7520 with Caiman PSU

[Ali Tait]

Have you experienced similar before? You may have poor mains.

[Codifus]

Have you experienced similar before? You may have poor mains.

That's possible. Mains, or the system is still settling down.

CD

[Codifus]

My system seems to have settled now as it does sound more consistent.

The good news? The PSU does improve the sound. The best way to sum it up is that there is more control. Less a sense of splashy treble. It didn't feel splashy before, but once I heard the new PSU, it did. make sense? Also, bass is more defined.

Hoenstly, it's been quite a while so my comparisons are from memory, so take it for what it's worth.

One thing I do notice with absolute certainty, though, is that this new setup handles complex passages better than before. I play songs from my music library and every so often I would hear something new or different from the same song I had listened to hundreds of times before. Music with loads of activity like many instruments and lots of percussion is more tractable than before.


The bad news? You know that old saying "be careful what you wish for...?" Well, this PSU is an improvement, but it has also made the weakness one of my digital sources more apparent.

I have 3 sources connected to my 7520: a Windows XP digital audio workstation (DAW) thru coax, a sony Blu-ray player thru coax, and an Apple Airport express via optical.

The observation I made of a slight loss of treble are definitely there, and it occurs only with one source: the Airport express. The point really came home when I edited a sound file on my DAW. As I was playing it I noticed a distinct clarity in the output. I saved the file and moved it to iTunes to play through the express. The express version definitely sounded muddier.

To further clarify this issue I burnt a CD from my iTunes library and then played it through the blu ray player. CONFIRMED. The bluray and computer sound far better than my express. Before my PSU upgrade, the computer and blu ray sounded better, but just a bit better.

Now the difference is night and day. The slight congestion and loss of treble is all due to the airport express. I knew that the express was a known, highly jittery digital source, and this new setup really brought the point home.

Now I'm faced with the task of how to improve my airport express
Be careful what you wish for

CD