[modwright]

I just wanted to start a thread here to share what our customers have to say about the new PS 36.5 external, dual-mono, all tube power supply upgrade for the LS 36.5.

First of all, it is, admittedly a non-trivial upgrade and investment at $3995 (PS 36.5 upgrade for existing LS 36.5 owners).  It is also a remarkable power supply and provides a VERY significant improvement in the performance of the already exceptional LS 36.5.

The new supply is COMPLETELY dual-mono, including two transformers, two chokes, two power supply boards, separate transformers for relay control and regulator tube heaters.  It also includes dual tube voltage rectifiers and dual-discrete tube voltage regulator circuits, using the 6EA7 dual triode.  Rectifier choices include: 5U4, 5V4, 5AR4, GZ37 and their equivalents.  The new power supply weighs nearly 50 lbs. and it delivers!

Our customers say it best:

"...when I put on my Willy Porter:  “High Wire Live” disc (by the way, a highly recommended disc of great acoustic guitar with fine lyrics and melodies) I had this big freakin’ smile across my face as the first notes played--boy there sure is more to an acoustic guitar than you think!  I could already tell that this pre was a BIG leap closer to reality with only about 150 hours on it.  I could also tell that this pre had some of the 9.0SE’s DNA, but this baby is WAY better all around as it should be. I was amazed at how much more of the music that IS recorded on a CD that I could hear.  The music playing was so natural sounding, musical yet accurate to the source in every way."
- T. O'Connor 1.03.08


"Unbelievable.  This thing is perfect.

The background is now abyssal blackness. The venue comes through on quiet passages like there's no recording at all. The detail is perfect - it's all there but in perfect balance. No freq is emphasized but the dynamics are dialed - leading edge dynamics make everything more real and kick drums are there. Even the usual bass doubled with kick drum comes through as bass AND kick.  Backing vocals and harmonies are all smoothly distinct. I have no difficulty picking out the voices of individual singers. And those smeared, garbeled lyrics are no more. I can hear every word and every nuance of a vocal.

And the cymbals...perfect. Positioning and timbre is spot on.

Remember I said this is the first pre I have heard that puts the relative size of vocals and stringed instruments in their proper proportions? Well, it's still true only now even piano is sized right. The sound stage is huge - like someone added two more speakers out there to the sides of the Andras. I have always had a huge soundstage here but this is not the usual loose, ambient soundstage that exists only with trick phasey material. This is a real musical soundstage where stuff happens.  And the channel seperation is super."
- A. Bradley 10.18.07

[ted_b]

As many of you know, I am a Modwright shill.   I love Dan's work and the value derived from first his mods and then later his own products.  When I bought his early version of the SWL 9.0 SE I was quite impressed at the sound I was getting.  It was my first tubed preamp and I was worried about all the negative things tubes might do to a signal path.  But when I broke in the pre, it was as neutral a preamp as anything I'd ever heard.  Some might even say it sounded more ss than tube.

When Dan talked to me about his LS 36.5 plans (balanced, higher gain, phase inversion, etc.) I was envisioning a preamp with the SWL sound, but more organic and buttery.  What I got was a completely different preamp, with BALLS!  The dynamics and overall sense of "live" was astounding.  Oh, and the tube rolling can squeeze out some additional "wetness" or organic sound, too.  A very nice combination of dynamics and organics. 

Well........I just received back my retrofitted LS 36.5 and the new PS 36.5 (actually, as truth would have it, it's a new LS 36.5 cuz Dan was going on vacation and the work required on my specific pre, which was an early version before the XLR boards for HT bypass, etc was too cumbersome at the time, so we worked out a deal on a new one...with the PS 36.5 external power supply!).   The two box solution has some 60 hours on it from Dan's place, but only had 2 hours on it in my music room before I began to listen. 

You know that "different preamp, with BALLS" comment I made about the move from the SWL to the LS?  Well, here we go again!   Within only two hours from being unboxed from its snow-covered FedEx delivery cocoon, the new LS/PS sound is simply this: more there there...everywhere.   I envisioned the original LS as listening to master tapes, with a distinct sense of all the ambient cues in the recording space, and the weight of every note moving air in my music room.  Well now, I've been allowed to open the door and step a foot inside the actual recording space.  The sense of spaciousness, the sense of depth, the soundstage "liveliness", the weight of the kick drums and acoustic bass plucks, the smokiness of the vocals, the static in the air from the amps and equipment....all of this is so much more evident with the PS 36.5 that it took all of 2 hours of warm up to sense it.  Over the next few weeks I'll report back on how much further I get to step into this recording space.  It's a very nice place.   

[rpf]

Didn't really need to hear that, Ted, in my current state of poverty

But I'll undoubtably continue reading your updates.   

[AB]

Cool. I agree completely with your initial impressions and I have some good news for you.  aa

About three weeks ago - with about 450 hours on the unit - I noticed a change in the sound of my 36.5+.  It opened up in the top end with a very refined color to cymbals, bells and vocal air. Deep soundstage material has more clarity too. Its now got balls and sophistication!

Are you using balanced ICs? I've gone back and forth a few times between SE and XLR and balanced is more better by a large amount.

[ted_b]

AB,
Thanks for the heads up. 

I am using balanced (XLR's) from 36.5+ to my McCormack DNA-500.  It's a 5M length.  I am smack dab in the middle of cable eval right now.  I bought, at a terrific price, some of the vaunted Harmonic Tech P2A XLR's.  They are fibre-optic Cyberlight cables that use a Battery PAck IV for uninterrupted active powering (2 batteries, one charges while the other is in use).  Probelm is, I haven't got them to work right yet.  The Bent TAP passive pre I was using while my LS was out wouldn;t power these cables, and going direct from the Modwright Transporter was problematic; the P2A is specifically for a constant voltage fropm an active pre.  So when the new LS+ arrived I tired again, but the battery pack was likely discharged and kept clicking on and off, enough to scare me.  I've charged up the pack overnight, and if this "osciallting" continues I have a promise from the A-gon seller (great guy) to swap out for another pack.  In the meantime, I have worked a deal with the Soundstring guys to listen and eval their Alpha Omega XLR's (20 ft run).  Should arrive shortly, maybe today.  Jim Merod and others over at PFO love them, and they are quite a value.  Currewntly i'm hearing all this goodness with an inexpensive set of Bluejeans Belden 1800F XLR's...go fiigure.   The leader sonically, so far, is the SR Tesla Accelerator (also an active shielded design) but they are huge $$ at 5M....and I haven't heard them with the new pre, or at that length.

My SP Tech Revelations are living up to their name; they reveal cable changes very easily.  This stuff is fun, but I am looking forward to settling down with the right cable combo......oh, and then there's speaker wire!    

[MUstageFan]

Hi Ted,

While you are shilling for Modwright you might as well take it to the next level.
I bet the  Modwright Copper Foil Teflon Caps would sound real good in your McCormack DNA-500.
It might be the best bang for the buck you could do,may be equalling or surpassing the  other performance
jumps you have experienced.

All The Best
Ben