USB to PC chassis ground ? (noise) - The biggest change ever !

[christoffe]

The next target for a „water bed“  should be the XXH computer for ………… .
The recommendations for the equipment placement is to store everything in a rack far away from the speakers. Consequently  the rack shall be enclosed with  a sound proof wooden cabinet of a high WAF.

Joachim

[juanpmar]

I thought I had too many panels until I saw the Joachim's room. Spectacular room treatment!
There's a problem in my opinion placing the rack so far away, you have to run very long interconnection cables, unless you use XLR cables of course, or long speakers cables.
To place the the NOS1 in an isolated cabinet is also a good idea that could be complementary of other anti-vibration treatments.
Great system, Joachim

Regards,
Juan

PS. Joachim, about WAF, if a wife accepts the panels I think she will accept easily any cabinet hahaha

[christoffe]

I thought I had too many panels until I saw the Joachim's room. Spectacular room treatment!
There's a problem in my opinion placing the rack so far away, you have to run very long interconnection cables, unless you use XLR cables of course, or long speakers cables.
To place the the NOS1 in an isolated cabinet is also a good idea that could be complementary of other anti-vibration treatments.
Great system, Joachim

Regards,
Juan

Hi Juan

this is not my room. The picture is from the net I used for a sample.
For the rack placement you have to make compromises, and the longer runs of the speaker cables is an approach with the smallest negative impact of the SQ.

Joachim

Edit: The equipment storage in one rack has some advantages:
- short interconnections (less RFI)
- one location for earthing and power supply

[juanpmar]

I thought I had too many panels until I saw the Joachim's room. Spectacular room treatment!
There's a problem in my opinion placing the rack so far away, you have to run very long interconnection cables, unless you use XLR cables of course, or long speakers cables.
To place the the NOS1 in an isolated cabinet is also a good idea that could be complementary of other anti-vibration treatments.
Great system, Joachim

Regards,
Juan

Hi Juan

this is not my room. The picture is from the net I used for a sample.
For the rack placement you have to make compromises, and the longer runs of the speaker cables is an approach with the smallest negative impact of the SQ.

Joachim

Oh sorry, I thought it was your room. Yes you are right about that compromises.

Juan

[CoenP]

On topic again:

Last evening I did some serious listening with an isolated USB card and the USB grounding wire in the NOS1 disconnected. I did not optimize settings or anything further.

I NEVER EVER has such good sound in my room. It was completely natural and I could not locate my speakers anymore. The amount of nuances is unbelievable. I tried a few tracks from albums of notoriously bad SQ and I suddenly could follow any instrument even a male/female background vocals were clearly distiguisable. Didn't even know they were there. Its like you can hear much further in the recording I had a vision of listening to a master tape.

Dynamics do not draw your attention away or make the sound to loud or uneasy. If it is there it sounds like it ought to, big, powerful, detailed and easy. Mind you this is with a 0.8W amplifier.

Pfeww

-end of rave-

Now next is spending some time with the settings and if time permits produce a vessel for the NOS.

regards, Coen

[CoenP]

Oh,

I almost forgot about the imperfection. The sound was tilted to the right again. It did not annoy me (yet), but this is an area of concern. This must be something about 1.168 and Q setting because now I am listening to win7 or it is somewhere else in my system. We'll see....

regards, Coen

[PeterSt]

Hi Coen,

Do you perhaps have a description of the changes you perceived from going from the isolated card on the PC side only to USB isolated at both ends ?
As you know I have such a description for W8, but not for W7. So I just wondered ...

Thanks,
Peter

[CoenP]

Hi Coen,

Do you perhaps have a description of the changes you perceived from going from the isolated card on the PC side only to USB isolated at both ends ?
As you know I have such a description for W8, but not for W7. So I just wondered ...

Thanks,
Peter

Yes. from one to both sides isolated, windows 7 only. One MAJOR improvement.

Windows 8 has been a waste of time sofar.

regards, Coen

[BertD]

By the way, when you still mention the "power supply", even if all works fine since I disconnected (and isolated) the black wire, you are not talking about the 2 toroidal power supplies right ? This shows my total lack of knowledge about electronics...

As far as I understand it should be this wire (coming from USB ground) and not the mains ground you might refer too.

See picture.

Peter, correct me if I am wrong!

[PeterSt]

Correct Bert. Thank you for (someone) finally producing a picture while I should have done it myself ...

Peter

[PeterSt]

Hi Coen,

Do you perhaps have a description of the changes you perceived from going from the isolated card on the PC side only to USB isolated at both ends ?
As you know I have such a description for W8, but not for W7. So I just wondered ...

Thanks,
Peter

Yes. from one to both sides isolated, windows 7 only. One MAJOR improvement.

Windows 8 has been a waste of time sofar.

regards, Coen

Hi Coen,

It's almost symantics, but I meant "SQ changes" ...
So for W7, sound without the NOS1's side isolated and what changed when the isolation was applied.
"Major improvement" ... well, I'll believe that. But how ?

Thanks !
Peter

[PeterSt]

As far as I understand it should be this wire (coming from USB ground) and not the mains ground you might refer too.

See picture.

Please notice :
When I (earlier on) talked about isolating that bare end Bert pointed one of his arrows to, you should know that I myself guided that end through the sleeves at the right side. In the below picture you can see it sticking out.

This is not any formal means of removing this connection because eventually it should be removed at the USB's interface side (in the other leg). But *that* is not advised to do because fragile.
And so it was my idea to have it harmless to some degree (about picking up) and sticking it through these sleves would imply good positioning of the wire automatically. Anyway this is how I have it so anyone doing it the same should perceive the same (SQ/Noise) merits from it, for the better or the worse.

Peter

[Stanray]

My USB-cable only has D+, D- wires and separate ground wire (no 5V wire). The ground wire can easily be disconnected.

What influence could disconnecting the ground wire have? I haven’t dared to try it (Ok, this also shows my lack of proper knowledge about electronics  )

Regards,
Stanley

[CoenP]

Ok sound quality changes.

With the NOS1 side still connected and PC unconnected, there is a sharpness in the highs and the soundscape feels somewhat unstable. That is that images seem a little inflated and wandering, having lost their focus. Because of this 'bigness' you are not able to hear all details, especially on the background only 'hints'  of them remain. Highs also seem to not have a lot of nuance.
Nevertheless the sound breathes and has a natural character.

Now with the NOS1 side also disconnected, focus returns, and how! So much so that many 'background' details suddenly become clearly audible. I also hear far more into the sound ('depth' if you will) scape.
Loudspeakers have disappeared. Like Vollenweiders harp playing full power in the room. Another example is the brush that is used on drums on the Miles Davis' Kind of Blue album. You can now clearly hear it rotating over the drum's skin while the other (loud) instruments play their respective parts. There is a lot more nuance to be heard in the playing of the instruments. I almost envisioned them moving wrt the microphone. On that same album the piano has the kind of sound I recognize from the LP, rich playful and drowned in its own reverb.
Depending on the album the music stays between the speakers or moves out of them. In any case there is a natural lightness that I recognize from live performances.

So far I have not heard ill defined or sharp highs. The low end is just there like it fits, but it is not very prominent. Yet I have to start tuning the settings. They were just semi-random that was from my experiments with re-grounding the USB cards brackets.

And there is the matter of the right channel tilt. This is less noticeable in the midrange, but bass heavy instruments are constantly more to the right.

regards, Coen

[nik.d]

Peter,
While mentioning 'sleeves' you actually wanted to say 'slot openings' on the right side and that wire is put through one of slots?
(Red circled area from /your above/ photo)