Popular Post Iving Posted May 2, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted May 2, 2020 My Paul Hynes SR7T just arrived. Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted the T! It was ordered late Dec./early Jan. as an SR7. The anticipated delivery date was March. So we’re 1-2 months behind. I don’t think that has much to do with Coronavirus, although Stephen is flying solo with all his colleagues in isolation. [Paul himself is in isolation for sure.] My impression is that my SR7 could be one of the first [if it is not the first - see serial # below] standard production issues from Paul Hynes Design Ltd. Maybe I wouldn’t have been offered the Turbo version but for the delay – since Stephen only offered it as an option a couple of weeks ago: The design as standard now includes a current overload protection circuit, an optimised thermal shutoff system and the soft start module I may have mentioned before. Whilst I was waiting for the boards back, I finalised the building of the "Turbo" modules that have been so successful in the SR4 for compatibility in the SR5+SR7 power supplies. I would like to know whether you would like to have these included in your build before I progress - I wouldn't like to send you the power supply and then for you to find out next week that you could have Turbo! The cost would be £70.00 per rail if you are interested. I snapped up the offer, paying an additional £140 for the 19V/10A and 12V/12A rails. Total cost for my SR7T £1,540 plus shipping and PayPal fees (thus adding another c. £100). Spec for spec against Sean Jacobs’ PSs (a hypothetical - I know!), this seems like good value for money. [A direct comparison will be thwarted inevitably by the unlikely availability of both a PH and a SJ with similar specs under one roof.] The serial number of my unit is T7001. Acknowledging @Nenon's enthusiasm for Mundorf Silver/Gold – I take credit otherwise for building my cables - hinged on avid reading on AS over quite some time - combined with having built my own cables before (including a Digital AES with Duelund Silver Ribbon 1.0 at its core) – and using my own engineering imagination, given my system hardware parameters. The cables I built in anticipation of the arrival of the SR7T included: - DC Cable for the etherREGEN running off the SR7T’s 12V outlet. [Until now I have been using the stock Uptone PS with a Ground.] My custom cable is heavily shielded tied to chassis ground at the SR7T end. The 2 cores are Mundorf SGW115 [1 yellow, 1 white]. - DC Cable for the HDPLEX 800W ATX Converter mounted on a side panel of my Streacom F12C. The 6 cores [3 yellow, 3 white] are SGW110. The cable is heavily shielded tied to chassis ground at the SR7T end. - 24-pin HDPLEX Converter to mobo custom loom. The Mundorfs are shrouded in shrink where colours approximate convention. A small # wires unrelated to music signal are ordinary copper. All the Mundorfs are SGW115. - CPU comprising 6 x SWG115 being 3 x 12V [yellow] and 3 x 0V [white]. There is a JSSG-type shield around the yellows and whites respectively. - PCIe assisting 2 CPU-direct AICs – one being 280Gb Optane with o/s and prn music [my Library is constantly modded wrt tags], the other an Intel X540-T2. NB: My system is Dante/RedNet. [I loathe USB.] The cable has 4 SGW115 cores total [2 yellow, 2 white], and is heavily shielded with a JSSG-style outer wire connecting the two ends. I didn’t record the construction of these cables with photos. I guess I just wasn’t motivated enough to add to the demands of the whole project. From the photos below, nevertheless, one can see the cables in situ today. I am really happy that (i) they all just work as expected and (ii) they fit physically - exactly as measured in advance of the SR7T's landing. The story behind purchase of my SR7T began last Sept./Oct. - seems like ages ago now. I had an HDPLEX 400 ATX LPSU which was great. I asked Larry about the new version. He said it would be only a month till it was available. He took my existing LPSU as a trade-in. Great service. Then it turned out it would be simply months and months to wait. So I bought an EVGA SuperNOVA 550 G3, 80 Plus Gold as a stopgap. This PS has an ECO mode which keeps the fan off to a power threshold which I would never reach. It has been a really amazing little unit. Not at all bad SQ too! I heartily recommend it to anyone needing something less expensive than a good LPSU. Once I decided to use an HDPLEX 800W Converter no matter what, Larry was good enough to discount the 800W Converter to compensate for the inconvenience. More great service. But I have had possession of it since the beginning of the year, not knowing whether it would work! Fortunately it’s fine. The arrival of the SR7T has heralded multiple changes: - SR7T vs. stock PS for the etherREGEN; - SR7T vs. HDPLEX 400 ATX and then EVGA 550 PS for the PC; - HDPLEX 800W Converter; - all my custom cables. Accordingly I can’t comment on SQ deltas for single components without adding much qualification. What I can say is that immediately on re-fixing my system, SQ is comparatively: - effortless – doesn’t have to try so hard (not that I noticed “trying” prior); - cleaner and more detailed; - enhanced wrt stereo – the sort of effect I obtained a long time ago from vertically bi-amping my cherished Snell Type A III; - just more “natural” – and I notice with relish the ease of female voice e.g. Alison Krauss. I write only 2-3 hours after pressing “play” for the first time – and fully expect a cooking advantage over the next 2-3 weeks. I’m sure already that this has been a good purchase. I’m quite convinced that Stephen and his colleagues want PHD Ltd. to be a success. I'm glad to have the first SR7T if not any SR7. The Streacom cases match nicely. I declare myself free from expectation bias – and all other manner of subjective corruption. Transformers etc to the rhs - out of picture. Heavy cabling under the floor. Hidden engineering behind central mustard furniture. RickyV, NanoSword, HeeBroG and 9 others 7 5 Link to comment
Popular Post Iving Posted May 5, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted May 5, 2020 On 5/2/2020 at 2:07 PM, Iving said: My Paul Hynes SR7T just arrived. Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted the T! It was ordered late Dec./early Jan. as an SR7. The anticipated delivery date was March. So we’re 1-2 months behind. I don’t think that has much to do with Coronavirus, although Stephen is flying solo with all his colleagues in isolation. [Paul himself is in isolation for sure.] My impression is that my SR7 could be one of the first [if it is not the first - see serial # below] standard production issues from Paul Hynes Design Ltd. Maybe I wouldn’t have been offered the Turbo version but for the delay – since Stephen only offered it as an option a couple of weeks ago: The design as standard now includes a current overload protection circuit, an optimised thermal shutoff system and the soft start module I may have mentioned before. Whilst I was waiting for the boards back, I finalised the building of the "Turbo" modules that have been so successful in the SR4 for compatibility in the SR5+SR7 power supplies. I would like to know whether you would like to have these included in your build before I progress - I wouldn't like to send you the power supply and then for you to find out next week that you could have Turbo! The cost would be £70.00 per rail if you are interested. I snapped up the offer, paying an additional £140 for the 19V/10A and 12V/12A rails. Total cost for my SR7T £1,540 plus shipping and PayPal fees (thus adding another c. £100). Spec for spec against Sean Jacobs’ PSs (a hypothetical - I know!), this seems like good value for money. [A direct comparison will be thwarted inevitably by the unlikely availability of both a PH and a SJ with similar specs under one roof.] The serial number of my unit is T7001. Acknowledging @Nenon's enthusiasm for Mundorf Silver/Gold – I take credit otherwise for building my cables - hinged on avid reading on AS over quite some time - combined with having built my own cables before (including a Digital AES with Duelund Silver Ribbon 1.0 at its core) – and using my own engineering imagination, given my system hardware parameters. The cables I built in anticipation of the arrival of the SR7T included: - DC Cable for the etherREGEN running off the SR7T’s 12V outlet. [Until now I have been using the stock Uptone PS with a Ground.] My custom cable is heavily shielded tied to chassis ground at the SR7T end. The 2 cores are Mundorf SGW115 [1 yellow, 1 white]. - DC Cable for the HDPLEX 800W ATX Converter mounted on a side panel of my Streacom F12C. The 6 cores [3 yellow, 3 white] are SGW110. The cable is heavily shielded tied to chassis ground at the SR7T end. - 24-pin HDPLEX Converter to mobo custom loom. The Mundorfs are shrouded in shrink where colours approximate convention. A small # wires unrelated to music signal are ordinary copper. All the Mundorfs are SGW115. - CPU comprising 6 x SWG115 being 3 x 12V [yellow] and 3 x 0V [white]. There is a JSSG-type shield around the yellows and whites respectively. - PCIe assisting 2 CPU-direct AICs – one being 280Gb Optane with o/s and prn music [my Library is constantly modded wrt tags], the other an Intel X540-T2. NB: My system is Dante/RedNet. [I loathe USB.] The cable has 4 SGW115 cores total [2 yellow, 2 white], and is heavily shielded with a JSSG-style outer wire connecting the two ends. I didn’t record the construction of these cables with photos. I guess I just wasn’t motivated enough to add to the demands of the whole project. From the photos below, nevertheless, one can see the cables in situ today. I am really happy that (i) they all just work as expected and (ii) they fit physically - exactly as measured in advance of the SR7T's landing. The story behind purchase of my SR7T began last Sept./Oct. - seems like ages ago now. I had an HDPLEX 400 ATX LPSU which was great. I asked Larry about the new version. He said it would be only a month till it was available. He took my existing LPSU as a trade-in. Great service. Then it turned out it would be simply months and months to wait. So I bought an EVGA SuperNOVA 550 G3, 80 Plus Gold as a stopgap. This PS has an ECO mode which keeps the fan off to a power threshold which I would never reach. It has been a really amazing little unit. Not at all bad SQ too! I heartily recommend it to anyone needing something less expensive than a good LPSU. Once I decided to use an HDPLEX 800W Converter no matter what, Larry was good enough to discount the 800W Converter to compensate for the inconvenience. More great service. But I have had possession of it since the beginning of the year, not knowing whether it would work! Fortunately it’s fine. The arrival of the SR7T has heralded multiple changes: - SR7T vs. stock PS for the etherREGEN; - SR7T vs. HDPLEX 400 ATX and then EVGA 550 PS for the PC; - HDPLEX 800W Converter; - all my custom cables. Accordingly I can’t comment on SQ deltas for single components without adding much qualification. What I can say is that immediately on re-fixing my system, SQ is comparatively: - effortless – doesn’t have to try so hard (not that I noticed “trying” prior); - cleaner and more detailed; - enhanced wrt stereo – the sort of effect I obtained a long time ago from vertically bi-amping my cherished Snell Type A III; - just more “natural” – and I notice with relish the ease of female voice e.g. Alison Krauss. I write only 2-3 hours after pressing “play” for the first time – and fully expect a cooking advantage over the next 2-3 weeks. I’m sure already that this has been a good purchase. I’m quite convinced that Stephen and his colleagues want PHD Ltd. to be a success. I'm glad to have the first SR7T if not any SR7. The Streacom cases match nicely. I declare myself free from expectation bias – and all other manner of subjective corruption. Transformers etc to the rhs - out of picture. Heavy cabling under the floor. Hidden engineering behind central mustard furniture. Quick update at 80 hours or 3½ days ... Adjacent to my PC which is housed in its Streacom F12C case, the SR7T looks deceptively diminutive in its matching FC9 Alpha. I say "deceptively" because the SR7T is comfortably muscular. It exerts "calm control" [a Yang to its owner so to speak - rather like my wife]. My Isotek and iFi AC shunts have always made a difference. If a permutation of them "locks in", I try to leave it alone. In my Isotek Sirius (please see system if interested), a shunt works well adjacent to the sensitive D16 AES as if "protecting it". In the past I have avoided this shunt because I thought, at times, I could hear colouration at loud volume levels that didn't feature if I located the shunt elsewhere. I can't explain it. I put it down to my power amps - and put them on my upgrade list! Well that has changed for sure. Now I can lodge an iFi AC purifier next to the RedNet interface [in the Sirius as described] - reaping the accompanying improvement including extension of bass, and crank up the volume without hearing distortion of note at all. Well - unless very loud - but then I hear the kind of break up I would expect to hear. At this point, however, I fear (probably unnecessarily) for my speaker drivers - so the issue is irrelevant. Summary: the SR7T is giving me clean, brawny power right across the listening volume range. The SQ elevation overall is unmistakeable. Just depth, detail and dynamic. The delta is very significant. There is no mistake. The music is strikingly more "natural" as I noticed immediately three days ago. The stereo effect I mentioned is worthy of re-statement. There is a great separation of everything - like a glorious firework! These very tangible improvements are co-contingent on 12V from the SR7T to the etherREGEN (in place of the stock Uptone PS). Whilst, logically, one could attribute all SQ extras to upgraded eR power, my guess is that much more than half of the improvement is in the PC. Either way, perhaps @Superdad overstated the redundancy one might expect with the eR - specifically (i) favourable upstream tweaks and (ii) effect of clean power to the eR itself. Don't get me wrong - the eR is a treasured component in my OFFLINE ethernet-based chain where it sits PC > eR > RedNet D16 AES > DAC. I know I could A/B PSs to the eR to investigate further - but it's not a high priority. I planned it this way [2 outlets being 19V/10A to the PC via HDPLEX 800W Converter + 12V dedicated to the eR] - and what is happening is good. [I forgot to mention in my earlier post that several V/A combos are possible with the SR7/T - up to 4 in one case if I am not mistaken - see the Paul Hynes web site for more info.] Although I don't imagine that 80 hours or 3½ days represents full SR7T burn-in, I'll only post again if something qualitatively different emerges. I just wanted to say that enhancements are being realised as expected, and that I am completely satisfied with the SR7T. I am not affiliated with Paul Hynes (or Uptone!) - just a happy punter - for the record! beautiful music, Exocer, HeeBroG and 2 others 1 3 1 Link to comment
Iving Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 31 minutes ago, austinpop said: @Iving Congratulations on your SR7T, and I, of course, am not surprised to hear of your positive experiences. I thought I'd suggest one more experiment for you to consider. Do you have another "good" 12V PSU available - for example, an LPS-1.2, SR4, Farad, etc? If so, use it to power the EtherRegen. This frees up the 12V/12A rail on your SR7T to... ...independently power the CPU via the EPS (8-pin Molex) port on your motherboard. You'll of course need an XLR to 8-pin Molex cable, or an adapter from 5.5x2.1 barrel to 8-pin Molex. Ghent Audio can build you these. The outcome of this experiment is not necessarily clear. I do know that independently powering the CPU via a separate beefy 12v rail does wonders to the SQ of the server. However, it is also true that the ER benefits greatly from an SR7-quality PSU, so you'd be downgrading the ER PSU relative to your current baseline. Still, you may find that the net effect is better than what you currently have. Thank you for your thoughts. Being a reader of the "novel" thread I was aware of this possibility. A sig. constraint is building cables. I make my own. They are highly shielded and end up stiff. They are precisely measured to hardware. What I am saying is that once I committed a good length of expensive Mundorf Silver/Gold plus extra materials to making the eR cable terminating in a DC barrel plug, I can't now easily re-deploy the same wire to a molex job for the CPU. I'd have to build another very expensive cable just to do the experiment. (And the first cable would be wasted.) So I kinda had to commit to one or the other - and this is the permutation I chose. It has crossed my mind to get an SR4T for the eR and use the SR7T 12V for the CPU ... but (we have confidence in the HDPLEX 800W Converter, right, and anyway) I don't want too many such thoughts to cross my mind ... and my hobby fund is depleted! If ever I do it, I'll be sure to post. I sure hope to read other SR7 experiences on this Thread. austinpop 1 Link to comment
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