This really doesn’t have much to do with Roon specifically, but I felt compelled to post about this: I somewhat impulsively (for me) purchased an Uptone JS-2 linear power supply for my e32 DAC and PlayPoint. I received the LPS on Thursday, and I’ve been sitting here most of the weekend with my mouth open because I’m astonished at how much better everything sounds. I really thought my system was sounding pretty good beforehand and that the JS-2 would make a more subtle difference.
Heretofore, I haven’t been a huge fan of extolling the virtues of system tweaks, but I’m noticing that the noise floor seems much lower, the sound stage seems a little bit wider and a lot deeper, and everything sounds more relaxed and natural. I’ve been listening at a higher volume level than usual, mostly because everything sounds just so damned good.
I don’t doubt that other good-quality LPSes would yield a similar improvement, but the JS-2 is the only one I’ve had in my system. Before making my move, I asked George Klissarov for any advice he cared to offer in this area, and he recommended a TeddyPardo LPS for the e32 and sticking with the SMPS that shipped with the PlayPoint (so therein lies my impulsivity — Alex Crespi at Uptone apparently has a very powerful reality distortion field, but things worked out very well).
Can you describe your system and how it’s set up? I think it’s best to know the overall arrangement to be able to offer an opinion on whether and where you’d derive the most benefit from the LPS.
Also, to determine whether the difference the LPS makes is worth its cost, you’d ideally want to hear it in your system. I’d recommend you contact Alex Crespi at Uptone and see what his return/loaner policy is. (I couldn’t find it spelled out on the website.)
Hi David, my system consists of a Kt88 valve amp runining into a Lampizator Golden gate Dac.
I’ve just bought a new laptop this week as I was having problems with Roon on my old Laptop.
It’s a HP i7 7700 16g ram. My Lampizator connects to this via USB. I’m using an external hard drive to play high res music plus Tidal. But will be transferring all my music to my Vortexbox box as I’ve just ordered a 10Tb Nas drive for it. It only had 2 Tb before so wouldn’t be enough as my external Hard drive is 5Tb an almost full.
Cheers
Scott
In terms of sound quality, and since the JS-2 is not inexpensive, I think you might benefit more from prioritizing a good-quality network endpoint (e.g., the SOtM sMS-200 or the Sonore ultraRendu). (I’m assuming you already have a great power supply for your Golden Gate.)
