USB Nervosa Thread Decrapifiers, pro interfaces, and bears oh my

Yellow pictures and weird-looking kids? Ken Rockwell is jaundice personified.

 

which one is the Fro Knows Photo?

 

I'm a little unsure when one "should" try and fix the USB problem. Let's say a person has got BW2, Gungnir Multibit and HD650. Would it then make sense to start tweaking?

 

Note: Before answering, I am annoyed at myself for having to stand up on a soap-box and use the imperative mood of sentencing, which makes me sound like a preachy cunt, by answering the question in the way you very understandably posed it. I suppose the preachy tone people like to use is necessary to combat the equally absurd compulsiveness on which some people act to tweak their audio chain when they are still using a mediocre DAC.

No. Based on the tone of your message, you seem happy with your system. If you are happy with your system, you do not need to tweak anything. That is already a pretty amazing setup.

No, if you plan to purchase the Yggdrasil, Pavane, or some other higher-priced DAC. Save (more imperative mood tripe) for those and plan (look at me on my imperative soapbox) for sale of the Gungnir Multibit to cover the cost.

If you want something that you can use now, and that you can carry with you into your next DAC, purchase (imperative mood is f'ing lame) cautiously. Something like the Mutec plus Gungnir Multibit crosses the line into Yggdrasil territory, which may or may not constitute an entire tier above the Gungnir Multibit + decrapifier device, and thus is a decision that requires a healthy amount of skepticism before taking the plunge.

I personally think something like the Singxer devices or the Lynx AES are something to think about since they are cheaper than the Mutec 3 USB. I have owned and miss my Mutec 3 USB, which was just fantastic in my setup, currently am very happy with the uRendu into the Yggdrasil, and hope to repurchase the former eventually, but that is only because I own the Yggdrasil now.

To iterate my first point, it sounds as if you are deciding whether you are supposed to do A or B without feeling the need yourself to explore A or B at all. You are happy with your setup and thus can close this thread and save yourself some money for music, coffee, beer, women, or even a "better" DAC.

The only reason I purchased the Mutec 3 at all was because I became annoyed by a noticeable hash in my system, excessively ostentatious sharp, noisy swhoosh-like digitittus, when running straight USB. Hands' endorsement of the Mutec really convinced me. Wyrd, Regen, and the unmodded U12 did not solve this issue for me. The Mutec bested all of them and the uRendu bested the Mutec, at least in my setup. Though I prefer the Mutec and uRendu together, owning both precluded me from other goals. As others have eloquently pointed out here, the sonic efficacy of these devices cannot be isolated from one's system and preferences. I consider Johnjen and Atomicbob to be very credible and genuine resources on this topic as well, both of whom I believe prefer the Rednet, followed by the Mutec, above all else they've tried. For me, uRendu obviates the immediate need for the Mutec and has practical benefits over the Rednet in my living space.

 

Don't worry about the soap-box haha. It's all good.

I actually don't own this setup yet but it's what I plan to upgrade to if BW2 hopefully will released again. I'm currently running Audio-gd DAC-19 and Cavalli Liquid Carbon. I haven't reached my end-game yet with my currenty setup that's why I feel like upgrading. I especially feel like LC is holding HD650 back somehow.

The reason I'm gonna buy Gungnir Multibit and not Yggdrasil is because of personal preferences. I haven't heard either but from what I hear Gungnir Multibit will suit me best. And then it's also cheaper. Problem is that it's running with USB2 where as Yggdrasil has USB3 and from what I understand that actually makes a difference. The sole reason why I'm looking at buying a decrapifier device is because I, like you, want to get rid of the digitittus in my system. Some people are now gonna tell me to switch to vinyl but that's not an option for me.

So, I feel the need to tweak, at least now. It might change when I actually get the setup that I want. But let's say the urge remains. Wouldn't I have reached a point where it would be legitimate to start doing so? If I'm happy with everything except the digitittus. I guess another question would be if this digitittus can even be removed buy going for a more expensive DAC, that still uses USB, or a decrapifier is the only way at that point?

Thanks for your input

 

Hold on, I said with all due respect

 

I'm pretty sure that someone from SBAF said that it is better. But I don't know, perhaps it doesn't do schiit.

I'm more interested in answers to my last questions though.

 

at least defuckifiers arent power cords

 

Since it seems to be machina non grata (hah) I took the Regen out from between the Intona and Mutec over the weekend. Didn't notice a significant difference which is about the same thing I said when I put it in there in the first place. I'll keep it out and maybe put it back in in a week and see if something strikes me.

The Mutec MC3 in front of Yggdrasil was easy to hear for me and I feel it makes an obvious and significant improvement. Find a track that has some interesting spatial/soundstage information and listen with/without Mutec. I used this one:


I will attach the first 60 seconds in 16/44 when I get home so you guys can try it because it's not on iTunes or Tidal. Listen to the bar chime as it crosses the sound field. The addition of the Mutec hyper focuses it so you can almost hear the position of each individual chime.

Another good track to use would be Infected Mushroom - Kafkaf since it has individual effects placed all over the soundstage like points of light. This track is AWESOME on the Yggdrasil + Mutec and studio monitors with tight bass like the Events:


Strongly strongly agree with leaving defuckifiers and cables until the very end when you have a top tier transducer, amp and DAC. To give a simple example a pair of Andromeda will make a huuuuuuuuge difference several orders of magnitude above what a Mutec MC3+ USB does.

 

Yeah but maybe the spacing wasn't as actually distinct on the recording and the defuckifiers are just approximating it into distinct positions like a playnar headphone or the hd 280? I have noticed this coming back from STAX and Playnars that supposedly have "good staging" to Sennheisers and speakers which blur everything together in a much more natural way.

The defuckifiers do add false dynamics that are audible though sort of like how printing to vinyl adds false dynamics that are measurable (NOISE and he cut needing to be pressed quieter for hot masters) while all vinyl exhibits compression of high frequency transients especially if it wasn't DIRECT METAL MASTERED, which adds a digital step. Certain amps like Krells (and the AGD and other clones that attempt ot copy them) also have false dynamics and make cymbal and bass drum hits emphasized that aren't emphasized on the recording eg: Scott Burns typewriter shit starts sounding like real drums.

 

Drivers, amps, and digital plug ins can do it so why not signal f'ing gizmos? I have no idea how or why. I find if you don't actually have fucked sound, they tend to add mud, smooth over transients on the recording, mess with phase/time/staging, and create some false dynamics as do USB <--> optical and optical <--> optical gizmos. Making everything more liquid (like a SHURE) isn't making it actually better or a more faithful reproduction than not f'ing with the signal or getting a better signal to start with. People assume tons of shit is supposed to sound "better" (louder/clearer/smoother/more compressed/better recorded) than it actually sounds. Sometimes a dude banging on a piece of metal is supposed to sound like a dude banging on a piece of metal. I have a live in the studio record where a dude shreds at full volume as somebody takes apart his guitar with a power drill. It sounds like that. If I don't want to listen to powerdrill noodling, I just listen to another record. It's not unlistenable and f'ing with the signal or even attemptoing to do some equalization to compensate for the recording does funny stuff to the position/noise of hte drill and guitar coming apart interacting with the sound.

Like alcoholics, people need to learn to accept what things (gear, recordings, gizmos, dudes banging on metal) actually sound like and adding more stuff with its own sound to fix the problems of the sound of the gear you actually have isn't as good as just getting gear with better sound in the first place. Get a new faucet instead of robbing a newsrack and covering the floor with enough layers of newspaper to absorb everything.

 

And will this particular setup be good enough to start playing with defuckifiers?

What is top tier?

 

Currently tube amplifiers is not super practical so I'm gonna have to settle with solid state options instead. When you say BW2 is gonna become the bottleneck is that the tube vs ss argument or is it simply because BW2 isn't good enough? Do you have another solid state in mind?

I'm gonna wait a bit before I go into the defuckifier area anyways but I just thought I'd get some idea of where I stand. Perhaps if/when Focusrite trims down their studiograde RedNet gear it would be a good time to jump onto it.