Sopper “new journey”

[Sopper]

Years of being completely happy with my set… until KÄLLA arrived.
Roller coaster started all over again and is now finally in the final stage, to be completely happy again.
All the latest Lejonklou reference combined with Graham LS8/1F.

Biggest improvement last year: changing position in room from long wall to short wall.
Biggest improvement this year: my own cables

[lejonklou]

Wow, that looks nice!

[ThomasOK]

Looks pretty cool to me. I'm sure it sounds great.

[Charlie1]

Nice looking room. Hi-Fi not dominating at all.

[Spannko]

I love the way everything (system, room, view) combines to produce a beautifully harmonious listening environment. I can imagine it being a real joy to listen to music in there 😊

[Arjen]

Apart from all the devices, beautiful view. Haven’t a clou where canal/river and bridge is situated in our low country….

[Sopper]

Apart from all the devices, beautiful view. Haven’t a clou where canal/river and bridge is situated in our low country….

It’s the river “IJssel” located in Kampen

I love the way everything (system, room, view) combines to produce a beautifully harmonious listening environment. I can imagine it being a real joy to listen to music in there 😊

Win-win here; beautiful view while listening to beautiful music

[Arjen]

Kampen, that deserves an Olifantje Sopper!

image.jpg

[Zee9]

that looks like a fun room.
the View steals the show although im sure the sound is more fun.

[Zee9]

Are those isoacoustic pucks that you are using between the preamps and amps?

[Sopper]

Are those isoacoustic pucks that you are using between the preamps and amps?

No; isoacoustics is way too expensive/overpriced
These are just simple ball-bearing feet of aluminum

IMG_2577.jpeg

Soon to be replaced with the steel versions and ceramic balls

[Sopper]

New feet with ceramic balls
New RCA plugs for my cables
New configuration of my speaker cables
New wiring for my power distribution block

New reference point

[Hermann]

Thanks for sharing Sopper. Looks really impressive and I have a great idea what it sounds like. :-)

[Sopper]

Thanks for sharing Sopper. Looks really impressive and I have a great idea what it sounds like. :-)

Thanks and welcome

Marco did visit me yesterday and we listened to some music of all different kinds.
He smiled and said that this was the best he heard coming out of these Graham LS8/1F till date.

So I felt kinda proud; I put a lot of effort into making my set perform optimal

[Hermann]

I'm actually happy about that. Also considering that only a few people get to enjoy this incredible musical experience.

I don't know how you feel about the idea that your system doesn't need any more improvements, or maybe only rudimentary ones. Mine doesn't need any more, unless Fredrik's development skills surprise us again.

Hopefully Tundra Monos will be released again soon, the market desperately needs these amplifiers...

[Sopper]

I'm actually happy about that. Also considering that only a few people get to enjoy this incredible musical experience.

I don't know how you feel about the idea that your system doesn't need any more improvements, or maybe only rudimentary ones. Mine doesn't need any more, unless Fredrik's development skills surprise us again.

Hopefully Tundra Monos will be released again soon, the market desperately needs these amplifiers...

One could be perfectly happy with how the system performs…
You don’t know what you missed, until you have experienced it 😇

[Hermann]

Exactly, so true, and Fredrik is currently bringing it up in the other thread. You can't know if you haven't heard it. Simple but true.

The forums are full of questions about i.e. which loudspeaker goes with which amplifier, etc. Some time ago I mentioned the cognitive dissonance that constantly drives you to question your own decisions or receive justifications from outside. This usually leads to a high level of dissatisfaction. I don't want to change anything in the main system, so the small system is now my field of experimentation, because I can't just stop trying to understand things.

[Spannko]

Exactly, so true, and Fredrik is currently bringing it up in the other thread. You can't know if you haven't heard it. Simple but true.

The forums are full of questions about i.e. which loudspeaker goes with which amplifier, etc. Some time ago I mentioned the cognitive dissonance that constantly drives you to question your own decisions or receive justifications from outside. This usually leads to a high level of dissatisfaction. I don't want to change anything in the main system, so the small system is now my field of experimentation, because I can't just stop trying to understand things.

Is trying to satisfy more than one goal leading to the confusion you’re experiencing? And is the solution to your problem a decision to focus on just one goal? My experience suggests that focussing purely on a systems tune playing ability, gradually, through an iterative process, everything else falls into place, or if not, becomes irrelevant.

[lejonklou]

My experience suggests that focussing purely on a systems tune playing ability, gradually, through an iterative process, everything else falls into place, or if not, becomes irrelevant.

That is my experience as well. The main problem seems to be that many enthusiasts don’t want their theories questioned. Even by themselves. And the theories often disrupt the iterative process.

You don’t seem to have that issue, Sopper, which makes me curious about all your new findings. Crimped ferrules on the ends of loudspeaker cables, new interconnects and connectors and those ball bearing pucks and their position, which I frankly feel sceptical about, having tried something similar but perhaps not the same. And now silver! I feel sceptical and curious at the same time.

[Sopper]

You don’t seem to have that issue, Sopper, which makes me curious about all your new findings. Crimped ferrules on the ends of loudspeaker cables, new interconnects and connectors and those ball bearing pucks and their position, which I frankly feel sceptical about, having tried something similar but perhaps not the same. And now silver! I feel sceptical and curious at the same time.

Sceptical is good, curiosity is better.

If you can respect my choices and path i took, then i will share with you what I experienced last year and why i made radical different choices then the “Lejonklou standard”.
The only things in my set/room here being the same as the standard is the use of Amplify HD, Netgear 108T v2, BJC 6a.
All cables, accessories and everything else have been replaced.

I reached a level of Lejonklou in combination with Grahams, I never thought to be possible
And when I think I reached the limit, I am getting surprised by yet still another “upgrade” I couldn’t think off it would work.

I can truly and sincerely say, I have never enjoyed my set and listening to music more then I do right now and climbing the mountain to reach this point, last 3/4 year.

So let me know if the open mindedness and curiosity runs stronger in you then the sceptical part.

[lejonklou]

So let me know if the open mindedness and curiosity runs stronger in you then the sceptical part.

If I hadn’t had any skepticism, I would have been electrocuted and poisoned long ago.

Of course I want you know more about your discoveries, Sopper! I did already when you preferred the specific screwed and crimped ferrules to soldered connections.

[Sopper]

If I hadn’t had any skepticism, I would have been electrocuted and poisoned long ago.

Of course I want you know more about your discoveries, Sopper! I did already when you preferred the specific screwed and crimped ferrules to soldered connections.

Fair enough
Long post and wall of text incoming to describe my experiences from the last year and how it changed my audio-life, hobby and the experience of music reproduction in my room at home.

[Sopper]

It all started a year ago in 2023 when I decided to buy Chinese copies of well-known brands.
(after reading on other forums that some models performed extremely well for the price they cost)

To my surprise one of those cables, copy of Siltech Empress double crown, performed amazingly well.
After two hours of listening I called an audio friend te tell him what I just had experienced.
The copy was just amazing > bigger soundstage, better and pinpointed position of instruments and voices, subtle nuances and layers in the music I never heard before or knew it existed in the recording. It was a 2 hour rollercoaster with overwhelming emotions and head-shaking; what is happening here? what the f*ck? I couldn't believe what I was hearing...

This friend jumped in his car and I gave him one set of the same cables (I bought 3 sets) and he tried them the same afternoon in his stereo set. He called me and said he was just as amazed as me…
We decided to let them play in our sets for a couple of days before evaluating and testing them against our previous cables.

They just got better and better and better... we couldn't believe it.
When we went back to our "normal" cables, the music was dead; flat, lacking resolution, lacking placement, lacking everything > we just couldn't believe that this was once our reference
There was no way back

The word spread quickly, 3 more audio friends bought the copies Siltech, untested, unseen, just believing our experience we shared. They experienced exactly the same we did > this was out of this world; we never heard interlinks this good.
I got in contact with the Chinese who made and sold those cables and we talked a lot over the last half year. He has worked as chief engineer for several OEM factories of well-known brands in the audio cable industry (it seems a lot of those brands buy everything from China and only assemble at their home-country)
He also made cables with his own brand, but heavily inspired by Siltech configuration of cables; brand called Wirewoo.

I bought 6 power cords and a set of speaker cables from this brand and I just couldn't believe what was happening (again). These cables complemented the Siltech; the synergy was amazing. All I believed in, everything I learned in my audio-hobby and from other well respected people, like Fredrik, I mean… I had to adjust my believe, my opinion, my experience, everything.
I have tried hundreds of cables of all types and brands and if there were any differences; they were subtle at most. How the hell can a power cord make such a huge impact on the music reproduction? It just did and we all (5 friends) heard the huge difference it made in our sets.

We all went full out > all cables we used for years were replaced by copy Siltech and Wirewoo and we never enjoyed listening to music as much as we did now at this point. We were discovering our music again; music we had known for decades, but never heard and experienced like we did now.

A funny side-effect with such resolving cabling, is that every adjustment we did in our sets are now noticeable (the feet I use for example, gave more space in the music). So I went on trying and testing all sort of things I previously assumed they wouldn’t make a difference. But every change did something > sometimes good, sometimes worse, but It did something and we could clearly hear it.

I am one of those guys who wants or tries to understand what is happening and why.
Why did those cables perform that well?
Luckily nowadays there is a lot of information; thank god for internet!
I spend months reading about audio cables and after a while I think I understood the one thing that very expensive “reference” audio cables of well known brands have in common: “Air as dielectric”. (for the record: I am not saying that these mega expensive cables are any good or musical > since I haven’t heard them and we cannot judge from paper)

Weaponed with this knowledge I spend months and months configuring cables with all sorts of tubing, wires, connectors and plugs, soldering, crimping, and so on.
After many trials and errors I had created a RCA interlink which beat the hell out of the Siltech copy. One of this first proto-types is still in use as the reference interlink in my best friend’s set.
The basis was there and ready; so I went experimenting with the looks > I enjoy good-looking cables, they need to be eye-candy.

I decided to start a company and branding my hand-made cables so I can sell them and let people enjoy music like I do, but not to spend thousands for just one interlink.
The company existing of one man (me) making cables in my spare time (I have a fulltime job) was born and I named it: Trivium Audio Cables

I have finalized the configuration of RCA interlinks, XLR interlinks, Power cords and Speaker cables. They all (individual) are much better than copy Siltech and Wirewoo.
They utilize air as dielectric. I use solid core wires in oversized thin wall Teflon tubes. The wires are silver filled copper (90% copper 10% silver) but I also make them in pure silver versions for the one who likes silver more.

That was my rollercoaster the past year.
I am a small company, cannot produce many cables; it’s very labor intensive (4 hours to make a set of RCA) and I don’t have the intention to grow big; my cables are for a small crowd of music lovers. Meanwhile my best friend is enjoying a full set of my cables in his stereo set; it never sounded as good (in fact, we didn’t think it was possible to get such music out of his set, but we were wrong).

I won’t talk much more about my company here, it is the “Lejonklou” forum after all.
I am also not here to promote my cables in any way; I just wanted to share my experience over the last year and why I am one of the few who got rid of the Linn Silvers, K400 and stock power cords.

Enjoy the music my friends! And trust your ears!

[beck]

This is a fantastic story. I am glad on your behalf. What I recognize from my own system is when you say that everything makes a difference. You can hear every little change.
I am sure that the many open minded members of this forum will be interested in your findings. I will for one!
The best way here to show the difference would be a before and after clip, but trying out your cables could also be a way to go.

Best of luck with your cables!

[Spannko]

Sopper, I know that you’ve stated in the past that video clips are an excellent way of communicating how one component compares against another, particularly from a musical perspective. So, you know what we want next, don’t you!