Hard week at work, 2 days our for a conference we are organizing.
I had only 1 evening for listening to my system and when I got back the P15 in the chain… oh well… I liked it a lot. Naturalness and lifelike sound immediately audible compared to Puritan. But I lost the crystal clear definition and detailed separation that I had before with the Puritan.
The bad thing is that the P15 noise/buzz has returned, too. Even if I put the DC Blocker or the Puritan itself between the wall and the P15. So I think that the cause of the noise is not DC in my AC.
When I’m back home on Friday I’ll do more comparisons and I’ll share here.
Not really a head scratcher if this is a recently purchased unit it is a bad transformer. And unless you have DIY soldering skills not an owner replaceable item. A more common problem post Covid and I’ve had it happen on a new preamp just last year.
Finally at home again. I’m listening to my system with just the Puritan feeding both the M1200s.
Compared to the P15 it really brings more details, a few layers unveiled, clear and clean. The soundstage or better, the singer voice is projected in a higher position.
Instruments are more defined, clearly audible as separated and coming distinctly from different locations.
I was thinking the Puritan sound was less appealing but it isn’t so. It’s different but tonight I’m liking the silence and the blacker background I’m hearing, the music comes from a non-dimension, appearing and disappearing from a sort of silent profundity.
The only thing that I’m missing is the naturalness, lifelike imperfection of the voice in the center that only the P15 is capable of. With the P15 the scene is forwarded, closer to the listener position. With the puritan the image sounds detached from a single layer, brilliant and impactful but at a right degree, never harsh or overexposed.
It’s difficult for me to say which one is better, they sound different each of them with pros and cons.
Mmm… not a good point to stay. It takes more time.
It is always very difficult to return to a noisier system after you’ve experienced a cleaner alternative. You cannot “unhear” the noise that the enlightening audition has alerted you within your system going forward, even though you may well have been oblivious to it before. That’s why it’s so important to compare across brands. Unless you do, you may not know what you’re missing (comment is general with respect to any base brand, not only PSA).
Sometimes getting to that superior level can be prohibitively expensive for one’s situation (which means you’re already in a great situation and have chosen well for your budget), but sometimes not. Sometimes it may even be less expensive
That’s a million dollar question! Tonight I’m not sure anymore.
The P15 has for sure a sort of “magic” that I love and we all know and are familiar with. But this Puritan is growing hour by hour and it’s showing other qualities I’m liking too. It’s not cold vs warm, they aren’t on opposite sides at all. Just different in their best areas.
I need to say I’m listening to jazz vocals, more albums from different genres might clear my doubts during next days (I hope).
I am not suggesting you doing this, but I wonder if switching the Puritan and P20 will give you a better combination? Sources with clearner and detailed sound while amps getting more lifeness may be a “better” combo.
I keep asking you to move the heavy gear in your racks
I was thinking to try just the DAC with the puritan, I’ve read lots of reviews that recommend this way as the best performance of the Puritan in a system.
On Sunday I’ll have to leave for a few days on vacation in Sardinia island… relax after this hard week of work. So my tests must be postponed when I’m back again at home. I’ll share with you my thoughts as usual.
Plugging P15 into the Puritan gives you better SQ? Now you got me interested in Puritan. You must have a bad transformer, ground loop is not an issue, I believe.
Thank you Donald, I’ll be at home tomorrow ready to experiment more.
P15 only. You know what’s the SQ but I have a buzz noise from the regen.
Puritan only. I’m liking the sound but it’s different from P15.
P15 plugged to Puritan. It’s a compromise. Lifelike magic from P15 and clean separation from Puritan. Both qualities at a lesser degree than using them separately. And the buzz is still there.
Too many doubts to clear.
I’m discussing with the importer to try also a P20 as a replacement of the P15 (I know this would be of interest for you… isn’t it?).
Your experience has always interested me. From the XLR comparason to AQ Dragon PC feedback, I have benefited from them greatly.
My P15 is fully loaded. I will need to either upgrade it to a P20, or add a Puritan PSM156 in future. It will be of major interest to know how P20 compares to Puritan and P15 of course.
You have a few options, and I can think of three:
Two P20s powering all gears
P20 powering the amps and Puritan serving the sources
Puritan serving amps and P20 powering the sources, like you are doing now.
How any audiophile would be willing to put up with any amount of buzz is something I cannot understand, even if the entire system is valued at only $1k.
Party hosting non-audiophile friends: “So how much is your system worth? What, really?!!! What’s that buzzing noise?” Nah.
