Further to my last post Micheal suggested I try the modded MPCs on my speaker cables rather than the PowerCells -- great suggestion as this placement (with Galileo MPCs back on the two cells) made a nice step up. It also freed a Galileo MPC to go on the Element CTS power cord that powers the quantum strip into which all my other SR power cord MPCs are connected -- another step up
Through all of these changes the effect I hear with each improvement is a lowering of the noise floor which seems at first to sound like a drop in perceived volume -- in fact I think what we often perceive as loudness in audio reproduction is actually the cumulative noise in the system, as the noise is reduced we can open up the volume control and appreciate more of the dynamic range in the recording. A great example of this is using a track from Vienna Teng's live recording "The Moment Always Vanishing". This is the last track on the extended version - "Soon Love Soon" (unfortunately only available as a memory stick live at her concerts in 2010 but there are a bunch of versions on YouTube from other shows so you can get a sense of what I mean). This is a recording of all the concertgoers singing along to a quiet slow song. As you get the noise floor under control it becomes easy to pick out tens of individual singers and hear each part and where in the room they are sitting. This even holds with applause, each clap and each person clapping is an individual -- and to think this is off a 16:44 DAT field recording -- makes me wonder what all the fuss with hi-res is for (ps I tend to do listening for system changes using my DCS stack as it's easier to do A:B comparisons, I also have an OK LP system which is my ultimate preference)
Anyway as I appreciate more of the value of noise control my next step will be to invest in an SR Transporter to power all of my source leads -- I'll report back on that when I get it installed
Through all of these changes the effect I hear with each improvement is a lowering of the noise floor which seems at first to sound like a drop in perceived volume -- in fact I think what we often perceive as loudness in audio reproduction is actually the cumulative noise in the system, as the noise is reduced we can open up the volume control and appreciate more of the dynamic range in the recording. A great example of this is using a track from Vienna Teng's live recording "The Moment Always Vanishing". This is the last track on the extended version - "Soon Love Soon" (unfortunately only available as a memory stick live at her concerts in 2010 but there are a bunch of versions on YouTube from other shows so you can get a sense of what I mean). This is a recording of all the concertgoers singing along to a quiet slow song. As you get the noise floor under control it becomes easy to pick out tens of individual singers and hear each part and where in the room they are sitting. This even holds with applause, each clap and each person clapping is an individual -- and to think this is off a 16:44 DAT field recording -- makes me wonder what all the fuss with hi-res is for (ps I tend to do listening for system changes using my DCS stack as it's easier to do A:B comparisons, I also have an OK LP system which is my ultimate preference)
Anyway as I appreciate more of the value of noise control my next step will be to invest in an SR Transporter to power all of my source leads -- I'll report back on that when I get it installed