I’ve just installed the new linear power supply

The general answer to that is that it isn't the bits, they don't change, it is the transmission of those bits down the coax in your case can carry some noise with them, possibly from the power supply of the streamer, this noise could affect the operation of the DAC adversely. So think of the whole chain holistically, noise can get around, no circuits are perfect, it is sensible to reduce whatever electrical noise is present. So thinking like this, changing the PSU of the A6 to one with less intrinsic noise could help, even if you use an external DAC.

 

DAC's are extremely sensible to absolute clock accuracy and and it seems even more to clock jitter. For me unknown reasons the human ear is extremely sensitive for the smallest clock variations.
It is absolutely not about the bitstreams being corrupted in anyway. PSU stability helps the crystal circuitry to have less variations as simple as that.

 

The most important chain in high fidelity is the room and our ears. No one talks about this in here, it doesn't matter. It's easy to understand everybody losing warranty for the a6 and spending 290$ claim this is an improvement. I never read otherwise!

 

Can't disagree with that. As much as I would like to get my ears back to the condition when I was 20.
For the room it is also a fixed factor for my home conditions, but got myself an AMP with DIRAC to make the best of it.

No idea if I really will hear the difference but on the total audio chain investment it is not a big spend made. Just made that gamble.

HW failures of media players after a burn-in period of a month are extremely rare. This unless is it is overheated.
Zero hour defects after transport and changing storage temperature conditions are more common but neither frequent.

 

I agree. I've heard systems costing as much as a house that IMHO sounded very ordinary. Looking around the rooms one could see the potentially contributing issues but of course with some people it's pointless making any subtle suggestions on how to improve it because in their minds it's the amount of money they spent on equipment and accessories that counts. Yeah, those $20,000 set of cable elevators made all the difference. .

Now, not wanting to condone dishonesty, but if your DMP-A6 did go faulty during the warranty period, one could just swap back the original SMPS and see if this clears the fault.

 

My unit was delivery today. Taxes claimed via Fedex € 14.95 raising the price accordingly.

Swapping the PSU was easy enough using the video tutorial on their website. Followed also the recommendation of a fellow user here recommending a toothpick to insert the screws keeping the rubber rings on their place. Excellent trick.
The reason for the 5V/12V cable being replaced escapes me totally. Same leads at the same length (silver leads?). Asked Beatechnik for their actual reason.

Oh yes, the DMP-A6 and DAC-Z6 / Z8 all share the same SPS only that 5V/12V connector is on the other side. The DMP-A6 SPS just got 2 connectors to become universal. As the Beatechnik LPS included Talema transformer makes it higher than the original it can't be retrofitted mechanically to those DAC's housings though.
The new DMP-A8 got a hybrid PSU using a similar shaped mainboard. I am not really impressed here as the size constraints resulted in very minimalistic LPS and SPS units. Further stabilizers down the power chain have to do the main job it seems. Maybe this single LPS can be re-used there with minimal modifications?

DMP-A6 standard SPS power supply (rated 12V 2A)

• Standby < 0.1W
• Average Play 10W-11W
• Peak 15W

Beatechnik LPS power supply (rated 12V 2A)

• Standby < 0.1W
• Average Play 13-14W
• Peak 21W

Above values are measured using a 4 TByte SSD connected via an External USB housing.
Average consumption is marginally affected by the change of PSU within the to be expected range. No need to worry about the housing warming additionally with these measured values.
I am always surprised by the low standby power consumed using these Talema transformers. Seen this multiple times.

In a few days will come with a verdict based on my hearing experience. As I can't do any A/B switching this will remain very subjective for sure.
Initial impression "nothing wrong with the sound" so at least it did not break anything.

 

I’m both for objective and subjective reports (really no reason for it to be exclusive) so I look forward to your verdict.

 

fine for you. I've to wait another two weeks for it...

 

Audio Listening Test
https://www.audioholics.com/editorials/the-hollywood-sapphire-group-program

 

I only can confirm we want to hear above all positive effects. Doing real A/B blind test (must be without an indicator) works far better obviously.

Only if after doing a fair number of tests the audience can detect fairly reliable/consistently which source is when selected then there is a difference. Above all if most identify a close to similar change in sound then it is most likely a fact. That is how I judge A/B testing results.

Once did a similar test with the first "Dire Straits" album with an audiophile friend. Using 2 players time and volume synchronized sharing the AMP and speakers. One being a media player playing the MP3 version and the other the CD directly. He could identify the source without a mistake but got very confused as the MP3 in fact sounded superior to him. After revealing the A and B positions he started to hesitate but I could still see a clear preference for the MP3 sound but having troubles admitting it.
In fact he heard it all correct as I was fooling him here too. The MP3 was made from the same album but using the 1998 Digital Remastered version as the source which sounds a whole lot superior.
Till that moment also the LP sounded a lot better than the CD and even the SACD available for that matter. How that actually happened remains a secret of Philips. Other Dire Straits albums getting remastered at the same period showed a lot smaller improvement in sound. The first album was the only AAD recording of Dire Straits as far as I know. So something must have gone seriously bad in that process.
If you still have that in itself great original disc do yourself a big favor and get a replacement for it.

 

Did you read the 'Test Results' part of that article?

 

Just ask any doctor about this. Does it hurt when I do this?
- Many will answer it as intended
- Some will deny feeling anything even when hit with a sledgehammer
- Some will feel pain when touched with a feather or even not touched at all.
The fun of dealing with individuals,

 

I got mine a couple of weeks ago, again via Fedex, and I did not have to pay any import duties/taxes. Maybe a benefit of Brexit!

 

This guy thought otherwise. That the ME sounded better as streamer to external dac.

 

As far as I can tell it's his word against mine. I only know that the ME has (in respect to the basic edition):
1. a better DAC
2. the femtoclocks (which only affect the internal DAC)
So I cannot imagine what it might be that improves its capabilities of being just a wire to an external DAC... anyway.

 

We would have to listen and compare for ourself to truly know.

 

Technical seen a difference is most unlikely. The PSU can influence with a cheap external DAC design (no re-clocking).

 

I believe the DAC is the same in the basic edition and the Master edition. The differences are: better opamps and the femtoclocks (and the most important of all: gold accents ).
If an external DAC is connected via USB there should be no difference because USB audio 2.0 is asynchronous and the clocking and buffering is done by the external DAC. If an external DAC is connected via the other digital outs isn't the clocking done by the source device (ie the Eversolo)? The femto clocks in the Master Edition could have some influence here. Correct me if I am wrong.

On another note: Hans Beekhuyzen seems to hear a lot of differences between a lot of stuff and (not surprisingly) more expensive stuff allways sounds better in his subjective ears than slightly cheaper stuff. It seems that confirmation bias plays a big role in his listening experiences. His observations have to be taken with a big bag of salt IMHO.

 

That was exactly my point.

One can argue that the A6 might do some re-clocking when passing these signal through; although I believe them are just for the self-clocking for the USB input. That's why I find that claim a little bit audiophoolish...

 

I reacted to point 1 in your post. The DAC (chip) in the ME is exactly the same as in the standard version. I am a stickler for details (developer habit ), so I wanted to point that out. I am fun at parties too .