Ultimate PS demo tour

Wayne1 · « **on:** 16 Jun 2007, 01:21 am »

I have one Ultimate MKII PS that has a bit of a scratched up case.

I will make this one available for a quick audition tour.

If your are interested in finding out if a 5 volt power supply for a SqueezeBox can be make a sonic change worth $1,000.00, now is your chance to find out

Please get in touch with me through PM or E-mail.

BUT, be prepared. Most of the people who have auditioned one of these have ended up buying one

Daygloworange · « **Reply #1 on:** 16 Jun 2007, 01:37 am »

Put me on the list Wayne.

Cheers

spacedghost · « **Reply #2 on:** 16 Jun 2007, 01:57 am »

Quote from: Wayne1 on 16 Jun 2007, 01:21 am

BUT, be prepared. Most of the people who have auditioned one of these have ended up buying one

Guilty

Shaun

Wayne1 · « **Reply #3 on:** 16 Jun 2007, 12:35 pm »

Okay, This version of the short tour is closed.

The PS will be shipping out on Tuesday.
Thanks for your interest!

Papajin · « **Reply #4 on:** 17 Jun 2007, 09:36 am »

Doh! Missed out!

yo2tup · « **Reply #5 on:** 18 Jun 2007, 11:34 pm »

Quote from: spacedghost on 16 Jun 2007, 01:57 am

Quote from: Wayne1 on 16 Jun 2007, 01:21 am

BUT, be prepared. Most of the people who have auditioned one of these have ended up buying one

Guilty

Shaun

also guilty

you guys are in for a treat!

Philistine · « **Reply #6 on:** 24 Jun 2007, 03:47 pm »

Ultimate PS Review

As the first recipient on the review tour I want to warm up the appetites of the rest of the guys on the review circuit.
First of all some background: I've always found CDP's as a source to be harsh, brittle and full of digital 'glare', at one time I owned a Stereophile A rated CDP that was too painful to listen to. I lost interest with 2 channel, stopped buying CD's and built a HT - I even found that satellite concerts in Dolby 5.1 sounded much better than my CDP. Then all changed when I bought a Modwright CDP - this restored my musical interest and I've become a net CD buyer again, Dan makes great gear. The SB looked a fun toy and I bought one for my home office and, using the random song play function, I rediscovered music that was in my collection that I'd forgotten about - what a great tool the SB had become. Based on this I had Wayne perform the analog mods and bought and had modded one of the Elpac PS, when matched up against my CDP this combination gave about 80% of the performance. I was intrigued by Waynes Ultimate PS, but in no way did I expect it to bridge the 20% gap, but I've been hounding Wayne the last 6 months to send one to me.

More to follow.

Philistine · « **Reply #7 on:** 24 Jun 2007, 04:06 pm »

Ultimate PS Review (cont)

Well the Ultimate PS arrived at the end of last week, and I've spent the last 3 days totally immersed listening to it in my main system - Modwright 999ES (Rectified PSU, Mullard and Bendix tubes), Musical Fidelity kW500 (Reality IC), Salk HT3's, Reality Cables, Acoustic Zen and Zu Power Cords, Richard Gray 1200S, treated room.

I'm totally surprised and shocked at what it's done to the SB3, I haven't looked at Wayne's site write up on the PS for months so made my notes before reading it again - bass is tighter and deeper, more dynamic, highs are smoother and extended. More or less what Wayne claims the PS contributes to the sound of the SB. The 20% performance gap that I was looking for has effectively closed, it will be interesting to hear what adding Bybee's and the Burson Buffer will do to further improve it. The sound from my CDP and the SB3/Ultimate PS do differ in nature (not sure I can articulate it), but both are excellent. As I said I'm still in disbelief on what improvements the Ultimate PS bring to the SB, I did not expect this.

Thanks for the opportunity Wayne to review this, now I need you to help me explain to my wife that even though I told her the spending had stopped that I just need to buy a small box that makes my SB sound wonderful (she won't believe me).
The rest of the recipients on the tour are in for a treat, this will be in about 10 years time when I get to let go!

zybar · « **Reply #8 on:** 24 Jun 2007, 04:18 pm »

As somebody who has Wayne's Ultimate PS and analog mods with Gold bybees, I am confident in saying it does get even better than what you are listening to right now!

Why?

I have no idea, nor do I really care.

I just know that except for one experiment (which Wayne wasn't sure if it even would be an improvement), each time Wayne has upgraded my Squeeze Box or PS, the sound has improved - period.

While I don't expect his new "Statement" mods to be a radical improvement over the Ultimate mods, I am sure it will be worth the cost.

George

Wayne1 · « **Reply #9 on:** 24 Jun 2007, 09:45 pm »

Thanks for the comments, Philistine and Zybar.

I do think it will be interesting to hear from more folks who don't think that a 5 volt power supply could ever make a difference to the sound of digital component.

tonyptony · « **Reply #10 on:** 24 Jun 2007, 11:32 pm »

Quote from: Philistine on 24 Jun 2007, 04:06 pm

Ultimate PS Review (cont)

Well the Ultimate PS arrived at the end of last week,

Phil(istine), I'm wondering if you got any sense of improvement or change to the soundstaging (better space, deeper, etc).

Rashiki · « **Reply #11 on:** 2 Jul 2007, 08:49 pm »

I received the Ultimate PS on Saturday, but wasn't able to listen until Sunday evening because my SlimServer PC was shut down and disconnected while I was working on renovating my media room. I finally got the PC back together on Sunday evening and swapped out the stock PS on my stock SB3 with the Ultimate PS. My initial impression was that it sounded different and probably better.

My system consists of a SqueezeBox3 feeding a MHDT Paradisea DAC through the coax connector, an Onix SP3 integrated amp and a pair of Onix Reference 1 monitor speakers. The system is in a 15' by 15' room with a vaulted ceiling (8' high on one side, 12' on the other). The SlimServer drives the SB3 with uncompressed WAV files.

Then I hooked up my other SB3 to the DAC's toslink interface. I swapped the first SB3 back to the stock PS and synched the SqueezeBoxes. I toggled back and forth to see if I could hear a difference between optical and coax and when I was satisfied that I couldn't, I switched the first SB3 back to the Ultimate PS.

Toggling back and forth, I could now hear a small difference between the two SqueezeBoxes. I invited my wife to listen and she could also pick out a small difference. I can't begin to describe the difference, but it was clear that the Ultimate PS did improve the sound. My next step is to spend some more time listening, and then to bring the PS over to a friend's house. He has a much more revealing system, so the difference might be more apparent there.

-Rob

Philistine · « **Reply #12 on:** 3 Jul 2007, 01:05 am »

Quote from: tonyptony on 24 Jun 2007, 11:32 pm

Quote from: Philistine on 24 Jun 2007, 04:06 pm
Ultimate PS Review (cont)

Well the Ultimate PS arrived at the end of last week,

Phil(istine), I'm wondering if you got any sense of improvement or change to the soundstaging (better space, deeper, etc).

No, I didn't pick up any obvious changes in soundstage. The biggest improvements were related to dynamics and 'tonality', the soundstage I had dialed in before was pretty good. I wanted to turnaround the PS asap and only concentrated on what I believed were the gaps between my CDP and the SB, which the PS closed. If I had kept it longer in my system I may have been able to hear other improvements.

Wayne1 · « **Reply #13 on:** 3 Jul 2007, 03:11 pm »

Thank you for your comments, Rashiki.

If you do compare the stock PS to the Ultimate again, please make sure the stock PS is unplugged from the wall when you listen to the Ultimate.

The stock switcher DOES produce a great deal of noise that will "pollute" everything plugged into the AC line near it. It does not have to be plugged into the SB.

Rashiki · « **Reply #14 on:** 5 Jul 2007, 04:40 am »

On Tuesday, I took the PS over to a friend's house. He has a modified SB3 (Bolder digital mods) and a Bolder modified Elpac PS. His system is higher end than mine, with a Van Alstine preamp, CIA D200 monoblocks, Van Schweikert speakers and an APL modified SACD 1000 converted to a DAC. We listened to a variety of music and again found the difference to be subtle. I found the bass to be a little tighter and the high end to be a little smoother. Overall, listening with the ultimate PS was more pleasant.

This afternoon, I took Wayne's advice and unplugged the stock PS while listening to the Ultimate. This made it harder to do A/B comparisons as I did earlier, but I felt like I heard the same sort of effect as I heard on my friend's system --- tighter bass and smoother high end, and the listening experience was more pleasant.

I can't say that the difference was night and day, but there are improvements to be had over the stock PS and even over the modified Elpac.

I'll be sending the PS on to the next person tomorrow morning. Thanks for the opportunity to audition your Ultimate Power Supply, Wayne!

-Rob

Charles Calkins · « **Reply #15 on:** 5 Jul 2007, 01:38 pm »

Rob has better hearing than I do. He should he's 37 years younger than I. If there were subtle differences between the modified Elpac and the ultimate PS I couldn't hear them. Everything sounded about the same to me no matter which PS we used.
Wish my youngest daughter were here to listen. She has such excellent hearing that she can hear a paper dollar hit the floor. Just kidding of course but I'm sure you get the picture.

Cheers
Charlie

Jampot · « **Reply #16 on:** 5 Jul 2007, 01:56 pm »

Quote

She has such excellent hearing that she can hear a paper dollar hit the floor

I thought that was a skill all daughters have - age has nothing to do with it

Heck, in the UK it comes even more expensive - our smallest denomination note is £5.

Must try to hear the Ultimate at a NY rave sometime - it isn't practical to extend gear tours over the pond...

Jim

Philistine · « **Reply #17 on:** 5 Jul 2007, 09:09 pm »

Quote from: Charles Calkins on 5 Jul 2007, 01:38 pm

Rob has better hearing than I do. He should he's 37 years younger than I. If there were subtle differences between the modified Elpac and the ultimate PS I couldn't hear them. Everything sounded about the same to me no matter which PS we used.
Wish my youngest daughter were here to listen. She has such excellent hearing that she can hear a paper dollar hit the floor. Just kidding of course but I'm sure you get the picture.

Cheers
Charlie

I was about to give up on my analog modded SB3, with modded Elpac PS, as my CDP was more to my liking. I was open to listening to the Ultimate PS as a last resort, but skeptical that it could bridge the gap in my system. I wish it hadn't, I now need to find the cash to buy one! Guess your lucky Charles that the Elpac cuts it for you.

Charles Calkins · « **Reply #18 on:** 5 Jul 2007, 09:44 pm »

Philistine:
If I could have heard a significant difference between the Elpac and the Ultimate PS I would have placed an order for one.
Over the years I've noticed that upgrades(Cables,Power cords, Power supplies etc. and etc.) seem to work better in some systems than others.
If you hear it and like it buy it!!!
You like your CDP. I never and I mean never listen to mine now. This combo. of SB3 with digital mods by Wayne. The Elpac PS that Wayne also modded and the APL DAC are the best thing I've ever heard in my house.
I've run out of wanting something new in audio gear. Someday something will come along and if I hear it and like it I'll buy it!!

Cheers to you my good man.

Charlie

Vapor Audio · « **Reply #19 on:** 6 Jul 2007, 01:12 am »

Whoa, how did I miss this? I would love to audition the Ultimate PS ... any chance of a tour starting again?