I have read articles, one in particular about a Japanese gentleman who paid to have an entire separate power pole installed just for his apartment. There may be merit to this. Ambient noise though absolutely plays a role, there is just so much more noise in my home during the day, along with power draw I guess that has most to do with the difference. Yes.
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There’s absolutely merit to that, but it’s a lot of money to do that lol. A good place to start would actually be to install completely separate breakers for your audio setups in your house (and if you can run higher quality power line in the wall for those new separate breakers that helps too lol), so basically breakers and circuits for nothing but your audio. It really does improve sq getting that direct line in the house. You could go more extreme but I’d start there lol
Insanity
For my personal setup I ran jps cable and synergistic plugs
JPS Labs Power AC IN-Wall Cable — JPS Labs LLC
OrangeDuplexPower - Synergistic Research
Another popular way to improve power are big ass whole circuit isolation transformers but those can really really get up there in price, and while they solve some problems, they won’t fix everything (very common in studios actually). I personally use an equitech transformer in one of my circuits (main desk, before I had the p20s), these are in fancy predone systems so they are likely a smarter install but you can still buy just the transformers if you want
https://equitech.com/productsold/wall-cabinet-systems/
Was going to get this but I never ended up doing it, wonder how much it would actually do
One unmentioned thing to note about products like these is that you might get some eyebrows from the people you hire to install them if you don’t do it yourself, just make sure to not mention to them what they cost to reduce the questions and comments you may get
Personally I think the ps powerplants I invested in along with the separate circuits brought the most worthwhile difference, the cable and plug terminals do sound a bit better but I don’t really know if that was worth the extra cost in comparison to the p20s and just running the separate breakers. I could rave about the power plants all day but I will refrain, but they really are just impressive and the most single complete solution I’ve tried. Haven’t heard a conditioner come close in my personal systems (more trade offs, where the powerplants are just seemingly all improvement). Although all the aforementioned really improves it without the powerplant, it takes it up another level
So tldr run a separate breaker and buy powerplants lol, will get you the largest improvements and the majority of the way there. Also get nicer power cables for your system after you do that, personally I run both shunyata (alpha v2 nr and delta v2 nr) and synergistic (atmosphere x alive) power cables but there’s other good ones out there too ofc (at various price points).
Power is extremely important when you get into the very high end, and it’s worthwhile making sure you are running both good power and good power cables. But it’s not as big of a deal in the lower end
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This might be a happy coincidence
Probably won’t last long. If it’s worth anything I run Both a utopia and VC on mine and it is wonderful. Later tonight when I get home I will do a write up on utopia + studio b impressions/thoughts
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Any thoughts on the well audio dragon? Tbh I was fairly impressed with the lvl3 at canjam buy sources with open backs are hard at a convention like that so currious how people think it stacks up
I’ve not heard it, does look interesting though, think it’s wells first tube project (although hybrid). I personally don’t think wells stuff is good value esp stuff like the milo, but some people really like them, and I doubt it’s bad, but I can’t say anything until I’ve heard one myself
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Well dang, thanks for looking out!
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Funny you should mention this, the outlet the main system runs off is a dedicated circuit I had run when the house was built explicitly because I knew that was the exact spot my HT system would be built around. I’ve got an electrician or 2 coming in a few weeks as part of the remodel and general home improvement and I’m very happy to check out your links and other suggestions.
Also, I want to do some head to head tests next between the SOTM USB regeneration device and the Matrix SPIDF2 on the Lampi Amber 3 and Exogal DAC’s.
I am hearing distinct improvements on both K-horn and Omega speakers and very much enjoying the extra detail and depth being brought out of the speakers, I though I had reached their limitations and now I know for a fact they have more to offer. This also suggests to me that there is a good probability other speakers in the house have more performance potential.
This is annoying me because I was slowly talking myself into moving on to something different but I’m getting sucked back in again and I want to figure out what else I need to maximize my equipment and enjoyment. Thanks again @M0N
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Perfect perfect, already ahead of the game. Although to be clear I’m not suggesting some of the things I’ve mentioned lol, only the powerplants + circuit
That should be very fun
With the speakers you have, there’s plenty more you can squeeze out of the (although I’m not sure if saying that is a good or bad thing lol)
Well make sure you actually like your current setup lol, don’t force yourself to keep something you aren’t a fan of, but if you pretty much happy with what you have, with especially the k horns, you may be surprised how far you can really go with those things (the omegas to a lesser extent). I know for a lot of my speakers, the source gear far outweighs the speaker tier, but I still get rewarded for it and just get more of what I already love, so you’ve hit the point where you can pick speakers you like and just continue to boost them and reap the benefits (although it depends on the speaker how far it’s worth going lol)
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here is some thoughts about the studio b and utopia
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@M0N , do you have an opinion on this re-clocker?
https://innuos.com/phoenix-usb/
I am considering adding it to my Innuos Zenith mk3 streamer. Happy to take a less expensive option though.
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Pretty solid, although for a similar price I personally liked the ideon 3r master time reclocker more, but the innuos does match your zenith lol. Also make sure to use equally high quality cable going into and out of the reclocker, otherwise things will be handicapped
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Yes, i’m torn there, if i want to use 2 equal high end usb cables i would have to pony up for a 2nd Nordost tyr2 usb and i have no desire at the moment to do that. Otherwise the cables i have on hand are no where near that level. No matter which way i look there is always a bottleneck and extra expense. 
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Does anyone else use ground lifts and DI boxes to improve the sound on certain pieces of gear? I find it can be a huge help with some cheaper items that are very prone to introducing electronic interference into my chain.
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I always suggest people try lifting ground on components if they have a noise problem, might be worth starting a thread on diagnosing ground/power issues. It’s rarely a simple problem.
We can discuss strategies and how to quickly test lifting ground, more permanent solutions, and what the safety implications can be.
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I hear very positive things about the Luxman amps, but how are their other components? Are their TI DAC implementations worth a look?
Anyone heard the z10e? Seems like a cool piece of kit. The CRBN + Z10E deal has me kinda tempted if its anywhere near the tier of micro z3
I find them too mushy and uncontrolled, personally would pass on their dacs
It’s pretty great although I do think for some stats it can be too dry leaning. But I personally do like it more than the bhse but it depends on what sig you are going for
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Very interesting. How is the general voicing? Still fairly intimate like the BHSE? Or more voiced like a WES? Is it general voiced similarly to the mz3/mz2 if I can hunt down a demo of one of those two? Also, how are the other outputs on it? I assume not to the same level as the enegizer output but figured I’d ask.
More neutral slightly midrange focused, midrange is really where it’s at, bass was not stand out and a bit lean and lacked some command, treble was very good and well controlled but it doesn’t extend as far as some others but almost as good as the mids. But the real standouts here are the background, dynamics, timbre, and overall coherency/organicness that I think are better than the bhse or wes. I’ve always found the bhse to offer meh dynamics and that has always drove me nuts where this hasn’t done that. This just does a great job of offering lots of organicness while being fairly neutral cleaner leaning. Stage and presentation wise I find it very impressive, lots of depth and very accurate placement to where it sounds very natural compared to other options. It’s larger than a bhse but not as large as like a woo
Basically I find it’s midrange and treble to be pretty excellent fr wise, technically it’s very on point and very natural while maximizing clarity. I do think some might find it too lean depending on the headphone or too lackluster in the bass, but if you can overlook that then it’s pretty excellent.
It might give you some idea
donno, only tried estat out
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Very interesting over all. TBH I hadnt even heard of the amp until canjam. Ill have to look more into it.
As for the BHSE comments, I agree. It doesnt do dynamic range or big swings super well. Bass stays punchy but its almost like a bloomy punch. My biggest gripe about BHSE though is how intimate it makes everything. 009S has some pretty solid stage but you throw it on a BHSE and yuo can almost mistake its stage for a focal.
Kind of tangentially related. I realize they will obviously scale much further, but how do you feel the Z10E is as a pair up for Shang Sr?