The Aquila power cord was a big step up in sound for my previous Ayon DAC.  So I didn't hesitate to use it with the Hele'ne DAC.  

The CEO of Antipodes said in a video interview to treat the K50 like an amplifier.  It needs a big power cord and needs to be plugged into a high current outlet.  He cautioned plugging it into a source outlet on a power conditioner.  So I have the K50 plugged into the Amplifier outlet on my power conditioner.  The Aquila is 12 AWG equivalent and are reportedly designed for use with digital components.  12 AWG has pretty high current capacity although the Corvus power cords on my amps are 8 AWG equivalent.

I have the digital components sitting on Delrin boards and the preamps on butcher block boards, all sitting on spring isolation.  I can’t say it was a big difference but I tended to prefer the preamps on wood and the DAC and Transport on Delrin.  The graphs in my system pictures show the value of spring isolation.  Those graphs were made by thumping on the equipment rack but I can also see the difference when playing music.  Floor bourn vibrations can move up the rack and also the amp stands.  So I placed 48lb/in springs on the feet of my amp stands to isolate the amps.  It is very effective.  The end result was more clarity and detail.  It makes an amazing difference.  So much so that it takes a while to get used to it.  At first I thought about taking the springs out but once I heard that new found clarity I could not go back.

This started as an experiment to isolate my previous speakers, the Thiel CS6’s with springs like the Townsend Podiums.  I bought springs and butcher blocks.  The isolation was very effective.  That led me to buy springs for all of my components.   Eventually, I bought the IsoAcoustic Gaias for my Thiels and found they sounded even bettter.  So I used the springs and butcher blocks on my subwoofers in my HT system.  Very effective- clean, powerful bass and crisp.  Duplicates gunshots and expolsions in movies quite well.

 

This 85 lb brute comes in a wooden crate.  With the help of my son we hoisted this monster onto my platform with spring isolation footers*.  This DAC is optimized for USB input and accepts only PCM- no DSD, no oversampling.  After giving it some thought, I realized that I stream PCM 99% of the time.  So no misgivings about not having DSD playback capability.  I am using the AES from my CD Transport to the DAC.  This DAC double re-clocks the incoming USB and it can also re-clock the income AES and Coaxial signals as an option.  Tube bias can be adjusted by turning the black knob next to the built-in voltmeter.

First impressions is that this DAC does everything better.  It is not just better bass or better highs- it all sounds better.  Cellos sound as real as I have ever heard them on my system.  Piano is the best that I have ever heard on my system.  Clarity- vocals, bass, cymbals all have more clarity.  The cymbals rival the best of the best of my vinyl.  The most satisfying thing so far?  I played Chris Isaak's, Wicked Games on CD.  Since I got that disc in the 1980s the one thing that has always bugged me is the words that the background vocalists are singing were obscured.  For the first time, those words are clear.  I can understand what they are saying.  Finally, I can hear it all on that recording.  That is impressive.

At this level of gear it is difficult to monetize the improvement in sound.  Do improved highs make the difference, or improved lows?  How can I justify the sound per dollar amount?  I can't really.  It comes down to this:  could I live with a lessor DAC or not?  And in this case I don't think I could now.

*I optimized the spring footers for the weight of this DAC.  I show an accelerometer graph that is placed on the top of the DAC.  That graph shows the effect of isolation while I rap on the floor with a heavy steel ball.  The only reaction is at the Fn of this spring/mass system which is about 6 Hz.  Isolation makes a difference.

The wall behind my listening position is 12 feet away.  I did not hear any difference with diffusers or absorber panels on that back wall behind me.  The wool rug on the wood floor is a major component of my acoustic treatment.  I also added a couple of small rugs to the floor.  I had carpeting before but I do not like the sound with carpeting.  I prefer to start with a wood floor and add absorption to taste.  I can control the amount of liveliness that I want using rugs.  Wool rugs are supposedly the best material acoustically.

It is a good thing I am retired.  If I had this stereo while I was working, I might not ever made it to work.  :)

  

The Kronos has more clarity but also smoother highs.  The bass is better and best of all Cellos sound more natural.  I had become somewhat obsessed with the Cello because the band at church has a cellist.  I would stand near the stage and listen to him practice and come home and listen on my system.  Vinyl was good but digital was a little off.  The Kronos nails it, I think.

Was it worth the substantial extra money over the Stealth?  I don't have buyers remorse; but it has only been a couple of days...

I have been enjoying the stereo now in this treated room.  The bass is the best that I have ever had.  Listened to Eric Clapton's "After Midnight" on the Lady in the Balcony session last night.  The bass guitar at the beginning of the song sounds deep and strong.  Each bass note is strong and forceful- not at all muted because the notes are so low.  The clarity is the best ever now without any edginess in the highs.  I typically listen for twice as long as I plan every time I sit down.  

I stuck the panels to the ceiling and walls with 3M adhesive patches.  They are not coming off without requiring some wall repair.  This is stereo living with fortitude.

I also moved bass traps into the dormers on the sides of the room.  Big difference in how the bass sounds.  Love it.  I also learned that moving the speakers closer together moves the bass nodes upwards towards the ceiling.  I had not realized until recently how much speaker distance apart affects the bass response.  I also moved my GIK wall absorbers from the back wall to the side walls near the speakers.  This improved clarity in the highs.

The last stage of building my new system is complete with the addition of the Dominos XLR cable from the preamps to the amps.  I started out with the lower line of Purist Audio Design Cables just to see what I thought of them.  I have now upgraded all of my cables and power cords to the upper middle and in one case the upper level (Dominus) Purist cables.  This is as much as my wallet can take  :) The sound is excellent.  It is interesting how Purist is able to "maneuver" the sound quailty of their cables as I move up the product line.  The higher level power cords make a profound difference in the highs and producing a quiet, black background.  Amazing what power cords can do.  Up to a few years ago I would have never believed it.

I haven’t played a record in over a month now.  I have been captivated with the sound quality of streaming after adding the network switch.  I have spent a lot of time these past two years studying and learning about the digital streaming side of music.  It was frustrating at times and always agonizing over choices with little to no direct listening experience.  I was planning to upgrade the FMCS or get an audiophile network switch over a year ago.  I hesitated because I was not sure the benefit would justify the cost.  When I saw the SW-8 I thought it would be a good value.  It turned out to be a good move.  The SFPs were a small risk as well.  But the most notable thing now is that I am listening to music for music’s sake.  I am no longer wondering how to make the bass better or how to tone down the highs or how to make the digital soundstage bigger. I am finally just enjoying the music.  

The system is there.  I can listen w/o fatigue at even loud levels.  The Wilsons are so musical- the music flows out of them like water out of a hose- clear and natural sounding.

Streaming is sounding great using Fiber Optic media converters in between the router and music server.  I find albums I like on Qobuz and if they are 44.1kHz/16 bit FLACC I go ahead and buy the CD or record.  I can hear a slight difference with the nod going to the local source.  Streaming any 24 bit FLACC file is very close to a wash when compared to a local source.  

And btw- I don't know why Ayon does not get more notice.  Their DACs are superior to anything else I have listened to.  I was ready to drop some $$$ on a $15k+ DAC but then started looking into the Denafrips and Holo top DACs.  Good for the money but not quite there in absolute sound terms.  Ayon is there in absolute sound terms.  To me, my Ayon DAC bested the $15k+ DACs that I heard.  But that was after I added the PAD Aquila Digital power cord to my DAC.  Yes, quite a difference it made.  A true treasure of a find.

Some  might be wondering after spending 10’s upon 10’s of thousands of dollars on Wilson speakers what did I gain over the Thiels.  I think I can explain it- at least make up something that the wife would believe.  First of all, the costs are not proportional to the gain in sound quality.  Maybe it is cheaper than going to live concerts five times a week or hiring a live singer and band every weekend.  Concert tickets are crazy expensive.  First, the bass- the bass is goes deeper and is clearer on the Wilsons over the Thiels.  Good bass costs money.  I added subwoofers to the Thiels about 2 years ago in an attempt to stave off the Wilson purchase.  I got good quality subs.  It took me months to get them placed and integrated to the point that I liked the sound.  Still, the bass always seemed to sound better in the back of the room vs. my listening position and better when standing vs sitting.  In spite of all that the Wilson bass is better hands down.  The crazy thing is, the bass sounds the same everywhere in the room with the Wilsons- standing or sitting.  In fact, the music sounds nearly the same from anywhere in the room just more focused in the listening position.  Next, the soundstage.  The Thiels have a big and deep 3D soundstage with sharp imaging.  The Wilsons go bigger and deeper and way taller.  The Wilsons also have more resolution.  I can explain it like this.  If I close my eyes while listening to a song, the soundstage goes well beyond the walls.  After listening for a few minutes with my eyes closed, I open my eyes and am shocked to see walls in the middle of the soundstage.  I love doing that.  Still works every time.  But another thing that surprised me was the first time I played a Chorale piece on the Wilsons.  The choir was in front of me floor to ceiling.  I was dumbstruck.  I could hear the individual voices spread across the stage.  That’s the difference in resolution.  The Thiels have sharp imaging but in the case of this choir it is more like a cloud of sound.  The voices are there in front of me but they are blurred together.  The difference is like being in back of the hall vs right in front of the choir maybe.  And lastly, the highs are sweeter with the Wilsons.  Probably the difference of 15+ years of research and development in both speaker and capacitor technology.  Just wanted to talk a bit more.

The starting point was 60" from the front wall and 44" from the side walls.  The sound got chesty when I moved the speakers closer to the side walls.  

Without these footers the Wilsons had better bass than the Thiels with GAIA I footers but the Thiels were almost on par with the Wilsons for imaging and soundstage.  Now the Wilsons far surpass the Thiels in all categories.  I can't stop listening.

BTW- I wasn't sure so I left the Wilson Diodes on the speakers.  So the GAIA Titans are mated to the Wilson Diodes.  That puts the speakers 1.5" higher off the floor as compared to using the Wilson spikes with the diodes.  I can couple the Titans directly to the speakers which would bring them back down to the original height off the floor. I wanted to try them first with the Wilson Diodes.  My thinking is- the higher the woofers off the floor the better and I can position the upper tweeter/midrange module to match my listening height.

The speed control system is near perfection.  I played a test tone and hear no w&f.  Speed drift is a thing of the past with the Roadrunner tachometer.  My iPhone app shows the same speed every time which also correlated to the Tachometer readout.  

The sound of this new table is excellent.  Perhaps it will have some break in improvement but already the improvements over my old Star are more clarity in the mid bass and the bass.  The highs are sweet.  Cymbals have a delicate sound with every detail from the stick hitting the metal to the decaying shimmer.  Older analog recordings make hearing cymbals a whole new experience.

Sound stage is a bit bigger than before and images even sharper in focus.  I think the  speed control is responsible for the improved highs and imaging.  This new Turntable looks almost the same to the casual observer.  The only notable difference over my Star is the now two silver buttons on the motor cover.  The turntable now starts/stops and toggles speed between 33 1/3 and 45 rpm by pressing the large black button which used to be the speed adjustment.  Now turning that black knob does nothing.  The two silver buttons are used to adjust speed.  One bumps the speed up in small increments and the other down.  These are only needed if someone wants to run the platter a bit fast or slow.  The Condor controller locks in the speed at 33 1/3 or 45 rpm.  The road runner tachometer uses a speed sensor under the platter to feedback speed to the Condor.  It can make small fine adjustments to compensate for speed drift due to temperature changes, etc.  One thing I noticed is that I could put my finger against the side of the platter to induce some drag but the speed did not change.

The Nova VI also features a new suspension system.  I don't have the details but one thing I did was to place a small mirror on the subchassis by the tonearm and bounce a laser beam off of it to the wall.  The multiplier of the lengths was about 30 to 1 and yet I could detect no movement of the laser spot on the wall.  This is very impressive.  That means the subchassis is not being moved as the motor pulls on the platter.  This is a big improvement over my Star.

I have heard the ARC Ref 160m amps.  Very nice and quite a looker.

I also have learned much about isolation over these past couple of months.  Springs isolate while rubber dampens.  I didn't fully realize that concept until recently- and I'm an engineer.  Rubber like Sorbathane, which I have used for years under components dampen but not completely isolate the component from external vibrations.  And since rubber dampens it can add coloration.  Springs when tuned properly completely isolate a component from external vibration.  Tuning the springs is more quickly done with some math.  The goal is to get the spring mass system (The component is the mass) to have a resonance point at around 3 Hz.  I used this formula to size springs for my Amps, Subs, Speakers and everything on the front end.  And guess what- the Sota Turntable Suspension is already tuned to 3 Hz.  Here's what happened.  The bass is no longer muddy or boomy.   I didn't know my bass was muddy until I heard the Wilson Alexia 2 Speakers in Atlanta.  Well, now my Thiels sing. The bass is crisp and clear.  Not quite Alexia 2 caliber but very good now.  Imaging improved.  Images are sharper and crisper now.  Detail went through the roof.  In fact, I have so much more detail in the music now that it was distracting or overwhelming at first.  I almost want to go back to how it was before.  But the genie was out of the bottle.  After a few days I grew used to the added detail and now I enjoy it.

Being retired and putting in the time to experiment and learn this past year has been fun.

Using a vibrometer app on my iPad I could see the difference this isolation makes.  Resting the iPad on top of the speaker and the speaker directly coupled to the floor as I have had them for years, I tap on the speaker cabinet and I see not just a pulse but ringing for a short moment.  The vibration waves are reflecting back through the speaker cabinet.  I saw exactly this on videos online. When I tap on the floor I see the same response and ringing just like tapping directly on the speaker cabinet.  After decoupling the speakers with the springs the difference is amazing.  Tap on the speaker cabinet and the app shows the spike but it doesn’t ring.  Tap on the floor and the iPad app shows nothing- complete isolation.  You might think that the speakers would rock back and forth with the music.  They do not.  It’s a 165 lb speaker that the cone drivers are pushing against.  It doesn’t move.   

I showed a picture of my system to Alan at HiFi Buys last Spring in Atlanta.  He now has the same lamps in one of his showrooms.   I saw them in his store in August when I picked up the Niagara and Hurricane.  I also heard Leonard Cohen (10 New Songs) for the first time in his store.  Love that album now.  

Well, today I brought home an AQ Niagra 5000 power conditioner and a AQ Hurricane power cord.  Quite expensive but effective.  I heard a bigger soundstage right off and after some hours of playing music the highs are much smoother.  That’s how I would describe it.  The wood floor made the sound more lively and now the highs are calmer with the new power conditioner.  End result is crisper sound with very clear bass but no shrill or head drilling highs. 

This power conditioner is likely a keeper.   Why does the good stuff have to cost so much?

I gave up on the contractors and finally installed the wood floor myself.  500 sqft of flooring.  I did it it in two days and lost 10 lbs.  I was sore, stiff and angry that I ended up doing it myself.  All that went away with the first song that I played.

Note the rugs on the floor.  I am still tuning the room with rugs.  My family and friends of course asked me why I am putting rugs on my new wooden floor.  I try to explain that the new floor improves the acoustics and the rugs allow me to tune the room to taste.  They don't seem to get it.

I also added dedicated power lines to the amps and front end.  The amps really benefited from the dedicated power and the AQ NRG outlet.

I have wanted to do this to the room for several years now.  It was a worthwhile effort.

I also finally ran 12 ga Romex MC wire to my listening room.  Two dedicated circuits power the amps and the front end.  It added some life to the music. 

I perceived the upgraded power supply (Keces P8) improved the sound of hi res audio but didn't do much for FLACC CD or streaming CD.  But the big improvement streaming CD quality (44.1 kHz 16 bit) was had by adding a network switch between the music server and my router.  I also added a 5 Volt Linear power supply to replace the wall wart on the network switch.  That might be over the top but with this hobby where do you draw the line?  The power supply upgrades took CD quality streaming from borderline acceptable to sounding very close to playing CD FLACC files on the SSD.  The SSD still has the edge with better, clearer bass and imaging- a small edge.

Thanks for the information about coherentsourceservice.  That is good to know should I ever need to service my Thiel speakers.  I was wondering what I would do should they ever need a repair.  Fortunately for me, I bought them as new demos and they have given me great service.

I have had my Zephyr for a couple of months now.  It tracks so well and sounds fantastic.  I marvel at how perfectly the stylus is set into the cantilever.  Great workmanship.

The overall sound of my system now is excellent to me.  I have been like a kid on Christmas morning everyday for the last couple of weeks.  I can't wait to put on the first CD of the day and be stunned by the sound and clarity.  It's a good thing I waited until I was retired to do all this.  I cannot get anything else done right now.

On the analog side I added the Purist Audio Genesis Phono cable.  For years, decades actually I used the basic phono cable that came with my SME arm.  It sounded decent enough but I always wanted to try a better phono cable.  The Genesis cable came to me already burned or broken in.  The seller put it on a cable cooker for 3 days.  They said it is nearly impossible for a phono cartridge to break in a cable due to the low signal levels.  Ok.  This new phono cable improved the sound with an overall smoothness, and it adds more resolution and detail by lowering the noise floor.  There is good and bad with this.  The good is that I hear more detail in the music.  The bad is that the ticks and pops in the grooves are more apparent.  Quiet records are still nice and quiet but some of my 70s records have a bit of groove noise.  Before, the groove noise usually disappeared once the music started.  Now, due to the lower noise level in the system I can hear the groove ticks in the music.  An interesting side affect of lowering system noise but I have been playing vinyl since the 70s so I have learned to tune out the little ticks.  The other side affect is that pre echo is now more apparent.  I hear it more frequently and more clearly now.  Pre echo is what I call master tape print through.  It's hearing a loud passage that is about to play moments before it actually starts.  But despite these couple of side affects I still much prefer the sound of this new phono cable.

Coming next is a network bridge.  When I started this venture to upgrade the digital front end my goals were twofold.  I wanted to still spin discs with improved sound and to be able to play Hi Res audio files.  Streaming is a side curiosity for me at this point but the Network Bridge will allow me to do both.