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

Probably best to set up a poll and ask.

 

I got the same message. I suspect I will be in the 3rd group. The first batch going out in the US by end of week. Then they will build the next 6 for overseas shipping and then a group of 18 to fulfill the rest of the backorders. I have no doubt I am in the group of 18 and will be seeing mine in 2-3 months

 

Congratulations to all the new Sugarcube owners who have recently been posting here! I haven't read this thread for 3 weeks plus. Coming back here and reading the wave of new user's first impressions has been entertaining. Sometimes when I begin telling others about my experiences with my SC-2 Mini it sounds too good to be true. I might not believe it if someone else wrote it and I was had never experienced it for myself. Plus sometimes I almost feel that I sound like a shill for Sweet Vinyl. It was good to read the experience of @edbeta1 who mentioned his SC removing noise from 78's being broadcast on FM or streamed over the internet. I had a very similar experience with an early 50's LP sourced from mid 30's 78's where the SC was removing clicks and pops from the 78's. I was astonished and never expected that benefit.

I've said it here before and I will say it again: The SC-2 Mini is the best money I have ever spent of Hi-Fi gear.

 

SC-1 here.

 

I was curious too, so I just posted a survey asking what model Sugar Cube the forum members own. It can be found at:

Sugar Cube Owners: Which Model Do You Own?

 

Thanks Jimo830! Was gonna make a poll as suggested. But been busy.

 

Thank you for the inspiration, it was a great question! It's funny that until you mentioned it, I hadn't really thought about it. After your post I couldn't stop thinking about it. There was that sudden influx of new users posting on this thread.

I had never created a poll before and I was afraid of blowing it. As I found out, creating the poll itself is not rocket science. I was afraid of leaving out some early model that is not in the current lineup. Also I didn't want to divert discussion away from this thread. It will be interesting to see the results over time.

 

I got my SC 1plus on Sunday! Haven't had too much to play with it yet. So far I really like it. Still getting used to the but of delay of about a half of a second. Feels weird to lift the tonearm and the music doesn't stop immediately, but I'll live. My computer is down right now so I haven't tried anything other than the basic click removal. Been running at 5 and it takes most clicks out. Very happy so far!!!

For reference I am running it through the tape loop on my Denon DRA-685 receiver. Turntable is a Technics SL-1210 with an Ortofon 2M Black. Phono amp is a Pro-ject DS2 tube box.

 

The main drawback to owning one of these is that you get used to the no pops and clicks. Minor clicks that my mind used to filter out now sound more prominent .

 

I received my SC 1 Plus yesterday and it definitely owns up to it’s previous models reputation. The first record I put on that I knew was probably one of my worst condition albums had a lot flaws on a track from huge scratch that had some pops during processing but shortly thereafter kept skipping to the previous groove where it was in such bad shape. I guess that side will never be played again! Another album that I knew was noisy, Lead Zeppelin II, had no skips and the clicks and pops where never there. I heard no large noticeable difference in fidelity and the other differences were negligible to nonexistent. The thing really does work. My next step is to record to a computer at 192KB 24 bits that I configured yesterday, but I am just enjoying the listening at the moment. One thing I did learn on setting up on recording where the recording software needs to be at 192 KB 24 bits but for me it is a learning curve because I never digitally processed at this quality. As a side note I did work on a DMS (Digital Modulation System) equipment at NASA for the Space Shuttle but it was at a very low rate {32 KB} interleaved with the telemetry data.

 

Beginning of the pandemic I called 1 of their authorized dealers to inquire. They were out of stock but the salesperson took my info and last week I received a call from them that they were getting a shipment so my Mini is supposed to be shipping this week. Looking forward to it. I never thought I would hear back from them but very glad that I did.

 

I finally acquired (in a $3 heap) pretty beat up Autobahn, mostly to experiment and hear those infamous left channel clicks I never experienced.
It was in probably VG or weaker condition.
No cigar -I listened to this record (from beginning to end) with my SC-1 mini and heard no clicks during or after. Perhaps my removal strength was not high enough (4).
I actually enjoyed this record for a first time (never was big Kraftwerk fan and only heard it in digital).

 

Push it up to 6 and I bet it’ll happen. It usually happens at 5, not 4.

It’s a great record!

 

I don't think the problem afflicts the SC-1 Mini. I have the original SC-1 and Autobahn triggers the clicking on 3.

 

For a quick experiment, I went on the Archive.org site and found a lot of 78 recordings put into the FLAC format. I downloaded a couple of files that were not already “repaired”, and it definitely improves the listening experience. I played back using Audacity to the SC-1 Plus where it was in Repair Playback mode, and did have to ramp up one recording to a 7 or 8 to make the recording acceptable. On top of removing clicks, it also helped with the background noise using the Noise Reduction feature.

 

What are the downsides to a setting that high? Are you noticing any loss of musical detail that you are sacrificing in exchange for the improvement in background noise? I know SVNR is intended for 78's or dealing with tape his, but have you tried it on other types of records that don't fall into the categories? Are there any benefits to doing this? TIA.

 

A heads up for those of you who have a -2 Series SugarCube which does recording. A firmware update released a few days ago, 2.2.854, has a nifty new feature and some nice interface tweaks you should be aware of. I realize some folks update their firmware manually and let others beta test it for them.

The latest firmware introduces fast saving. While it is good, it isn't what I what I was really hoping for. I had hoped it sped up the process of converting the RAW files saved on the internal storage to your output file with the click and pop removal settings you desired. No, this still takes 3-5 minutes per album side. What is faster, blazingly fast, is saving those files to a NAS drive, computer or other network location. This is virtually instantaneous. The file appears on the lower Download tab-bar in Chrome and you don't often see the circular progress bar. The zip file is already completely downloading when the tab appears. In fact it often takes longer to unzip the file on my NAS drive than it does to d/l it from the SC.

The processing of outputting and saving the processed file has been separated into two different dialogue boxes with some nice benefits. The "Save" dialog box where you chose which stored raw files will be processed for saving is the same. But from there your are directed to a newly named dialogue box: "Pre-Processing" This is where you chose to save the files to the USB stick or output to your network and begin processing. This process is not changed, what is changed is what happens next. The finished files appear on a list for downloading to your chosen location. But now you download them from a new dialog box: "Transfer Files". There you see a list grouped by status: "In Progress", "Ready to Save" and "Saved". Several nice things about this. The first is you can see the files that have been fully processed and are available to download. You can save them at once if they appear here. I always wondered if you could do this before all the files were processed, or if this multi-tasking would affect the remaining files being processed. Now the appearance of this new dialogue box appears to answer that question, plus the saves are so blazingly fast I can't imagine any negative effects to the file being simultaneously processed.

The second benefit is you know what files you have already saved to disk. I would sometimes quit my browser after processing the files. If you had download some of these files they would appear in the download tab bar at the bottom of Chrome. But quitting Chrome wiped these tabs out. When I relaunched Chrome these tabs were gone and if I had any doubts I had to look on my NAS drive, before erasing and clearing the recording queue. Now you have the "Saved" files list in the new "Transfer Files" dialog box to give you this important information.

All-in-all a solid update and so far no "undocumented features" (bugs) that I have found in the 30 sides I have done since Sunday.

 

Can't see your pics because you're using a host that doesn't allow hotlinking.

 

hmm Sorry about that. I am not sure what is the cause of that. That is hosted on my own ftp site and I have used it for 13 years now. This is the first issue I have had like this. My pictures are even coming through for me in your quote of my post.

I just logged in as a guest here from another computer that is not mine and I still had no issues. Hopefully it is an internet hiccup or a local glitch happening on your end and is a temporary thing.

 

I can see them too.

 

Strange, I can't.

 

I can't see them either.