"The" day of the days in HiFi-history...
well, not to exaggerate all the time in order not to become untrustworthy, I thought for myself in the past how to describe all our discoveries the best way, most neutral, the situation as is actually, not more but also not less, and the phrase "closer to the truth..." came to my mind, me at that time not yet really knowing but more longing for what "the truth" lastly is in reality...
and for quite some time I felt that this was a good approach for that what we are doing here now for about four years and that it would perfectly fit for the description of our ambitions...
but, now, exactly since 15th february 2014, things not only have reached a new level, they have reached "the truth" (an asymptotic process of course, but very close in completely reaching), so please, bear with me in the future when I am talking about "reaching the truth...", with all scientific progresses that have been reached so far, this now indeed is "more" realistic than "closer to the truth..."
but let me tell you the story one by one...
first, who were all the participants?
from left to right: me, Thomas Nöltner, Bernd Wieland (like the real champion with one of his feet on his/my controlled power supply for 5 and 12 Volt), Doede Douma, Klaus Speth, Jean Hiraga, Bruno Plouvier, Prof. Shii, Dirk Wunderlich
so, as you might know the usual "mad" followers are:
1. Jean Hiraga (who really needs no introduction, but nowadays has become an ultra close follower of all the things that we do here and the stuff that we build for ourselves and which the industry not at all seems to be interested in... having begun to build up his "own" stuff regarding digital streaming with a new power supply for the (DD)DAC(s) which of course he had brought with him for testing purposes
top view of the new Jean Hiraga power supply for 5 and 12 Volt
front view of the new Jean Hiraga power supply for 5 and 12 Volt
and the new transformer on Jean's power supply with specifications, which Bernd very much admired...
2. Doede Douma, meanwhile hopefully known to you all and to be seen and read on his two sites:
DDDAC 1794 NOS DAC - Non Oversampling DAC with PCM1794 - no digital filter - modular design DIY DAC for high resolution audio 192/24 192kHz 24bitand
DDDAC 20003. Klaus of course, and Moni, his wife, our generous hosts, who cared for our all being well... thanks a ton for all your hospitality, delicious choucroute with freshly mashed potatoes, tasty chicken soup, sausages (Jean brought some with him from France as well), eggs, baguettes and all kinds of drinks like beer, limo, water, Coca-Cola...
...and yes, of course, we all know: nobody drinks Coca-Cola, but after the session more than two cases with 20 bottles à 0,33 ltr. each had delighted all the "hard working" listeners... and to what delight: see picture...
4. Bernd, the great guru who first developed controlled power supplies and other specialities and who brought Doede on to the path with his own power supplies...
5. Jean and me, the two of us just side by side of "our ultra toys", two DDDAC1543 with 120 chips each and Bernd's and Jean's new controlled power supplies (to the left in front)
and the following guests:
6. Mr Shizuang Shii, a professor of mathematics at the university in Rennes/France...
...here together with Doede, preparing the next listening test with DDDAC1543-120chips...
Prof. Shii has just got a DDDAC1794 with eight decks from Doede, and he is owner and constructor of a completely self-built highest end system from another universe... I simply have no other words for that what I have seen on some pictures...
...later on I will try to show a little bit more of what that man is doing - this is incredible for me, and I would very much like to have a listen to his system perhaps one day - building his own compression drivers (!), yes, from scratch, and a power supply alone for his pre-amp with some 100 kg in weight (in words: one hundred kilograms), with embedded tubes which are normally only in use for military purposes (and which Doede of course knows very well and of which he owns two... would anybody have thought different? No, not really, or...?)
7. Bruno, from France, a friend and "collaborateur" of Jean, a very nice guy, with very very good ears - it was really big fun with him not only see him playing some imaginative air-guitar while some blues was playing, but speaking the "same" language, technically and musically - not only an intense HiFi-friend, but a friend of good eating and drinking alike, as to be seen on the photo (here cutting some french artisan sausages for the gang which Jean brought with him as a gift - and they both have much fun obviously)...
...proudly owning a DDDAC1543 with 120 chips - exactly like mine
...but nowadays in combination with the new power supply for especially this DAC from Jean Hiraga...
8. yes, and for the first time we had two ambitious guys out of the south-german HiFi-fan-camp as our guests: Thomas Nöltner and Dirk Wunderlich...
Thomas to the very left, Dirk second from the right, and Moni, Klaus's wife, right in the middle
...they both are very qualified DIYers with great experience in vintage-speakers and amps and drivers, not at all shy to build their own stuff... we got to know them for the first time when we visited André in northern France last octobre... if you might be interested, have a look here:
TWOGOODEARS - ?: A Reinhard Huttenburg's essay - "Is it possible to combine futuristic music sources with a 100 year old loudspeaker system?"second: what was the meeting all about?
well, Prof. Shii, Bruno Plouvier, Thomas Nöltner and Dirk Wunderlich primarily had come to listen to Klaus's system as a whole, that system, of which they already had heard so much about... and they were lucky men, especially lucky men because in addition of being part of the "mad" followers who wanted to test and try out very specific things which ultimately culminated in the fullfilment of my very very personal long time ever hard core dream: "perfect" HiFi ! And yes, I do not only "dare" to say "perfect", I do say it is perfect! As perfect as it can get in reproduction. With absolute conviction, although I know already some things how to further ameliorate Klaus's sound... yes, ameliorations within HiFi-heaven... the only pity is that especially "this" result presumably for most HiFi-aficionados will remain out of reach...
so, what is it exactly, that I am talking about?
well, that what I have been chasing for during all my HiFi-live, and this since 1965, so for 49 years now, that what has come "true" !!! A very very long time dream hardly ever imaginable being fullfilled. My stomoch all the years told me that it could be true perhaps one day, but there never ever seemed to be a "real" way to reach it... but finally digital won the race... (just like Ultra HDTV and more...)
...during our long time research we acquired the best speakers/drivers on the globe, we built the best pre-amps, channel deviders, power amps by ourselves (in the sense that input equals output with absolutely perfect squares from 1 cycle to nearly 100.000 cycles), bult our own DDDACs, created our own digital rips, and within this very session on 15th of february we learned/experienced/heard/listened for the first time what it really means to "perfectly" generate a given "perfect" source and stream digital with DDDACs in all their glory...
so, we are long time "prepared" for amplifying squares and then reproducing them with our drivers and horns... but we never ever had "perfect" conditions and squares in the origin, right in the beginning... well, this problem is solved now, with both of the DDDACs, and not only with perfect rips of CDs and SACDs (ISO/DFF), but in transporting them the way they ought to be transported... and because nobody could help us in doing this, we had to find it out by ourselves... and exactly the last secrets in reproducing music now could be revealed in our lastest session with this theme today: DDDACs total..
What does that mean? Well, we long time have been "waiting" for the "fullfilment" in the developments of the DDDACs... it was not that easy to embed always and immediately all the latest results in research into the given DACs, but this now has come to a wonderful and indeed glorious finish: both DDDACs were ready to be tested against one another with the "maximum" of chips (i.e. 240 for the DDDAC1543) and eight decks with the DDDAC1794 (which is 16 chips, two on each deck)...
...most of you presumably know the view onto the DDDAC1543 with 120 chips...
...but this should be new: for the first time the combination of the two DDDAC1543 with 120 chips to one DDDAC1543 with 240 (!) chips...
...and yes, when we started with digital and got used to it, I always thought, o.k. one computer is just fine, but hey, have a look, meanwhile we have running three of them at the same time, side by side... who would have thought that?
Doede taming all the "lions", making them working homogeneously together...
...searching for the "right" connections...
... and adjusting all the 1543 towers, which are now 20 of them (!), to get everything just exactly perfect...
and now what ? yes, that's what it is all about, the DDDAC1543 with 240 chips
here the two DDDAC1543 with 120 chips each - side by side, not yet connected
...but after getting connected ready to be tested in combination with three different controlled power supplies for 5 a n d 12 Volt:
1. the one from Bernd
2. Doede's
3. and Jean's
So, what did we do exactly? We tested the combined "total amount" of the DDDAC1543 with 240 chips in combination with three controlled power supplies: Bernd's, Doede's and the new one from Jean...
...for me - as a non physician - 5 Volt and 12 Volt always have been 5 Volt and 12 Volt, not to be moved or changed at all, like the Mount Everest, but ooohhh, how wrong I was, not only me, all participants had to learn an unbelievable lesson: the sound of different controlled power supplies generating exactly these "5" and "12" Volt is not just a little different, the sound changes that dramatically that one has to hear it to believe... it is like listening to nearly a different system each time... and this is some sort of deviant... so never ever trust just 5 and 12 Volt...
to be continued