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Bwahahahahahaha!!!

Our daughter and family are in own and it has been a wild day. This is a picture of the two USB cables that I am offering at this time. On the right is The USB Cable for USB 2 in a 1.5m length. On the left is a 1m USB3 cable (simply called Tres) primarily used as a data transfer cable between computers and external storage. I am using them between my Mac Mini and my main 2TB HDD as well as in a backup system that I have. Piglet is a shorter version of The USB Cable. They are all cryogenically treated. My MPC/Mini++ Mac Mini power cable won a PFO Brutus Product of the Year award a couple of years back. It is a KILLER power cable for Mac minis in digital audio systems.

Tomorrow when I'm back in the office I will post a picture or two of the digital cables. I know that my website sucks. It was designed back in the days of coal fired, steam driven computers and is currently just a place holder in the world of 100Mbps connection rates. I can only work so fast and we live in an injection molded, microwave society that wants everything last week. I guess it comes down to whether or not people are willing to wait for great products. I can only build so fast and WILL NOT compromise quality for throughput. More tomorrow.

:-) It's a pork fat thing!

Piglet is the name for the short pigtail like CFP got to go to the Regen. The regular USB cable is called The USB cable. Mike, bacon grease is one of the beautiful things in life. It smells good, it tastes good and it is a great lubricant - just ask the settlers in NM back in the 1600's or any pig. I do have a special sauce, but it isn't bacon grease. You'll find out when you visit here in May :-) D

Mike, check your email... Classicfolkphile and I put our heads together, got sparks and came up with a name for the short link. Let it be called PIGLET. Goes with all of my other eccentric product names. D

Hi, guys. Dave Elledge, P.I. audio group, LLC, here. First, thanks to classfolkphile for the kind review on the cable I built for him. Another thank you to rogerdn, too. My business is primarily noise filtration units for AC and DC applications. That is what you will find on my crappy website. [ Sidebar: yeah, I know it sucks, but it is merely a placeholder at this point. 99% of my business comes from referrals and I am quite busy with work. As mentioned above I work alone and slowly. I've had health issues over the last few years stemming from a near fatal auto accident and have learned that life is too short to get my knickers in a wad. The site will be updated, I'm just unsure as to when. ] I do custom work in several different audio disciplines. All of them are linked by my opinion that noise, electrical or environmental, is one of our major antagonists in superior SQ. Noise sources are a strange lot. From traffic noise to digital buzz in the GHz, all of it must be addressed. No place is in more important than in digital power supplies... and it comes from everywhere. One of the reasons that my USB cables are relatively unknown is that most of my small production has been OEM for others. Pretty much, that's me. I can be contacted directly : dgelledges(at)msn(dot)com.

What you saw and assumed are not what I said, but understandable in context I guess. My point about audio and power is simple. Without very high quality, low noise, low impedance, high current power, excellent audio reproduction is next to impossible. Other than that I don't care how it gets generated although my personal preference would be be nuclear generators if we are talking AC into the grid. The switcher in the 2010 Mac Mini is a great supply in a faraday cage with PFC built into the package along with a noise nulling circuit. I like how it "doesn't sound." Edit> I should add that what I DON"T like about switchers is their propensity for regurgitating noise into the AC by transmitting it back down the power cord to OTHER pieces of gear, not the unit being powered, necessarily. End Edit< My obsession with clean power comes from years working with noise sensitive equipment and building and working on power supplies to reduce the noise floor in the gear supplied. This spans the widely divergent fields of studio recording and high energy implanters in the semiconductor industry. You couldn't find two more different technologies, but they are both linked by the necessity of the need for high quality factor power supplies. I welcome and, frankly, enjoy spirited discussion. This is how a lot of good things come about. I just prefer to leave ad hominem attacks out of the soup. I also don't much care if anyone reads my posts and says: "Dave knows those guys and they sell his stuff!" People that know me know that I will call a turd a turd and not make any bones about it. I very much tried my best to let people know my position at the beginning of my comments. Bottom line is this: if I did not believe that the two products that I purchased and own were the best thing since sliced bread, I wouldn't spend the money on them and I certainly wouldn't be here involved in this thread. That is not how I'm cut. As a man of faith I belive in telling the truth and always try to do so... even when it hurts. Thanks for the post explaining your point.

"I think Mach2Music & PI Audio should send Chris (Computer Audiophile) some products for review. How's that? A neutral unbiased opinion." - jtwrace I'm up for it. I'm easy and I'm always am ready to put up or shut up :-)

Clay, do you NOT read what I say or are you too consumed with your POV to take the time? I never said a linear power supply is necessary for good digital reproduction. My 2010 Mac Mini has the stock switcher and sounds just fine, thank you. My "belief systems" are supported by 40 years of experience, experimentation, measurements, production and refinement. I will not comment on anything that I do not have hard data on and/or experience and studies based on A/B testing results. I believe that the success of my company and products are proof of this. My credibility is not cogent. My integrity is. If you read nothing else that I have written read this: NOBODY CAN BUY MY INTEGRITY. I have laid all of my cards on the table. I have business relationships with companies and people all over the 'net. You don't see me saying that "XYZ amp is great!!!" do you? I usually won't mention a product that I don't like unless I am asked a direct question. Like I said, I am very direct. I will stand by every statement that I have made in this thread. I have no intention of "pushing" my products here. I have no need nor desire to do so. I simply dropped in at the request of others to make some observations about my personal experiences. I will promote what I want, when I want, where I want IF I believe that whatever I am promoting is worth the effort and beneficial to the end user. Obviously I believe what I say here. Take it or leave it - your option. I'm just not sure that you are the thread police, though. I always have a nice day, thank you, even when I am impuned.

Let me answer your questions in order: "Why would my computer (or anyone's) require pristine power in order to provide "bit perfect" bits to my DAC?" I didn't say that. I said pristine audio reproduction requires pristine power. But to answer your implication, that is easy. Any binary system sees any voltage (or current depending upon the class of the device) as a one. Ergo any noise in the processor will result in uncorrelated ones thereby screwing mightily with timing. Bit perfect is a misnomer in reality. It does not account for noise present in the datastream. "Does my computer really need a pure DC signal to "computer properly"?" Yes. This will never happen though. It is always going to have a noise component, even in a "pure" DC source. We can quibble over magnitude if you wish. Induced fluctuations in adjacent traces are a pig to a digital engineer/designer. "My computer is NOT doing anything in the analog domain, which is where I believe that pristine power would be helpful for pristine reproduction." Beliefs are often erroneous. " Even the timing of the bits is irrelevant given that the samples are clocked in my DAC, and as we all know, jitter can only occur during digital-to-analog conversions, or vice versa, so it's not required for jitter-free playback." If you say so. I'm not here to argue. If you wish to do so, please take the time to listen to what we are talking about (linear power supplies, I guess) instead of arguing belief systems so we can have a fruitful conversation. Belief systems and reality are rarely parallel entities. Dave

when you get to be a silverback like me the skin gets pretty thick. It's all good. I am affilliated with dB Audio Labs and Mach2 first and foremost as a very satisfied customer. I started down this heretical conversion to server based audio by hearing and then buying a Tranquility DAC. I liked the way it sounded and thought: "Man, I can live with this!". I sold my Cary 306 and built a dedicated PC with barebones XP on it to use as a server. I have since upgraded to the SE and the sound is even better. Eric Hider and others kept telling me that the Mac is a superior solution and after much tweaking, wailing, moaning and crow eating have firmly arrived in the Mac camp. It was a few months ago when Kevin and Darrell got their first Minis and proved it to me. Man, do I hate being that wrong! Anyway, Darrell is a software guy and started doing his work on making the Mini sound as good as possible. Very quickly it became apparent that he had crossed the line where it was unfeasable for a hobbyist to do all that he was doing without the very probable outcome of reducing a $700.00 dollar investment to a paperweight. He has gone well beyond that, now. Kevin is the hardware end of the business and has figured out how to disassemble a Mini and not reduce it to a pile of junk doing so. It is not as easy as the older generations. There are trip wires and landmines inside :-) My financial stake in their business is that they sell my MPC/Mini power cable and the MacSandwich isolation system - no great shakes. I sell all I can make, anyway. I own no portion of their business. I simply value them as longtime friends and audiophools, just like I am, that can't leave well enough alone. I freely admit that I urged them to form a company and share what they were doing to the Macs. They had to do so - their methods just ROCK and sound fabulous. It is a pleasure to be associated with them, if not affilliated. Eric Hider at dB Audio Labs is a good guy and a friend. If I knew of a better DAC than his (to my ears) I would own it. That is just how I am built. First, I would be on his butt to work on his, though. I'm pretty direct. For us, the final arbiter IS the music. We have just dedicated ourselves to getting closer to the reality of the musical experience. Tweaks, we're just tweaks, that's all. Life and music reproduction is GOOD here in Albuquerque. Drop by and see us sometime. Dave

did I "hawk my wares". I have followed this thread and seen a lot of conjecture about what is better and what is best. What is important and what is not. I also watched a rather long interplay between people cursing and calling each other names :-( I, like any other satisfied customer have expressed my opinion. I own and support a local product and the DAC that pulls my happy chain. I am extremely enthusiastic about affordable good sounding audio gear, especially when I know the principals. Especially when they are good, honest people. It may seem like I am shilling for Mach2 and I guess I am, in a way. I listened to every digital server and digital front end that I could at RMAF. Nothing even approached the musicality of the Mach2 at any pricepoint IMNSHO. I guess that if you know the people involved and live in the same town that is a disqualification of sorts. That being said, I will ALWAYS speak up and out when I see disinformation about anyone's product being bandied about. Ain't right. Sorry about upsetting the PC applecart (take the 'PC' any way you want) here. Dave, out>>>>>>>>>>>

As power guys, we know that you must have pristine power in an audio system to have pristine reproduction. No doubt, no argument. What we don't seem to agree upon is the relative worth of the 2010 Mac Mini in general and the Mach2 Music Server specifically. It is very simple: compare one to a stock or modified Mini of any genre with any power supply. There is a reason why the Mach2 Mini is selling at an incredible pace. One person hears it, buys one tells and another person and so on. Nobody from here is going to tell you what is going on inside the Mach2 Mini. It would be easier to get the recipe for Coca Cola, I reckon. 'Proprietary' is the word, I believe. I'll have to give Spatial HD a listen, thanks for that. You asked "are we there, yet?" I am. Dave

Well, you are missing a lot, evidently. Perhaps you should start with the facts: http://www.mach2music.com/ The software package is not simply shuting down processes and reconfiguring iTunes. They have invested many hundreds of hours in writing new software for the Mac Mini. This is not a 'go down the list of things to do' kind of thing. Heck, even I can do that, and those tweaks are available for free in lots of places on the net. The Mach2 crew did software development to run specific processes and algorithms that are audio specific. Their modifications certainly include all of the available tweeks, but those are about 10% of the package. Also, the SSD is a very necessary part of what is going on with the sound of their Mini's IMO. You really do have to hear their Mini's to understand the magnitude of the sonic improvement. It is nothing short of stunning on a capable system. The software upgrades cost $399.00 The SSD package includes the SSD, software and the original HDD housed in an external enclosure with a copy of the system configuration in case there is a compromise of the server, so you can restore the whole thing with no problems. RAM is increased to 4GB to make sure it all runs properly. That is $749.00. All of us consider iTunes a virus posing as a music format. I know that sounds harsh, but so does iTunes. There are much better sounding options. Some are free like Play and AyreWave, but the concensus here is that Amarra is the best sounding of the players with Pure Music close behind. I will soon upgrade to Amarra. It is certainly the most dynamic player of the available ones. We take what we are doing here very seriously. These are not hobby hacker modifications, but purpose built music servers. There is a big difference in performance as well as investment.