Enough said, if you have been following my previous posts, I have been experimenting various power supplies on my various devices and my principle is not going the expensive way where a decent brand name SMPS/LPS can cost up to $300 to $1000+USD.
Power of Supply , especially Linear? pun intended
By upgrading power supplies on my Douk U4 and Wattson Emerson Analog (WEA) , both have benefited from the addition. So I will try to share what I have experienced through prolonged listening back and forth over the last 10 months.
I am not type of guy who chase up the highest high and lowerst low at extreme ends of the spectrum, I rather listen to the recording whether the music reporduction is close to the ideal or the original performance of the artist. It's a subjective term since I have not heard the original performance in the recording studio. So instead , I will try to identify the difference in recording techniques from the sound engineer and artists, the ability to convey the emotion of the singer and performer's best performance. Emotion involvement into the piece of music is utmost important, but the most diffciult part is a system has to present the tranquility as well as spontaeity ,the dead quietness between music notes, the braking and acceleration of the music passages and the thereness sensation when listening to orchestra performance in live hall etc etc.
Things get more demanding when it comes to reconstruct the music hall of a classical performance with single mic recording, which I think 80% of people are not particularly interested, so there's no need to chase for the highest high and lowest low resulting spending an arm and a leg on equipment. Well, for highest high, cheapest way is to acquire a supertweeter and for lowest low, get an affordable subwoofer and one can easily achieve 80% of the original performance which is more than adeqaute. Of course, a fair amount of effort has to be spent to get the best integration of these newly added components.
Like in recent AI race, I'm more than happy to spend DeepSeek money and get results similar to ChatGPT's performance or even surpasses it! Hence over last 4 to 5 years ever since Doctor John and I started exploring the ChiFi market, I have completely replaced my audiophile equipment with cheap and cheapest ChiFi gears, but with due respect, they can be formidable and can produce stunningly good sound if you find the right match and product! The only "relatively expensive audiophile" gear that I use , which in today's term is simply peanuts still, are the Wattson Emerson Analog and the 30 year old Dynaudio Crafft (which is so difficult to replace wthout sending over $4000 USD!).
To me I don't acquire audio equipment by the looks and vanity, I buy because they are practical for my needs , sonically capable and of course, it must be cheap with very high PQR and perhaps another criteria which I have set for myself, that is they have to be small in sizes as you can see with the exception of speakers, currently all my gears right now are palm size! The latest LPS from Rayaudio is larger in size than any gadgets/amps/BT in my setup LOL.
Uptone LPS1.2 acquired in a most interesting way
One of my biggest habit is to surf Review33 , the most popular 2nd hand website in HK, I have some targeted items , which not often on sale or even on sale, are not cheap. Since I'm not in a hurry, I enjoy the searching and waiting process.
Uptone LPS is one item that I have been targeting based on some positive reviews and defintiely would love to try it on my Wattson Emersoion Analog , WEA. One day, I was searching at R33 and one item that is put on sale caught my eyes, A gentleman is sellling 4 units of defective Uptone 1.2 LPS for dirt cheap as parts price. I immediately contacted the seller and bargain down the price to a ridiculously cheap price which is only a fraction of the original price of $400USD plus! I think if I can fix one unit I would have already hit the jackpot! Met the seller and he said he had contacted Uptone online and defective units are not uncommonly found due to excessive heat generated on the ultra high capcitors during rapid switching on and off which increases the chance of malfunctioning. Solution is to keep it on all time to avoid switching on and off.
I then passed the 3 defective units to my new hifi friend who are extremely skillful in making LPS (he built the LPS for my router with old trannies) and terminating my Sommer Vintage Series cables. He then took home and within a few days he fixed one for me!! And the second one a week later and in return, I gave him the third one which he would fix it for his own reasearch and study! The second one ultimately is not working. For the first unit, in order to increase the lifespan of the it , I left it turned on all the time, and it runs perfectly fine so far without a glitch!
I immediately inserted the Uptone LPS1.2 into my system providing power to my WEA.
Sound is promising upon first listen , the performance of iFi Power X seems to be compatible to the Uptone . But further warmup of Uptone, it is apparent that the subtleties and layering of the music from Uptone has the absolute upper hand. It sounds as if it has slow down slightly comapring to iFi which always in an exciting mode. That said, Uptone is not slow at all. It will be slow when music is supposed to be slow but on the other hand it is lightning fast when the music is fast! Last but not least, the dynamic shading of Uptone is better portrayed than iFi while maintaining very musical at the same time and has improved in portarying all the layering, finesse and nuances of the music !
Next I will insert it onto my Douk E6 tube buffer. However, the result is not what I had hoped for. The soundstage collapsed completely compare to the previous wider soundstage using phone charger. So E6 is not compatible with Uptone..
Power Supply (Rayaudio)
I had brought my U4 and iFi power X to Dr. Lo's place for trial and he was very impressed needless to say. With Ray's power supply, the sound has fleshed out and music has become more energetic, he lent his unit to me and 6 of my friends including mysef have ordered Ray's unit! Later on, the new unit has arrived and is looking really good with a nice display in front showing the Voltage reading.
Face Off - WEA vs Douk U4
Which one I prefer? With the U4 (WE 396A tube used), sound is engaging, with PRAT and I could happily listen to the setup all the time. Plus the benefits of playing music from Tidal, TV and Youtube channels and vinyl from my Sound Burger! Soundstage is a bit congested and forward, images are bigger , meanwhile WEA is far from being lean, but feels more relaxed with just the right proportion for me.
But is U4 better than my WEA without Uptone? The answer is no, but the "no" is not as convincing as before. Enter the Uptone, I now prefer WEA for the additional finessse and details and the better unit in reproducing soundn of violin ! WEA has still the upper hands in terms of dynamic shadings, spatial interpretation and depth, better image separation. That said, with Ray's LPS the U4 is so engaing, musical and engaging and is such great sounding piece of musical equipment!!
I feel like the Uptone has definitely elevated the performance of WEA to a point that I can just sat down and listen to hours and hours of music with non of the fatigue and edginess experienced! Somehow, the way that musicians are playing makes more sense to me like, often I said to myself, "hell yeah, this is how it should be played!"
Conclusion
There is no loser in this match! Both units flourish and reproduce some of the most engaging and musical performances for me to enjoy with each of its own merits ! As of now, I'm a happy man. Are there something missing? Of course! The system can have more bass slam and can use a bit more shimmering in highs, imaging can be improved but I really don't fancy the pinpoint focus and rather seek for integrated performance. Soundstage can be higher and deeper etc etc and the list can go on forever. But most inportantly, the setup preserves the essential elements in relation to recreating the musical experience not focusing on reproducing absolute Hifi attributes.
Snake Oil or for Real? Sixth Element
Very recently, someone introduced me the award winning sixth element products "Mars stickers"made of LANTHANOID and am experimenting it and will report the outcome which is indeed very interesting! Is it just snake oil or for real, stay tuned!
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