New Linear Power supply upgrade for DMP A-6

Thanks, yeah it was a before and after test. It only took me 20 minutes. Easy as pie.

It really is a new level of enjoyment for me.

 

Keith, please, just leave him alone, for god's sake.

 

Why it is simply not a valid comparison, just a story, the measurements show there cannot be an improvement changing power supplies, this kind of posting is mumsnet meets mass hysteria.
If you want to write something conduct a proper comparison with controls.
Buy two units, and compare unsighted.
There is the danger that someone ( without technical knowledge) will believe this nonsense.
Keith

 

Who will save the world? Certainly not you!

 

Forget it, it's a pointless effort. One of these days 3-4 friendly dudes in white smocks will pick him up and put him in a straightjacket, while he claims to be the reedemer of the homo audiophilus.

 

There is another strange phenomenon going on here. It seems like measurements have a degradering influence on maturity, disproportionate to age, profession and the use of ones senses.

Do you really expect me write a scientific paper on what I experience by upgrading a home product? Dude, you better but your oscillatorers down and what not, and take a walk outside to have breath of fresh air and clear your mind.

I would invite you over to have a listen, but I would probably kick you out after five minutes for measuring everything.

This a consumer forum where we socially share experiences with this product. It's not a technical or academic forum, if you haven't noticed.

You and another member keep bashing people for not adhering to your doctrine. Talking about danger this, danger that. Come on man, get a grip.

 

I’m laughing so much I can barely cue my records up!

 

Do you realize you have become the joke of the forum? Go out, get a life….or are you going to measure a beer too?

 

Sadly all too common, someone posts completely unsubstantiated tosh.
What is strange is that you purport to be interested in sound reproduction but haven’t made the slightest effort to learn anything about it.
Just a little technical knowledge would save you from being ripped off.
Keith

 

Arrogant to the bitter end. Your crusade is burning itself out.

 

We're going to need an exorcist on this one. It has a tight grip on KEITH.

I promised myself that I would stoop to his level, but lo and behold. Congratulations KEITH!

I'm out.

 

“It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
I would read and learn,
Keith

 

Calm down guys. It's just differing opinions. I'm surprised no one asked if the change got better after a "burn in" or "break in" period.
Anecdotal evidence is just that - anecdotal. Quite often it can't be proven one way or another to everyone's satisfaction. It's simply a person's opinion based on their own observation(s) and might not necessarily be corroborated by another listening in exactly the same situation.

Not wanting to take sides here but @Purité Audio has a valid point regarding a controlled evaluation. Audio memory IMHO is very short lived and IME it's quite difficult to detect subtle differences unless you can do a direct blind A/B comparison. IOW quickly switch over from a factory standard DMP-A6 to another with a different PSU as an example. Likewise with other modifications such as substituting capacitors, resistors or op-amps for that matter.

In a previous post I mentioned expectational bias. I will openly admit to being similarly affected after slapping down several hundred dollars on what promised to deliver a significant improvement. It's human nature not to feel too comfortable to admit that perhaps the promised performance improvements weren't fully realised. It happens all the time, except you rarely read reviews or comments citing the modification(s) were a complete waste of time and money. 99% of hi-fi reviews are almost exclusively positive and mostly subjectively based. For example, a frequency response that is slightly rolled off at both the low and high frequency ranges can easily be mistaken as having a "forward mid-range".

As a designer, modifier and repairer of audio equipment I've come to realise you can spend an awful amount of money, time and effort in the quest for audio nirvana. The limiting factors are always the weakest link in the chain. So, if say the DAC chips or the op-amps are poorly implemented, changing the PSU might not yield any significant improvements. Likewise inadequate power supply decoupling at strategic locations on the PCB can render a very expensive and well designed PSU relatively ineffective in delivering its full potential.

Food for thought guys.

 

It’s not just differing opinions, he’s arrogant and supercilious in his replies.

 

I learnt a long time ago. If you can't stomach someone's opinions or demeanour simply avoid reading them or block them so you don't encounter them in the first place.
The problem with opinions is they are often based on long held beliefs or ideals. These can be reinforced by advertising, hype, popular narrative and may possibly have no basis in fact.
Sure some people might come across as supercilious or arrogant but does this invalidate their opinion or evidence? Perhaps we need to the mindful of the opinion or evidence and not how it's delivered?

 

I don't think anyone here would completely dismiss the importance of measurements in equipment evaluation (however some might). For example in some circles there is this belief that tube watts are more powerful than solid state watts. If so how would you go about proving that? If you hear a difference that's all that matters to you. It doesn't affect anyone else. Let's use a hypothetical non-audio example. A manufacturer claims to have invented a battery that has the same capacity as its competitors but is 1/10 the weight and recharges in 1/4 of the time. Now would you just simply accept their claims or would you be more confident that their claims were real if the product had actually been independently tested and validated?

That's a bit harsh. You're quick to criticise the guy but then invite him over for a listen and them want to "kick him out". Any tech worth his or her salt will tell you it's pretty unlikely that you could properly set up your test equipment and take any meaningful or valid measurements in 5 minutes. You're either being flippant or you have no concept of what is involved in performing the measurements correctly and accurately. BTW, unless it's escaped your attention one wouldn't be bringing an oscillator to measure a digital playback device so I suspect that goes to illustrate your lack of technical knowledge?

You've expressed your subjective opinion and that's all that matters. No one is expecting you to write a full-on review and thus far no one (to my knowledge) has actually outright disputed your anecdotal findings by asking you to substantiate your opinion.

Err, just in case it's escaped your attention there are no rules about excluding technical discussion on this forum. I notice that you are a relative newbie here and perhaps you haven't had much of an opportunity to read all the threads / posts that don't arouse your interest, but if you had, you'd probably discover that many problems and issues consumers have experienced with the DMP-A6 and other devices that they have connected to it have been resolved or explained in a technical discussion. If you aren't technically inclined or just aren't interested in technical explanations simply don't read them or participate in the discussions, but suggesting that this forum should be restricted to purely non-technical discussion is IMHO a tad naive.

Err what? Seems to me a prima facie conclusion could be drawn that you don't like the opinions of one or more members of this forum. That's okay. It's okay not to like someone's opinion that doesn't align with yours and vice versa. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you can't stomach someone's opinions or demeanour simply avoid reading them or block them so you don't encounter them in the first place. It's pointless getting your knickers in a twist over what amounts to nothing in your own world. I encourage you to continue to participate in discussions you are knowledgeable in, wish to improve your understanding in and feel comfortable in doing so. It's not worth getting upset simply because someone else doesn't share your opinion or belief.

 

Sadly quite often first impressions become lasting impressions. I don't know of many people who would be happy to openly admit to making a poor decision or hearing the "NO" word. Usually they tackle these by ignoring the issues or coming up with a litany of excuses to somehow justify them. We live in a world where daring to buck the popular narrative is considered to be heresy no matter how misguided and ill-informed those beliefs may be. It's so dominant on some fora that the mere suggestion that a subjective opinion might be misleading can get you abused, suspended or even banned. I'm quite sure most readers will know which ones I'm referring to. The following on some of these fora is more like a cult where any dissent or questioning is not tolerated and most likely to result in the alleged "offender" getting exorcised from the group. One only has to scroll back a few posts to see evidence of this type of behaviour which don't appear to be made in jest.

By all means beg to differ. That's what debating is all about. It's easy to have the discussion go off the rails with personal attacks. I should know this well from some remarks I now regret making some time back. Hopefully I'm now a bit more mindful of keeping a watch on my Ps and Qs. Let's try to keep it civil whilst still maintaining our passion for the hobby. Perhaps even learn something new on the way. There are plenty of really informative posts here, either arousing our interest to find out more, simply to enlighten us or address questions we might have. Let's not drive a wedge between the members with cheap shots at each other.

One of the things I like about this forum is it isn't heavily moderated so members can generally express their opinions freely and without fear of censure. Hopefully it stays that way. Agree with me or disagree with me, that's entirely up to the decision and opinion of the individual reader.

 

@AlanRutlidge - I don't think the reaction above is because an opinion is not liked, but how and how often it was presented. Esspecially since he does not pick up any of the arguments and just repeats his fight against the system. I would be interested in his knowledge, but so far only a fixed opinion is reproduced and the proof is an anecdote "from some 12 years ago" and "measurements", presumably from ASR.

I read that article on ASR and many others. The measurements of the DMP-A6 was not entirely positive. The conclusion was "great", but also taking in account the price.
This means also Amir saw room for improvement and the DMP-A6 is not the holy grail of a DAC. So I think it would be interesting to discuss the shortcomings and if it is possible to get an improvement here.

I think the desire for perfect "audible transparancy" is also shortsighted. Is this actually really possible? The DAC is converting digital input data to an output signal. Will it be ever possible to recreate the original analog input signal which was digitized? As far as I understand technology, this is technically and mathematically impossible. The conversion is always an approximation.

I like the sound of the DMP-A6. It is "revealing", but it is also a bit dry at times. But I found out, that the EQ is very powerful. By clicking on the top of the bands it is possible to change the filter characteristic, which can make a huge difference. I think the EQ is part of the DAC, but not all companies using the ESS chip create an interface to change the parameters.

Probably the changes you can make in the EQ make a larger difference than changing the powersupply. It would be worth to discuss that, imho.