Time to go "paper" shopping!

[Patrick82]

Yeah, I watched some of the other ones, I won't be watching anymore. Just a bunch of "OMG look at that, I am surprised at my own BS snake oil connectors and cables, I didn't realize how awesome this is" I guess if each time he looks at his wires he is amazed and enthralled then his hobby is making him feel good sometimes. I bet he spends more time on that BS than actual listening. I think the ratio must be 10:1 (10 being time spent tweaking and 1 being time spent listening) by what the videos show.

Tweaking my audio system is a full time job. I listen and write into my logs how my audio system sounds like. Then I make the planning, it takes many weeks to plan the tweaks. I write 3 MB per year into notepad which I have always open on my desktop. I write everything into my logs, the ambient temperature inside and outside, the CPU and mainboard temperature of my computer. I write the burn-in volume and the time I start burning it in.
When I start listening to an album I write the date and time of when I start listening, and when I'm finished I write the time into my logs too.
So the ratio isn't 10:1, it's 100% tweaking.

 

[Patrick82]

for someone trying to get rid of interference, he put metal cans and batteries on the racks?

those are some expensive audiophile stuff though (and very cool looking too) especially the rack with the suspension thingy ... too bad he had to mess up that nice looking setup.

I used batteries for weight because I couldn't find any other weights. I'm using books now, they give more neutral sound.

 

[Patrick82]

I clicked on one of the other videos and after doing all that, he listened to a 128Kbps mp3 track!?!

I have found that Nordost Valhalla interconnect is colder and tighter than neutral which compensates for the smearing of mp3, but it also removes low-level detail in the process.
I have downgraded into Nordost Valkyrja now, it sounds more neutral with more low-level detail. But I got too much low-level detail which made it sound noisy. To fine tune the sound I added 15cm Valhalla after the Valkyrja, it made a huge difference in solidness and removed some low-level detail. The background sounds very clean because of it.

 

[Patrick82]

Oh god, it's patrick82 from head-fi.

God this guy is annoying.

He put a rock on his amp and said that it gave him better bass response.

Mass damping gave a huge improvement in bass. Everything sounded a few dB louder.

 

[Patrick82]

What is his username? I don't understand how someone could think paper would help the sound,

ERS Paper shields against EMI, I have found that the components on the circuit boards output EMI, and they reflect back from the top cover of the case. Putting ERS Paper on the inside of the case reduces that problem. I have also separated each component from each other, it gave more low-level detail.

 

[Patrick82]

ERS Paper = Best tweak ever!

ERS Paper is amazing, it only has one weakness, it needs to be separated at least 1cm from what it is shielding, otherwise it sounds muddy. I made a triple layer shielded cable with each layer separated 1cm. I plugged it into my Benchmark DAC1 and going from a nude cable into the triple layer ERS Paper cable made one of the biggest improvements I have ever heard.

 

[emorphien]

All that and you keep your computer in the same room as your sound system?

 

[Patrick82]

All that and you keep your computer in the same room as your sound system?

I'm using extension strips for my computer so it doesn't infect my audio system. When computer was plugged into same wall as audio system it sounded bright, when I underclocked my computer it sounded smoother. When I played back WAV instead of FLAC it sounded even smoother because of less CPU power.
After I plugged my computer into another wall all those problems went away.

I'm using Zalman Reserator water cooling and I have the harddrives and PSU inside the closet. I tried with the harddrives outside the closet but I couldn't hear any details when listening to music.

 

[emorphien]

When computer was plugged into same wall as audio system it sounded bright, when I underclocked my computer it sounded smoother. When I played back WAV instead of FLAC it sounded even smoother because of less CPU power.

 

[Patrick82]

I took everything apart and built up my system from scratch. ERS Paper makes a huge difference.

 

[jaxvon]

I wish I was a reseller of that paper so I could've hosed you for all that money. Why on earth would you do that? What a gigantic waste of time and money. It goes to show that you don't know the first thing about how components are designed and how electricity and magnetism interact.

 

[Patrick82]

I wish I was a reseller of that paper so I could've hosed you for all that money. Why on earth would you do that? What a gigantic waste of time and money. It goes to show that you don't know the first thing about how components are designed and how electricity and magnetism interact.

People who haven't tried ERS Paper don't know what they are missing. It's the best tweak for the price. Wrapping ERS Paper around the Nordost Valhalla power cord made it sound 10 times more expensive. You can spend $$$$$$ on high-end gear and still get worse sound just because you don't have your system wrapped in ERS Paper. $20 per sheet is very cheap compared to other tweaks.

 

[emorphien]

Wrapping ERS Paper around the Nordost Valhalla power cord made it sound 10 times more expensive.

I must learn what money sounds like in order to be able to appreciate a change of this magnitude.

 

[Patrick82]

Ranking list

I made a list that ranks the improvements from my tweaks based on category.

These are the biggest improvements I have ever heard, they make a far greater improvement than a source or amp upgrade.



Dynamics, bass, low-level detail

1) Triple layer ERS Paper for DAC1's Valhalla power cord
2) Single layer ERS Paper for headphone cable
3) Mass damping with books
4) Adding Rack of Silence under Magix levitation feet
5) Adding Premier Power Plant
6) MWave1 to MWave4



Low-level detail and rear soundstage depth

1) Removing and isolating transformers
2) Isolating amp channels from each other
2) Star grounding



Transient speed and low-level detail

1) Modifying Valhalla interconnect to 1 conductor per signal
2) Modifying Valhalla power cord to 1 conductor per signal



Resolution and smoothness

1) Magix levitation feet
2) Valkyrja speaker wiring instead of Valhalla interconnect
3) ERS Paper for transport
4) ERS Paper jammed inside amp
5) ERS Paper tent around amp



Smoothness

1) ERS Paper for amp's Valhalla power cords
2) Isolating amp channels with different Isozones of Premier Power Plant
3) 192 kHz upsampling with Cary transport + Valhalla AES/EBU
4) ERS Paper jammed inside DAC1



Heaviness

1) Noise Harvester

 

[emorphien]

Heaviness

1) Noise Harvester

How does that work? A noise harvester sounds heavy.

 

[Patrick82]

I must learn what money sounds like in order to be able to appreciate a change of this magnitude.

Valhalla costs 4.5 times more than Vishnu. The difference between the original Valhalla and the ERS Papered Valhalla is much bigger than that.
Nordost doesn't use any shielding around their power cords, that's why the improvements are so big.

 

[emorphien]

So perhaps you could have instead blown a bunch of money on someone else's power cords that are shielded?

 

[Patrick82]

How does that work? A noise harvester sounds heavy.

Noise Harvester removes noise from the AC line. It makes the power conditioner work better. It makes it sound full and heavy instead of thin and edgy. 1 Harvester made a huge difference but I didn't like it because everything got too heavy from top to bottom. I had to keep tweaking to find the problem in my system, adding more Harvesters made the warmth problem in my system more apparént, I liked the edgy sound better because it gave the illusion of faster transients. I solved the warmth problem by cutting back on the power conditioners.

 

[Wafflesomd]

You already said that at Head-Fi before you got banned.

Yah, but the masses here aren't stupid.

 

[Adam]

Yah, but the masses here aren't stupid.

Huh? Me no understand. You stop using such big words!