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Tour of Supercapacitor powered Ciunas devices

I Pmed you, Chris - meant to send a 5V 4A PS modified to shunt leakage current to mains earth - I'll send it on Monday

BTW, that white USB cable is not a recommended cable - it just has an RFi shielding outside layer which might change the sound - try it Vs your own USB cable
 
Based on the recent posts from Olpplo & a PM from Chris, I should post this note

The supercap seems to be more sensitive to ground noise i.e ground loop issues compared to the LifePo4 battery power.
Ground loop issues are not just perceived as audible hum (this is from mains 50/60Hz noise)
Depending on the spectral characteristics of ground noise, it can have a more profound effect often perceived as lack of dynamics, life in the sound
I have had reports from a small number of users of the supercap DAC about intermittent crackling noise which was solved by connecting a wire between the chassis of all devices in the audio chain & connecting this to mains earth/ground at one point - all hail the Naim approach :)

I believe this might underlie olpplo's report of bass light & dynamics with the supercap ISO-DAC?
Chris also PMed that it had a thin, lackluster sound

The 5V 4A PS I am sending to Chris on Monday has been modified to shunt leakage currents to mains earth which may well solve Chris's issue?
 
Some reports from the field which may help others:
-
Solved! A connection between ground, amplifier and dac was enough. (from a guy in Italy)
Click to expand...

Just to explain it to little more details, as it might come handy for other users: (from a guy in Slovenia)
- I already had whole audio chain on same (grounded) walls socket
- I was unable to connect the earth of all devices together, as most of them have plastic housing
- I have disconnected the android box device, to which DAC is connected, from the wired network and used WIFi instead . et voila, success!
Click to expand...
​
There are other reports but some just don't want to deal with the issue - the world of plug & play is responsible for a lot of this.

I contend that these ground loops/noise can be adversely effecting the sound of their audio systems to varying degrees unbeknown to them i& only by removing dealing with this will the effect be realised i.e the effects can range from making the sound flat & uninteresting (usually not attributed to ground noise) to thinness in the sound to definite interference in the sound in the form of hum or crackles.
 
Just to help spur you on, beammeup - here's the next email from the Italian guy who just sorted out his grounding issues
The sound is very good John. Very detailed but alive and warm. Bass is deep but never rude. The sound stage is wider and more stable when compared with previous version. Also, the pianoforte in various tracks is more natural than previous version. For a sound like this, I had to spend probably 10 times more if buying a DAC of a famous brand.
Click to expand...
 
My PSU just shunts leakage current noise to ground but that doesn't do anything for leakage currents coming from downstream devices

Can you describe your audio chain first - what is feeding the ISO-DAC? - what is the ISO-DAC connected to?
First check are all your audio devices mains plugs are 3 pin with metal earth pin?
Initially just try plugging all your audio devices into the same mains socket - use a multi socket mains extension
Finally try running a wire from the DAC (loosen one of the 4 screws on the back panel to clamp the wire here) & connect that wire to the chassis of the device the DAC is connecting to (amp/preamp?)

I would hope you might try some of this before my PSU arrives
 
The audio chain in full starting from the top:

Auralic Mini - SoTM sMS-500 PSU powering Your DAC - Croft 25 pre / Croft 7 Power, using AudioQuest Forest Cable connecting Auralic Mini to DAC.

All powered on six way extension block.
 
Extension block is good - I presume it is earthed to mains?

You are using a 16V SMPS to power the Auralic? Definitely leakage current coming from that. 2 pin mains plug or 3 pin metal earth pin?
What else is the Aries connected to?

The Croft are valve devices, right? My experience is that these are sources of ground leakage too - again, I presume 3 pin mains plug with metal earth pin

Try connecting a wire from the chassis of the Croft to the DAC chassis
 
The Auralic Mini does have a metal earth pin on it's psu.

Does this look OK - the connection is between your DAC and the Croft preamp ~(using the earth terminal for a turntable).

 
Dac is currently with Beammeup & should be ready to ship it onwards after the long weekend.

Can people on the list who are ready to audition it next week, indicate here, please?

supercap ISO-DAC tour
Timola??
Paul Burke
SamS
00fiete
Robby
davidjt (not until end of April)
Steve Taylor

supercap ISO-SPDIF tour
SamS
Beammeup
Steve Taylor
 
Ready anytime, as long as the roon end point thing we had is sorted, don’t have any other source to try other than that
 
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