Devialet Chat

I would have been very interested in you listening impressions of the PH PSU, but I do understand your reasons as posted for not doing so. The thing is I have been doing a lot of casual listening with the mR+Mutec (with the new 1.10 firmware) this weekend. This was just playing and listening and not trying to analyse the system, but rather enjoy music. For me it is the same cliché, I have never heard my system sound so good! I have been really enjoying it! The trouble is, this is with the microRendo power by the little iFi, and I'm still trying to decide what to do about the choice of a new PSU .....

Hi Confused, I understand the situation your in. In fact I was in the same situation as I was using a cheap 9V Chinese LPSU of Ebay and had no way to 'listen to' or compare any replacement PSU before buying. I took the gamble on buying the PH PSU based on general feedback which told me it's simply among the best one can buy. Thus far I don't regret it in the least but I do believe PH offers a money back guarantee to those not satisfied.

What I can't do however is detail the changes the PH PSU made for the Microrendu as I've decided to immediately use it on all four devices it now powers. I wanted to 'get it over with' and get the system back to a 'finished' state as soon as possible to simply enjoy music again. All that's left now is some burn-in although the finishing touch is still in the pipeline as I've also ordered a nice pair of Oyaide DC-2.1G DC connectors (to upgrade the connectors of two of the DC cables of the PH) that'll take some time to arrive.

BTW, all the usual parameters apply to this upgrade.

--More substantial sound, more “fleshed-out”, greater body and firmness
--Improved cleanliness of the signal, which equals less grain, improved clarity, and resolution
--Improved soundstaging, greater sense of air
--Greater sense of “ease” to the sound
--Greater sense of energy and power, greater dynamics
--Lower noise floor, letting you hear into the recording even more

Regarding the greater dynamics and more fleshed-out sound. Initially it was actually too much for my system. Bass was too pronounced/heavy which caused the system to go a bit out of balance but this has subsided to a non-overwhelming level. It did scare me a bit at first as it reminded me of the things written about it in this great review (even though it here is used on a turntable the same traits seem to apply): http://www.adventuresinhifiaudio.com/24/...dog-audio/

The Mutec firmware update seems to have had an additional positive effect on improved SQ as well, as has the power cord/fuse upgrade. Most noticably in the cleanliness/ease department. But I need more time to establish a new baseline, at the moment the system still hasn't 'settled down'. Of course me introducing a new powercable doesn't help here. Like I said I just wanted to get it over with so I hope in a few weeks I don't notice the changes anymore, at least those outside the normal day to day variations because of ones own mood etc.

Good luck in deciding!



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Thanks Antoine! I'm thinking SR5 at the moment, but no rush to decide as the good people of Paul Hynes Design are currently enjoying their summer break!

Since I no longer used my Curious USB cable of 0.8m I've sold it. Still using the shorter 20cm version of the Curious to connect the microRendu to the Mutec.

Being 'inspired' by the Furutech cable I made last week (see last post on the previous page) I've also bought a Shunyata ZTron Alpha Digital power cable. It's used but should be in mint condition. I plan to use that on the Devialet. It's a bit of an impulse buy so I hope it'll outperform the Lessloss Signature cable there. This Lessloss cable will then 'move' to the PS Audio P3 Power Plant. I will probably try to sell the Lessloss DFPC Original that's currently powering the P3.

Hope to receive the Shunyata cable the week after next, the seller is currently on vacation but this'll give me more time to continue the 24/7 burn-in on the current items. Again I'm not very smart introducing yet another new item into the system before it has settled down, of course!

I'm also exploring a possibly better AES/EBU cable but nothing solid there yet.

That's it for updates!

http://www.shunyata.com/index.php/produc...pha-detail
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Antoine,

Do you find your P3 powerful enough?
Would you prefer to have P5 or P10 ?

Hi John,

Yes, I think it's powerful enough in my system and I'm powering the D250, Paul Hynes PSU (with 4 devices connected to it) and my sub with it. Currently power usage is around 95-100W (it hovers a bit depending on the input voltage) while playing music so plenty of headroom left (the European 230V P3 can deliver 1200VA and 1500VA peak, same as the US version of the P10).

I've personally never noticed restricted dynamics or any other negatives, rather the opposite.

The Shunyata Alpha Digital power cord in transit is coming closer, it's in Germany now!

The Oyaide DC 2.1x5.5mm DC connectors were delivered last week so I've soldered these on to the Paul Hynes DC cables feeding the microRendu and Anti-mode DC2.0 using WBT silver solder. As always, with any Oyaide product I mean, the quality of these connectors is amazing.

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Unfortunately the HiFi-tuning Supreme 3 fuse (3.15A) I installed into the PH PSU blew. It had worked fine since first power on (the PSU is powered on 24/7) but did not survive the second power on inside the PH PSU. So that's 37 euro's up in smoke.   HiFi-Tuning and supplier are refusing to replace it. (edit: the importer has decided to replace it)

Also this fuse did some good things but overal it didn't do it for me. I haven't been able to change it's initial installed direction though so it is a bit indefinitve. There was some additional warmth and cleanliness but the negatives outweighed the positives. The mid range was robbed of dynamics and detail and the highs felt rolled off. Overal presentation in short became really dull and lifeless. The influence of this tiny piece of wire has shown to be significant though so I've done my own research and also contacted Paul Hynes for some advice which he gave in his usual high quality style. It's safe to use a higher valued fuse (up to 5A) so I'm taking the risk of trying and thus possible blowing up two other ones, one of Furutech and a Synergistic Research Red.

Paul also confirmed the long burn-in period required. I feel though it is starting to settle down and it sounds great!

Quote:The SR7EHD-MR4 I sent to you had new modules fitted and these would require the normal burn-in period just like a new power supply. The results of burn-in that you are hearing are normal with the circuit topologies and materials I use in these power supplies and others have also commented that they have head similar changes in musical presentation through the first month with a more settled performance progressing thereafter. After two months you should hear little difference in performance from day to day.
 
Regarding the fuses I fit to the SR5 and SR7 power supplies. These are standard 20mm fuses, manufactured to British Standards, which have defined characteristics that are selected for each product to provide safety of the product and the customer and his property in the event of an internal or external fault developing. I am aware that fuse upgrades are available and as long as they fail safely under fault conditions I have no objection to their use, although customers should check compatibility of fuse upgrades when selecting values for replacement, because they are not always a direct replacement regarding fusing characteristics. I do not fit fuse upgrades as standard and leave this to power supply customers. It is a simple task to change a fuse without opening the chassis, as they are externally accessible.
 
The metallurgy and impedance of the fuse will affect performance and the article you have linked too explains the impedance issue well. Changing even small lengths of copper wire to fine silver is audible so I would certainly expect a silver fuse to have a sonic effect compared to a standard copper fuse. I generally design for large transient current delivery from my power supplies to avoid restricting large dynamic load power swings, which could cause dynamic signal clipping in analogue stages or signal processing dropout in digital stages. This demands low impedance throughout the power supply. I can see that a lower impedance fuse would be less restrictive of current flow during normal operation.
There is no specific current limiting in the regulator output stage as this would limit the power delivery to the load.
 
The materials I select for the standard product range are selected to provide a very high performance without hitting the wallet too hard. In SR5 and SR7 products all the connectors on the chassis and the XLR connectors used on the Dc leads have silver plated terminals. I have spent the majority of the product cost within the products to provide first class electrical performance from the mains transformer and the voltage regulator circuitry, which is a proprietary design. This is because no amount of quality upgrade of the connections to the outside world will compensate for poor internal electrical performance of the mains transformer or the voltage regulators. Incidentally, this is why I do not use the three terminal regulator chips, often used in after market power supplies, for high performance supplies for audio, as they are not good enough electrically.
 
There are other upgrades possible, for instance IEC inlets, DC connectors, wiring from the regulator modules to the chassis DC outlet connectors with annealed fine silver wire as well as annealed fine silver DC leads which can be added to order. I also can provide Teflon regulator module circuit boards and fit Vishay Bulk Foil precision resistors within the regulator circuitry but the cost of this upgrade is considerable. If I were to fit these upgrades and the finest hardware to my products as standard, the performance would be even higher, but the retail price would be considerably higher and I would sell much less product, as the price would be too high for the market sector I currently work with. There is a happy medium for the standard product and these options are available for those who can afford them.
 
I hope this has illuminated your concerns adequately.

Quote:Burn-in time will vary depending on usage but 2 months usually sees most of the burn-in completed. This is why I allow 56 days for a return if not satisfied guarantee. It allows most of the burn-in to occur before a final decision is taken and also allows some time for meaningful comparisons to be made towards the end of this period.

You can increase the rating of the audio grade fuse you are using to 5A continuous max but it may still be subject to nuisance tripping as the surge ratings are not as high as the time delay fuses I use.

The Dutch importer of the HiFi-tuning fuses (Kemp) has decided to send me a new HiFi-Tuning Supreme 3 fuse (the 5A variant) to replace the 3.15A one that blew inside the Paul Hynes PSU. So in the end this has been solved.

Last Tuesday I've received the 'fat snake', the Shunyata Alpha Digital power cord. It looks great, though a bit over the top, but it is suprisingly flexible. Although the IEC plug just barely fits into the D250. I've decided to sell both my Lessloss DFPC Original's and keep the Signature one which is now connected to my PS Audio P3 Power Plant. First impressions of the Shunyata are favorable. It's clearly the more transparent cable and there's a lot more extension in the top end. I need to spend more time with it to form more firm impressions/conclusions.


The Furutech 5A fuse has also been delivered but it's still in it's box. I'll do some "fuse rolling" (comparing the Furutech and HiFi-Tuning) in the PH PSU after I'm used to the performance of the new power cord. I've also ordered a 3.15A Synergistic Research Black fuse, their TOTL, to install in the PS Audio P3 where I'll compare it to the HiFi-tuning Supreme 3 3.15A fuse currently installed. I did cancel the order for the Synergistic Research Red fuse for the PH PSU, it's too expensive to risk blowing up.

And finally, I've ordered a Shunyata Anaconda zi-tron Digital XLR cable (AES/EBU, 1.5m) which'll replace the DH Labs D-110 cable between the D250 and Mutec. It's their TOTL model and gets great feedback of users worldwide. I'll probably sell the DH Labs cable later as well.

That's it for updates again!

The Shunyata zi-tron Anaconda AES/EBU interlink has been delivered today! Going to install it somewhere in the next few days and will probably offer the DH Labs D-110 for sale shortly after.

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Both of my Lessloss DFPC Original PC's are now probably sold. Will be picked up next Saturday.

Returned the Furutech 5A fuse to the shop unused, and the HiFi-Tuning 3.15 and 5A fuses are up for sale. I am so amazed, gobsmacked actually, by the performance of the Synergistic Research Black fuse in my PS Audio P3 that I'm not even going to try others and have ordered another one (5A) from the UK (love the cheap GBP atm! ) for the Paul Hynes PSU.

For those interested there's a long thread active on Audiogon (https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/s...c-red-fuse) about the Synergistic fuses Red and Black. The first 5 pages or so are about the Red but the Black takes over from there. Most of the experiences written there mirror my own thus far. I've last listened to them around the 48 hour mark and it already sounded really great and so much better than in the first few hours. Today they're around 100H but haven't listened yet. I think I'm in for a surprise later today.

Yesterday my second Synergistic Research Black fuse has been delivered, this one was destined for the Paul Hynes PSU. I was anxious it might blow like the HiFi Tuning Supreme 3 fuse that was in it before, although I've upped the rating to 5A. Before powering it on I decided to power it on using the P3 Power Plant (hoping it would limit the current inrush a bit) and without any equipment connected. Fortunately it didn't blow or else it would have been an expensive experiment.

Immediately out of the box it sounded great. It didn't in the P3 which initially sounded strident/harsh. This subsided during the recommended burn in period. Again I am 'gob smacked' and speechless, even more so 24 hours later. I don't know what they're doing or if it's black magic that's in them but boy do they work..highly recommended. They're relatively expensive but I don't know any bigger bang for the buck! In a few days burn in should be complete, can't wait to hear how it'll develop further.

If the fuses in the Devialet weren't SMD's and thus non user replaceable they would have already been swapped. There's only two fuses in my stereo system and these are now both SR Blacks. Although there's one in my JL Audio sub as well but it's internal so don't know yet if I'll replace that. I might though!

Edit; the Lessloss PC's have been sold last Saturday as planned.