rjohn79395 wrote: OK, gang

Still sorting out PC feed choices, and yes letting changes settle in makes a difference.

First, still love the Nordost Heimdall 2 on the Marantz/DAC.

Been playing with Nordost Blue Heaven vs recently re purchased Audience Forte F3 on the Oppo105... yes, Wayne has my prior Audience, insisted on buying it!

SO, here is what is I hear so far with the Oppo feed to the Marantz:

Nordost Blue Heaven just kills symphony stuff, but other feeds have a slight bright edge. Audience takes the bright edge off everything else, but for multi instrument pieces, just love the Nordost.

What to do?
Haven’t decided yet.

All I can say is that PC’s do change SQ for the better: cleaner, more dynamic.

And what would the Nordost Heimdall 2 do on the Oppo? Just thinking....

Rick

Rick: Did you ever try the Nordost Heimdall 2 on your Oppo? There is a lot of reading on this particular thread, and never got a clear cut answer. I've gotten good synergy with a Audience Forte on my Oppo 205 and a Anticable on the Primaluna Preamp. But when using the Cambridge Audio Azur 840C cd it prefers an Anticable pc and the Audience Forte on the Primaluna. Different equipment combos makes for different pc synergy. Last time i heard you liked the Nordost Heimdall 2 on your Marantz Processor...let us know if it's a Winner on the Oppo. Will it do Saxophone? Will it do trumpet? Does it have upper octave brightness like the Anticable has on the Oppo?

Christmas is right around the Corner.

Hey Anthem

Great questions! Not so sure the answers are simple though.

I think you hit the nail on the head, that different gear, with different electronics, responds differently to the same power cords. Our audio hobby is not replete with simple answers.

When I had T1's as fronts, I had AntiCable Reference 3's on both the Marantz and the Oppo and was very happy. When I installed the T Ref's the sound got kind of hard, maybe bright for my listening tastes, I guess because the Ref's were even more revealing. Started playing with Nordost PC's, first the Blue Heaven on the Marantz. Really liked how the sound got smoother, more natural, less harsh. Then got the pricier Heimdall 2 for the Marantz because that's where the DAC resides for most of what I play. Another jump up in sound quality. Replaced the Forte F3 on the Oppo (which had replaced the AntiCable) with the Blue Heaven moved from the Marantz, and really loved the combo. Sweet, natural.

I haven't tried the Heimdall on the Oppo because taking it off the Marantz would muddy the comparison. If I had two Heimdall's to plug into both the Oppo and the Marantz, I'll bet that would be another jump up. The Heimdall IS better than the Blue Heaven.

My opinion still is that the Nordost Heimdall 2 is the best PC I have had, period. I think about getting another for the Oppo. Maybe should be on my Christmas list.

Hope that helps.

Rick

I have 5 PS Audio Noise Harvesters (which blink at varying rates when discharging high frequency EMF noise), 2 Shunyata Defenders and 2 other noise controlling devices plugged in and scattered around various circuits that power noise generating gear, like computers, routers, and of course the home theater gear. I also have a Furman power conditioner for the receiver, player, etc.

Of late, the PS Audio Noise Harvesters have been blinking like crazy most of the time... lots of line noise, and I don't know from where. Even later at night, early morning with virtually no gear running in the house, they blink rapidly. Normally there's some blinking now and then, almost none at night, or rapid blinking if a dimmer is used anywhere in the house. Whenever the blinking gets like that, I can hear a deterioration in SQ on the HT. The sound gets a somewhat brittle edge, sounds less musical, natural. Yes, for sure there is a correlation between line noise and SQ.

I'd love to find the source of the higher "pollution" levels. I make sure each time I run the HT no dimmer switches are being used. Thoughts anyone? We did have a power outage about ten days ago when a local transformer blew, guess I wasn't observant enough at the time to see if that's exactly when the extra line noise started.

Charlie, I keep looking at the PS Audio regenerators, and wondering, and drooling.

Rick

Hi Rick,

I don't have any experience with noise filters and very little with line conditioners, but I do have some thoughts.

One possibility is that you have a lot of wifi noise from your own network or nearby neighbors' networks. I have apartments a hundred yards away or so, plus nearby homes in our development. I've used a wifi app on my smartphone to see what's out there, and it's shocking. Maybe the blinking is partly caused by wifi getting into your power lines that way. I still occasionally get low frequency wifi-caused rumble in my TRef (the one I moved from right side to left side), so I know it's there and variable. I think that passing cars may cause the wifi signals to temporarily focus and get stronger as the cars go by. I'm convinced that the wifi gets directly into the internal speaker circuitry somehow, so why not elsewhere?

I have dimmers too, but most of the time those circuits are off.

LED lights are said to cause RF noise that can enter the power line. If they can do that, then they may also directly broadcast RF noise. I don't know what frequency that noise appears at, but if it's high enough in amplitude, it could saturate some electronic circuits. You could try shutting off LED lights and see if that causes a change.

Your comment about it being more benign at night is interesting. That could correlate with reduced use of LED lighting. Also, fewer devices operating on the powerline upstream may clean up the incoming power waveform because there are fewer switching power supplies operating. I have read of others who reported better sound quality at night, so upstream loads may be a factor.

If you have an oscilloscope, it would be very interesting to look at the line voltage and see what's going on. My P20 has an oscilloscope function (with limited bandwidth) that shows the shape of the incoming power waveform. A friend of mine brought over his 'scope and it showed pretty much the same picture as the P20 display. (I had wondered if there was even higher frequency noise on the line, but there didn't appear to be.) The P20 shows that most of the time, the powerline waveform is clipped at top and bottom, and not cleanly, typical of switching power supplies. One time, after a long power failure, the waveform was very bad, and I took that as a sign that everybody in the neighborhood was running appliances that dirtied up the power.

Maybe one of your own switching power supplies is especially bad. I think all wall warts use these, so you might check your phone charger(s). Maybe you have an especially bad one.

The oscope experiment also led me to believe that powerline noise may be bandwidth limited by the upstream transformer inductance, which is huge. That's just a guess on my part. Even so, if RF is getting into your local cabling (or boxes!), there may be enough of a circuit with local grounds to allow it to flow and cause problems.

Yes, no doubt about it, my P20 helps protect against all the upstream power waveform distortion, and the system sounds clean all the time. At least, to me.

Charlie

Rick,

Just got this email. PS Audio has a sale on their powerplants, ends today I think.
www.psaudio.com/power-play-promo/

Charlie

Thanks, Charlie

Yeah I got that same email. Tempting.... plus you have extra low impedance for instantaneous power for your system in addition to a perfect sine wave. Thinking about it, know it would solve some SQ issues. Thinking about going 4K tv also, choices, choices.

And thanks for the suggestions on things to try re line noise. I too have a WiFi scanner app, and there are lots of nearby networks here also. Re line voltage, I have a plugin voltmeter that is near the HT system. It usually reads 121 v. when the the house load is light, drops to 120 when large power users kick in. It doesn't record, so I only see when I look at it, but it appears line voltage is pretty steady. There is a whole house capacitor in the main power box also, and I would guess it helps to smooth voltage fluctuations some also.

So I need to look for noise culprits. Nothing new that I know of in nearby networks, or our household appliances.

Rick