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A wishlist of gear to be reviewed by Amir

Roland68

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surrie

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Agree with the above post. Actually any amp with a Powersoft module would be on my wishlist.

Additionally, I would be very interested in the test results of an Aurender DAC. I have had the chance to audition an Aurender A10 and (subjectively) it had the most beautiful midrange that I have experienced so far. Would be really interested in its measurements.
 

Jimbob54

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Audiofire

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You'll get a decent idea how it will land from this. Not identical of course but similar sonics and near identical build and feel. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...dphone-reviews-china-and-austrian-made.30900/
You are right, except I have just compared the two headphones here and there is a significant difference in soundstage perception:
 

Nathan Raymond

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I've seen a number of reviews here of "audiophile" power products from the usual questionable brands, but how about some power products from more reputable companies? I'm thinking things like series mode surge protectors, from Brickwall, SurgeX, and Furman:

https://www.brickwall.com/
https://www.ametekesp.com/surgex
https://furmanpower.com/series-multi-stage-protection/

I have some Brickwall products and they've given me no trouble, but it'd be good to know how they stack up, and I've always been curious about Furman since their products like the PST-8 are available from sellers like Adorama for around $100 which seems to make it the value leader in this segment. An Amazon customer opened up their PST-8 and took a photo of the inside, seems better designed than a lot of products at this price point:

71yGWsld81L._SY256.jpg
 

amirm

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I've seen a number of reviews here of "audiophile" power products from the usual questionable brands, but how about some power products from more reputable companies? I'm thinking things like series mode surge protectors, from Brickwall, SurgeX, and Furman:

https://www.brickwall.com/
https://www.ametekesp.com/surgex
https://furmanpower.com/series-multi-stage-protection/

I have some Brickwall products and they've given me no trouble, but it'd be good to know how they stack up, and I've always been curious about Furman since their products like the PST-8 are available from sellers like Adorama for around $100 which seems to make it the value leader in this segment. An Amazon customer opened up their PST-8 and took a photo of the inside, seems better designed than a lot of products at this price point:

71yGWsld81L._SY256.jpg
Are you asking for their benefit to audio performance or general surge protection? I can test the former but not the latter.
 

DonDish

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I would like to see a shootout between highend audiophile apex predators like DCS, MSB, Nagra and the more normally priced gear reviwed here. Topping, RME, Gustard etc. That would be the story of the year!
 

Veri

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I would like to see a shootout between highend audiophile apex predators like DCS, MSB, Nagra and the more normally priced gear reviwed here. Topping, RME, Gustard etc. That would be the story of the year!
It would be a good story sure but people will just claim "measurements aren't everything".... :)
 

Nathan Raymond

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Are you asking for their benefit to audio performance or general surge protection? I can test the former but not the latter.
Since these are reputable companies, their claims about what their power products can do are primarily focussed on how they can prevent problems from happening to equipment by absorbing extreme power fluctuations and not diverting it to the ground wire, as well as performing EMI/RFI filtering. For instance, this is Brick Wall's "audiophile" Q&A page, which is very simple:

https://www.brickwall.com/collections/audiophile

All three products also make a point of talking about how their series mode surge suppression doesn't produce "ground contamination". Brick Wall has this to say about it:

https://www.brickwall.com/pages/ground-current

I realize you can't test the extremes of AC power and thus can't test how these products behave with excess current during a surge, but I figured you could test to make sure they don't negatively impact the performance of any audio equipment when being fed good power, and maybe you could test their EMI/RFI filtration claims? To be honest, I haven't found a good source of solid info on EMI/RFI and how important it really is with home equipment to filter it via something like a surge suppressor. Is it a situation where if your power is good, your electrical wiring is good, and all your devices are well designed and not beyond their operational lifespan, you'll be fine and won't need any EMI/RFI filtering? Is the some value to filtering EMI/RFI filtering in a surge suppressor when something is out of spec? My basic understanding is that if you have a high impedance ground, RF noise from a device can go into all other devices instead of the actual ground, because current into a high impedance ground can turn into a voltage on ground, feeding into filters on other devices, and cause their voltages to swing at RF rates. If that describes a real-world scenario, how common is that, how much can a surge suppressor with EMI/RFI filtering help, and is it even appropriate to try and address it with a device, or should someone really just call an electrician to fix their wiring? If you could provide guidance on this topic, I think it could be valuable to the general public.

Here are the EMI/RFI filtering specs on the entry level products from these companies:

Furman PST-8 DIG Filtration Rating
> 40 dB from 150 kHz – 100 MHz
> 80dB from 100 kHz – 1GHz

Brick Wall 2RAUD EMI/RFI Filter Response
(bi-directional, wave tracking):
With 50 ohm Rg load: 3db at 5kHz; 26dB at 100kHz; 38dB at 300kHz.

SurgeX SA-15
Normal Mode (50Ω load)
> 20 dB, 38 kHz – 50 MHz
> 30 dB, 160 kHz – 50 MHz
25 dB @ 100 kHz; 39 dB @ 300 kHz; 60 dB @ 3 MHz; 44 dB @ 30 MHz
Common Mode (50Ω load)
> 10 dB, 280 kHz – 50 MHz
> 20 dB, 1.7 MHz – 50 MHz
> 30 dB, 9 MHz – 27 MHz
11 dB @ 300 kHz; 19 dB @ 1 MHz; 26 dB @ 5 MHz; 34 dB @ 20 MHz
 

mocenigo

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It would be a good story sure but people will just claim "measurements aren't everything".... :)

Well, I think it is absolutely obvious that measurements are not everything. We almost ALL choose which components to buy depending on many additional factor: looks, price (how many ppl here say “oh I pick that DAC with a SINAD of only 118 because it costs much less than the inaudibly better ones), features (the RME has a nice EQ feature…), where it has been built, general reputation of reliability of the manufacturer, dimensions, availability of servicing… sometimes even hype.

Now, if somebody claims that they can distinguish between two excellently measuring pieces of equipment used both within their optimal usage and electrical interfacing parameters, in an otherwise identical chain, well, let them try again in a properly controlled test first ;-)
 

amirm

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Since these are reputable companies, their claims about what their power products can do are primarily focussed on how they can prevent problems from happening to equipment by absorbing extreme power fluctuations and not diverting it to the ground wire, as well as performing EMI/RFI filtering. For instance, this is Brick Wall's "audiophile" Q&A page, which is very simple:

https://www.brickwall.com/collections/audiophile

All three products also make a point of talking about how their series mode surge suppression doesn't produce "ground contamination". Brick Wall has this to say about it:

https://www.brickwall.com/pages/ground-current

I realize you can't test the extremes of AC power and thus can't test how these products behave with excess current during a surge, but I figured you could test to make sure they don't negatively impact the performance of any audio equipment when being fed good power, and maybe you could test their EMI/RFI filtration claims? To be honest, I haven't found a good source of solid info on EMI/RFI and how important it really is with home equipment to filter it via something like a surge suppressor. Is it a situation where if your power is good, your electrical wiring is good, and all your devices are well designed and not beyond their operational lifespan, you'll be fine and won't need any EMI/RFI filtering? Is the some value to filtering EMI/RFI filtering in a surge suppressor when something is out of spec? My basic understanding is that if you have a high impedance ground, RF noise from a device can go into all other devices instead of the actual ground, because current into a high impedance ground can turn into a voltage on ground, feeding into filters on other devices, and cause their voltages to swing at RF rates. If that describes a real-world scenario, how common is that, how much can a surge suppressor with EMI/RFI filtering help, and is it even appropriate to try and address it with a device, or should someone really just call an electrician to fix their wiring? If you could provide guidance on this topic, I think it could be valuable to the general public.

Here are the EMI/RFI filtering specs on the entry level products from these companies:

Furman PST-8 DIG Filtration Rating
> 40 dB from 150 kHz – 100 MHz
> 80dB from 100 kHz – 1GHz

Brick Wall 2RAUD EMI/RFI Filter Response
(bi-directional, wave tracking):
With 50 ohm Rg load: 3db at 5kHz; 26dB at 100kHz; 38dB at 300kHz.

SurgeX SA-15
Normal Mode (50Ω load)
> 20 dB, 38 kHz – 50 MHz
> 30 dB, 160 kHz – 50 MHz
25 dB @ 100 kHz; 39 dB @ 300 kHz; 60 dB @ 3 MHz; 44 dB @ 30 MHz
Common Mode (50Ω load)
> 10 dB, 280 kHz – 50 MHz
> 20 dB, 1.7 MHz – 50 MHz
> 30 dB, 9 MHz – 27 MHz
11 dB @ 300 kHz; 19 dB @ 1 MHz; 26 dB @ 5 MHz; 34 dB @ 20 MHz
Thanks. I suspect their measurements are correct. In general though audio gear doesn't care about such filtering since it has it's own. I test everything with unfiltered power and exceptional results all the time.
 

DonDish

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Location
Scandinavian peninsula
Well, I think it is absolutely obvious that measurements are not everything. We almost ALL choose which components to buy depending on many additional factor: looks, price (how many ppl here say “oh I pick that DAC with a SINAD of only 118 because it costs much less than the inaudibly better ones), features (the RME has a nice EQ feature…), where it has been built, general reputation of reliability of the manufacturer, dimensions, availability of servicing… sometimes even hype.

Now, if somebody claims that they can distinguish between two excellently measuring pieces of equipment used both within their optimal usage and electrical interfacing parameters, in an otherwise identical chain, well, let them try again in a properly controlled test first ;-)
Audio has always been about feelings. Even before they started selling cable jewellery. An industry of buzzwords. And now they have found some new ones. Nobody worried about SNR when tube amps was the hottest shit, and sound was good too. Anyway! Im quite happy with current state of affairs. Been loving high SNR stuff ever since I got my first Technics Mash CD player, with a jog wheel for search. I didnt even have speakers. HP out with a couple of AKG´s. This stuff has come a long way since then. :)
 
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