Well that’s my understanding, your brain knows what an instrument sounds like and will create the illusion as a background task.
This is why MP3 can sound fine as you fill in the blanks. But it’s work and you get tired.
Have you ever done, or witnesses someone turn the sound down or off due to fatigue?
This is part of what is going on.
I remember being told and have experienced hearing something new in a piece of music on a superior system, something you never heard before. Then when you go back to your original system, there it is and you cannot un hear it now. Yet you never noticed it prior to this.
The brain is an incredible thing.
It is a thing when it comes to “real” noise. For example research about road noise and residential housing built close to main roads and highways and how that effects the human brain. Also how “infra noise” that can’t be heard is a potentially harmful and life reducing thing if persons are exposed for a long duration of time.
I’m not going to state it’s a thing in this context, but not going to say it can’t be.
I’d agree with all that and when my office was next to a busy road I used noise-cancelling for this reason. A better way to illustrate my point is to think about this:
Taken to an extreme there’s no need to listen to the sound at all, you could just “imagine it” into reality once you “knew” what it was supposed to sound like. That’s not my position at all but thinking in those terms helps to sort out what might be going on and what can’t be is all. There’s plenty of research that suggests a disturbing chunk of what we see and hear is “made up” on the fly to prevent the brain from becoming overwhelmed. An Ames room is a great illustration of that, and what can go wrong if the “targeting” is off.
My post started with “I’m not sure” and that pretty much sums up my position on all of this. This is obviously off topic for the thread now but it’s a really interesting area. I consider myself a “tourist” knowledge and training wise hence the discussion’s interesting.
This may be semantics, but I don’t think your brain is doing work and getting tired. What you are reacting to are sounds that are irritating. It may be distortion, excessive volume, or simply frequencies in a range that are disturbing. When people say they get listening fatigue, it means they’re irritated beyond endurance and so they’re forced to turn it off. Think the US military bombarding Manuel Noriega with rock music to force him out of his compound.
I think it’s a bit of both, but the result is the same. The better your system, the longer and easier it is to enjoy.
That’s what I look for in a system, and not A/B testing.
While I rarely use Roon anymore I can provide some feedback on use of an LPS in a USB to DAC music server. Firstly much of the equipment we use isn’t working optimally, the SMPS’s that “comes with” are the equivalent of feeding a high octane engine low octane gas… it will run but not without misses and reduced performance. Secondly computers are electrically “dirty” environments for USB out, sub optimal power just makes it worse. I’ve used SoTM SPS-500, HDPlex 200W and the latest a JS-2 to power various NUC’s with Roon, as quality of the PS improved background resolution improved and USB irritants diminished.To be frank, this isn’t something that someone who buys their gear at an electronics super store can take advantage of… you have to have speakers, DAC, and amplification that won’t blur or add their own irritants to hear the difference in what the source is putting out. Magnepan, Quad, and electrostatic speaker owners will know whereof I speak.
For me it was a very significant improvement. I’m using a linear PS from Small Green Computer. Not a subtle change at all and all for the better. If you are connecting N+ direct to DAC and have a fairly resolving system ai think it’s very likely you will be happy with an LPS running Nucleus or Nucleus+.
HDPLEX 300W made a huge difference in my system. It is feeding three devices: 12V LinkSys extender > 19V Nucleus+ > 7.5V Matrix X-PDIF 2 > DAC
Having one LPS instead of 3 noisy SMPS next to my DAC, pre and power amp resulted in better sound are every level, mainly sound stage and delineation / air around instruments.
I’m glad it’s working out for you plus a sound improvement!!! That’s why I used one as well! It’s built nice and very flexible in providing just what you need…I like their voltage supply cables also. My unit runs warm 90-100 degrees F but I never shut it off. It powers my MAC Mini @ 12VDC and my DDC bridge @5VDC!
Hi Vad ,
We would recommend the new 15v iPower Elite for use with the Roon Nucleus. If you connect an External Nas drive it also will sound better with a quieter power supply .Be careful if connecting a external USB hard drive as they may take to much current from the Roon and make the power supply run hotter than normal .
Did Roon themselves ever bring out their Linear Power Supply? …its mentioned as being on its way in a number of reviews of the Nucleus, which is something I’m considering moving to from my Mac mini based solution. Maybe I missed an update on it.
Thats interesting. I’d have assumed that they recognised the stated benefits to start developing/sourcing one. Maybe it never got that far - but there was a release window spoken about - so it clearly got somewhere!
Cheap switching PS are notoriously noisy and that noise might find it’s way back into your audio components (preamp, amps, DAC etc) through your mains electrical lines. So depending on the design of your system’s components PSs, you might indirectly benefit from using a linear PS with your Nucleus.
Just like you, I never turn it off, and yes, it does get warm. I will make sure the room stays cool enough during the summer. Eventually, I reduced the Matrix X-PDIF 2 voltage to 5, and the sound got richer.
