8600. But I have some experience with wire. When I build an amp for somebody, I use 99.9999% pure silver jewelry wire for all connections. I have to put insulation on it and it is a tedious business. For decades I wondered about that flat, many conductors cable used in many computer applications. (I used to fix main frames for a living.) So I recently bought a 100 foot reel of stranded, 50 silver plated conductor flat cable. $65 bucks, sixty five cents a foot. I had noticed a very pricey flat cable that gets great reviews and begiNs with a certain letter. Hundred$ of $$ per foot. They use the first bunch of wires for the + terminal and the other half for the - lead. It’s easy to do. But I wondered what would happen if I used every other wire for + and the interleaved wires for the - line? Wire 1, 3, 5, etc are +; and 2, 4, 6, etc are -. Got it? Yes it’s tedious, but the result is the best speaker wire I NEVER heard. No magnetic field around the cable. It doesn’t have any negative effect on the music that I can hear. Try it; you’ll like it! I don’t want to believe it, but better wires do make a difference!

I don’t want to believe that wire needs to break in either, but it does. Make that 50 conductor stuff into speaker cable. Listen to it immediately. It changes constantly in the first two hours! It is very strange to hear. Even upsetting! The first time I heard it, I was sure I had connected it wrong. A piece of wire could not possibly sound that bad! It sounded good two hours later and stabilized in 8 - 10. Because it’s ugly and hard to hide, I don’t use it in situations were the speaker wire is visible. I use the 14 gauge buriable stuff on my big system and the experimental rig.

The main thing here is to realize that everything on the amp side of the DACs tested was better than the package of the DACs and computer (and the wires that connected them! And software!) at my and Bob’s homes or we would never have been able to hear the differences between them. (The software difference was obvious even with the dubious 1 foot wire.) I have a few DACs myself and have not been able to hear much difference between them when using solid state amps! Hmmm. Cables maybe?

Oooh Baby! Everyday I use that Elekit TU-8600, it proves to me there is something special about this amp. It’s easy to build high efficiency loudspeakers. It’s hard to build really good amps. But you can build a real winner with a little help from Elekit.

P.S. I just received a genuine NOS Telefunken 12AX7 tube from my friend, Victor Kung. It is generally believed that this is an exceptionably fine tube for audio use. It’s also the first tube in the TU-8600’s circuit. It just might make a great amp even better! They sell for $200+! I’ll let you know how it sounds as soon as I get that discontinued Starlight 7 USB cable with the miniB style end and break it in. It wouldn’t be fair to change the amp in the middle of the test. The result of the testing with the new cables comes next.

Keep smiling Audio Pals! (Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we await the arrival of the new cables and have computers ready to "break 'em in." That will take four days!

The Adventure continues! All cables from WireWorld: Starlight 7, 2 meter and 0.5 meter (silver clad OFC wires); Ultraviolet 7 (silver plated OFC wires); Chroma (OFC copper wire). I couldn’t help myself! The prices were so good I decided to see if there was a difference in a single manufacturers products. I even found a half meter Starlight 7 on line.

One or more of these wires may be obsolete. Just because a new model comes out doesn’t mean the old ones are now poor performers. The older models will available at a substantial discount. Highly recommended! I got the Chroma for less than $11. The Starlight 7, 2 meter was $55 ( the half meter was $50). All work very well compared to the generic wire they replaced. We also included a Furutech GT2, 4 meter USB cable, A to miniB found in the back of my main system cabinet. I had purchased it some time ago to replace a questionable generic cable and never got around to installing it. It performed beautifully.

Testing Procedure:

Using the half meter Starlight 7 USB cable (allegedly the best of the new cables), we tested the three DACs using the miniB input fitting to find the best one. Then we used that DAC to test all the cables under test.

Overall Results:

All the cables vastly outperformed the generic white cable, and the thin black cables mentioned above. The primary difference was overall clarity, improved depth-space-“air” and remarkable clarity on vocal material. The author plays with live musicians and vocalists an average of 10 times each month and is quite familiar with the sound of ukuleles, guitars, and banjos, as well of human voices.

Individual DAC Results: Differences were unmistakable.

HRT Head Streamer Opening tinkles missing. Later ones not clearly struck. One third of the stage depth of the Meridian 2. Voices less crisp.

Meridian Explorer 2 Each tinkle distinct, good separation of background vocals,good depth. Cohens words “Heart,” “Dress,” and “Brave”
were clear. Clearly the best of the three. Winner!

ADL (by Furtech) Cruise Half the stage depth of the Meridian 2. Tinkles present but weak and less distinct. Less vocal clarity. Second.

The USB Cables All the new cables were “broken in” for over 96 hours with a vast variety of music played on laptop computers through the cables into the various DACs in the test. Three cables, three DACs.

Evaluated with the most challenging music of the simply glorious Handel Messiah from BR- Klassik 900510 (track 40, the Hallelujah chorus). The ranking is not sup rising, given the placement in the product line from the manufacturer. Given the astronomical prices asked by some cable makers, all the ones tested here are great values. Both companies have been in the wire business for a long time and know exactly what they are doing. They do not claim that their copper comes from a secret mine high in the Andes unknown to civilized peoples until recently, and carried through almost impassible terrain on the back of specially trained donkeys who are fed a unique diet of Amaranth and Quinoa prepared by the priests of an obscure Bolivian sect whose special knowledge comes by way of civilizations which preceded the Inca by two thousand years.

(I always shop for cars late in December when the dealers MUST clear the lot of last model year’s leftovers. Shop for the best discontinued cable you can find. The most expensive cable in this test was $55. Many cables are available at much higher prices. Many cost more than my car. They may be even better.)

WireWorld Chroma, 0.5 meter (OFC copper wire) Least stage depth of the four tested cables (but still quite good). A trace of sibilance. Less vocal clarity compared to others. Less “bite” on the trumpets. I got this cable for less than $11. A stunning bargain!

WireWorld Ultraviolet 7, 0.5 meter (silver plated OFC wires) If the Starlight 7 is 100%, this cable is 96% (the Chroma is 91%). Very pleasant overall, excellent vocal clarity and natural sound of voices and all the instruments. Immediately a very natural sound. I’m sure the silver plating is a big factor here. This may be the best bargain of the lot.

WireWorld Starlight 7, 0.5 meter (silver clad OFC wires) Really interesting! Superior clarity and stage depth to all the others. Baritone and bass voices seemed slightly less rich in the Hallelujah chorus than the Furutech GT2 below. Glorious and stunning, it’s the “window to the studio” without the glass. First Place!

Furutech GT2, 4 meter USB (silver plated wires) Wow! Very close to, but different, than the WireWorld Starlight 7. Seemed to be slightly richer for the male voices in the Hallelujah chorus, but shallower stage depth. A very close Second. Very!

So, after hundreds of words and hours and hours of breaking in cables and listening to a limited number of tunes scores of time, the wire does matter. Different wires do sound different; and the world is full of fascinating mysteries. Experience beats theories every time. Keep listening; keep smiling.

Uh huh.
 

Lac013

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I think your friends conclusion on his system and his opinion on hearing no differences was the best part.

You having to tell us about your 5 different systems just seemed like you were trying to prove yours was better.

Not a great thing to do to your friend who was completely happy with what he heard
 

BDWoody

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Fascinating!

IMG_20191016_190518_503.jpg
 

Mnyb

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A troll , even the user name ... otherwise this is in the “ your not even wrong “ category . It does not convey any information on the sq of these products due to the flawed test methods so there is not much to have a conversation about .
 

DownUnderGazza

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It's too long , can someone abbreviate for me ha ha .

A wonderful example of everything that is well meaning but flawed in a series of sighted impressions wrapped in expectation biais, and why ASR is such a much needed and valuable antidote to the perils of subjectivism in the audio world...
 

Wombat

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First impressions matter.
 
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RayDunzl

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M00ndancer

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