Enough noise reduction?

Have made sure the room/speaker setup and source are dialed in?

Your gear is proper. 

Having those 3 things dialed in detracts from possible unnecessary audiophool expenditure.

@yage

You will most likely never hear any sound at -120 dBFS unless you’re in an anechoic chamber and even then the noise that your own body generates will probably dominate your auditory sense.

Thank you for that comment. I couldn’t agree more.

@bgpoppab

Curious at what point noise reduction could be considered "good enough".

For me personally; in a super quiet environment, I can hear around -100 dB S/NR, when using headphones. But for me, -80 dB S/NR is actually "good enough". "Good enough" probably also depends on your own personal auditory system, aka hearing. Any ringing in your ears? Also your listening space; while sitting in it, can you hear your refrigerator, air conditioner, forced air furnace, washing machine, dishwasher, neighbors, kids, etc.? If you can, that changes that -120 dB S/NR (down to possibly -70 dB or even higher - higher meaning more noise, as like maybe -60 dB) provided by your audio components. Although when discussing environment noise levels, those numbers are probably better represented in the SPL category.

I guess I would not look at the question in the same way well… I mean I would not look at the component specs. You are asking the right question. Are there better matches. It is mostly a question of which sounds best in your system and that includes your venue, speakers and the sum of all wires and your values.

I would begin by looking at your amp. This is usually the likely to be most sensitive to power cords and least sensitive to “noise reduction”. You want great current capacity. I highly recommend trying a Audio Quest Hurricane. The forums have been abuzz about these. I really struggled with the power cords for my amps for nearly a year… trying standard, really good quality power cords… Cardas, Transparent, WireWorld… etc. Then my dealer brought over an Audio quest Hurricane. Wow, it tipped the balance to neutral from warm with Cardas. Really dropped the noise floor. Finally, the power cord problem solved.

I have a really finely tuned system. The right power cord on the amp was key. I use Transparent power cords on my other components.

I stick with highly reviewed main stream wires. Transparent, Cardas, WireWorld, DHLabs and Nordost. They are highly reviewed with decades of research. I have learned their sound. They know what they are doing. Much of high end audio is about layer after layer of subtitles you may not yet have learned about. Companies with this depth of experience produce stuff typically of great quality and depth.

I recommend you try AudioQuest Hurricane, and Cardas Clear Beyond (for power power amp).

I highly doubt that Stereophile and ASR are using lab power supplies for their measurements.

@yage and you would be wrong.
(Not for amps, but for the front end gear tests… I believe that you are right for amp testing.)

If I did not attract a 2 weekban there I could look it up, but it is mentioned a some of the videos.

This thread had made me realize that a measurement not usually taken or published is power supply noise reduction ratio.

We get the S/N+THD specs, and these assume ideal AC power.  We also should see something like how well AC noise can make it to the audio outputs.  Not an impossible test.

Yeah @erik_squires Probably a test for both for a voltage field, and for a current field would be good.

@holmz 

I'm still doubtful a lab power supply is used. It just doesn't make any sense. A lab 'bench' power supply provides DC, not AC. Also, these components are consumer products meant to operate off of standard household power. If you want to measure and test them, wouldn't you want to know the performance given wall power?

Anyway, I've done an online search which didn't uncover anything definitive. I sent an email off to Stereophile. I'll post an update if I get a response.