I told Dan I would write something up for him and since there was an inquiry I figured it was time. Out of curiousity I asked Dan about doing a comparison of PS since I was not ready to sell my Sony 5400 for the next great thing (Oppo 105). Think of the PS 9.9 as a very scaled down version of the DM power supply with the dual mono version of the 36.5 preamp. It was pretty apparent to me upon hearing the 9.9 compared to the 9 that there was definately a difference. Pinning down that difference took a little more time but without a long diatribe I will try to be brief. What the 9.9 does better than the 9 is that is does a much better job at seperating voices, instruments and space than the older power supply. For instance, listening to The Dance on the Dave Koz disc "The Dance" near the beginning of the track a set of chimes is played running down each individual chime. The PS 9 does a great job of portraying this. However, with the 9.9 in place you can actually hear and visualize each individual chime being struck and it portrays the movement down the chimes much clearer. Almost as if the slightest last bit of smear is removed. I also noticed with the sticato pluck of string instruments that I could actually feel each individual pluck of the string and hear it more clearly. There also appeared to be perhaps a slightly larger soundstage both L to R and F to B. I can not say for sure if this was just the clarity and detail now revealed in the music or it was reality. What I can say is that it just sounded better!
In all instances of listening to my favorite equipment review songs I just noticed that there was just a touch of grunge removed from each song. I can liken it to taking the top layer of skin off of an onion to actually get to the onion. I liked the new PS 9.9 and happily returned my old PS 9 for the upgrade. At this time I feel it is money well spent as i am not ready to drop another $3500 into a player when the 5400 does just fine. I think anyone making this swap will be very happy with the difference and realize just how important power supply is.
Thanks for the reasonable upgrade Dan!
Randy