Ha! Thanks.
Maybe overkill…I dunno.
It is the best I have ever wrought from my system thus far, though.
Cheers.
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I just like your “stick-to-it-ness”. No stone unturned. Fun!!!
Maybe starting to reach the point of diminishing returns though – at least on my current path.
As you know, I recently added a P10 PP to my arsenal. I am also putting a second-hand Revelation Audio Labs HDMI cable through its paces.
So far, I don’t really note a significant improvement with the P10 and have settled on leaving the DMP, the mono amps and preamp plugged into the P10 and the DS DAC and Magnum Dynalab FM tuner plugged into my Stellar PP3 - at least for now. None of the iFi LPSs are plugged into the PowerPlants at this point.
FWIW, the Revelation Audio Labs HDMI cable is vying to replace my Pink Faun Digital interlink LAN cable. So far, I gotta say the RAL cable is not night and day better than the Pink Faun. More listening is required. I’ll have a better handle on any differences when I switch the Pink Faun back in after extended listening.
Its all fun though. I just hope my therapist isn’t monitoring this forum. He might double my sessions.*
Cheers.
*I don’t really have a therapist. Not yet anyway.
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Interesting. I wonder if you simply have good power. What’s the voltage and THD in look like?
My head is spinning from reading your lengthy list. But I really thank you for the detailed explanation and I will try a small portion of your gadgets to start, I think.
My other option is to wait until AirLens shows up, that will further improve my streaming chain, I hope, and assuming it works with my server.
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Here is the current situation:
Pretty typical but the THD is a bit high at the moment. It is more often less (as low as 2.5%) and THD out seems to vacillate between 0.3 and 0.5 % from what I have observed so far.
FYI.
Your voltage is good. Mine dips down to 115V frequently and often.
Grab the TPLink media converters and some optical cable first. Best bang for the buck (downright cheap in terms of this hobby) and, if I recall correctly, the most impactful, incremental improvement of the bunch.
Most of all, have some fun.
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Good tip! I will start there first. Thanks!
Confirming you saw no improvement with the P10 over a PP3 right? Not a P10 over the wall outlets.
Yeah, low voltage never seems to be an issue. The PP usually has to step it down a bit more often than not.
I also have Monster Power Signature Series Automatic Voltage Stabilizer AVS 2000 that I use with the myriad boxes and gizmos that have to be plugged in to support my 7.1/2.1 HT/Stereo system and it always seems to have to bump the voltage down to 120 rather than the other way around. I have had that thing for ages. Built like a tank and it does a great job. A shame they are not made any longer.
Great question.
Keep in mind that I don’t have a lot of time on the P10 and I am still swapping things around. That said, my observations so far:
- The PP3 is insufficient to try with my 500wpc mono amps - so no comparison
- To date, the PP3 and the P10 seem to be equally effective in terms of the quality of experience wrought by the DMP and DS Sr.
- The “jury” is still out on P10 vs. wall outlets.
I like to listen to a variety of music over a long period of time in order to draw any “final” conclusions about whether a change in kit, tweak, etc. is “better”.
I have not yet gone back to plugging the amps into the wall to see if I feel like I am missing something. (And I also still need to go back to listening with the P10 completely removed from the system to see if anything “good” is missing when I do so.) Coincidentally, I was giving some thought to doing this sometime this weekend. I’ll be sure to post my impressions if/when I do.
Unrelatedly (?), I had a new experience while fussing around with power cable choices and trying to figure out what to plug into what. It turns out that PSA AC-12 PCs are perceptively better in at least one regard than other PCs I had on hand when powering the DMP and DS DAC.
I have a couple of favorite tracks I like to use to listen to/for certain low-level details when I am doing comparative listening. I’ll be darned if the AC-12s I have did not “outperform” the Iconoclast BAV and Shunyata Taipan PCs I own in this regard.
I have managed to buy enough used AC-12s that most of my key components are now powered by them. This recent observation was the first time I could definitively identify a specific difference in PCs. The details I was listening for were either lost entirely or faded more into the mix with the BAV and Taipan cables and were pulled right back up and out when I kept switching back to the AC-12s.
Fun stuff for us stereo geeks. (Just don’t share this obsessing with my “therapist”.)
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FYI (RE: GigaFOIL):
News: GigaFOILv4-INLINE Ethernet Filter Launches! - Twittering Machines.
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The GigaFOIL inline filter looks interesting and may be a cleaner solution to block ethernet noises. I will add it to my list of potential upgrades. Hopefully, there will be some reviews on it soon.
It’s been out there for a while.
I believe there is a link to a review of its earlier vintage in that article I linked to.
An internet search should also yield a few more reviews.
Got it, I’ll look into it. 
Be happy with the ZEN MKIII, and you may already know the Innuos Sense app works very nicely with QoBuz, and IME is just fine with Tidal. My only regret with my ZENith Mk III is I didn’t opt for the 4Gb HDD, or maybe the 8Gb HDD. That may be resolved this summer.
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On average what would you find 1GB stores rebook wise?
The Sense app made Roon redundant for me. Local files and Qobuz. I m it as Roon Radio, but that’s all
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My P10 performance leaped forward big time with a significant power cable upgrade. Not sure if you tried that yet.
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