Tricks to improve clarity and dynamic of Tempest/Stratos?

Barry · « **on:** 23 Jan 2004, 08:44 pm »

I'm connecting my CD player, Tempest and Stratos Dual Monos to a good quality DIY power extension by Chris Venhaus "The Hot Box". I found that the sound is not as clear or dynamic as what I expected. I think there must be something with my set-up. I guess it may be caused by:
1/ interference thru the power connection.
2/ resolution of Groneberg Quattro Ref signal cables and speaker cable
3/ the system is not fully run-in (they are 3 weeks old)

Any comment and suggestion?

If it is interference thru power onnection, would balanced power supply be useful in this case? Anybody have such experience?

Barry · « **Reply #1 on:** 23 Jan 2004, 08:50 pm »

Just read http://www.transcendentsound.com/power_supply.htm for balanced power supply. Price is low but the power is only 1000VA. Is it useful? Anybody tried it?

rosconey · « **Reply #2 on:** 23 Jan 2004, 08:54 pm »

try a different extention cord first-its cheaper.
find a heavey guage short one for power tools

Doc Jr 8156 · « **Reply #3 on:** 23 Jan 2004, 09:22 pm »

Barry,

I build my Transcendent Balance power 3 weeks ago. My CDP (AH NT 4000 w/ Ups ans 7308 tubes) is connected directly to my Odyssey Stratos. Before the Transcendent, I never heard my CDP sounded as good. Even my Hagerman Cornet phono stage sounds better with the Transcendent. Connecting your Odyssey amp to it will degrade its sound. Also, if you have a TT power supply, the Transcendent Power will also clean up the grunge and make it perform better. One advice though, use a powe filter "BEFORE" the Balance power. It will double the effect. Hope this will help in your quest.

Barry · « **Reply #4 on:** 23 Jan 2004, 10:09 pm »

Quote from: Doc Jr 8156

Barry,

I build my Transcendent Balance power 3 weeks ago. My CDP (AH NT 4000 w/ Ups ans 7308 tubes) is connected directly to my Odyssey Stratos. Before the Transcendent, I never heard my CDP sounded as good. Even my Hagerman Cornet phono stage sounds better with the Transcendent. Connecting your Odyssey amp to it will degrade its sound. Also, if you have a TT power supply, the Transcendent Power will also clean up the grunge and make it perform better. One advice though, use a powe filter "BEFORE" the Balance power. It will double the effect. Hope this will help in your quest.

I thought that all connected devices must be powered by Transcendent Balance Power in order to benefit from it. I think you are saying that it is ok to use Transcendent Balance Power for low power consumption components while leaving the power amp using unbalanced power. In my case, now I'm considering using balanced power for my CDP, DAC and Tempest preamp while leaving the Stratos getting power directly from the wall. Let me do an experiment to try to separate the CDP and Power amp's source of power, and have CDP getting power through a filter and see how it sounds. Thank you!

Doc Jr 8156 · « **Reply #5 on:** 23 Jan 2004, 10:45 pm »

Barry,

You got it! Do not run the Odyssey through the balance power. It sounds better connected directly from the wall. Other gears like CDP, Preamp, Phono-pre, Dac and even TT motor will improve for the better using the Trancendent. The CDP can also be isolated even if it will be connected on the Transcendent. The Transcendent Power comes with a 6-outlet power strip. This strip is of good quality. Believe me, I opened this strip with an agenda of replacing the outlets with better ones (Pass and Seymour) but found the quality of the strip inside better than the P&S. If you choose to connect the CDP, use the last outlet of the strip (last one from the wire end) and like what I did, inserted one AudioPrism noise filter on the next to the last outlet and all the analog gears are inserted to the left of the AudioPrism. Good result so far. I went another step by using another AC filter from the wall then inserted my Transcendent Balance Power to this AC filter. By this set-up, supposedly, the "dirt" in the AC line from the wall will be filtered by the AC filter first before the Transcendent convert it to balance power and clean the AC again via common-mode rejection. Maybe its redundant, but you will love the result.

Ferdi · « **Reply #6 on:** 23 Jan 2004, 11:34 pm »

Hi, I would say: "all of the above".

That is not entirely true but this is my take on it:

- Get your Stratos to drink directly from the wall. I have ended up with a very heavy gauge, short cable to mine. I run a seperate circuit for my audio system, about 3 meter cable to the distribution panel. The power cable is a DIY braided design that has about 7,5mm^2 per lead. I noticed an appreciable improvement in impact and clarity with this design cable on my Stratos.
- In my experience, the Groneberg cables are nice and smooth but if your speakers are also neutral, your room very damped etc. this may be too much a of a good thing.

Apart from plugging the Stratos directly into the wall, I would not change anything right now. Just listen to music for the next month or so and then think again. Only then have your components settled down and does it make sense to experiment with swapping cables etc.

Don't worry!

speyer · « **Reply #7 on:** 26 Jan 2004, 07:38 am »

Barry, I'm not familar w/the groneberg cables, but I found the VenHaus cryo'ed Flavor 4's to work very well with the Xtreme monos. I would suggest trying a few PC's and IC's to get a sense of what your amps are doing. Also I found chris's fine silver wire IC's w/Eichman connectors to be excellent.

I run the Xtremes and my front stuff through a BPT 2 balanced power conditioner and it improved everything. Also the performance of the BPT was enhanced by a Flavor 4 pc---more vitality and energy.

Barry · « **Reply #8 on:** 26 Jan 2004, 04:37 pm »

Speyer,
I'm using VH Audio "The Hot Box" already. But I'm not using the Favour 4 as they are quite expensive considering they are DIY.

I emailed BPT but they are not producing 220V version for overseas.

I also contacted Chris VenHaus and he suggested to try the Auricap first and see how it goes. This is probably a good low cost starting point.

I found that Transcendent Sound Balanced Power Supply does support 220V. I may go for that trying to eliminate some ground looping noise. That's probably step 2 as it is going to cost me US$399 (assembled) + $120 shipping to Hong Kong.

Ferdi, thanks for your advise. I think I'm not changing cable right now and my primary objective is to fix the ground looping and CD sound quality (my CD should have fully run-in already).

djbnh · « **Reply #9 on:** 27 Jan 2004, 01:18 am »

I haven't used the VenHaus Hot Box, but I have cryoed VenHaus Flavor 2 PCs on my Stratos and Tempest. I also have a cryoed VenHaus Flavor 1 on my Jolida Jd-100 cdp.

I run my Stratos straight out of the wall from an outlet purchases from VenHaus. The other components are run out of a Monster Cable bar. The Stratos seems to love the wall outlet. The other components are running nice and clear out of the bar.

I will say my components run cleaner, with better separation, soundstage, detail, and esp. low end, when using the VenHaus cords. One of the biggest improvements came when I used the Flavor 1 on the Jolida - the bottom end became amazing, and the rest of the spectra improved, too.

I also note I replaced a Groneberg cord on the Stratos, and haven't looked back. In my opinion, with my setup and components, the VenHaus cord clearly outperformed the Groneberg.

If anyone is using a cryoed Flavor 4 on a Stratos, please post your opinions.

Barry · « **Reply #10 on:** 28 Jan 2004, 04:58 pm »

I did resolved some ground loop problem and short circuit for the phono input and the sound is much better. I'm keeping it running for a while before going next step.

Thanks everybody for your advise.

Barry · « **Reply #11 on:** 2 Feb 2004, 03:58 pm »

Doc Jr 8156,

I have finally decided ordered Transcendent Power Supply. Will share with you the outcome.

Doc Jr 8156 · « **Reply #12 on:** 2 Feb 2004, 04:10 pm »

Barry,

You will love the result. Remember, take your time to build this thing. The instructions were self explanatory but I found out that making sure the connections of the 4 caps in #3 and #5 leads of the front terminal is crucial. Beleive it or not, these caps will make the sound better when connected with clean solder joints. When you have the unit, e-mail me and I'll explain what I did to totally eliminate any sound produce by the vibration of the toroid as well as any vibration coming from the case itself. Good Luck.

odysseyhk · « **Reply #13 on:** 5 Feb 2005, 06:37 pm »

I have been using the Transcendent power supply for CDP/DAC/Tempest for some time. Recently, I found something strange when I try to plug/unplug RCA cable at the back of Tempest, I found that there is some sparking. It happens even if I switched off the tempest (power cable still connected) and just plug in RCA interconnect with nothing connected to the other end. Pretty strange.

Any suggestion? Is there anybody who has similar experience. Is this problem due to the use of Transcendent Power Supply? Thanks!