Squeeze Box upgrades

I have a very early version of Wayne's modded power supply. Actually I sent him a SB1 to look at about a year before the SB2 came out and he got seriously into it.

Anyhow the mod is done inside an upgraded linear wall-wart case (as opposed to the new case he sticks everything in now). Wayne added the niceties later but after some discussion advised I just stick with what he had built for me. Given that I have the unit on a mid-fi system I am resisting the urge...

The units do sound different. Both are offer tremedous detail and are smooth with no glare. I think a more meaningful comparison is to my fully modded TriVista DAC using a USB or Toslink source... The sounds are different but its pretty damn close and the DAC is 5x$...

I've been trying to avoid being the source of a comparison since I have not tried to A/B my units - something simple like put them in the same room into the preamp LOL or done any listening with other knowledgeable ears... I simply have one in the bedroom and one in the living room. And the DAC rig in my office.

The Square Circle post described the difference as the sonic signatures of the caps used by each... to my ear the Auricap Vinnie uses are airier and have a bigger stage but he quit using them in his newest rev so most likely there is a new set of differences... Of course as it turned out, I am playing the Red Wine through a pair of Wayne's Nitros so who know where the magic really is LOL

This is a no lose deal especially at the price - as Lkdog suggests, a lot of folks will be happy with the SB straight out of the box which has got be the value of the decade. Easy enough to start with a stock unit and then send it out if you need more from it. In which case do spend the $20 to upgrade the wallwart - may be all you ever need.

Thanks Ck. I've been running my SB3 (unmodded, but with one of those Elpac linear power supplies) as a digital source into my (heavily modded) EAD DSP7000 Mk.III. The SB3 does sound pretty great for the money (but not quite as good as my PDT3), and given that I'll be using it strictly as a digital source I'm guessing that either Wayne's or Vinnie's digital mods will be roughly equal. I think that the PS will be a big player in this sort of mod. Between the help I got from both diyaudio and audiocircle I'm in the process of gathering up the parts I'll need to build my own PS on the order of one of his Ultimates or Superiors. (Fortunately I have a little skill in building this sort of stuff.) So for me I guess the question is really whether a digital-modded SB with a kick-a$$ PS can replace my current transport. Time will tell.

Be interesting to see what you think - I was thinking about my reply this morning and the point I failed to make is that this is really a paradigm shift of sorts. The size of the unit, the fact that you do not have to physically store and handle all the media, the simplicity of the whole thing is really very different then a cdp or turntable or tape deck.

Then add the Internet dimension, the radio, the random access

The fact that the sound for most people is comparable if not better means that this is about something more then just replacing one kind of media transport with another. It's a new way of doing things.

BTW - I think if you have the chops to build your own Power Suppy I would go with the Bolder since Vinnies whole thing is about the battery.

Yes, my design is based in part on the info posted by Wayne and others in that "circle" during the evolution of his various power supplies.

The current dilemma is around the argument of massive capacitance before and after the regulator (Wayne and just about everybody else is a fan of big capacitive storage in PS design) versus a smaller capacitance in the circuit. There are a couple of detailed threads in diyaudio where people have indicated regaining the "rightness" of the musical presentation when moving to smaller caps (i.e., 100uF after the rectifiers versus 1000, 10000, or more). In general the thought is that the large caps, while great for low end presentation, tend to introduce a "slowness" or lessening of articulation compared to less overall capacitance. I've heard this before, but it seems that the most well regarded designers of high end equipment lean toward larger total capacitance both after the recitifiers and at the driving end of a PS.