Hi Tobias,

Yes I deliberately left the volume position the same when testing with and without the Muon Pro. And yes I could turn the volume up even more with the Muon than without and it all sounded very listenable and the clamness was impressive. So I probably perceived it as being softer, it played tricks with my mind.

So for now I conclude the same as you, filtering out the ethernet signal makes it so listenable that I wonder if a super expensive streamer and cables would make it better. It does flatten the sound a bit. To counteract you have to make things lively and dynamic through clean power and good power supplies. My balanced power conditioner proved that by freeing up the sound, especially in the lower regions.

I had the Mutec MC3 reclcoker a while back and that gave some nice flow on my old DAC but not on the new one so I sold it. I do think that the Mutec 10mhz clock is far better, I never tested that one.

Pieter

The streamer only need to have a low internal noise floor. It makes sense what Alpha Audio is reporting that simple streamers, without extra gadgets like wifi and bluetoth, like the Volumio Rivo and Primare NP5 (for example) can make you DAC perform great when fed with a silent power.

I agree that quality PS is very important but we should also have as few power supplies as possible, if it can be avoided. The trend has often been to add switches and stuff with great power, instead of trying to find ways of making them not needed.

It is also extremely important to not physically hook up stuff to your streamer or DAC, like any type of computer or TV or other devices! That will ruin the noise floor potential of the streamer or DAC totally and nullify all your achievements in PS and clean ethernet connection.

Wijnand, being subject matter expert has proven to be the worst you can be, in audio! I fully agree with your thoughts! In general, the worst type of advice is actually coming from the people who claim "I have been an bla bla bla, for ages and...". You need to have experience with audio, that is what this is about. 🙂 So i am very open to that i could be very wrong! 🙂

Thanks 🙂

Well I have one test down. I have built 2 short cables with ferrite cores. One with 9 windings and one with 14 windings. From the Jcat I went directly into the DAC using the cable with Ferrite and 9 windings. After this I have tested the Ferrite with the 14 windings. I could not hear a difference between the two. Well when I would listen harder then maybe I would hear a small difference, but I guess that wouldn't make sense.

After this I have positioned a switch between the Jcat and the DAC. From the Jcat 14 windings to the switch and from the switch 9 windings to the DAC. For the switch I have used a Farad Super 10 in floating from ground mode. The sound that I heard directly from the Jcat was pretty much the same now with the extra switch. Maybe now there's a bit more organic sound, but it also was a tiny bit out of balance due to energie in lower frequencies.

After this I replaced the Farad Super 10 with a switch mode powersupply which is in floating mode from ground by default. Well the listening session only took 5 seconds. That was not high-end. The ferrite cores could not solve and repair the noise of the powersupply.

I will now replace the switch with the ultra clock switch. I'm very curious what this will bring. Sit tight! 🙂