"BTW, did you listen to different firmwares and decide that you liked v15 better?"
George -
These comments are revelavent to abour 48 hrs with a sine wave burn-in that I snagged online. -
I was running firmware v.72 - Switching to v.15 made the sound more clear and "airy" - I'll try to stay away from the esoteric descriptions and say that v.15 sounded cleaner. I used a Radio Shack SPL meter and made sure that the levels were matched between versions. I did have a problem with a Belkin wireless repeater - The kind you plug into AC, and it picks up the wireless signal and redistributes it. Worked fine with v.72, but v.15 had lots of drop outs. Unplugged the repeater and the signal from my Belking pre-n router was still 55% and it seems to work fine with v.15.
The family room SB3 is hooked into the direct inputs of a Parasound AVC-2500u pre/pro. I leave the SB3 volume at full and use the pre-pro's vol controls, so I didn't notice a volume control difference.
In my study, I was using v.72 also, of course. When I switched to v.15, the sound was more harsh and "less pleasant". Switching the speaker leads did seem to make the sound more listenable. However, I don't like the volume control with v.15 - The adjustment range is a lot more compressed than with v.72. I would just as soon have v.72 in the study. I use a small NAD integrated that I leave on all the time and use the BS3's vol control.
Off this subject, but since you got me going -
In stock form, I preferred the sound of the SB3's digital output into the DAC of the pre/pro to the stock analog thru the pre/pro's direct inputs. With the full mods + Platinum Sonicaps, and after 2 days of burn-in, I prefer the modded analog over the modded digital. The modded analog again appears to be more open and less congested. I will say that with the mods, I am hearing small details that were not there before, on both analog and digital.
I needed to increase the gain of the direct analog inputs by 13 to 14 dbs to match the output from theital source - Again used an SPL meter and a 1 khz sine wave to set the levels. That was with v.15 - didn't measure it on v.72.
I also use an Outlaw Audio ICBM in the direct analog path - The ICBM is discontinued now, but is a 6-channel bass management device. First, I will say that it appears to be very transparent - I could not tell a difference in the sound quality with it in my system. I used to use it with an SACD player to the direct inputs, but I now have the SB3 running to the direct inputs. That allow me to use the sub that is hooked into the pre/pro with the direct outputs. The ICBM also has its own sub level control, so I can match the sub output to the same level as the sub on the digital output.
I like the mods a lot - I suspect that after things are fully burned in, I will be going back to the well for some bybee purifiers.
Thanks.
