Listening Session

PeteG · « **on:** 5 Jan 2006, 08:24 pm »

Hi All,

The listening session will be Saturday at 1:00, if you have some gear you what to setup
you can come by early (I will be watching football). If you have any questions about directions give me a call.

Just a warning about my room, the pics are very deceiving, the room is small with
one listening chair, but we’ll make room.

Pete

Just PM, me and I'll send you my address & phone #

zybar · « **Reply #1 on:** 5 Jan 2006, 08:46 pm »

Have fun guys and don't forget to post afterwards.

George

mgalusha · « **Reply #2 on:** 5 Jan 2006, 10:15 pm »

I'm looking forward to hearing Pete's new SP 2.5's.

mgalusha · « **Reply #3 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 03:12 am »

A big thanks to Pete for having us over today. Pete is one of the most easy going guys I know and a pleasure to hang out with. Thanks Pete!

Today was the first time I've had the pleasure of hearing the SP 2.5 speakers with all of the latest tweeter and crossover upgrades. I've heard the SP's on 4 other occassions and while I generally liked them I always had some reservations about the upper frequency ranges. They always seemed a little bright and forward for my tastes. Well with all the latest updates the 2.5's had none of that and were sounding very good. Very nice indeed.

Pete has plenty of power to drive them to to pretty much any sane level. He's using a pair of Simaudio Moon amps, the W-10's I think that will supply 700W into 8 ohms and 1400W into 4 ohms. Yeah Pete, I think you have enough power.

For a source we were using Pete's Bolder modded Squeezebox 2. Part of our reason for getting together today was to listen to various flavors of SB power suppliies. Wayne brought over his latest super duper ultimate SB power supply chock full of exotic parts. Jerry brought his power supply, also from Bouder but somewhat less exotic than Wayne's latest creation. I brought my DIY supply which has a Felicia balanced power system internally. Pete has one of the "Standard" model Bolder supplies that is Wayne's entry level supply.

All of the supplies were plugged into Pete's BPT balanced power system. The exception was my DIY supply as it has internal balanced power and sounds better plugged directly into the wall.

Without going into a detailed analysis the outcome was that Jerry's midlevel supply was a substantial improvement over the standard model and the new Ultra power supply was significantly better than that. My power supply sounds very similar to Jerry's and was also significantly bettered by the new Ultra supply. Enough so that I have to consider some of the exotic parts that Wayne is using in his top of the line model.

Interestingly, when we first connected the top end supply we all felt it was an improvement but not by a huge amount. After a while we removed it and went back to the midlevel supply and that is when the differences were quite apparent. We did this several times and it the clear choice for all parties. Amazing how the removal of quality is more noticeable that the addtion of improvements.

Again, thanks to Pete for hosting and providing the munchies.

Mike

PeteG · « **Reply #4 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 04:10 am »

Mike, thanks for the kind words. It was good to see everyone.

And I agree with Mike 100% about the squeezebox PS it was amazing to hear the difference in each level, I knew there was going to be subtle differences in the PS,
but I didn’t think it was going to as big as it was, Wayne’s ultimate PS was so tube like it was crazy how the hell can a 5v PS do that. I was sold on Wayne’s work, now I have to save my pennies for a PS upgrade.

Oh yah, Mike you didn’t hear the full benefits of the different PS levels till you heard “GET MY GUN” by D12, 20 times

.

Pete

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #5 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 04:19 am »

mgalusha :

Quote

Pete has plenty of power to drive them to to pretty much any sane level.

[/list:u]

Chris[/list:u]

PeteG · « **Reply #6 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 04:24 am »

Quote from: lonewolfny42

Pete....your not using the Carver anymore ?

Hi Chris,
No, not no more I was using it for a pair of DIY subs, with the SP Tech's
I don't need the subs no more

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #7 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 04:29 am »

Quote from: PeteG

Quote from: lonewolfny42
Pete....your not using the Carver anymore ?

Hi Chris,
No, not no more I was using it for a pair of DIY subs, with the SP Tech's
I don't need the subs no more

I agree....no sub needed.

Chris[/list:u]

PeteG · « **Reply #8 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 04:51 am »

Chris,
No I haven’t too loud for me. But Steve Chang came over one day and pushed the Continuums to about 106dB with a CD full of deep bass.

Pete

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #9 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 04:53 am »

Thanks Pete !!

Chris[/list:u]

Turk · « **Reply #10 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 05:13 pm »

Thanks Pete, you are a great host. That was also they best I have heard the SPs.

mgalusha · « **Reply #11 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 05:47 pm »

Quote from: PeteG

Oh yah, Mike you didn’t hear the full benefits of the different PS levels till you heard “GET MY GUN” by D12, 20 times

And for that I am extremely grateful.

mgalusha · « **Reply #12 on:** 8 Jan 2006, 05:50 pm »

Quote from: lonewolfny42

Ahhh....but Mike ...you should hear them at insane levels.....

Hehe... well Pete did crank up the "Master of the Chineese Drum" track from the Burmester CD3 and it was kicking pretty hard. I have no doubt that the SP's could have taken more, the system didn't sound strained at all.

Tyson · « **Reply #13 on:** 9 Jan 2006, 06:27 am »

Sorry this has taken so long for me to weigh in here, I've been busy painting our new place.

I showed up after Mike and Jerry had left, so I got to listen to my tracks pretty much exclusively. I'm pretty sure that Wayne and Pete don't every want me to bring over any D12 ever again

I brought my own hard drive worth of music, all encoded at level 8 .ogg vorbis encoding. Very close to CD quality sound but with a 5:1 compression ratio. I did this on purpose to see if at some point there was a level reached where the compression of the files would become the limiting factor instead of the equipment.

I listened to the Squeezebox setup in the following order:

Stock Power Supply & Stock Squeezebox
Mid-level power supply & stock squeezebox
Mid-level power supply & upgraded Squeezebox
High level power supply & upgraded Squeezebox
Ultra level power supply & upgraded Squeezebox

The evaluation tracks I used were:

Shostakovich - Cello Concerto #1 played by Misha Maisky
Ani DiFranco - Up, Up, Up, Up, Up.
D12 - Get my Gun

Impressions:

Stock Power Supply & Stock Squeezebox
Bluntly put, it sounded like Pete's speakers (which I had never heard before) sucked. It sounded like they had a good tweeter and poor woofers, and a crappy crossover because the highs were so disconnected from the midrange. Not very pleasant at all.

Mid-Level Power supply & Stock Squeezebox
Wow, the speakers weren't the culprit cause as soon as the new PS was in the loop the mids and highs integrated and became spatially much more coherent. Still a lot of hash in the sound and a completely flat soundstage though.

Mid-Level Power Supply & Upgraded Squeezebox
Suddenly there was soundstage depth and you could actually place a few instruments around in that soundstage. Now wer are starting to get close to acceptable sound quality.

High-Level Power Supply & Upgraded Squeezebox
Almost all the harshness of the highs are now gone, it's much more relaxed (easy to listen to), several veils have been lifted, and it is probably on par with the best CD based systems I've heard. Much better and clearer spatial information.

Ultra-Level Power Supply & Upgraded Squeezebox
The thing that immediately hits you is the warmth and full power of the lower mids. The sound takes on a weight and life-like conviction. Dare I say the v-word? Yes, it does indeed have a lot of that tactile presence that good vinyl has. A lot of minor intakes of breath, subtle changes of rhythm, you can really hear a band listening to each other and adjusting to each other in real time. Very nice indeed, I was quite impressed.

Wayne1 · « **Reply #14 on:** 9 Jan 2006, 10:10 pm »

I want to thank Pete and his wife for hosting the get together. They went above and beyond the call with the nice spread of food and drinks.

Pete's system is extremely nice. It is one the best I have heard when in comes to reproducing the dynamics and low end of the best recordings.

This was the first time I have heard the SP Tech speakers in a good home enviroment. I was very impressed with them. Pete's two amps provided more than enough power for them to reach very high sound levels with no strain.

There were moments on certain recording that we thought the speakers were overloading the room, but a change of power supply to the SB2 changed the sound enough that the "boominess" went away.

I am very grateful for the chance to listen to the different power supplies in such a transparent system. It makes it so much easier to hear the differences in component changes in the power supplies.

All the power supplies used the same basic circuit. The differences between them had to do with the parts used.

The Basic Rev1 that Pete has uses Panasonic power supply caps with Sonicap Gen 2 bypasses in a steel case.

Jerry's power supply has original smaller Bybees after the power transformer and a Jensen cap before the regulator in an aluminum case.

Mike's power supply, which Tyson did not get to hear, uses the Felicia design for balanced power before the SB power transformer. He also uses Panasonic caps and I believe he has added a pair of Bybees before the rectifiers.

The Ultimate PS is described here

There was a big increase in bass impact and definiton when we changed from Pete's power supply to Jerry's. When the Ultimate was put in, we noticed additional refinement but it was not as big a difference, at that time, as the change between Pete's and Jerry's.

We listened to quite a few very nice Jazz recordings and then Pete put on a selection with a very big, fat sax up front. Mike then wanted to hear his PS so we quickly changed it. All the fullness of the sax went away. It sounded very dry and analytical. We put the Ultimate back in and the fat sound came back. We switched to Jerry's PS and it sounded very similar to Mike's.

What we took away with this comparison was that the sound of the two Jensen caps, both before and after the regulator, made a VERY big difference to the sound of the modded SB2. It gave the SB2 a very big, fat, analog sound. As Tyson put it, almost like vinyl.

Mike and Jerry wisely decided to leave before Tyson showed up. Jerry left his power supply so I could add another Jensen cap to it

. Tyson and his friend Steve showed up and proceeded to listen to the tracks he described in his comments.

We all ended up with the same thoughts, The modded SB2 is VERY sensitive to the DC power fed to it. Different power supplies and different parts do change the sound of it quite a great deal. With the best parts, the modded SB2 can sound very similar to a very good analog front end, and it is far easier to access your music.

zybar · « **Reply #15 on:** 9 Jan 2006, 10:20 pm »

Wayne,

Do you expect the same differences in performance when only using the SB2 as a transport?

George

Wayne1 · « **Reply #16 on:** 10 Jan 2006, 12:55 am »

George,

I believe the same sort of sound differences will be able to be discerned through the digital output.

reefrus · « **Reply #17 on:** 10 Jan 2006, 02:46 am »

Pete,
Congrats on the fine demo of the Continuum 2.5. I was at the CES and T.H.E. Show in Las Vegas last weekend or I would have been there for your demo. SP Tech received rave reviews from the critics at the show. Well deserved! Stay Tuned!