Tír Na HiFi

Sligolad wrote:Got a serious lift in SQ this evening that has me shaking my head in disbelief again, just when you think there are only small gains left something like this hits you out of leftfield!!
I think it is due to moving my OS with MQN on a Sandisk USB stick from a back USB port (#2) to direct on to one of the Mobo USB pinouts (#12), I have no Pico anymore and no relays just 3.3, 5, & 12v Linear's to the Mobo.
I connected the USB OS stick power pins to the 5v linear supply which also supplies the 24 pin atx, the PPA USB card and the CF Card drive and the improvement was amazing.

I tried feeding the USB stick with the Anker 5v but it would not pick up on the PC even though there was 5v going to the stick and the blue light in the stick was lit....very strange.
I also stuck back in the PCI capacitor board at the weekend which seems to act as a reservoir on the PCI bus so maybe that has charged up and helps but the difference this evening when I changed the USB stick was amazing to say the least.

The sound is so detailed and smooth with rich body and loads of attack which is something that really jumps out of the Quads, not something I have heard from them before.
Keeping my fingers crossed that when I turn the Zuma on tomorrow that new sound is still there, maybe there is some crazy ground stuff going on since I tidied up my wiring also at the weekend and adding the USB stick inside with its power direct off the Linear supply broke some noise loop.
Mad stuff is all I can say!!

Sligolad wrote:I have a new MSI board ready to go and I received a Haswell processor yesterday but I would be afraid to go messing with the PC at the moment it sounds so good, going to bring it to Fran's on Saturday and fingers crossed it still sounds as good!!
By the way it still has that Intel board that I have had a love/hate relationship with....maybe it knew it was about to be replaced and finally decided to play ball :-)

nige2000 wrote:Ok PPA USB card arrived couple of days ago, i have wired in another 5v battery especially for it, i had temporally took power from rear usb port and it sounded much better at that
the real improvement came by providing direct battery power

tony wrote:

nige2000 wrote:Ok PPA USB card arrived couple of days ago, i have wired in another 5v battery especially for it, i had temporally took power from rear usb port and it sounded much better at that
the real improvement came by providing direct battery power

When did you order that? Sounds if it got delivered very quickly. Not sure if it is in my mind but the 3m paper seems to reduce noise floor a lot. I did get monster bass traps the other week so not sure if they are doing something also but feel mine sounds very sweet. Was the card plug and play or is there messing with drivers?

tony wrote:Thats what I thought. It looks like it only took approx a week to 10 days to get here.That is not bad. Are you suggesting it may sound a little better or not sure?

i have wired in another 5v battery especially for it, i had temporally took power from rear usb port and it sounded much better at that
the real improvement came by providing direct battery power