The Paul Hynes SR7

[TheAttorney]

My queue number was 7, and received my 3-rail SR7 exactly one week ago. So I guess number 8 will be getting theirs about now.

Due to various complications, I haven't been able to give it a proper listen yet, but will post some impressions in due course.

 

One thing that's new (at least to me) is that Paul has found a way of increasing the voltage span adjustment of the "fixed" voltages from 5v to 10v, without seemingly impacting the current rating, which remains broadly constant irrespective of voltage adjustment. And as such he has "upgraded" my fixed rails as follows:

 

My original requirements were 12v-7v and 9v-5v for my 2 "fixed voltage" rails. But I was a little surprised that my unit arrived with both rails spec'd at 12v-2v. On reflection this is a good thing as it considerably gains flexibility and is more than I had asked for. My understanding is that Paul will automatically upgrade remaining SR7 deliveries in this way (without prior notification) as long as the new spec is a superset of the original one.

[TheAttorney]

This has reminded me that I promised to post some impressions of my SR7, so here goes…

 

Introduction:

My source is a battery powered W10 Laptop with Roon + Fidelizer Pro + Process Lasso. With an Anker USB>Ethernet dongle connected to a USB 3.0 port. This connected as follows:

 

Laptop > Supra CAT8 cable > bridged mR 1.4 with LPS-1 > TQ USB cable  > ISORegen with MCRU  > USPCB > DAVE DAC > HEK V2 headphones. With lots of ferrites on the digital cables. And everything connected to an Audience aR4TS power conditioner (a high end teflon capacitor based passive filter style conditioner).

 

When I ordered the SR7 a year ago, my intention was that it would power a new super server plus up to 2 little ultra boxes. In the meantime, the rise of the likes of Innuos servers, with their built in power supplies, has somewhat clouded the original objective, but hey ho, let’s see what the coming year will bring.

 

Listening impressions:

The following is what I noticed when I replaced both the LPS-1 and the MCRU with 2 rails of the SR7.

In the first few days, the SR7 gave an expansive and effortless sound. And darker, so it was particularly kind to over bright recordings. But maybe too dark, as I was missing some dynamics and detail. Due to some diversions, I then had a listening break of about a week. On return, the SR7 had about 2 weeks of gentle burn-in. And this time I had a mini WOW moment – the darkness was replaced the most natural, detailed and dynamic sound I had yet heard from my system. Every type of recording benefitted – whether bright, dull, dynamic, compressed, etc.

 

I find it hard to objectively quantify the level of improvement, but I think it was significantly greater than, say, the LPS-1 was over my original iFi p/s. As often is the case with any well balanced upgrade, the improvements were across the board, but the areas that I particularly noticed were:

• ·      A stronger bass, with bass appearing in recordings that I didn’t think had any. I did wonder if that meant that bass-heavy recordings would suffer, but they improved too, I think because of the increased focus, e.g. a general bass “thud” turned into a bass guitar string being plucked (up to a point – not always night and day differences).
• ·        A very lifelike midrange with strong “presence” to vocals, and a very natural treble that some may find too subdued, but which suits me fine.
• ·      These and other improvements combined to give a weightier, more expansive and effortless soundstage, with individual images more precisely focussed. I’ve not noticed any downsides at all.

To add some perspective, the addition of the SR7 didn’t mean that the rest of my system could now take it easy. Attention to detail for the other components still mattered. E.g. I’ve just moved my hifi rack a few feet closer to the mains sockets (so I could remove my Audience PLC for an upcoming upgrade, and also check what impact the PLC had on my SR7).  When I connected everything back up again direct to the mains sockets, I couldn’t get Roon to recognise the bridged mR. To cut a long, frustrating, story short, I abandoned the mR and am using laptop USB direct to DAVE DAC. This resulted in a major step down in SQ. Although adding in the SR7 powered ISORegen did improve upon that, it was still worse than my original system. So the SR7 won’t completely transform a poor system, it’ll just make it better.  

 

Practical considerations:

My black SR7MR3XL was ordered with 1 high rail (19v-9v, 7A) and two low rails (both 12v-2v, 3A). With such wide and overlapping voltage spans, infinitely variable, I think this would power just about any 3-box hifi system I’m ever likely to encounter.

 

Yes, the SR7 enclosure is quite big, sort of shoe box sized, with greater depth than width, which is quite handy as I can put the SR7 on the same shelf as another not-too-wide component, and its extra depth means that the DC cables round the back can be as short as possible to reach components on the shelves above or below.

 

The enclosure is very well finished, but the top and bottom plates are quite thin and do resonate when tapped. There is a slight mechanical hum from the transformer, not surprising considering its huge size. Later on, I’ll try adding my HRS footers and damping plate to see if they have an effect on SQ or the mechanical hum.

 

Although Paul only advertises 1 metre length cables, you can order any length. The shorter the better and at a significant cost saving. I went for a 0.4M and 0.5M length 6SXLs which were long enough to reach the backs of components on the next shelf. These solid core silver wires are quite stiff – they do bend ok, but I wouldn’t want to bend them too tightly. They are also a twisted 3-wire design. The 3^rd wire is not connected at the barrel plug end. I haven’t opened up the Jaeger connector to check, but I guess the 3^rd wire is connected to ground.

 

The Jaeger connectors are the most secure and solid connectors I’ve ever come across – no wonder Paul likes them. At the other end, I’ve stayed with the Switchcraft barrel plugs, although I’ve heard that Paul can upgrade these to Oyaide on request.

[TheAttorney]

For those that have yet to open up their SR7, the following may save some time:

 

The screws used are Torx star-headed screws, size T20.

The usual Philips/Posidrive cross-headed screwdrivers won't fit.

 

I unscrewed the back panel, as Paul recommnded. There are wires connected to the back panel, but it only needs to be angled out slightly in order to get a grip on the top panel to slide that out.

[TheAttorney]

A while back I promised I'd report back on various tweaks to my SR7. Well, in the meantime, lots of things complicated the matter, but I'll just cut to the chase. Treat the following Q&A results (in chronological order) as food for thought rather than scientifically conclusive:

 

Q: Is the SR7 affected by power line conditioners (PLC)?

A: Yes probably. I sent my Audience PLC away for several weeks for an upgrade to latest spec. With the PLC away, the SQ didn't initially seem to suffer that much. But gradually  the resulting slightly more diffuse, splashier sound made me less and less enchanted with my system - to the point I almost entirely stopping listening to my main rig - I'd rather listen to a well balanced low end (free Spotify) portable rig than an underperforming high end rig.  I wrote "probably" because the PLC was powering my DAVE DAC as well as the SR7, so I don't know how these were proportionally affected. Previous experience leads me to assume that both were affected.

 

Q: Is the SR7 affected by power cords?

A: Yes. I raided my spares box to compare 2 similarly  priced, old power cords from Transparent and Audience - around the £500 mark. With the SR7, I could more easily discern their  different characteristics than I had achieved in past comparisons of the same power cords. On this occasion, I preferred the Audience's greater clarity and dynamics over Transparent's slightly smothering smoothness.

 

Q: Is the SR7 affected by vibration control tweaks?

A: Yes, but it can be subtle and unpredictable.  I also managed to eventually cure the previously mentioned transformer mains hum in an unexpected way . Will elaborate in a separate post.

 

Q: Is the SR7 affected by audiophile fuses?

A: Yes. I've previously played around with audiophile fuses to good  effect. Despite being suspicious of their high price for apparent material content, I've found the SQ benefit to be greater than, say, an equivalently priced power cord. Nevertheless, the  most I've ever spent is about £50 for the SR Red fuse. But now there is only one fuse in my entire  main rig (see below) . And with my 3-rail SR7's single fuse benefitting up to 3 devices,  I threw caution to the wind and splashed out around  £120 on SR's top Blue fuse (same rating as stock).

 

The improvement was obvious from  the first minute (in one word "focus"). Then better still after 2-3 days (further refinement added to focus). Sometime during the following couple of weeks I realised that I was getting ever more engaged with the music irrespective of the quality of the recording. Bright recordings became smoother, and duller recordings sprang to life. Maybe because it was chronologically last in the chain, but I attributed much of this newfound bliss to the SR Blue.

 

And then the music suddenly stopped - the fuse had blown for no good reason. The dealer MCRU was very good to offer a refund without quibble, but I didn't want a refund, I wanted another SR Blue because my system sounded broken without it - objectively little different, but the magic was gone. Still waiting for that replacement. PS. I know this is impossible in a AC circuit, but I'm convinced the SR Blue is directional. By 50/50 chance I had it the correct way round the first time. Some of the magic was lost the other way round.

 

My system is: W10 laptop + Roon + Fidelizer -> direct bridge -> mR 1.4 -> IR -> DAVE -> Hifiman HEK V2 headphones. With SR7 driving mR and IR, with 1 rail spare waiting for a supa dupa new source (once the NUC dust settles).

 

 

[TheAttorney]

On 1/10/2019 at 3:23 PM, auricgoldfinger said:

I blew 2 blue fuses that I was using in my JS-2.  SR was kind enough to replace the second one for free after I inquired about it. @austinpop told me that adding a 1.3-1.6x factor seems to be preferred (I'm not sure by whom), so I elected to go with a 1.6A fuse (vs. stock 1A) with the free replacement fuse.  So far, everything is fine.  🤞
 

Yes, I've read a number of times that audiophile fuses (not just SR's) seem to be more fragile than stock. So I ordered my replacement to be the next rating up (4A instead of 3.15A). It's a slightly increased risk, but it's getting to he point where the fuse is becoming more expensive than the electronics it is trying to protect!

 

Regarding vibration control, the SR7's side panels sound very solid when tapped, but the unbraced flat top and bottom panels sound a bit tinny, so these seemed the best candidates for vibration control. Using only whatever I could find in my spares box , I tried some reasonably priced  audiophile footers  below, and an unreasonably priced HRS damper plate above. Neither made much difference to SQ.

 

 

I then tried 3 dirt cheap KE "shake away" washing machine pads below. I previously had (very) minor success with these under DAVE, but no luck here. I then tried the KE pads at the sides (1 under either side near the transformer and the 3rd under the front panel - and here I found an improvement. It was subtle, but the KE pads are staying for now. YMMV an awful lot with this type of tweak.

 

None of the above made much difference to the transformer's physical hum that I had originally reported. If anything the KE pads under the sides made it slightly worse. It was loud enough to be clearly heard on the opposite side of a quiet room. I then realised that the hum wasn't constant - it followed  a 10 second wave:  At 0 seconds it was loudest, gradually reducing to near silent at around 5 seconds, then gradually increasing to loudest at around 10 seconds.  

 

Anyway, I've recently moved house, and I've been pleasantly surprised to hear that the SR7 is now permanently whisper quiet. I.e. I have to strain to hear any hum at all, even a foot away in a quiet room. So the original problem was caused by the house power supply, rather than the SR7 itself. Can anyone suggest what causes this?

 

[TheAttorney]

On 1/12/2019 at 10:11 PM, Middy said:

 

My isolation trans was pulsing and getting worse over time i tryed rubber Car panel and PC rubber noise blocker.

I even have a mains DC blocker..

Off another issue i bought a mains pass through reader, i was getting the max UK voltage of 251V in Birmingham.

I added the Power inspired pre Isolation trans as it outputs 230V Sine. This pulsing has gone. Moving to another part of the national  grid might have solved this for you.

Most trans seem to be 110 220 230v.

I dont know and want an answer if its core saturation, mag flux with higher voltages over 230v causing hum pulsation??? , not sure what others abroad have 240+V as well as UK.

 

Hi Dave, I don't think that over-voltage was the cause of my SR7 transformer hum. My new location measures 240v, whereas previously I was getting typically 230-238v. One difference is that new location's voltage is much more constant: Over a few seconds, it changes by only 1 or 2 tenths of a volt, Whereas the old location could randomly change by 4 or 5 volts. The very constant 10 second transformer hum pulsing did not match the very random voltage fluctuation, but the latter suggests that the power supply was less than optimum in some way.

[TheAttorney]

18 hours ago, Johnseye said:

 

Ghent will also make you a JSSG 360 version out of Gotham cable if you ask. 

 

I had a poor experience recently when adding JSSG 360 to my SR7 DIY DC cable:

 

Started with 4 x Neotech 18AWG OCC solid core copper in starquad formation. Soldered to a Jaeger connector at SR7 end (2 wires per pin), and an el cheapo screw terminated 2.5mm plug at Hugo M-scaler end. About 0.6m long, no grounding.

Sounded great, but I haven't compared to any other cable yet.

 

I then added JSSG 360 and got worse SQ across the board (flatter, more smeared, reduced detail/dynamics etc).

I assumed I was imagining it, so let it run for a few days, but SQ remained disappointing.

So I removed the JSSG 360 and SQ immediately improved - it was very obvious, no further A/B comparisons needed.

 

I can imagine that there may be some circumstances where JSSG 360 would not give much improvement, but I can't see how it could ever make things worse. Any ideas?

 

[TheAttorney]

7 hours ago, Exocer said:

What are people using for vibration control? Was the upgrade worthwhile?

Have been eyeing some iso acoustics feet.

I have iso acoustics Orea's under my SR7 (in the old-style "shoe box" enclosure).

 

It's important to get the right Orea model to match the weight of the component. I got 3 x Orea Graphites.

 

To get broadly equal weight distribution, I had to carefully position the 3 footers so that the one closest to the transformer wasn't overloaded. These footers have a soft rubbery material top and bottom, which suction-pad stick to flat surfaces, which means that they're awkward (but not impossible) to move once under weight. Also, my SR7 base had lots of screw-heads on it's bottom plate, so these are to be avoided.

 

To overcome the above, I first placed the SR7 upside down and marked the best positions with a bit of masking tape on the sides of the SR7. Once in place, these footers are very stable - unlike some rivals that slide about or are generally more precarious.

 

The end result was worth it for the incremental boost in focus and dynamics (for a relatively sane cost).

 

I first tried the same footers under my DAVE and M-Scaler (both lighter than the SR7) and heard no benefit, so the weight matching is crucial (better to go for the top half of the footer's weight range rather than bottom half).

[TheAttorney]

Whatever the science says, changing the fuse direction in an AC mains inlet has changed the sound in every single case I've ever tried - including in my SR7.  I can't now remember which way round sounded best for my older-style enclosure.

 

BTW, now that I've significantly reduced my box-count as part of my downsizing objective, I no longer have any components with a DC input. So I'll be selling my 4-year old 3-rail SR7 shortly.

But first a question: At the back is a screw-slot voltage switch for 110/230 volts. Does anyone know if that is all one needs to change when shipping to a country with a different voltage system? Or is there something internally that needs to change as well?

[TheAttorney]

My understanding is that Paul Hynes is still aiming to fulfill the original bespoke SR7 orders, but the timeline for that is unclear - and unlikely to be helped by whatever closure work needs to be done on the unfortunate PHD situation.