Is DEQX a game changer?

Thanks for the comments, gentlemen. Sounds like a plan, Roscoe!

Yes, I would think that a DEQX will generally make speaker positioning at least a bit less critical than it would otherwise be, as a result of the corrections and equalizations it can introduce with seemingly no sonic downside.

Unrelated to the DEQX, I’ve made one change to what I said in my 12-2-2015 post. Instead of purchasing a Dynavector 17D3 phono cartridge, based largely on the many accolades that have been posted here recently I’ve purchased an Audio Technica AT-ART9. I just started listening to it today, with promising results. But the reported experiences seem to indicate that it improves considerably during the first 50 or so hours of breakin, so I’ll wait until I’m significantly into that period before attempting to fine tune the various tonearm adjustments.

Roscoe, best of luck as you proceed. And thanks very much for the kind words you posted recently in another thread.

Enjoy! Best regards,
-- Al

FWIW my HDP-5, which has superseded the HDP-4 as DEQX’s top-of-the-line model, uses a switching power supply. I don’t know if it is the same supply that is used in your Mate, but it is an XP Power model ECL30UD02-S. Here is the datasheet for that series of supplies.

I use the HDP-5 as my preamp. I have never sensed that it is causing any glare whatsoever in any part of the spectrum. I am connecting my phono stage (a Herron VTPH-2) to it via unbalanced RCA cables. I am connecting my main digital source (a Bryston BCD-1 CD player used just as a transport) via an AES/EBU digital cable. Those are my two critical sources. I am connecting the HDP-5 to my power amp via unbalanced RCA cables.

I don’t recall what connectivity the Mate provides, but if you are using balanced analog connections to its inputs or outputs perhaps a contributing factor to the issue you described might be an internal balanced/unbalanced converter stage or transformer needed to interface to its presumably unbalanced internal signal path. Or if you are connecting to a digital input, perhaps waveform degradation due to signal reflections resulting from small impedance mismatches is occurring, resulting in jitter that might be improved by changing the length and/or type of the digital cable.

That’s about all I can think of in response to your question.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

Since I last posted on here I have added an HDP-5 processor/preamp and as Almarg mentions, this has a low noise switch mode power supply. My HDP-3 uses a linear supply and both sound equally transparent with no top end glare that I can detect. Most of my listening is analogue input from two turntables and my various power amps & subs are also connected via unbalanced RCA cabling.

The HDP-5 has slightly greater clarity and openness to the soundstage than the HDP-3 & I will be using them together in a 4-way stereo setup (0-60hz, 60-200hz, 200-3100hz, 3100khz+), the HDP-3 managing just the subs.

Andrew (Drewan77), congratulations on the new HDP-5!  And thanks once again for the many valuable inputs you have provided to this thread.

Best regards,
-- Al