Shunyata Alpha USB 1.5

[crwilli]

What is your incumbent USB cable if you have one?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by jimtranr

UPS Tracking says my Alpha will arrive today (probably mid-afternoon). Guess what Jim'll be doing for the next several days.

Oh, you're gonna be SO happy!

[jimtranr]

Originally Posted by crwilli

What is your incumbent USB cable if you have one?

A WW Silver Starlight 7 feeding an Uptone ISO REGEN powered by an Uptone LPS 1.2. The ISO connects to the DAC via an Uptone USPCB adapter. Which gives me a host of connection configuration options to play with.

I'll burn in the Alpha with it feeding straight to the DAC. I figure that after about 72 hours that will allow me to ascertain how it stacks up against the Silver Starlight/galvanic isolation/reclocking provided by the ISO/LPS 1.2 combo. Where I go from there--if I "go" anywhere--after that depends on that initial assessment.

Once I have some time with the Alpha, I'll post my impressions here in a separate thread.

[jimtranr]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Oh, you're gonna be SO happy!

You realize, of course, that this is all your fault.

[jzzmusician]

I'm getting pumped! Mine should be here pretty soon!

- Bob

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by jimtranr

You realize, of course, that this is all your fault.

Guilty as charged.

72 hours should give you a good flavor, but 200 hours will be a much more accurate representation of its true capabilities.

[jimtranr]

[jimtranr]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Guilty as charged.

72 hours should give you a good flavor, but 200 hours will be a much more accurate representation of its true capabilities.

Agreed. But I can tell you this after just hearing Bernstein roar through Copland's "El Salon Mexico" (Columbia/DSD128) and Berlioz' "Rakoczy March" (Sony,16/44) and Sedares lead a stretch of Randall Thompson's "Symphony No. 1" (Koch, 16/44): the Silver Starlight and Uptone gear are headed for the home office.

[crwilli]

If the Uptone Regen helped the Silver Starlight, why not also try it with the Alpha?

When I get rid of my head cold and have time, I am going to be testing a borrowed Regen with OEM power plug to the Alpha alone.

[jimtranr]

Originally Posted by crwilli

If the Uptone Regen helped the Silver Starlight, why not also try it with the Alpha?

When I get rid of my head cold and have time, I am going to be testing a borrowed Regen with OEM power plug to the Alpha alone.

From a "cold" start, the on-its-own Alpha has already bested what I hear with the WW/Uptone combo in terms of "there's more there there". At first blush, I attribute that to the Alpha's "dead quiet" (and I mean "dead quiet") presentation. How much of that is owed to the Alpha's intrinsic design and how much to the absence of the Uptone's wall wart--however good it may be--in the power distribution loop, non-techie me can't say. And if I'm just at the beginning of what Stephen suggests is a 200-hour journey, I can't help but wonder how much more "there" I'll hear with the Alpha alone. So at this point I'm not even tempted to tempt Fate.