bluesteel

Thought I had this solved but problem still persists. It is most noticeable when I play higher res. files and jump to a red-book file. Playback is distorted / crackling sound. It might be a buffer problem but as stated earlier I was not able increase in Lynx settings. This may be due to my limited computer savvy skills. Anybody else have suggestions?

I recently moved to a different residence, and was not quite happy with the way my power cables affected the depth of the sound stage. With the existing house power runs being what they are, I suddenly realized that 95% of the power run (being from the fuse panel to the wall outlet, where my high end power cables took over) was probably not broken in by true high end equipment. After about a month of 24/7 high res playing, the soundstage opened beautifully as proper re-breaking took place. It took me another 6 months to break in the FPL distribution cabling. I am not kidding. It is amazing.

Thanks Larry! I think that was the issue without being sure of exactly what caused the actual distortion (in detail). I turned off a bunch of things (including some Spotlight features) and have not been able to replicate the problem after (This is good). If anyone has a closer hunch, please let me know too. The problem seems alleviated but I do not want it to return. Back in hi res heaven...

No it is not the connectors. If I was using a turntable I would suspect a dirty needle... Anyway, the problem occurs after the system has been playing for a while. Not sure why it continues to play albums after finishing the one I selected, but that is probably another unrelated setting that changed with the upgrades. When crackling noise - I restart Amarra and iTunes and the problem disappears...

Thanks, I tried changing buffer size under ; Lynx Mixer, Advanced, 44.1 & 48 KHz Performance buffer 88.2 & 96 etc. etc. They are set to 32 (44.1&48), 64 (88.2&96), and 128 samples (176.4 & 192). System will not save changes and reverts to same settings.

My setup works great for a few albums, then (always at the beginning of a new album) a crackling noise appears during playback. System: MacPro, Lynx AES16e, and Alpha DAC. After having a system crash a few weeks ago, I upgraded to IOS 10.10.1, iTunes12.0.1.26, and Amarra 3.0.3. Also upgraded to latest Lynx firmware. Any help with this is greatly appreciated. Thanks

I consider myself a veteran audiophile and having spent more money on gear than I will admit...This includes my fair share of various high end cables. "Pathological liar" - no. I may have mislead a few blondes and brunettes in my time, but I still do consider myself an honest person. I hear stunning differences between; speakers, amps, pre-amps (when I did have one), dacs, player (when I did have) and source material (high res vs. red book). Within the digital domain, I can hear differences down to what appears to be minor details. There are even significant audible differences between using SPDIF, AES, Optical, USB, Firewire. Further, I do hear improvements when using SSD over HDD. All of this can be scientifically tested, explained etc. With this said, I am quite skeptical to the importance many audiophiles place on cables. This mostly because 1) I cannot really hear what some people claim to hear 2) There are no scientific evidence to support most of these claims. Kimbers business started because noise became a problem when running very long runs of signal cable in the same conduits as power cables etc. (Not really a problem in my living room). HIGH resistance speaker cables can mask flaws in a mediocre amp when driving a low impedance speaker (for example some electrostatic speakers) I also have to admit that I do use cables of relatively good stature (without in my opinion going overboard), this mostly as an "insurance" - as I have already spent my kids' college tuition on the system as whole. So in ending I join Nelson Pass' in his conclusions (after all very significant research was made by him and his companies - even in the context of cables) http://www.passlabs.com/pdfs/articles/spkrcabl.pdf : "CONCLUSIONS Who am I to dispute the feelings of audiophiles who, evaluating any cable in the context of program source, amplifier, speaker, and listening room, decide they can hear the difference? A few guidelines have emerged here, but the final judgment belongs to the user. All the special cables mentioned worked well on the test bench and, given the assumption that series impedance should be minimized, all of them work better than 16 gauge wire. If, like many audiophiles, you have spent a small (or large) fortune on your hi-fi system, money spent for high quality cables and connectors is a reasonable investment."

Agree - it is a hoax...!

Well, maybe they always hooked up expensive cables to the best sounding stuff...? I actually tried hooking up one speaker to the $1500 KK Select and the other to a cheap $200 Straightwire. Cannot hear any audible difference between the two lots of listeners...

pat who?

The physics of copper is constant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper Everything else is between your ears...Have another beer and just enjoy.

Agree with Bob.- should point out though that "it hits analogue again" in the DAC. The first conversion is in the HDD where mechanical converts to electrical (That is why SSD sounds better). Agree with the speaker part too; that's were electrical "hits" mechanics to vibrate the air. The digital part is about BER (Bit Error Rate) - (caused by noise - can be spotlight, bad bit shape, or jitter). A good user interface on the CA is a must. Cables does not really affect any of these (unless it is bad cable, very long cable (noise) or bad connections) I have had my fair share of Kable though - expensive too, but cannot hear any difference. (The 3033 looked very impressive, like two anacondas in my living room). In the end, I am just very happy to lean back and enjoy...

Nelson Pass (Pass Labs) has a pretty gaged view on the importance of cables; "...It should contain at least some conductive material..." My interpretation is that far too much money is spent on copper. With that said however, with USB 3.0 we should see further development of USB as a serious DAC interface...