Lush^3

[manisandher]

I've ordered my Lush^3 (which I only heard about a couple of hours ago!).

The sound I'm getting right now is absolutely the best I've ever achieved, so I'll give the Lush^3 a good go, but if it screws things up, it'll be going back to its maker.

Will report back once it's here...

Mani.

[acg]

sh*t Mani, after all this time I finally got my Lush^2 on Wednesday...now there is a ^3 out there??  What the!

[manisandher]

Anthony, when you finally get your Mach III, we'll be on the Vortex VII.

Mani.

[acg]

Probably...

[Robert]

ACG get a Stealth Mach III before a Lush 3, while Lush 3 is another step up the Stealth Mach III is several steps up like a giant leap.

Robert

[acg]

Hi Robert,

Peter has my order for the MachIII...just waiting on the 20/40 core cpu, if it ever becomes available in the EU.  I can get it here in Aus, it is readily available in the US, but not so much in the EU apparently.

Cheers,

Anthony

EDIT:  It was more that my new USB cable was obsolete by the time it arrived...sad when that happens...but I did sit on my hands for a long time.

[PeterSt]

Anthony, believe it or not, but only last Sunday I suddenly knew how to make a ^3 out of the Lush. And Monday I had my own playing ...
(by now we have so many braids and hoses and whatever stuff, that we apparently can make a new cable in one day without purchasing anything)

I am not sure whether it is known somewhere that we were asked to make a Lush^3 because we also provided an ET^3 and thus "^3" would be possible. This was maybe 10 months ago. But since the Lush(^2) has a different topology than the Ethernet cables (BTW, you have an ET^3 :-) a similar build-up as how the ET^3 is built up, leaks from shield to shield. Yea, you won't believe such a thing, but it just is so. Thus :

Envision that you have a certain length of material. It could be a paper. On both sides of that paper you have a metal plate. And now the plates are connected (I forgot the resistance, but say 100K Ohm).

This connection is sparkle like. Thus, the measured resistance is not even stable, BUT the USB protocol can't bear it. It is real electrical influence on or the data or the impedance (that now going off the USB2 standard too much).

When we made a second Lush^2 completely new, while the first was formed around an existing Lush^2 (like Lush^2 comprises of the physical Lush^1) and both did not work, I had the magnificent idea to measure the resistance between two shields those NOT being connected. Et voilá.

You really won't believe this stuff, unless you experienced it with your own hands and eyes.
Cables already were a mystery, but it is far worse than we could imagine.

In the end this is to our benefit, because we must be able to utilize it now we know it.

Mani and Anthony, for fun, take your Blaxius^2 (Anthony may have it still in the box), disconnect all the (B, W, Y, R) wires at both ends and measure IIRC between Y and R. You will see resistance ... (and not an infinite one :-).
If you don't see anything I forgot at which cable this emerges without us knowing at first. So, assumed it is indeed the Blaxius^2 ...

I use the Blaxius^2 myself since the day it exists. When we later found out about this (which is not a shortcut to the signal of any kind), I thought "oh well, if it gets its good sound from that phenomenon, we're good". Haha.
So with that analogue cable, the shields even actively interact. Of course, when you'd connect those two shields per the provided connector, the interactivity vanishes (resistance of ~0 Ohms).
So now you know. Leaving out the connection between Y and R will imply a specialty.
... I just looked at my own, and I have not connected the Y. So we must be subject to special voodoo indeed.

If you now can imagine that a USB cable *will* produce only errors (like 20K errors per second) when the topology regarding this nuisance is off, you may start to be able to see what this "shielding" phenomenon may do all more.
Apparently the lot can behave like a capacitor or something like that, and transfer current by "such" means.
Oh ?
Well, then maybe it is time to investigate similar between signal and ground wires in one cable. I mean, I should (now) be able to create such leakage between signal and ground.
Eh ...

I suppose that when we measure capacitance of a cable, we already measure similar. But this is capacitance. In this case the "wires" (shields) are connected. But are they really ? can the multi meter possibly be fooled ?
(I recall we tried two meters, because at first I could not believe it)
Anyway thinking further, it could be so that the capacitance of the cable changes severely and that therefore that Lush^3 trial did not work.

To be sure you got the right idea of this :
What happened was that a perfectly working Lush^2 was wrapped with another shield and extra outer sleeve, and that did not work at all.
Build up one from the ground with basically the same materials but with different isolation than the "yellow" outer sleeve as we know it - same problem.
Because this isolation material was so different, there is IMO no way that "sparkles" come through (and that even without electricity). But some severe (magnetic ?) field is formed by that topology.
(btw I could have measured such field, but at the time I did not think of that)

Anything else ?

Peter

[PeterSt]

Practicing some text for explanations of the sound ...

(for a teaser, please look here)

The difference between the Lush and the Lush^2 are most certainly there, and the differences between the various configurations of the Lush^2 are even more certainly there (none sounds the same).
But now the Lush^3-e ...

We already knew from the Lush^2 that what actually happens is that frequency ranges get amplified or attenuated (this can be more than one range, depending on the configuration). It doesn't work like an equalizer because the effect is xxx times more strong and always remains a natural effect (that I personally could tell).

With the Lush^3, for what I have listened to so far (which is 3 configs only) the emphasis seems to have shifted downwards a lot. I mean, there is less emphasis on the highs (somehow now they can't disturb you either, as it seems) and there is a lot of energy now at the bottom. But also right above that (say low mid) and it makes the sound much more robust. Firm.
I say this, because I am tempted to because of a more lacking, dunno, mid range of some time. But this is hard to explain. I mean, voices are crazily emphasized (very good), there is an unprecedented speed which is mainly lower frequency impeded (on/off sounds like voices can have it, but synths too), bells are so so beautifully rendered now just because of spades more of resolution, but
But somehow, with those 3 configs I tried so far, the area of the snare drum is underwhelmed. Btw, it is also the only flaw I currently see (for 3 out of 1023 configs - ) but this could be already because I so explicitly "observe".
All, really all jumps out, but the snare stays behind.

If you'd observe this yourself, you
a. will not accept that a USB cable can imply these huge (I have no other word) changes;
b. you should know that internally there is still the original Lush^1.

On a side note I am not able to explain how this can be so DAC-Output(!!)-frequency-related. Thus what the heck actually happens in that USB stream.

Previously (Lush^2) this was just a "yeah, we can influence emphasis on frequencies", but this ?
This is just too much of it. It is the Lush^2 squared (haha).

People may know my type of music, but if we keep that simpler and in the form we may all know it, it is Yello.
Well, ALL I played so far of such a genre (but worse than Yello in general) I could not recognize at all. Thus so so much can things change, only because the emphasis to frequencies is different.
Or
Because the speed hence resolution seems to be 20 fold (higher speed does a lot more than you can imagine).
Transfer this to "airy" and you will be able to see how all changes of this in the base.

Is it still a Lush cable then ?
Well, I could not name it differently because it just is in the base. So does it still sound "lush" ?

Yesterday I was trying to see through that (the direct answer should be No), but there is so enormously much going on (without getting tired of it !) that there's no space to think this over. It is one big literal feast of music, and I honestly can't care about lush sound.
More making a detour, I guess it still is because of the way more warm sound (you will be shocked about that alone). This is to be combined with the lesser emphasized highs (this could be a good thing and it most certainly is not a stuffed ear thing), but before you are able to judge for real, along comes a zzzziiinggg bell you never heard before.
Or the vibrating 500Hz+ string which you never heard vibrating. Or that so clean beautiful voice. And the deep down earth umpf without being annoying because it always sounds the same (tuning for too high level lows and it will annoy).

I recall playing Jeff Wayne - War of the Worlds yesterday. I play it once per 6 months or so. Un-re-cog-niz-able. Full with metal rattling sounds which *are* there when you watch the movie, and which you did not miss when you played it "yesterday". Huh ?
Yes. Huh.

Peter

[PeterSt]

So ... Yesterday, after preparing 5 or 6 configurations with some "electrical thinking over", assuming that a first certainly would not be enough ...
The first really worked out. And so the first few will leave this afternoon with the most simple

A:B-R, B:

My text coming along with it, as noted yesterday :

27-09-2020
A:B-R, B:
Watch out : this one is derived from the Lush^2 of the form
A:B-Y, B:
But what I did was shifting the one but last shield in the Lush^2 (Y) to the one but last shield in the Lush^3 (R). I will immediately propose a seemingly more balanced config in the one below this one.
First impression : quiet.
Second : Spatial – ab-nor-mal !! Reality cymbals – wow.
Listened for hours to this, finding nothing wrong with it. The first Lush^3’s will ship with this !

To those who will be the first : Have fun !!!
Peter

[manisandher]

My Lush^3 has arrived  . But I won't be able to take a proper listen until this evening.

(I'm still a little concerned that it'll ruin the lovely sound that I'm currently getting, but we'll see...)

Mani.

[manisandher]

My Lush^3 is in! It was a bit of a pain installing, as its B-connector is rotated exactly 180 degrees to that of the Lush^2. So, I had the choice of twisting the cable, or simply swapping the vertical positions of the Mach III and NOS1. I went for the latter. And for now, I'm keeping the shipped configuration - A: B-R, B:

The first thing to say about the sound is that... well, it hasn't got screwed up over that with the Lush^2...

Early days, and I've just rebooted the Mach III and NOS1, which often changes the sound, but so far... I'd say there is less 'digital glare' coming through, but with no loss of detail at all. In other words, everything sounds more natural.

One of my 'test tracks' is David Sylvian's "When Poets Dreamed of Angels". His voice can sound quite grating in various parts of this track, but with the Lush^3, I'm not hearing any sibilance at all. Everything sounds very natural, and yet with all the details intact.

Initial thoughts - impressed!

Mani.

[PeterSt]

Ha !

Mani, FYI : The relative position of the connectors is quite random. If you'd receive two, chances are fair they will be different, when compared to each other.

Keep us posted !
Regards,
Peter

[manisandher]

Thanks Peter. Would twisting it 180 degrees have been OK?

The more I listen, the more impressed I am. The sheer NATURALNESS of this thing is incredible. NOTHING grates. And yet the details are all there... moreso even. And where did the bottom octave come from? My speakers aren't meant to go that low!

All from a bloody USB cable???

Mani.

[manisandher]

I recently changed to an SFS of 4.00, but I'm back down to 0.69. Works really well now... loads of detail without any edginess.

(Sorry for the running commentary, but I can't quite believe what I'm hearing... from an extra layer of shielding in the USB cable!!!)

Mani.

[PeterSt]

Hahaha. But Mani, this is your day One. With me it all started to happen on day Two.

Would twisting it 180 degrees have been OK?

We just shipped all out today (already per your posting about it) so we can't test it really. My own is 100cm and that for sure can have it.
As soon as we have a 70cm again (the more you post happy notes the sooner that will be :wistle:) I will test it gently and ley you know.


PS: Was I right about that "robustness" ?