[Audioexcels]

1) To the person that was hostile over my word use of God, sorry.  I didn't intent for its use to spark so much drama.  For whatever it's worth, I am a non-believer aside from love.  It is extremely simplistic to understand how one can believe in a God, how one can believe in being an atheist, and so on...and one is entitled to believe what one will.  But I did not know that using the word God instead of Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, Chewy, ET, etc. would spark such a reaction that again, I am sorry for.  So I hope you accept my apologies for what I said.

2) The Sony 777 is not a good cdp.  It is good for SACD since it plays an SACD disc.  But in its day and progressing along, it was never a device I would consider good. 

3) I brought up the argument about power supplies because on EVERY board, the power supply has been at best, a "very subtle" difference, and at worse, a waste of money with zero difference at all.  That the Boulder one can do things no other supply can do sparks my interest. 

4) The people that cannot hear these incredible differences (but may or may not hear some difference) are ones that not only have exceptional systems, but have a lot of connections with hi-end stores, studios, people in the industry, etc.  They also have at minimum, 20K systems that have components reviewed as being bargains in the industry.  There's really two sides of an argument: 1) If a system is ruthlessly revealing, you will hear even the most minute little glitches that I believe 99.9% of all "audiophiles" cannot hear or will never have this level of transparency to have a chance to hear....or 2) A system that may be good/fun to listen to, but by another's standard's is way below transparent/reference standards, would "immediately" reveal and also have the greatest chance of "breaking in" a component.

5) Last and not least, I did not realize this was a product review section and I want to apologize to the OP.  Had I known it was in the reviews section, I would never have posted what I did.  There's soooooo many sections in this forum that I thought I had found the right one, but no I did not!  Wish this forum was far more simple as it once used to be so I didn't come in and do such an idiot thing with posting what I did in a review=ack!!!

Also, I never mentioned it, but the review is very enthusiastic, it sounds like the jar of worms has been opened (as a good thing:)), and the OP has been enjoying music in a way that he had not been for not sure how long, but sounded like a long time!  ANYTIME we have a wonderful experience with audio, it's a real treat.  That the OP has discovered this new transport to replace the Sony is a BIG thumbs up from me! 

Now if I can just find the right section to discuss the power supply subject...

NOTE: ALL Important things are in BOLD.  All things that are just a continuation of my last post and should now be considered irrelevant are NOT in bold.

Cheers!

[Pez]

Wow... Ok take a deep breath.

Done?

I don't know these people and quite honestly I don't care what some dude at headfi hears or doesn't hear. If you are unsure that you are capable of hearing the difference use a reference. I did. I compared it to my Sony SACD player to the SB before mods, then with the basic power supply I mentioned, and then balls to the wall modded and it wasn't a small difference at all. It's like going from VHS to bluray. If you want to compare the two hang on to your garbage power supply and compare that to the new power supply. Simple. Also what equipment are you running? Is it going to be in the same league as the Bolder modded SB?

[Daedalus Audio]

Wow... Ok take a deep breath.

Done?

I don't know these people and quite honestly I don't care what some dude at headfi hears or doesn't hear. If you are unsure that you are capable of hearing the difference use a reference. I did. I compared it to my Sony SACD player to the SB before mods, then with the basic power supply I mentioned, and then balls to the wall modded and it wasn't a small difference at all. It's like going from VHS to bluray. If you want to compare the two hang on to your garbage power supply and compare that to the new power supply. Simple. Also what equipment are you running? Is it going to be in the same league as the Bolder modded SB?

yeah... deep breath for sure...
well said Jason, particularly about the rest of the gear one is listening with.  there are a "ton" of 'reviews' using gear that is not as good as the piece they are evaluating. not much point to that, eh?

[tabrink]

audioexcels, go away.
I find some of your post extremely offensive and in very poor taste. I do not care about or nor is it relevant what your beliefs are but your incisive, provocative and cavelier statements about God do not belong in an audio forum.

[ctviggen]

I do wonder sometimes when I read comments about people's music servers when they say the server comes close to their dedicated player. What Jason relates is far closer to my comparisons. The modded SB with good power supply sounds BETTER than most dedicated transports. You should also be easily be able to tell the difference between 16/44 and 24/96 source material, as Jason describes.

I have a modded SB2 (yeah, it's older), and it beat everything I had.   My tube based CD player (Shengya) was very close, but the modded SB2 beat it, too.  Everything else I had was left in the dust.

[golfugh]

OK!  Took some time and will only say....

Think what you want, it's your choice.  All I can say is the Bolder Deluxe PS took an extended period of time to "break-in" as Wayne told me it would.  I've experienced "break-in" on several components, most notably the Bolder PS, Wyred DAC-1, Wyred STP-SE and each of the Odyssey amps I've owned.  They change over time, don't know why or do I care!  Each has acted as the manufacturer said they would during this "break-in" period.

The Deluxe PS has made a major change in the sound quality of my Bolder digital mod'd touch.  I've pulled the PS and put back in the Logitech supplied PS and there is a difference....period, end of statement at least to my ears and in my system.

Thanks for the great work Wayne
Mark

[brj]

Ok, guys and girls... everyone take a deep breath and count to 10 before posting.  Thank you!

First, please keep your discussions focused on the product at hand.

Second, I would suggest that everyone review both the AudioCircle Posting Guidelines and the Critic's Circle Guidelines before posting again, and modify your existing posts if necessary.

Please be respectful of your fellow audiophiles, including their differences!

PMs have been sent, and I would prefer not to have to take any more time away from this holiday weekend to send more.  Thank you, and enjoy your weekend!

[Pez]

2) The Sony 777 is not a good cdp.  It is good for SACD since it plays an SACD disc.  But in its day and progressing along, it was never a device I would consider good. 

3) I brought up the argument about power supplies because on EVERY board, the power supply has been at best, a "very subtle" difference, and at worse, a waste of money with zero difference at all.  That the Boulder one can do things no other supply can do sparks my interest. 

I'm getting the distinct impression you have never actually heard the Sony. Why? It is MUCH better than the stock squeezebox. WORLDS better for redbook and hi rez. If you are listening to a stock SB you are listening to something that I would call utter garbage, unusable and not worthy of being called hifi. So to say the sony is not a good player is pretty uniformed especially when you are saying you doubt there's a difference between the junk switching power supply and a well built linear one. You haven't actually heard any of the equipment you're questioning other than maybe the stock SB.

4) The people that cannot hear these incredible differences (but may or may not hear some difference) are ones that not only have exceptional systems, but have a lot of connections with hi-end stores, studios, people in the industry, etc.  They also have at minimum, 20K systems that have components reviewed as being bargains in the industry.  There's really two sides of an argument: 1) If a system is ruthlessly revealing, you will hear even the most minute little glitches that I believe 99.9% of all "audiophiles" cannot hear or will never have this level of transparency to have a chance to hear....or 2) A system that may be good/fun to listen to, but by another's standard's is way below transparent/reference standards, would "immediately" reveal and also have the greatest chance of "breaking in" a component.

You keep talking about 'EVERY other forum' and 'every other person' but you haven't sited a single one.  Also, my system is pretty top tier IMO. I would call it ruthlessly revealing.  Also if having connections to people within the industry has anything to do with my opinion (you mentioned these other people having 'connections with hi-end stores, studios, people in the industry, etc.') then you need look no further than me.  I would probably take home the prize on that one. By that logic my review is WAY more valid. 

[Gopher]

The difference between the stock switching PSU and my music railed' Bolder elpac is profound.  Its not subtle or straining to hear a difference, its huge and in your face.  The burn in time is very real, however one can tell pre-burn in from the moment it goes into the system that its a significant improvement.  It just takes a while to stabalize... over the first couple weeks you'll have some really, really great listening sessions and then some that are actually as bad or worse then stock.

That said, whats huge to me, in my system may be subtle or invisible to another.  To me its a gigantic upgrade relative to the coin.  I've owned some relatively expensive CDPs over the years and this is easily my best digital source (Bolder'ed/Bybee'd Elpac, Bolder SB Touch, Bolder EE Minimax and a Wywires SPDIF).

If the differences are not significant to you, maybe its better not to waste time in this hobby.  Thats not a slight, the vast majority of the population doesn't sweat things like power supply upgrades--your wallet would certainly thank you.

[ThuanDB]

The burn in time is very real, however one can tell pre-burn in from the moment it goes into the system that its a significant improvement.  It just takes a while to stabalize... over the first couple weeks you'll have some really, really great listening sessions and then some that are actually as bad or worse then stock.

This is very true even when applied to Bolder digital modded SB Touch.  Now after 3,4 weeks it has become a very musical source component.