The SugarCube Is Here At Last...Clicks & Pops R.I.P.

Having owned an SC-1 for a while, it has been immensely responsible for my enjoyment of vinyl.

One thing though, and this probably has been pointed out in this 76 page thread, but:

In my experience, the Sugarcube does great on worn older records, but if you have a new record with a pressing issue (say a 180g reissue with non-fill or something) there will still be clicks and pops. Just wondering if other cube owners have found this to be the case as well?

 

I think it helps, but not eliminate non-fill distortions. But I have MFSL "Salty Dog" with a nasty "cooling pimple" in their last track, and Sugarcube makes it almost non-existing (without SC it is a very loud click for several rotations).

 

My experience with new pressings is that they are pretty much rendered silent. Between being cleaned ultrasonically when I bought them and cleaned with a record sweeping arm, most issues are under control and the SC-2 seems to del with the rest. The one exception is non-fill which is sometimes improved a bit but not eliminated. But I never really expected it to improve non-fill.

Another interesting thing I have noticed is some LPs I have that are based on 78 RPM source material sometimes have clicks present on the 78 disk itself are removed or noticeably improved. Notice I said some LP's. Some are improved others are not. It's a free unexpected bonus so I'll take it.

 

I have the SC-2, anything in the record that causes a click or pop the device eliminates, this includes many surface noise elements, but not a pressing flaw like non-fill. Non-fill creates a sound like tearing that the SC-2 will help minimize, but never remove entirely.

 

Wonder what SV's plans will be now that AKM's factory went down in flames. I believe the SC products use their DAC chips.

 

My guess is that AKM will contract out their DAC production to other fab houses while their factory is rebuilt. So there shouldn’t be any changes.

 

Maybe a stupid question, buy do you guys still have any of the original SC-1 from 2016 still available?
All I want is to remove pops and clips, no internet, no need for metadata, recording, and all the other bells and whistles, (don't get me wrong, they are nice).
I'm just looking for the basic of the basic.

 

Well, I have an SC-1 Mini which is exactly that. And I love it.

I'm not interested in archiving my vinyl. I want the music on my records to be enjoyed from my records. That way, I'm not tempted to skip to other tracks, etc.. ..I like that vinyl sort of forces me to hear the album side from beginning to end.

 

We are assessing the situation right now as far as our products – and now we are trying to make sure how many of the chips we have left – so far it looks like we are ok for all existing orders as far as the SC-1 and SC-2 Plus and have a current build for over 100 Minis in process - after that we have hundreds of chips left to allocate to existing planned builds and we will design out any component we cannot get. It looks as if this is going to be an issue through 2021 - transitioning to a new fab/process is an enormous undertaking for any company - having to do entire product lines all at once without revenue will be even worse.

 

Latest from Dan on SC-1 Plus

SC-1 Plus News.


We do have 18 units on the assembly bench running the initial burn in and we are waiting for engineering to release the production firmware for the on board embedded processor which is not field updateable. The team is testing and finishing the software for the mode selection for the AD-DA and Noise Removal when using the unit with an external computer.


Assuming they all pass final test, we are hoping to have this step completed early next week – at that point we should be able to do the functional testing and QA and then start assembling.


We did have a bit of a scare as the AKM factory that produces both the AD and DA had a large fire which has forced us to design out the ADC in future designs. We have enough stock to build at least 100 more of these units right now after checking our WIP and inventory.


AKM Factory Fire—A Pro-Audio Industry Disaster | ProSoundNetwork.com



We are getting close and we are hoping to have completed the testing that will let us finish assembly of the first 18 units in the next two weeks.

 

Any word on the SC-2 Plus front? Has anyone ever gotten one?

 

While I love my SC-2 mini, I'm starting to get a little bit annoyed with the recording process. The recording is only broken up by tracks about 40% of the time and when I am trimming tracks, the audio takes forever to load sometimes. It takes something that should be no more than five minutes and quadruples it. Anyone else having these problems?

 

I relation to your 1st point I had the same problem with my SC-2 a few months ago and raised the issue with the support guys, and got this response.

"Take a look at the song list for the album and you will probably see there is no duration for each track. The data used by the SugarCube recording system is retrieved from Discogs and is not modified by the SugarCube. Unfortunately, a high percentage of the track data from Discogs has no duration information."

In light of this I now check Discogs 1st before entering the Catalog # and ensure (or try to ensure) that it points to a release that has track times. If no times are listed on the Discogs release page then as you say the recording won't be broken down into tracks. While a pain, I don't find it too grueling to have to manually create the tracks, but best if avoided. If I have retreived good track info from a different release than mine then it is just a question of editing the Catalog # information later on in the 'Edit Album Info' screen.

I can't really speak to your second issue as it sounds like it could be a slow network issue. While not instantaneous the tracks usually load for me in a couple of seconds. Again I am using an SC-2, and always use Chrome as browser as initially advised.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, I'll check Discogs before I enter the number. That's a great suggestion. As to the second issue, I'm pretty sure it's not a network issue. I have gigabit throughout the house and all of the other file transfers (which includes streaming from a server to various Plex apps) is very fast. I always use Chrome as well. I'll email them and see what they have to say. Thanks for your response. And to reiterate, I love my SC-2 mini!

 

Keep us in the loop. Curious to know what this could be related to. Wondering whether there would be any speed issues when transferring via USB. If not, it's a networking issue. If so, it's an issue within the SC-2 Mini itself.

 

Sorry I have been dark for so long. Life has gotten in the way of my hobby. As one of the early SC-2 beta testers, I have been enjoying the collaborative process with SV. Rather than being upset by the quirks the SC-2 software caused, I worked with Leo and Dan to try to improve things as much as possible, and they have indeed worked hard to get the bugs out. This is probably the best audio purchase of my 45 years in the hobby. Now with the SVNR upgrade, I am looking forward to more needle drops. I have to admit that, while I love vinyl, the convenience of a networked server is overwhelming to me. So, my main use of the SC2 SVNR is to digitize my large LP collection and load my LPs onto my server. I feel that most of my needle drops with the SC2 SVNR far exceed the sound quality of CD issues of the same recordings.

Sadly, my system has been down for over a month due to non-Sugarcube-related issues. So, I have been unable to try the SVNR recording feature. I hope to soon. While I don't spin shellac, I want the SVNR for my LPs. IME, eliminating the clicks and pops causes the surface noise to be much more apparent, depending on the LP, so I am hoping judicious use of SVNR will reduce surface noise on my needle drops.

This helps, a lot! I was selecting the discogs data based on other factors, not whether the track times were included. This is why, I now see, I was getting the album data, but not the track divisions, which I then entered manually using the SC2 web GUI.

 

Finally sent an email to them late last night. They have always had great communication with me, so I hope to get a response soon. I switched from wired to wifi and there was a small improvement, but not that much.

 

Why not just enter the times into the Discogs database for that recording?

 

for me it’s not always that easy. It’s a good idea to enter the times but when I check the albums, I’ll see the tracks and times listed but for some reason the entire recording ends up on the second track. But I should add the times when I see there are none, especially since I like having the correct version listed when I record.

 

Ha, thanks for the reminder - I had totally forgotten that I did this about 4 months ago for Dylan's Rough and Rowdy Ways.
Discogs will instantly accept the updated times for the LP as long as you are logged in etc. , but be prepared for the moderating police to scrutinize your entries.
They questioned me a day or 2 after updating - it shows up on the History - Edit page for the release:

Me

Edit Release - Added Track Times from CD.

mcr1

Thanks, but have you timed them for the vinyl version? They may not be the same duration.
Please confirm.

Me

Yes - I initially updated the times from the CD entry to ease making a needle drop of the LP - for look-up and track splitting purposes.
I can confirm that the times are correct within a very minor + or - 1 or 2 seconds depending on where the track split is made on the LP.

mcr1

Ok, thanks.

They can be very picky about edits.

 

As expected, Dan got back to me about the issue. I do really appreciate the responsiveness of Sweet Vinyl.

 

Looking for feedback on these units. I am using a Rega Aria phono stage, and will need to connect this to the SC, and then to my amplifier. Can I expect to experience a loss of soundstage / SQ, due to the fact that I’m running the signal through so many units before it hits my speakers?

 

I use an Aria and I’ve never been able to really tell a meaningful difference. If you can get over the fact that you’re doing a digital conversion, buy with confidence. I actually do two conversions as I also use a MiniDSP SHD for room correction. I wouldn’t be without mine.

 

I have not noticed any. And I’ve had used it in several setups with lots of different equipment.