Hi Michael.
Glad to hear you are still gripped and we are still coming to the same conclusions.
Cant wait to hear what you think. I must try the innuos statement next. Sean or Dr Sean Jacobs is doing some great things.
I am having my Dc4 upgraded next week.
All the best
Rich
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Hi Rich! Yes, Sean’s doing some great stuff, which is what got me interested in Innuos in the first place. I’ve been extremely pleased with the Statement and PhoenixNet in my system.
Well the Statement’s unpacked and plugged in. Even stony cold and with no burn-in, the differences are readily apparent on even old recordings from the thirties, never mind hi-def audiophile stuff from this year. Everything is more out of the speaker and more defined. Dynamics are a notch up. I can hear details that were unnoticed or much less noticeable before without this involving any “artificial details on a plinth/in relief” effects. Textures are beautifully richer and more defined. The soundstage is also enhanced, above all in depth and height. There’s more space and air in there.
The sound is also more open - almost as if it’s more relaxed and slower, partly because the increased texture and details make everything more expressive.
Anyway, it’s very early days, but all positives and no negatives so far. I’m a very happy bunny. God alone knows how I will be waxing lyrical once it’s properly warmed up and burnt in. I dare say you lot will be sending round a hit squad to shut me up… Very glad I went for this.
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Hi Michael
Whats the latest?
We sent the hit squad in on a pre-emptive strike😉
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Sorry for the radio silence - work has been barmy this week.
Well, this beastie has kept gradually maturing as it burns in, especially in the midrange, thankfully, which initially sounded a little cold and recessed on some pieces compared with the original Statement, accentuated by the increased detail and dynamism across the range. I say initially: it still does but it keeps improving. This has been my only doubt so far. There’s been just a little lack of texture, delicacy and depth there.
Other observations - all positive - are that the new PS makes a nice difference even on old recordings like the 1953-4 Schwarzkopf Strauss last songs (really showing the difference between the rather poor Qobuz FLAC download and my CD rip), Furtwangler Beethoven 7th or early seventies Boult, bringing added clarity that opening out the interplay between different sections/instruments of the orchestra (and the singer).
So far, so subtle, but the new Statement really astonishes on good modern recordings: the new The Gift by Paul Berner and Michael Moore, Al de Meola et al in Friday Night in San Francisco, Forcione’s Talking Hands, Ted Sirota’s Geronimo’s Free, where there’s much more detail and definition, a greater presence of the instruments and of course what the musicians are up to with them. Improved flow and PRaT, too.
All sorts of instrumental textures benefit, also, drums and brass especially, but piano very much, too, from guttural bass to bell-like upper registers. The Moravec Chopin Nocturnes respond well.
All this applies to big orchestral works, too, (just listening to Gorecki Symphony 3) but also wonderfully loonie stuff like Cocteau Twins’ Musette and Drums, for the latter partly because of the more extended and defined bass (even if we’re talking drum machine here), but also because of the weird layering and interplay between drums, voice and wailing guitar on this piece.
Everything of course benefits from the greater sense of space and spatial precision across a much more “present” soundstage
Anyway, I’ll have more to say when I’ve had more time to listen and less work absorbing my energies. Above all, I hope to be able to confirm that the midrange comes into its own. Which has also been my excuse for not posting more. I think we’re nearly there now, though.
And for those reading this who think it’s strange for all of this to apply to a digital front end that’s just a music server never mind a DAC, well I can understand where you’re coming from. But make a difference the Statement certainly does, and with this new PS possibly over half as much again.
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Nice write up Michael……perhaps one day.
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Well, today has been a bit of a triple expletive of astonishment day.
This run-in had seemed to be relatively linear, but now it’s likely someone has flicked a switched. The midrange has come to life and how. Along with even more of everything else. The difference the new PS setup makes is becoming simply astonishing - and not just on the ND555. It has utterly transformed the Atom HE, too. Listening to Cesaria Evoria at the moment. Utterly magical.
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When you think about it in layman’s terms, the server (and it’s power supply) is the ultimate source component, so to me the impact the Statement and its posh new power supply is having on your revealing system is no surprise.
Now do I really need both kidneys?
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Another observation, not unusual in upgrades that increase clarity and reduce noise are that listening at lower levels is richer and more rewarding, but that there’s also a tendency to turn the volume up higher than before.
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Well, this thing is still improving. Innuos said about three weeks, so who knows where it’s going to end up, but it keeps impressing and surprising me (and confusing me - I still can’t quite believe it is having this effect). Since last week’s sudden big jump, the improvements have gone back to being more gradual.
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One day you’re going to wake up, switch on and wonder if you dreamt about all those massive improvements. Slightly boomy bass, slight sibilance, especially noticable on spoken word like Swiss Radio Classics announcers.
If you are like me you’ll conclude the listening session feeling a bit down.
The next day you’ll fire it up again and even before you turn up the volume, you’ll notice that something remarkable has happened. I guess its that the Mundorfs have finally run in but I certainly can’t be sure. All I know is, the sound is now on an altogether different plane and while you’ll notice that hi-fi related attributes have changed, the most overwhelming change will be to your response to the music. Even before the first note you’ll feel your aural reality change as the recording’s atmosphere and acoustics entirely change your perceived listening environment. The first notes ring out and you’ll find yourself convinced you’re listening to musicians playing instruments in the recording or engineered venue. Your ability to analyse the music and sound is gone as your thoughts are overwhelmed by the complete immersion and involvement in the music.
This is not my experience with a Next Gen Statement….I still have that pleasure to come. Rather its my experience when upgrading all my network power supplies with ARC6 mods. The Statement Next Gen goes beyond this with further upgrades to the CPU supply and better vibration isolation but I imagine the running in process could sound very similar. An initial large uplift, followed by stability, followed by another minor uplift, more stability then a downshift prior to the last and most consequential uplift.
I was planning to get my Statement upgraded during a holiday in July but DHL wholly cocked up the collection, so its now scheduled for September. In the meantime I’m thoroughly enjoying what my ARC6 upgrades are delivering.
I’ll be very interested to hear about your further experiences. I would note that for me, this final uplift in performance took a lot longer than 3 weeks, but I’ve heard a similar effect with several upgrades to SJ power supplies that included lots of Mundorf caps.
Many thanks for the Next Gen review….very interested in further changes…let’s see if your Statement upgrade behaves like my PSs.
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Michaelb
I haven’t followed the detail of what is involved with the upgrade. Would you mind sharing/ repeating if both boxes are required to make the journey back to Portugal or is it just the power supply? Is the power supply innards upgraded or is it more a case of replacing the old with new?
Peter
Hi Peter,
It is in fact more than the power supply, including a panzerholz vibration isolating mounting board for the new active rectifiers and requires both boxes to go back: it’s a very comprehensive upgrade. Here’s how Innuos describe the mods:
The impressive improvement in sound quality is achieved by an innovative Power Supply design and significant component upgrades:
The Power section uses two custom-designed ARC6 AC/DC modules – each containing a new high-precision Active Rectifier board, a massive 10mH DC Choke and almost 4 times more capacitance provided by six Mundorf caps. The ARC6 modules are mounted on the new Adaptive Vibration Control (AVC) platform, a combination of Panzerholz wood with a specific density gel layer, which is highly effective at dampening high-frequency vibration coming from the chassis.
In the Server section, the Regulator modules include a dedicated CPU Booster module, providing up to 15A of current to the CPU for faster transients. All rails are further smoothed by new Audio Note KAISEI capacitors benefitting all the main components: Motherboard, USB Reclocker, Ethernet Clock module and SSD.
There’s no doubt everything is cleaner, clearer, faster, more dynamic and more extended in the bass and treble. I’ve not yet made a final judgement because burn-in is neither linear or constant. As @Blackmorec suggested, it is also carrying on well into week 3 and probably beyond. It’s quite jaw-dropping most of the time now, revealing all sorts of previously unheard detail/texture and spatial information/presence, but sometimes still a little hard, so I’ve been holding off saying anything until I feel the SQ has settled and stabilised.
Happy Bank Holiday!
Mike
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I wonder if power supply upgrades for Phoenix Net might follow, since Innuos emphasise the quality and importance of the power supply in it.???
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No idea. But the price of the components might preclude it. There’s a big difference in price. However the Pulsar does seem to share many of these new components with the Statement NextGen, making it a wonderful choice for those not interested in local storage.
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But can you put a external ssd drive direct in the Pulsar?
I’m honestly not sure. Innuos state you can, however. use the Pulse series to play music stored on a connected NAS.
Michaelb, many thanks for the response and information. Looking forward to your later thoughts when you judge the Innuos to have optimised.
Peter
We all need to be patient because the period required for the ARC6 mods to fully run in is months not weeks. 3 weeks is early days. You may think its a long time, but the system will entertain you in the meantime with nice little steps of improvement before the final jump….and its that final jump that makes it all worth waiting for. Essentially the biggest difference doesn’t allow itself to be easily analysed or described in typical audiophile speak…the final jump is much more about the listener and how the music is felt, that goes beyond just imaging and soundstage and bass etc. For a start the music sounds more sonorous and beautiful, its sound more ‘at ease and ‘real-axed’, a purposeful misspelling to describe music that sounds more real because it has that ease of real music about it. Then there’s the feeling of being in the venue where the music is being made. The music sounds ‘freshly created’ and spontaneous, like its being performed there and then. The space in which the music happens feels real and present and entirely different to your listening room. Entirely different between every recording with each having its own individual space, atmosphere, acoustics….some natural, some engineered, maybe a band of musicians playing music in a venue, others a complex mix of artificially created space with tremendous detail, depth and dynamic space, with different atmospheres and spaces played alongside one another to enhance the complexity, interest and excitement in the music, All these qualities are played with the utmost dynamics and detail. The music message becomes clearer….the message is essentially how the music is intended to make you feel and this feeling gets stronger the better your network and its associated power supplies become. It’s about music that grabs your full attention, gets your feet and arms dancing and make you go WOOooooooo. Rhythms have never been so compelling, it rocks, it dances, it slinks, it projects 4 dimensional sonic landscapes of surprising detail and finesse.
If I was to hazard a guess at the nature of improvement I’m hearing I’d describe it technically as being like you would expect to hear if both channels were more accurately reproduced and the matching between left and right channels improved in terms of the brain’s ability and associated processes of creating conscious 4 dimensional music with qualities we love and respond to from the sound waves the ears receive and nerve impulses the brain receives. Remember that stereo is a technical illusion….what improving your network does is to improve the creation and processing of that illusion.
In terms of the above description, the most important elements by far are the power supplies, but their full contribution takes a while to evolve and develop fully. I’d guess the long time has to do with the supply being very understressed in terms of capacity vs load, so isnt getting any heavy exercise.
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