@slaw thanks for the questions. I don't really do % improvements as in my experience any improvement is always substantial (in the sense that once you have it you value it greatly) but at the same time inconsequential (as the next improvement will overpass it as you move on) -- similar to the idea that there's no such thing as diminishing returns
A better way of thinking is by analogy. To my mind the gate is less impactful than introducing top quality power cords or power conditioning in the first place (bear in mind that this is in the context of a system that already has this, absent the multiple layers of conditioning I already have the impact may be different -- audio is if nothing else heavily path dependent). It's perhaps closest to introducing a grounding solution -- it brings a new element to the mix that is not otherwise accessible (see my musings on this topic here).
The "negative" is that at least in my system it changed the tonal balance and smoothed off some top end edginess that I'd been managing by placing my ears slightly below the plane of my M3 tweeters -- post Gate I raised the listening seat and was rewarded with superior top to bottom linearity -- arguably less forgiving on edgy recordings but such is the nature of the Magico voicing -- truth 'oer all.
A better way of thinking is by analogy. To my mind the gate is less impactful than introducing top quality power cords or power conditioning in the first place (bear in mind that this is in the context of a system that already has this, absent the multiple layers of conditioning I already have the impact may be different -- audio is if nothing else heavily path dependent). It's perhaps closest to introducing a grounding solution -- it brings a new element to the mix that is not otherwise accessible (see my musings on this topic here).
The "negative" is that at least in my system it changed the tonal balance and smoothed off some top end edginess that I'd been managing by placing my ears slightly below the plane of my M3 tweeters -- post Gate I raised the listening seat and was rewarded with superior top to bottom linearity -- arguably less forgiving on edgy recordings but such is the nature of the Magico voicing -- truth 'oer all.