Glad you have been testing…
taking the time to learn/know our equipment is truly worthwhile, and, given this is a hobby on top of 'the enjoyment of having music sound like, erm,… ‘music’, the hobby stuff if taken in stride and done so ‘with joy’/passion is very rewarding too.
some reflections to share on the process you have just gone through…
‘hearing SOME differences’ (but them being small enough to not notice or ‘care’); this might not be true of all music.
A particular track, the differences might be very obvious. Some whole genres can prove difficult to render, and if traits favouring one of the two setup options you have been trialing lean toward a given preferred genre sounding BEST (albeit ‘slightly’) -then that IS a win.
(I wouldn’t dismiss the small stuff outright!)
My main reason for posting isn’t to state that small observable differences may/‘may not’ be worthwhile,… but to highlight that the SN2 is no doubt ‘very broken in’ and performing at its’ absolute best.
The new part probably hasn’t even begun to open up yet…
I’d lean on their being great strengths to be found in the new part, as a preamp, into the SN2 using AV Bypass (Unity Gain),… and that ‘more time in the oven’ exploring such sound might be worthwhile.
There can be a few setup questions that some might want addressed, the ‘scientists’ if you will (lets face it,… we neeed ‘observable phenomena’ and this IS a process…);
If the cable is new that links these parts… it too may need some time to find its’ stride.
Also, there are advantages to using an existing cable in the traditional setup as the kit has run for a long time already… Line level output is a ‘stronger signal’, and even a more generic cable can pass this and achieve a certain ‘delicacy’; combine that with the very decent preamp circuitry in a Supernait, and the strengths of that setup are stacked, clearly, against the alternative option- being an unbroken in preamp, using a likely unbroken in cable, and sending a very delicate signal (variable level) into the 'Unity Gain’ed Supernait.
Depending on your power setup, you might find strengths and weaknesses to both setups in a range of areas… and I haven’t even read about the preamp you are using; I am sure I could reach out and point and a few things that might need consideration when attempting to make sense of the two options available to you.
I certainly would encourage FURTHER A/B’ing, and perhaps on some of the better classical/orchestral recordings you might be familiar with. (they seem to really push rigs in ways that a lot of music simply does not- although I have tracks by Nine Inch Nails /‘other genres’ that push sound systems in familiar ways that I have come to trust when ‘pulling apart’ what I am actually hearing…)
And just because something sounds different, doesn’t make it better.
all to often we WANT to ascribe sound ‘differences’ as being better when the part we are rotating in cost more.
I was caught out once at a friends place when they’d bought a new R2R DAC.
The first two hours of it ‘straight from box’ the sound was “opening up”; I was using an Android phone to do ‘on the fly’ PCM=>DSD conversion (Onkyo HF Player software) and the sonic differences, at the time, were evident.
The weird bubble that the DSD’d music had, was, in someways a trait that one might seek.
We then trialed a few digital cables, and leant on the cable that did the same thing as the DSD files kind of rendered (one of the cables made the music appear to be in more ‘pockets’); in hindsight I would believe that DSD files through that R2R are the inferior file choice (and run through a regular Delta Sigma process in order to be ‘handled’), and therefore the digital cable that sounded closer to the PCM tracks being decoded was ‘probably the more honest’/‘better’ choice.
There were differences, but that doesn’t always make something better.
Trust your feet. (smiles with’)
