Triode User
Member of the Trade: WAVE High Fidelity
I posted this previously... It might help you.
And I recollect it prompted this response from RW.
Your explanation is just plain wrong. Do you think I do not know what I am doing?
I posted this previously... It might help you.
Your explanation is just plain wrong. Do you think I do not know what I am doing?
As I replied to him at the time, I am describing the behaviour of ideal power supplies in general.And I recollect it prompted this response from RW.
After a long journey of learning and observing i also see different approuches on improving sound on eg. Dac’s, one side i see the kind of old school lps’s that are very well build with top of the bill materials that improve sound quality compared to original. And the approuch of modern rf and hf filtering and other innovations in lps’s seeking for neutral sound with a balance of maintaining the musicality of a rig. And ofcourse all kinds of designs in between. Its up to the listener and owners what they preffer as with everything in audio.As I replied to him at the time, I am describing the behaviour of ideal power supplies in general.
I have no idea why he said what he did. Describing an ideal power supply as a constant voltage current source is indisputably correct.
This is the starting point for any thinking about why the replacement of the DAVE stock smps with power supplies that are closer to ideal has the effects on sound quality from the headphone output which have been observed. This effect can be purely in the analogue domain as we are looking at the DAVE headphone amp here. All amplifier manufacturers know this, which is why all good power amps have such freaking massive power supplies.
As far as DAVE digital circuitry is concerned, stability of the voltages on the power rails will also be crucial.
I know this from extensive experience of overclocking cpus in the various PCs that I have built.
Overclocking a cpu generally involves overvolting it. This is to compensate for the fact that the voltage from the cpu voltage regulator modules (VRM) will sag when the cpu gets loaded and then overshoot when the loading comes off. The better and seriously more expensive motherboards had superior VRMs - closer to the ideal psu described above - so they were easier to overclock.
It was a ticklish business setting these voltages so that they were high enough to sustain the overclock but not so high that that voltage overshoot would crash the pc when the loading came off the cpu.
I reiterate: holding its output voltage absolutely steady irrespective of the current that the load device is drawing is the defining characteristic of a good power supply.
I post very infrequently these days (though I still keep up to date and appreciate the contributions). Anyway, I like to contribute when I come across something that surprises me and I gage to be worth sharing.
My source component is the Innuos Statement, which feeds the M Scaler and ultimately the Dave. I recently upgraded the source to Statement 'Next Gen' status. And clearly it is quite a noticeable SQ upgrade. (This can be verified on YouTube btw.) When I sent my Stement back to Portugal I was using an SR 'Orange' fuse and when it arrived back at my house with the upgrade complete it had a stock fuse installed. The reason being, they had blown my SR Orange fuse. . So I put 230 hours on it with the stock fuse in situ and there was clearly an upgrade in SQ, despite this retrograde step with the fuse. Now here's the thing: I then installed an SR 'PURPLE' fuse and Jesus Christ!! The jump in SQ was bigger than the albeit significant Next-Gen upgrade from Innuos. Just about everything I value in good hifi changed for the better and not by a small margin either.
I guess the lesson learned here for me was that whilst £190 for single fuse is a crazy price to pay for a fuse, when I put it up against a £3,900 upgrade of the component this particular fuse can hold its own in the level of improvement it can bring. I have used SR Blue and SR Orange but the SR Purple jumps higher by a large margin. Against stock fuses it is like going from a beat box to a hifi system. The bass has clarity and weight, the imaging and sound-stage becomes an entity of its own. The layering, dynamics, musicality etc .........and this is in a system that I have spent more than £100,000 on. Go figure. Fuses are the biggest bottleneck in every Hifi system regardless of components and power products imo.
Thanks for listening
LOL! Yes had a very similar experience recently, but I must admit I was a little reticent to post about it for fear of ridicule! I changed stock fuse in my amp to purple fuse. Amazed at the difference, and being an electrical engineer, it sort made me question my whole understanding of the subject, we clearly have so little idea of what must actually be happening on a quantum level.I post very infrequently these days (though I still keep up to date and appreciate the contributions). Anyway, I like to contribute when I come across something that surprises me and I gage to be worth sharing.
My source component is the Innuos Statement, which feeds the M Scaler and ultimately the Dave. I recently upgraded the source to Statement 'Next Gen' status. And clearly it is quite a noticeable SQ upgrade. (This can be verified on YouTube btw.) When I sent my Stement back to Portugal I was using an SR 'Orange' fuse and when it arrived back at my house with the upgrade complete it had a stock fuse installed. The reason being, they had blown my SR Orange fuse. . So I put 230 hours on it with the stock fuse in situ and there was clearly an upgrade in SQ, despite this retrograde step with the fuse. Now here's the thing: I then installed an SR 'PURPLE' fuse and Jesus Christ!! The jump in SQ was bigger than the albeit significant Next-Gen upgrade from Innuos. Just about everything I value in good hifi changed for the better and not by a small margin either.
I guess the lesson learned here for me was that whilst £190 for single fuse is a crazy price to pay for a fuse, when I put it up against a £3,900 upgrade of the component this particular fuse can hold its own in the level of improvement it can bring. I have used SR Blue and SR Orange but the SR Purple jumps higher by a large margin. Against stock fuses it is like going from a beat box to a hifi system. The bass has clarity and weight, the imaging and sound-stage becomes an entity of its own. The layering, dynamics, musicality etc .........and this is in a system that I have spent more than £100,000 on. Go figure. Fuses are the biggest bottleneck in every Hifi system regardless of components and power products imo.
Thanks for listening
Although the Statement power supply is close to some versions of Sean Jacobs power supplies so one might anticipate a similar experience with them with the Dave etc?This was the internal fuse on the Innuos product TU. I am confident if you tried an SR purple fuse in your Innuos product you would notice a difference even before it is run-in. I am really surprised you have not noticed a difference in the past but I have not listened to any of the other brands, so can't comment. Hifi can be puzzling at times.
I've tried the copper rod approach in UK Mains plugs (never in the component's internal fuse holder, because that would be dangerous).If it was the bottle neck theory then a 5mm copper rod cut down to fuse length would sound best. One person I know on here has done that and suggest I at least try it.
With MQA on my setup, things go deeper and blacker. No compromise on Stealth and Susvara. No external needed, stock smps intact.
If one is nice with people and they trust you then it is amazing what can be offered. This was a private individual just being nice to me.PS. How did you manage to get a number of QSA fuses on loan?
Back to DAVE, which doesn't have an internal fuse
That is very true.In my opinion why fuses can bring SQ changes is that they add resistance in the power feed making the voltage to the OP stage a tiny bit less immune to modulated currents..