Still cooking the Blue outlet but for those that are interested in the difference between the Galileo LE and newer UEF it's an interesting comparison
Firstly they're clearly cut from the same cloth tonally and changing one for the other does not alter the fundamental tonal balance. I'd also recommend that you definitely use the grounding connection as without it the noise floor is noticeably higher. I have the full active ground block and made up a connection using the stock SR wire -- upgrading to the HD links or a custom pair from Verastarr will no doubt be a nice tick up.
Once grounded and with the gold bullets (I've yet to try the silver) the UEF has noticeably less pronounced bass than the LE but more detail and a major step change in clarity and information retrieval in the upper mids and highs. This is especially apparent in the clarity around breathing and vibrato on vocal and in the more high pitched percussion. The drop in perceived bass is something I've found often happens on my analog rig when I improve things, at first it seems you're missing something but then you realize that a bass hump has been smoothed over and all the detail and extension is still there but now in better proportion to the rest of the frequency range.
Overall the gestalt of the UEF is more natural and open, greater information retrieval but with no edge or harshness. In fact with the UEF some vocals that had been shrill became more natural and even toned.
The main benefit of the UEF is a much lower noise floor -- it seems the old cliche of hearing into the recording holds true in spades with this one and you may find yourselves turning the volume up a notch or too (it tends to be the case that it is low level distortion that limits where you place the volume control -- more of this tends to make the same absolute level seem louder)
So if you're system can handle natural bass and doesn't need the bit of bass bump the LE provides I'd say the switch to UEF is a no brainer
Firstly they're clearly cut from the same cloth tonally and changing one for the other does not alter the fundamental tonal balance. I'd also recommend that you definitely use the grounding connection as without it the noise floor is noticeably higher. I have the full active ground block and made up a connection using the stock SR wire -- upgrading to the HD links or a custom pair from Verastarr will no doubt be a nice tick up.
Once grounded and with the gold bullets (I've yet to try the silver) the UEF has noticeably less pronounced bass than the LE but more detail and a major step change in clarity and information retrieval in the upper mids and highs. This is especially apparent in the clarity around breathing and vibrato on vocal and in the more high pitched percussion. The drop in perceived bass is something I've found often happens on my analog rig when I improve things, at first it seems you're missing something but then you realize that a bass hump has been smoothed over and all the detail and extension is still there but now in better proportion to the rest of the frequency range.
Overall the gestalt of the UEF is more natural and open, greater information retrieval but with no edge or harshness. In fact with the UEF some vocals that had been shrill became more natural and even toned.
The main benefit of the UEF is a much lower noise floor -- it seems the old cliche of hearing into the recording holds true in spades with this one and you may find yourselves turning the volume up a notch or too (it tends to be the case that it is low level distortion that limits where you place the volume control -- more of this tends to make the same absolute level seem louder)
So if you're system can handle natural bass and doesn't need the bit of bass bump the LE provides I'd say the switch to UEF is a no brainer