moophone

So at 50 hours of "break-in" my conclusion is that after having my wife switch cables A/B between the mapleshade and stock USB cable, I can hear no significant difference between the two. Sometimes I think the mapleshade has a bit more "bloom" but I'm pretty sure its just program material. I'm planning a blind ABX with the wife switching at 200 hours to formally conclude the results. I'll repeat with her listening. Anyway, this is interesting because at zero hours, the mapleshade sounded to me, lacking in lower mid-range warmth and seemed a bit thin and less resolving compared to the stock cable. This comparison at zero hours was less formal, so I can't say for sure there was any difference, but I was "pretty sure" there was. So as of 50hrs the stock cable and this one sound the same. If my initial observations were correct then the cable's sound signature has changed and will be interesting to see what happens at 100 hours. Otherwise there is no difference, and never has been. Next step, 100 hours.

Figured it out - Windows Audio System is not installed in server 2012 by default. Installed it to get the virtual device and its working once again.

There must be something buggered up with my install then. When I get home I'll blow it away and reinstall. Hopefully that will fix it. BTW I am perfectly happy with the way Exasound has implemented their volume control. Its quite elegant, especially with the maximum volume limiter in the recent builds. That feature (Thanks George!!) has saved me from blowing up my speakers twice this year already. Cheers.

Is anyone here using Server 2012 and JRiver/JRemote? It seems the volume sync plugin doesn't work on Server 2012. It doesn't work in system or application mode, only internal volume mode (which sounds horrible). Exasound isn't planning to investigate this issue, so before I have to uninstall Server 2012 and reinstall windows 8 all over again (ugh), I just want to confirm its not only me.

See Audioquest's explanation here: here Personally, I don't believe in it, but I'm keeping an open mind and following the mfr's recommendations.

This is my plan. I will listen at 50, 100, and 200 hours then make a decision. Hopefully things change, somewhat significantly, because right now there is nothing in this cable I would consider an "upgrade" over stock (with zero break-in) Greg

Just got the mapleshade plus. Initial thoughts are that it does sound slightly different than the cable that came with it, but also more compressed. I'm not sure if I'd call it better or worse after about 10 seconds of one song. I didn't want to get too used to the sound because I want to ensure any supposed break in is not due to ear brain adjustment. I'll let it play for 24 hrs before any critical listening. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

S Hell has apparently frozen over. Against my belief that a USB cable shouldn't affect the sound, I ordered a Mapleshade plus USB cable. It will arrive any day. I'll test it initially, then leave the DAC on for 24 hours, test, and finally test at the recommended "break-in" period.

Sorry, but I disagree that there is any consensus, in fact just the opposite. What I was looking for in my post was a technical explanation of how USB cable technology can specifically improve transfer to a DAC that uses asynchronous USB. While I appreciate the link, that is more of an advertisement which is entirely lacking in any technical depth whatsoever. For example, designing a USB cable that can do gigabit speed? I argue that its not relevant. Look up USB Isochronous transfers. USB in a NutShell - Chapter 4 - Endpoint Types In short, the BW is latency limited, and bandwidth guaranteed. e.g.error free. Anyway, I think I have my answer (there isn't one). With that said, I will eventually trial a usb cable anyway, based on popularity.

Just received the 3' balanced Mogami Gold XLR cables. As previously mentioned, I found a 30' cheap mic cable (balanced xlr) connected to the Exasound was an improvement in clarity over the 4' single ended bluejeans cable from DAC to ASP. I wanted to see what a real balanced XLR cable could do. Just connected it up, and the improvement is immediately noticeable. The mic cable, while brighter and clearer than the Blue Jeans unbalanced cables, was definitely not neutral (bright). The Mogami is in another league. silky perfect reverb details, clearity without being bright. If any of you Exasound owners can use the XLR outputs, I strongly suggest checking these out. Big upgrade over my unbalanced configuration. Definitely the last DAC to ASP interconnects I'll ever buy.

Thanks Jud!

Not debating whether or not USB audiophile cables have sonic improvements or not, only looking for "why" they could sound different. Lets assume they do, I'd like to know why/how. I'm here to learn. Can someone refer me to any technical resources on the matter? I just had a short call with an RF Engineer at Lockheed about the subject. He said RF and USB don't usually belong in the same comparison (USB is much too low frequency to be talking about RF unless something in the environment was radiating into the cable). He said shielding and mating in connectors are important to not cause impedance reflections and that higher order mode generation could affect audio, but this doesn't usually happen until you start to approach ghz frequencies. He also indicated computer noise or the environment could be an issue, but with galvanic isolation, only environment should matter. Would appreciate someone adding some insight to this technical discussion!

Fair enough. Maybe an expensive USB cable will change my sound, but without a scientific, measurable reason I'll choose to spend my money elsewhere. If I found a local dealer that wanted to give me a loan, I'd jump on the opportunity. HQPlayer, Mogami cable, and a linear power supply are on my radar next. Maybe after that, I'll consider calling around to a few places locally to borrow one. Anyway back on topic

No I'm not. The first E20, including mine, has this switch. They must have removed it after the first ones.

yes. 30' Balanced budget mic cable that cost around $25 and wouldn't be surprised if its noisy due to being twisted and bent to crap in my junk drawer for the last 4 years! These cables don't like this kind of abuse and get noisy after a while. vs. Blue Jeans LC1 unbalanced (SE) 4' cable (well cared for!!) The difference was at least half as significant as going from stock Analog Signal Processor to DB's Subjective Neutrality tuning for the Analog Signal Processor. That won't mean much for non-Orion folks. I just ordered 2 Mogami Gold 3' cables (used in pretty much all recording studios) I'll report back on difference to the budget 30' Balanced cable I'm now using.