Linear power supply purchase help

Thanks @Protyreus.

This is the response from Bluesound:

Using a USB DAC with ROON is still considered a beta release and is under development, so we’re most likely going to encounter some hiccups along the way if you choose to connect an external DAC to your NODE N130 via USB.

If we refer to the Knowledge Based Article on enabling USB out on your NODE N130:

https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/articles/4417440985879-How-to-enable-USB-Audio-Out-on-NODE-N130-

You will see:

Image

Though we don’t have the exact timeline of the final release, remembering that there are no guaranties, many customers have had success with ROON by making the following configurations:

  1. Go to Roon’s Device Setup screen for NODE.
  2. From the MQA capabilities drop-down, select Renderer only.
  3. Expand Show advanced and set the Enable MQA core decoderto Yes.

If you wish to continue to use a USB DAC with your NODE it may be best to stick to using it through the native BluOS App only for now, until we release the final software release in collaboration with ROON.

If you wish to continue using ROON it may be best to connect to your DAC using another output source from your NODE. The bitrates are as follows:

  1. Analog (RCA) out from the NODE to any external DAC is fully unfolded and decoded MQA up to 24 bit/192 kHz
  2. Optical ,USB or Coax out from NODE for MQA content (such as TIDAL MQA) to other MQA certified DACs is full MQA up to 24 bit/192 kHz (MQA External DAC set to ON; the external DAC would do the MQA unfolding and decoding)
  3. Optical or Coax out from NODE to non-MQA certified DACs for MQA content (such as TIDAL MQA) will play up to 24 bit/96 kHz with MQA External DAC set to OFF (the NODE will do the initial unfold, and pass the rest of the bits to be decoded by the external DAC. MQA External DAC set to ON to a non-MQA DAC might not play audio)
  4. Optical or Coax out from NODE for non-MQA content (such as Qobuz and Deezer) will output up to 24 bit/192 kHz

I hope this helps, and as always remember that you are always welcome to check in with us periodically on the release of the final firmware and any future developments.

Craig

I’m generally a fan of better power supplies having found they make a difference in most cases. And doing what I do I’ve tried quite a few.

One specific point - don’t get hung up about linear supplies. Switching supplies can be very good if the design is executed well. I’ve had good results with the iFi iPower for example. The fact that dCS, purveyors of £100k DACs, use a mix of switching and linear supplies in their kit is, I think, telling.

Phil

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It is clear that whether you use the USB power, or the supplied switching power supply, there is absolutely no audible improvement in the output of the DAC with linear power supplies.

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@DaveN @Phil_Wright @John_Aiello @Brad_Burnside @Bill_Janssen @AA_Parky @bekzclz11_bekzclz11 @Protyreus @Fernando_Pereira @Steve_Arcese and anyone else I may have missed.

Thanks so much. It’s great to get your input and share ideas with fellow music enthusiasts. I can see this debate will continue.

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FWIW, I tried a Uptone JS2 with my Mytek Brooklyn DAC+. It did meaningfully change the sound. I didn’t prefer the change so I sold the JS2 and later sold the Brooklyn also.

I have tried the Sbooster BOTW Mk2 in lieu of the stock switch-mode supply on my Nucleus and found that to be an improvement. I suspect it’s more about noise being kicked back on the mains than anything else though. The Nucleus is connected to my Mola Mola DAC via Ethernet (through a switch) but lives within my audio rack.

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One point for the subjective perspective on topics like this: human perception is highly susceptible to a range of “confounds.” That is, you can have expectations that more expensive things with plausible engineering stories must sound better and therefore think they do; the order in which you listen to systems can affect the perceived outcome; the time of day; how fatigued you are; it’s even established that the smell of baked goods can affect ethical decision-making, as can acetaminophen. I wouldn’t be surprised if the odors in your listening space affects one’s opinion on gear.

There is a protocol based on ABX testing that can help eliminate some of these false signals and using many trials, but that can be fatiguing. Using larger populations per the Harman Curve for speakers is getting closer to eliminating many of these confounds and getting to some kind of ground truth about large scale preferences.

In the absence of the ability to do good human testing, it is judicious to fall back to objective measurements to ascertain whether there is any possible way that subjective differences might be discernible. Otherwise you are just chasing around your more primitive psychological shadows as poked by marketing folks.

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