THE OFFICIAL GET TOGETHER THREAD FOR THE SB3 REVIEW - PING: BILL, BRYAN & ???

Bob in St. Louis · « **on:** 17 Feb 2009, 08:57 pm »

Bill, Bryan, anybody else?
How 'bout we organize our get together here, as we've kindly been asked to stop planning further SB3 review plans in my other thread.

- Bill has mentioned Sundays are best for him.
- This Sunday the 22nd (all day) looks good for me.
- Bryan thinks he'll be a bachelor this weekend.

Here's the plan: To compare my Bolder modded SB3 with Bill's.
Wayne has expressed interest in another pair or two of ears to gain more opinions.

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #1 on:** 17 Feb 2009, 10:10 pm »

I'm here. Like I said, earlier would be better. Not sure when my bachelorhood will end on Sunday. Is noonish too early?

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #2 on:** 17 Feb 2009, 10:17 pm »

I'm good with that Bryan. We can do earlier if it's better for all.
Do we have any others interested?
Love to have a couple more fellow SB owners involved.

Bob

G · « **Reply #3 on:** 17 Feb 2009, 10:43 pm »

I'm the proud owner of a SB2. I would love to come over and maybe see if a better power supply will improve the sound when used with a DAC. I'm using mine with a Aragon D2A2 and I'm not sure that upgrading the power supply is going to make any difference. Would that be OK?

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #4 on:** 17 Feb 2009, 11:04 pm »

It's good with me Gavin (iirc), I'd like the focus to be the differences between the various mods. But I'm confident you'll hear a difference. Is your SB2 and it's PS both bone stock?

Bob

BPT · « **Reply #5 on:** 17 Feb 2009, 11:25 pm »

If you guys are interested, I will come and bring one of my battery supplies for the SB3.
Chris H.

bpape · « **Reply #6 on:** 17 Feb 2009, 11:29 pm »

I have a bone stock SB2 running one of Wayne's Rev 1 power supplies that's had a couple of tweaks to it. I run an MHDT Labs Paradesea DAC with a Red Bank 2C51 tube in the buffer.

I also have a full blown (no Bybees) ultimate mod SB3 and the Rev IV Ultimate PS with the Aksa pre-reg circuitry in it.

I'd love to play with your DAC too.

On either SB, the difference with a better PS is not subtle. We did this comparison with the stock wall wart to Wayne's Reve IV over at Rick's house a few months ago. It wasn't even close.

Bryan

bpape · « **Reply #7 on:** 17 Feb 2009, 11:30 pm »

Hey Chris

Definitely come on over. I'd love to hear it again. It was really sweet over at Rick's house around Christmas.

Bryan

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #8 on:** 17 Feb 2009, 11:34 pm »

Quote from: bpape on 17 Feb 2009, 11:29 pm

On either SB, the difference with a better PS is not subtle.

I found the difference to be laughable frankly.

Bob

G · « **Reply #9 on:** 18 Feb 2009, 03:30 am »

Quote from: Bob in St. Louis on 17 Feb 2009, 11:04 pm

It's good with me Gavin (iirc), I'd like the focus to be the differences between the various mods. But I'm confident you'll hear a difference. Is your SB2 and it's PS both bone stock?

Bob

Yup. Bone stock AFAIK. Do you want me to bring my DAC also? Either way is fine with me.

angelo · « **Reply #10 on:** 18 Feb 2009, 05:44 am »

It would be nice if you guys can compare the Bolder PS to the CIAudio and Paul Hynes PS. I just got a brand new CIAudio PS for my stock SB2 used as a digital transport to a Lyngdorf TDAI-2200 and I didn't notice any improvement. I only listened for ~1hr so maybe it will get better. I left the CIAudio PS turned on and I switched back using the stock PS. I'll give it another shot on Thursday to see if there's any improvement after leaving it on for few days. I read in the slimdevices forum that upgraded PS only helps w/ the analog out, I guess they're telling the truth.

--
angelo

DeadFish · « **Reply #11 on:** 18 Feb 2009, 09:00 am »

I'm good for the whole day sunday, so noon is not too early.
My wife has given me the day 'off' to do as I please.
(Gonna need directions again, Bryan.)

Hey G, its good to see you!
Want to ride together? Bryan is a ways 'out there', beyond the river.

Thanks for getting this thread going, Bob! Looking forward to sunday!

Bill

bpape · « **Reply #12 on:** 18 Feb 2009, 12:22 pm »

Sure - bring your DAC and a cable if you want. The more the merrier.

Bryan

G · « **Reply #13 on:** 18 Feb 2009, 03:09 pm »

Quote from: DeadFish on 18 Feb 2009, 09:00 am

Hey G, its good to see you!
Want to ride together? Bryan is a ways 'out there', beyond the river.

Hey Fish. Sure we can ride together. Do you want to drive or do you want me to?

DeadFish · « **Reply #14 on:** 18 Feb 2009, 03:15 pm »

I'll send you a p/m. Maybe meet at your place; decide from there.

Bill

Wayne1 · « **Reply #15 on:** 18 Feb 2009, 03:17 pm »

Quote from: angelo on 18 Feb 2009, 05:44 am

It would be nice if you guys can compare the Bolder PS to the CIAudio and Paul Hynes PS. I just got a brand new CIAudio PS for my stock SB2 used as a digital transport to a Lyngdorf TDAI-2200 and I didn't notice any improvement. I only listened for ~1hr so maybe it will get better. I left the CIAudio PS turned on and I switched back using the stock PS. I'll give it another shot on Thursday to see if there's any improvement after leaving it on for few days. I read in the slimdevices forum that upgraded PS only helps w/ the analog out, I guess they're telling the truth.

--
angelo

Excuse me for butting in here. Sure it would be nice if they could compare them all, but where are they going to get those supplies in a couple of days? I know there are a few various types of BOLDER supplies, stock linear supplies and stock switching supplies among the group?

Are you going to lend them your CIA supply?

There are many thing in a SYSTEM that can cover up the noise reduction of going to a linear PS. If your amp uses a noisy switching PS, it may be polluting the AC line with enough switching noise that it would be hard to hear much difference between any supply.

Keep switchers away from analog audio components. That includes computers, cell phone charges, inexpensive DVD or CD players, TV monitors, etc. All of which WILL put switching noise into your AC line. Use a GOOD balanced power conditioner to help remove some of the AC noise.

I know Bryan is using good power conditioning and an analog power amp. He does have one system with a DAC and notices a difference in power supplies. So Angelo, if you are going to drop by, please bring your PS to see if you can hear a difference in power supplies in a different system on the digital output. I know I can.

Bob in St. Louis · « **Reply #16 on:** 18 Feb 2009, 03:29 pm »

Angelo, I (almost) exclusively use the digital out of the SB. Rarely have I used the analog, mainly due to unwanted repetitious D/A/D conversions.
That being said, an upgraded linear PS makes a HUGE difference in sound quality.
As far as I'm concerned, if I was forced to use the stock PS, I'd no longer have a SB. It's that big of a difference.

So, Is it official: Noon on Sunday? aa
So far, we've got:
- Bryan
- Bill
- Gavin
- Chris
- Me

That about right?

Bryan, you want me to bring tunes?

Bob

bpape · « **Reply #17 on:** 18 Feb 2009, 03:35 pm »

Hey Bob

If you want to bring some ripped files that'd be great. I don't have anything other than an Oppo player to play disks.

Bryan

G · « **Reply #18 on:** 18 Feb 2009, 07:20 pm »

I can bring my USB hard drive with me if you like. Most of my music you probably would not like but I do have a little tasty Jazz and some pretty good classic rock on the drive. Let me know. They are all in FLAC BTW.

G · « **Reply #19 on:** 18 Feb 2009, 07:24 pm »

Quote from: bpape on 18 Feb 2009, 12:22 pm

Sure - bring your DAC and a cable if you want. The more the merrier.

Bryan

I don't want to bring my digital cable as I am extremely embarrassed by it. It's a crappy monster cable interlink 100. It probably doesn't even have true 75 ohm connectors on it. I will be rectifying the situation as soon as I can. Now that I think about it we should probably choose one DAC and one digital cable to use so that we are sure that any differences we hear are due to the various power supplies.