Thanks JJ. The sound is still improving, particularly the bass extension today. I would characterise the sound with and without the LPS mod is this:
Before the LPS mod
After the LPS mod
It is hard to describe the effect, so this is my way of understanding it. The music is essentially cleaner, wider, closer to the source, less glaze or hash, deeper colours and more liquid but not in anyway soft, in fact stronger impact and leading edges. More texture and less grain, which is a very good thing to have. The corny adjectives of 'hearing things I never heard before' is true. These details were there before but partially obscured and not separated from the core. Now the music is more 3D and layered, and because of that you can hear more musical clues even as things get very complex. And to me it hands the DAC a clean sheet to work with, instead of trying to fix things in the digital conversion AFTER they have already gained noise and other artefacts.
I had added LPS's to other parts of my system before, and a PS Audio P10 power regenerator powering the whole system, so I was aware of the 'garbage in - garbage out' of power supplies and theory. The thing with the Rednet mod is it is as 'cheap as chips' in high end hifi terms, and has a major impact on the sound, which in this hobby is quite rare indeed.
IMO the problems of USB are also noise and possibly the fact it was not designed specifically for audio, even though manufactures fit better and better USB boards, the issues still don't seem to go away. Ethernet over 1000 baseT sounds better to me, with very low latency. A weakness to the Rednet system for some might be it's 192K sample rate limit and non DSD. For me, that is not an issue, but the current obsession of HQPlayer and DSD conversion for some means they have to stay with USB. Also the Rednet box is not small or particularly easy to set up, but IMO is well worth the effort.
After experiencing the effects of a clean power source in a music system, it seems quite odd I never considered it before. I guess I trusted the mains supply as 100% perfect, not considered the huge effect it would have on the final sound. Trying to clean up that supply is now a big deal IMO.
So my view is flush out the whole system for noise and weak points, it will pay dividends in the long run.
Hope someone finds this useful.
Trying to adequately describe and explain what we hear, with words, has always been difficult.
Especially for those who haven't experienced the 'After', these words can ring hollow, or in some cases fully qualifying as eyebrow raisers and even eliciting autonomic scoffs.
I have been pursuing the effects that the mains supply and especially it's distribution in our homes can have for some time now and removing those pesky
CP's (Choke Points) has revealed to me the individual effects each of them has, but even more significant is the sum total of their cumulative effects, and their effects thru time.
And this latest bit of fussing in removing the SMPS's from our systems is revealing yet further validation and in new directions as well.
And I think that all who have experienced these shifts can relate as the SQ takes on qualities never before even imagined, let alone described.
And to that end I have come up with another new re-tasked descriptor for these changes we are hearing.
I call it
LEDI (Leading Edge Dynamic Impact) where each voice and ALL of its related effects (harmonics, room reflections and the like) are brought into much better focus, and to the degree that we can more easily immediately identify each bit of acoustic power and KNOW what it is.
Another way of describing LEDI and it's acoustic effect is when any 'voice' (technology or organic based) and ALL of its related harmonics, room reflections, and the like, starts when its supposed to and is not 'smeared' thru time, the results are most compelling.
It becomes very obvious, and we hear, all the more, into the music.
And I too used to think that since our systems use such small amounts of power and being so simple, with an amp & dac (no preamp or huge power amp) that none of this fussing with the power distribution would or should make ANY difference.
Until I experienced an undeniable SQ shift for the better, and then the flood gates opened and I've been on this roller coaster ever since.
Indeed this thread can be viewed as a chronicle of all this fussing and the cumulative results therefrom.
This, according to the 'standard way of thinking' makes no sense, and until experienced for oneself, is all to easy to refute and in a variety of ways, all of which follow the 'standard way of thinking'.
I mean just increasing the wire gauge of the power cables alone helps.
ASSUMING the rest of the system is 'up to snuff' so to speak, which I have written about previously.
And the fewer the number of
CP's that remain, the MOAR the SQ change of reducing/eliminating those
CP's that do remain, seems to make.
IOW as more and more of the system gets out of it's own way, the greater the perceived SQ increases are, after the reduction/removal of any remaining
CP.
And lowering the noise floor of our systems, by not generating (as much) spurious, random, 'digital' noise in the first place seems to be a significant step up.
Just a few thoughts to mull over.
JJ
