It was a sad day to loose a place in a great building in the heart of Downtown Seattle, where we were our rent was near half of any other comparable building in the area.  Our upstairs neighbor has lived in the building for 23 years…our across the hall neighbor for 18 years and myself for 8 years.  I will greatly miss our bedroom view of the Seattle Space Needle, which I’ve spent several summers taking pictures during the summer sunsets.

All is not lost.  I recently found a building in Downtown Bellevue, which though it lacks the same proximity to many of my favorite activities is actually a major step forward as a location to serve our local clients.  This new place is in a brand new building, in a centralized location of our region, and just a few minutes off the freeway.  We also have more floor space to work with in our listening area…it’s about 14×17′.

This new place presents two major challenges.  First, the ambient noise level from the freeway a few blocks away measures a consistent 35dB on my sound meter.  Ambient noise level is my first concern when searching for a new location (followed closely by a layout that allows placement of my equipment).  Audiophiles often fail to realize how a room’s ambient noise level effects their sound…it’s huge.  Getting away from outside noise in the downtown area of a large city is difficult.  I looked at a number of places where the noise was just unacceptable.  35dB is tolerable, though I envy my friends who have rooms so quiet you can hear a pin drop (we’re talking 5-10dB).  I’ll put some Dynamat squares on the window panes, but the only real solution for this issue would be to eventually move to a quieter part of the building.

The second challenge is a tremendous slap echo caused by the hard floors and 25 foot ceilings in this loft layout.  Slap echo is a single echo you hear in an area with abundant hard surfaces and/or open spaces.  If you find yourself in one of those public bathrooms with floor to ceiling tile, snap your fingers and you’ll hear what slap echo is.  I can hear the echo from my snap travel up through the loft area, back down the stairs, through the kitchen and back into the listening area.  My decibel meter ticks up about two dB as the echo kicks in.  I’m clearly going to have to invest in more acoustic panels and work on my resonators and other room tuning devices.

It’ll be interesting to see how this new listening room looks and hear how it sounds by the end of the year.  I’m expecting it’ll look very different and hopefully sound really cool.

The post We’re Moving to a New Location! appeared first on Jaguar Blog.

Both the Source and the DAC have a clock that each component uses to control timing and in a high-end system the DAC clock will direct the Source clock.  Back to bits and samples…Redbook CD files are 16-bit of data delivered at 44.1K Hz; what that means is,16 bits of data are delivered from the source to the DAC at 44,100 samples/times each second.  Therefore 24/192 files would be 24 bits of data delivered 192,000 samples/times each second.  Now imagine the 16 bits as a 16-seat roller coaster car heading toward the DAC (44,100 times per second) and each sample comes out of a tunnel at the end, where the DAC clock snaps a picture of the car to read what data is in the car.   If the car arrives too fast the picture misses the data in the front of the car, which has already gone past and if it arrives to slow the camera missed the data in the back of the car, which is still in the tunnel.  The timing errors in snapping the pictures again is called Jitter.  Jitter is measured in Pico Seconds (that’s Billionths of a second, with a B).  Really good sound in a high performance system starts around 50 pico seconds and the theoretical limit of the human hearing to detect jitter is thought to be around 15 pico seconds.  Now, if we’re striving to achieve data transfer timing within 15 billionths of a second and repeating this process tens or hundreds of thousands of times per second, you have an idea what we’re up against.

This article is an excellent source for more information about Jitter. 

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/manufacture/0509/ 

We mentioned Latency above, that’s because Latency and Jitter go hand in hand.  Latency is a measurement of the delays incurred as your audio file data travels through the Source.  Latency delays result in more Jitter.  With my music servers the strongest correlation I’ve found to better sound is lower latency.  There’s a single setting on the motherboard we’re using in our current reference music server that will jack up the latency readings substantially and jack up the sound as well.  There’s a simple tool called DPC Latency Checker that audiophiles can download free and check the latency of any Windows computer (without having to install anything).  On our reference server the latency readings hover around 7 milliseconds, while the machine is at complete idle.  The same test on a stock machine without tweaks to the OS and BIOS would be about 80 to 150 and on a high performance system the difference in sound quality between a machine that reads 7 and a machine that reads 80 is substantial.  To get to a value of 7 with Windows takes a lot of work.  In the servers we build for clients we focus almost entirely on disabling parts of the OS and motherboard that aren’t directly related to playing music files or keeping the computer stable (such as Services, Drivers, System Settings, Registry Settings and BIOS Settings).  You don’t have to buy a server to get this performance (most products out there won’t fare too well with the DPC test).  The information is out there on the Internet.  All you need is Google and a willingness to devote a lot of time learning how to build your own machine.

Here’s an excellent article about Latency and some great pointers to get started with your own machine.  Note: I recommend you always image your OS and backup your HD before attempting to tweak your computer for audio, in case you accidentally corrupt the OS; you should be doing this anyway, unless you like living dangerously.

http://www.native-instruments.com/knowledge/questions/847/Windows+7+Tuning+Tips+for+Audio+Processing

If you’re really interested in reading up on computer audio, here’s a link to articles from about a dozen of the most well-regarded digital component designers in the boutique audio arena.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue41/ca_koch.htm

The post Latency and Jitter…the Basis of Computer Audio Performance appeared first on Jaguar Blog.

www.6moons.com/audioreviews/nanotec6/1.html

“…the entry-level Nanotec rivaled our much more expensive ASI and Crystal Cable alternatives.”

“A still bigger surprise was the comparison to the ASI Liveline. The dual Nanotec had the same finesse, richness and speed we like so much in the French cables. A very strong feature of the Aquarius is its outstanding imaging. The speaker’s wide baffle sliced into a large egg shape is largely responsible for that. Many of Todd Garfinkel’s m.a. recordings contain vast natural acoustics as part of the musical landscape and there is information present that extends well behind the artists. With such airy soundscapes the ASI Liveline revealed just a bit more information but the more important tonality was equal.”

“From Siltech to Crystal Cable and Mundorf/Zendo, the inclusion of molecular gold into the surface of silver conductor surfaces has long since become an established if not inexpensive metallurgical solution. Nanotec’s colloidal process applies the same concept to copper but smartly circumvents the costly custom-extrusion process.”

Nanotec consists of two cable varieties, the SR (red) and Special (black).  Both have 14 strands of copper, but the SR is made from Ohno continuous cast copper and the Special is made from OFC copper.

The real magic of the Nanotec is the nano material coating on each of the threads, consisting of a mixture of 90% gold and 10% silver.  We’re big believers in the use of nano materials in audio.  Our reference tubes from Synergy HiFi use a nano coating on the tube plates and the newest Zu Audio drivers also have a nano coating.  With electrical applications nano materials seem to effect more free flow of electrons through the metal.  Through trial and error it was discovered that the highest level of performance was achieved by combining the SR and Special varieties, using the SR on the hot leg and the Special on the neutral.

Nanotec is sold as a kit with the raw cable and connectors.  The connectors are solderless, screw terminals, so if you’re able to strip wire you’re set.  Read our recent post called Nanotec Tutorial for some pictures and instructions on how we assembled our set.

Fortunately our current reference cable is also the Acoustic System Liveline used as the benchmark in the review.  We assembled a 6M pair and compared them to our 2.2M Liveline (after about 200hrs of break in).  True to the review, the Nanotec had slightly less extension in the treble, but I didn’t miss it much.  I also noticed the Liveline had better control of the lower bass.  The Liveline sounded linear down to about 40-50Hz and the Nanotec to maybe 60-70Hz.  I was surprised this difference wasn’t noted in the review, but I expect it’s because they were listening with speakers with separate powered bass modules and were only hearing the Nanotec down to about 50Hz.  Other than these two factors, the sound of the Nanotec and Liveline were remarkably similar.

I did a 2nd comparison on a friend’s system, where he’s using top-of-the-line JPS Labs speaker cables between his Dartzeel amplifier and Evolution Acoustics speakers; the JPS go for about $10k for 3M.  The Nanotec had a bit more warmth, body and a less-analytical character, which worked well in his system, but the JPS were more complex and the better choice for a sophisticated $100k system like this.

In our trials we established that the Nanotec didn’t outperform the Liveline or high-end JPS (we could only dare to dream).  However, consider that the Liveline costs almost 10x as much as the Nanotec and the JPS costs almost 40x as much.  Depending on your budget and what you’re connecting the cable to you might choose to spend a lot more money on the other brands.  Then again you might choose to save a few thousand on cables and focus it elsewhere in your system or just save a few thousand, period.  One thing can be said of the Nanotec without qualification…we’ve never heard another cable in the same price range that performs at this level.

This product is listed in our online store where you can find the price for the length you select and connector type.  The connectors are high quality 24k gold plated and come in spade or banana.  The calculated price includes a full set of cables (both sides), using both the SR and Special cable as separate legs.

The post Nanotec Speaker Cables…Brilliant Sound at a Bargain Price appeared first on Jaguar Blog.

The Bakoon is also the smallest reference quality product I’ve ever seen.  One would think an amplifier in this price range ($5,000) should take up more real estate than 10 square inches by 7 inches high.  However, the Bakoon includes an awesome headphone amplifier, a stepped-attenuator volume control that allows you to use the unit as an integrated or just control the level of gain and a specially designed 2-shelf rack with internal cereballs encased under the shelves.  Those features and an amp would cost more than $5k separately.

Right now I’m still using the Druid Mk4 speakers and waiting for the Mk5 to arrive.  The new speakers will have a much more advanced tweeter.  These speakers sound great with the Bakoon, but the performance of the new ones above 10KHz will release a lot of magic…all those directional cues and things hanging in the air that send shivers up your spine.  The same goes for the new speaker cables I have on the way from Klee Acoustics.  My ASI Liveline have been in place for almost two years and they’re still excellent cables, having fantastic speed and transient detail.  However, the Klee are much more expensive, but they do operate on another level and I know the additional capability will be important to hearing what’s going on inside the Bakoon.

I mentioned the Volume Control, Headphone Amp and Isolation Rack with the Bakoon.  I use a Modwright 36.5 preamp with the Bakoon, so the attenuator is not a requirement with my system, but I do use it to blend the Modwright and Bakoon volume to get the best balance; the difference is not major, but it’s fine tuning.  When it comes to headphone listening I’m careful with my hearing and I really don’t care to listen to a headamp that I have to crank the volume to get the music into the groove.  The headamp in the Bakoon is able to deliver high performance at low volume and that’s the only kind of listening I will do with headphones.  I can listen with headphones for a few hours and not be at all fatigued.  The rack is quite remarkable as well.  I was expecting each shelf to come in pieces with loose cereballs, but the top layer of each shelf is interlocked with the bottom layer, such that when it lays flat the top and bottom layers are isolated from each other between the cereballs.  You can add a third tier to the rack for the Bakoon Phono Preamp and I expect they will soon develop a USB DAC.

The character of the amp is very neutral, so if you want to inject a little color into the sound you might pair it with a tube preamp or DAC.  My Modwright 36.5 preamp and Wyred 4 Sound DAC are also very neutral, but the Zu Druids have a bit of a dark and warm character, which doesn’t give the sound much color, but does keep the treble from ever venturing into harsh territory.  The Bakoon sound is very lit up, much like the F5.  I think that’s part of the recipe for a hyper detailed amplifier…start by lowering the noise floor far beyond the norm, then light up the transients and other spatial information deep into the music until it sounds like you can hear miles deep into it.  I switched out the stock fuse for a 1A Synergy HiFi, slo-blow to add a touch of further refinement.

You’re going to want to pair the Bakoon with the right speakers.  At fifteen watts I’d want at least 95dB sensitivity or if you’re using a dedicated preamp with it, to add some gain, you can probably get by with 92dB.  The impedance curve of the speaker is an important factor.  Ask the manufacturer if there’s a big swing in impedance from top to bottom; the smaller the curve, the easier it will be to drive the speaker.  Any speaker that will work with a powerful SET amplifier in the 20 watt range will work fine.  I really don’t care for low sensitivity, hard to drive speakers for this reason.  These speakers severely limit your options with amplification and if you need 200 watts to drive them, I just don’t believe you can get the kind of nuance that’s possible with the best amps in the 2-20 watt range.

The Bakoon is the ultimate ticket for anyone who, like me, wants to put a microscope on the music and see miles deep into it.  The frequency response is very linear, with no emphasis on the treble or the bass and the true blackness of the background is so breathtaking the dynamics take on a real life scale.  Of the two camps of sound, with the first being where you feel the music around you and the second being where you close your eyes and see into it, the Bakoon falls into the upper extreme of the second. I’m loving this amp.

Be sure to read the review; you’ll find it to be informative.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/bakoon/1.html

The post The Bakoon Integrated – Our New Reference and a Surprisingly Small Footprint appeared first on Jaguar Blog.

These have the black matte finish upgrade, which I think looks really cool and has slightly better damping properties than a wood finish.  For clients who are on the fence about what finish to go with, I recommend going with the stock veneer cabinets (which are very attractive) if you’re really focused on controlling the budget and consider the upgrades if you have the money to spend and you have to have that finish.

The Duelund cap upgrade presents the same question as the finish.  Because of the high demand for the Duelund and the company’s limited production capacity took a few extra months to deliver our speakers and they’re not cheap.  However, with this newest generation of Zu speakers the tweeter is playing a much larger role in the sound (I’d say 40-50% of the sound).  My feeling is that when spending this kind of money on a pair of Druids or even more on the Definitions it makes sense to reach for the pinnacle of performance.  We do offer a DIY kit from Zu for the caps if you decide to add them down the road, but it takes some doing to remove and replace the main drivers.

We’ve been using the Zu Druid Mk4 as our reference since 2009.  As I mentioned above we need a reference speaker that does rock as well as softer music.  The key to Zu speakers in this respect is the 10″ driver with a heavy paper construction.  Try playing Led Zeppelin with speakers that use smaller or more delicate drivers an you’ll lose the fullness, body and weight in the mid-range, which is essential for rock music.  The bass of the Mk5 goes down low for a single driver and tweeter design (about 35Hz).  You may want to get down to 15Hz with a Zu subwoofer.  Since our Downtown Seattle listening room has neighbors below you can see I still have the speakers sitting on 2″ acrylic platforms and butcher block.  I’m also planning to put a layer of Dynamat under the carpet.

Compared to the Mk4 the Mk5 has exactly the same character, it’s just much more mature and capable of greater performance.  The analogy of a college to pro football player is a good one.  The Mk4 had all the ingredients and the Mk5 had them put together in a way that delivers on a higher level.  From the tweeter and driver to the cabinet to the bass port, the Mk5 performs at the next level.  Read the 6 Moons review below and be sure to come by and listen for yourself.

http://6moons.com/audioreviews/zu20/1.html

The post New Zu Audio Druid Mk5 Speakers Are Here! appeared first on Jaguar Blog.

Let’s get started.

Here are all the supplies and tools you need.  You might also add an X-Acto knife, in case your wire strippers don’t do a prefect job.

Here’s a closer look at the connectors.

Let’s get started by pulling the wires in each cable apart so they can be stripped at the ends.  I did this on the end of each cable about 1.5″ deep.  Note the Directional Arrows on the image above; this is typical of about 40% of high performance speaker cables and some interconnects.  The manufacturer recommends pointing the arrows toward the speakers and claims this will yield slightly better sound.  Fortunately the spades and bananas unscrew at the ends, so you don’t have to remove the connectors all the way if you put them on wrong.  Just remember to look for the arrows when you connect them to your speakers.

Now strip the wires at each end.  My wire stripper has a lot of very small slots for different sizes, so I put a little piece of tape on the tool, to mark the right size  and easily locate it for each wire.

After stripping all the wires I used a contact cleaner on the ends.  The can is CAIG DeoxIt DN5, but I prefer the D5; it works better to flush contaminants out of the metal and doesn’t leave the same pink residue.  I use D5 on everything, because clean metal makes better sound.  One can like this will last most people about 5 years.

Next, I twisted the wire together at the ends of each cable and slid the piece of shrink onto each end (it’s easier if you slide them on now).

Then I applied a combination of CAIG G100L contact enhancer and Walker Audio E-SST contact enhancer.  I dipped the applicator in the G100L and mixed it with the E-SST, on the theory that the G100L will dry and sort of encapsulate the silver better than the silver by itself.  You can also test out your own enhancers and theories…that’s what DIY is about.

I then slid the connector barrel over the cable and inserted the set screws.  A few things I learned a few things with the screws.  First, they are very small and constantly fall off the Allen wrench, so do this over a coffee table or something where you can easily find them when they drop.  Also, twist them flush with the metal of the barrel, but not deeper.

I added enhancer to the threaded ends of the barrels.

Then I screwed the spade and / or banana connectors onto the ends.

The last step is to tighten the shrink wrap.  Remember the banana and spade connectors screw on at the ends.  If you think you might ever want to swap the spade/banana later on leave the shrink about 1/4″ below where the connector meets the terminal (so you’ll be able to unscrew them).  I used a hair dryer to finish the shrink on these cables.  Even though this dryer is fairly hot I used this pan to reflect some of the heat.  You can also find an inexpensive heat gun, like this one on Amazon, which will also come in handy for future projects.

Wagner Power Products 503008 HT 1000 1,200-Watt Heat Gun

We’re done.  Now we have a new pair of speaker cables that perform in almost the same league as other cables costing 10x as much and far beyond anything else we’ve heard in this price range.

The post Assembling Nanotec Speaker Cables, a Graphic Tutorial appeared first on Jaguar Blog.

Let’s start by downloading the program at the link below.  When installing you can select all components, but I deselect the GD3 Metadata Plugin, because it isn’t free.

http://www.pcwelt.de/news/Exact-Audio-Copy-EAC-International-1524569.html

When the setup wizard starts

• Select the drives you rip from,
• Select “I prefer accurate results”,
• Put an unscratched music CD in the drive (something that’s widely distributed, so it can be found in the database),
• Wait for the test to finish as it detects the features of your drive,
• When you reach Encoder Selection select “FLAC”,
• Click through the next few windows, supply your email address, select “I am an expert” and “Finish”.

In the Menu, Click: EAC > EAC Options, and use the settings for each tab as follows:

• Extraction: “Lock drive” should be selected, set the Extraction and the Error Recovery areas at the bottom to “High”.
• General: on this tab I leave the default settings and check the “Eject CD after Extraction” box.
• Filename: paste this in the Naming Scheme box: %genre%\%artist%\%albumtitle%\%tracknr2%-%title% and paste this in the Various Artists box: %genre%\%albumtitle%\%tracknr2%-%title%  Now you’ll have a Genre, Artist and Album hierarchy created when you rip each disc.  You can make changes if you want to alter how the folders and files are created and named.
• Directories: you can either select a folder for your files to save in the same place with each rip or set it to ask you where to save with each disc.
• Write: I prefer to deselect the Uppercase box, and select the Disable copy protection and select the CDRDAO boxes.
• Other Tabs: leave the default selections.

In the Menu, Click: EAC > Drive Options, and use the settings for each tab as follows:

• Extraction Method: Put a regular CD in the drive and press the “Detect Read Features” button, run the test and press “Apply”.  Now put a heavily scratched CD in the drive and press the “Examine C2 Features” button, run the test and press “OK”.
• Drive: press the “Autodetect read command” button.
• Gap Detection: select “Accurate” for Detection Accuracy.  To set the Gap/Index you’ll have to try a few settings after you’re ready to rip discs.  The way to do this is to rip a track and note the time it takes to finish, then rip with the other settings and choose the one that has the fastest time.
• Other Tabs: leave the default selections.

Compression Options are automatically set to encode in FLAC.  You can change the type of encoding.  My advice is that you not be sucked into the myth that uncompressed lossless files sound better than compressed lossless files, due to the decoder using additional resources to decompress the file.  In the grand scheme of resources the FLAC decoder uses almost nothing.  Music files are played from the computer’s memory and by the time the bits hit the memory they’ve been decompressed and there’s no difference between the two files.  WAV and AIFF files both take 35-40% more hard drive space and WAV files don’t store the CD tag information.

Now you can go through the steps to configure the Gap/Index setting described in the paragraph above.  After that you’re going to want to save your Profile settings, so you can import them later, should you update to a newer version of the software.  You can also use this Profile if you move to a new computer, but you’ll want to go through the Drive Options menu again with a new ripping drive.

To save a Profile, Click: EAC > Profiles > Save Profile.  When you want to import the profile, just select “Load Profile”.

Now you’re ready to start ripping discs.

• Put a disc in the drive,
• To import the track names and other disc info you’ll need to be connected to the Internet, then click the Disc icon between the Eject and Mailbox icons.  Change the icon if you want to try a different information database.

• The next step is important to remember before each rip.  Verify the imported info in these four boxes (like the Genre) is set correctly.  If you don’t change the incorrect info before ripping you’ll have to rename the ripped folder and file tags afterward if you want to correct it. Much easier to do it now.

• Final step…press the CMP icon on the left to start ripping.

Remember to be sure to examine and listen to your first few rips…if there’s something not working with the compression or naming scheme you don’t want to figure it out 50 discs into your collection.

The post Rip Your Discs with Exact Audio Copy appeared first on Jaguar Blog.

I’ve used this tool a lot to fish speaker cables or interconnects under carpet, up a wall or under the floor.  Sure, you’d ideally like to have your cables elevated a few inches above the carpet on cable isolators, but unless you have a dedicated listening room that probably won’t work for you.

I’m in the process of moving our rack from between the speakers to the side of the room.  This is our living area, so just running them on top of the carpet isn’t a great option.  I could either leave the power amplifier between the speakers and run a 4M interconnect under the carpet or run a 5M pair of speaker cables under the carpet.  I’m going to go with the speaker cables; just about the only way to get this job done without lifting up the carpet is with a fish tape.

The post You Need This In Your Toolbox appeared first on Jaguar Blog.

To get started, navigate to the site below, download the software and run the installation process (I usually select all the options when installing).

https://sourceforge.net/projects/album-art

AAD will scan your music library folder(s) and show which albums don’t have a cover and then search about 25 Internet sites for covers and associated pics.  Open the program to get the window below.  The area to the right side under “Sources” shows the websites where the software will look for artwork.

Click:  File > New > File Browser, to get the File Browser window.

Navigate to the path where your music library folder (or folders) is located, by clicking the square button to the left of the “Search” button.  Once your path shows in the box click Search.

This pic shows the albums in a library that don’t have cover art.  Those folders with covers are Green and those without are Pink.  Check the box next to any of these lines and search for that cover by pressing the “Get Artwork for Selection” button.

By the way, if you click “Options” under the folder path, here are the settings I’ve been using.

A new window will open for each album you selected in the check box, which will show the search results.  You can see the options settings I’m using for this window (both “Group By” and “Sort by” are set to “Size”).

Some results will have a better image than others.  Some will be completely unrelated to what you’re looking for and  some will have random pictures of the artist that you may prefer to the cover.

If you click a cover and hold the mouse button down until the pic comes into focus you can preview it, like below.   To automatically download the image into the album folder, click the little floppy disk icon to the right and the image will download to the album’s folder and named “folder.jpg”; I have Foobar set to automatically detect a file called folder.jpg in each album folder as the cover.

It will take a little while if you have several hundred covers to download, but this is the best option I’ve found for a program like Foobar.

The post Downloading Album Covers, with Album Art Downloader appeared first on Jaguar Blog.

The post Do Files Encoded in WAV or AIFF Sound Better Than FLAC? appeared first on Jaguar Blog.