Month: December 2016

  • Simaudio 820S, Part 6

    This is perhaps the most important, frustrating, or dangerous aspect of the Simaudio 820S, so pay attention.
    IMG_4156
    I do not know if Simaudio have updated or corrected this, but the 820S' manual erroneously states, "For the 120V version use a 0.2A slow blow (5 x 20mm)" fuse.

    Wrong, wrong, wrong. My audio friends and I lost several of these 0.2A fuses in the 820S, particularly in the F2 position.
    IMG_4151
    The 820S has two fuses. This is the F1 fuse, which is oriented left-to-right. This unit came with a 0.5A fuse. Because of the 820S' major sonic influence, fuses do matter. Once you acquire the correct fuse value, you will have to listen for yourself, which direction sounds best to you. For example, the Synergistic Research Quantum Black (above) sounds more coherent, when pointing right. Yet, that was not the case with Synergistic Research's own Quantum Red, which sounded a little less lazy, when pointing to your left. In a future post, I will cover how other fuses performed, in the F1 position.
    IMG_4152
    This is the location of the F2 fuse, which is oriented front-to-back. This is where we kept losing 0.2A fuses, such as the HFT Silverstar above. Sigh, leave it to me and my audio friends, to get to the bottom of this. Nowhere else but here, will you find this information. The 820S actually comes with a 2.0A (not 0.2A!) fuse.

  • Silnote Audio Poseidon Signature II, Part 1

    With digital audio companies cropping up left and right, it can be easy to overlook the newcomers in other facets of audio. Such is the case with Virginia-based Silnote Audio. Rumor has it that the name Silnote is a concatenation of "silver note." Formed around 2010, Silnote Audio is a cable manufacturer. I have read various tidbits about this company, but it does not appear to be rigidly fixed to any one theory or one-trick-pony.
    IMG_3414
    Thanks to my network of audiophile friends, I have come upon this so-called Silnote Poseidon Signature II S/PDIF coaxial digital cable. As you can see, it sports a nice-looking silvery outer jacket, and is relatively flexible. It is also available in XLR, for AES/EBU. List price is $1,095.00 for a 1-meter piece, but is often marked down to $595.00.
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    Be careful not to scratch off the printing on the heatshrink sleeve. It indicates which direction signal should flow.
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    At least on this model, Silnote uses a Cardas RCA plug. I do not see any serial number(s). I am not sure if Silnote can make the Poseidon Signature II with BNCs.
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    Okay, let's not waste any more time. Let us get this Poseidon Signature II on the audiodharma Cable Cooker.

  • Simaudio 820S, Part 5

    My college years were pretty miserable, but unlike any other place or point in time in my life, being on campus meant there was a chance you'd see not just the guys, but the coeds take off their tops.
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    Decidedly unsexy, but educationally necessary, let's take off the Simaudio 820S' top. As you can see, the 820S' innards consist of 5 neat sections.
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    Starting from the rear are these circuit boards, attached to the DC power jacks.
    IMG_3311
    Up front are the caps and "shielded inductive filters."
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    This could be the most important part of the 820S. Remove the center metal cover's four small hex-head screws. No, those toroidal transformers are not boobs.
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    Removing that center metal cover reveals the circuit board, which holds the two fuses. WARNING: the manual erroneously specifies these as slow-blow, 20mm, 0.2A. Much more on that, in a future post.

  • Simaudio 820S, Part 4

    As far as after-market outboard power supplies went, my Naim XPS2 ($4750) used a thick "Burndy" cable. There was no mistaking it.
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    The Simaudio 820S is supplied with four 5'-long interconnecting cables, two with 4-pins, two with 5-pins. They can be mistaken, but due to the pin configurations, you cannot hook them up incorrectly.
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    Simaudio outsourced the plugs from Neutrik.
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    This is the 4-pin male connector, for "analog DC power."
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    From the outside, the female XLR looks like any other XLR. The cable proper is, unfortunately, an ugly black. The good news is, the cable is relatively flexible.
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    Have you seen this 4-pin female XLR before?
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    Similarly, the 5-pin male XLR, from the outside, looks like any other. Simaudio do put their Moon and ampersand logo on the heatshrink wrap.
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    The 5-pin XLR is for "digital DC power."
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    Once again, the outside of the 5-pin female XLR looks like any other.
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    The most pressing issue is, does anyone know of 3-pin to 4-pin, or 3-pin to 5-pin adapters, so that the 820S's cables can be conditioned on the audiodharma Cable Cooker?

  • Simaudio 820S, Part 3

    UCSC's Crown College dorms walled-in and cordoned-off grassy quads, and were sprinkled with trees, some of which were tall redwoods. Versus UCSC's other, more open residential colleges, Crown provided more sheltered spaces. Weekends were almost always warm and dry. Since staff wasn't around, small handfuls of students could be found sunbathing topless or completely nude. Most of the time, sunbathers lay on their stomachs. Thus, passers-by saw the sunbathers' backs and moons.
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    As an electronic component, the Simaudio 820S should not be left in sunlight. But, let's take a look at its rear.
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    On your left are two female 4-pin XLR facilities for "analog DC power."
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    In the middle is the main on/off rocker power switch. It lies next to a standard 15-amp IEC socket.
    IMG_3339
    On the right are two female 5-pin XLR facilities for "digital DC power."

    Note that Simaudio wisely chose these 4-pin and 5-pin connections, so that they do not get commingled with (a) 3-pin signal cables, and (b) each other.

  • Simaudio 820S, Part 2

    During my sophomore year at UCSC's Crown College, I lived in a single dorm room. On the other side of the wall by my bed was a triple room. There, my friend Andrea ("ANN-jree-uh"), the petite curly blonde, roomed with Lumberjack Girl and Haley. The latter two were sexually active. No, not with each other, LOL! LG's dopey boyfriend was like a poor man's David Schwimmer, while Haley's lover looked like Motley Crue's Tommy Lee. Consequently, Andrea was frequently sexiled. She would go around, asking to stay at other kids' dorm rooms, but she often ended up right next door, in my room.

    I had a Sony D-10 Discman, and AR Powered Partners loudspeakers. The fragile D-10 was highly sensitive to vibrations. Thus, it could not be placed on the same shelf as the Powered Partners. To isolate the D-10 further, I placed it atop four AudioQuest Sorbothane CD Feet.

    During the Fall 1990 quarter, the two albums Andrea listened to the most in my room were A-ha's melancholy East Of Sun, West Of The Moon, and Prefab Sprout's Jordan: The Comeback. Maybe Simaudio (then known as Celeste?) heard "Moon Dog," and were inspired to launch the MOON name. While music was playing, Andrea would lean back, and look up at the ceiling. She stated that she preferred sleeping belly up. Without any prompting from me, she explained that, at night, she would be sitting up in bed, and reading a book. She'd fall asleep, slide down, and end up on her back.

    In the Crown College dorms, the coeds were overwhelmingly of the wannabe hippie variety. Unlike city girls, they were not into shoes and fashion. Many wore Birkenstock sandals, or went barefoot. Thus, many of their feet were rough, dirty, and calloused.

    But Andrea was not a wannabe hippie. Her feet were clean, smooth, straight, supple, and free of cuts, cracks, marks, blemishes, and roughness. Moreover, her unpainted toenails were healthy and clean.
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    Before you setup the Simaudio 820S, you will have to lay it on its back, belly up.
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    Each of the four corners has a countersunk hole, for the screw-in feet.
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    In these pages, I've already reviewed these Simaudio Evolution models: Andromeda, Supernova, 750D, P-8, 600i, W-7, I-7, and 600i. ALL of them came with super-sharp screw-in spikes + cone cup (above, belonging to the 750D).
    IMG_3294
    Well, well, well; after all these years, Simaudio have modified the footer. They have cut off or blunted the tip. And they no longer supply a cone cup.
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    The new blunted cone kind of reminds me of Andrea's feet. Despite the weight of the 820S, its new feet do not provide as firm anchoring, as the older spike-&-cone-cup combination. The old cone cup's bottom had a sticky rubberized foam, which adhered to any surface. However, the new blunted cones should have less of a chance to scratch or puncture you or your shelf.