The Paul Hynes SR7

[beautiful music]

@limniscate Curious to know if you received your PSU or not yet.

[guillaume31]

Thanks for reviving this topic....I've been wondering if people have received delivery/schedule news from Paul ?

 

I've been enquirying with him a couple of times but have not heard anything back so far

 

Guillaume

[auricgoldfinger]

9 minutes ago, guillaume31 said:

I've been enquirying with him a couple of times but have not heard anything back so far

 

That's discouraging to hear.

[flkin]

It would be great if Paul @paulhynes (hope you read this) would simply post the Queue No. here each time it is updated. Then no one would have to write in and bother him about updates.

[limniscate]

6 hours ago, beautiful music said:

@limniscate Curious to know if you received your PSU or not yet.

No I have not received it yet or a tracking number. 

[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.

[auricgoldfinger]

2 hours ago, TheAttorney said:

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

 

Thanks for the detailed review!  Please keep us updated on your damping efforts.

[guillaume31]

So is anyone receiving any updates from Paul or noone is and not worrying about it ? It's the first time I'm not managing to get a reply at all from him so I'm starting to feel unsecure...

[auricgoldfinger]

I'm trying not to worry, but it does seem the completion rate is closer to one unit a month than one a week.

[beautiful music]

3 hours ago, guillaume31 said:

So is anyone receiving any updates from Paul or noone is and not worrying about it ? It's the first time I'm not managing to get a reply at all from him so I'm starting to feel unsecure...

I got a reply that he is one month and a half behind the last updated schedule 

[auricgoldfinger]

On 4/26/2018 at 11:14 PM, limniscate said:

I'm 10 and haven't received mine yet.

 

Paul was supposed to begin work on your unit in early May according to the last published schedule.  Have you received a shipping notice yet?

[limniscate]

2 hours ago, auricgoldfinger said:

 

Paul was supposed to begin work on your unit in early May according to the last published schedule.  Have you received a shipping notice yet?

Nope, the last I heard it's in the soak test.

 

 

[guillaume31]

I received a reply from Paul yesterday...additional delay is confirmed, +2 months in the best case scenario for my unit....but at least I'm re-assured that he's still working on the SR7 backlog

[auricgoldfinger]

4 hours ago, guillaume31 said:

I received a reply from Paul yesterday...additional delay is confirmed, +2 months in the best case scenario for my unit....but at least I'm re-assured that he's still working on the SR7 backlog

 

What number are you?

[guillaume31]

I have number 24 and my unit was on the schedule for end of July, now end of September....

[kopelli]

I pinged him a few days back about the ETA of my SR7 but have yet to hear back. I am number 16.

[limniscate]

I just received a shipping notice. My unit is number ten. 

[Johnseye]

2 minutes ago, limniscate said:

I just received a shipping notice. My unit is number ten. 

 

[beautiful music]

On 6/8/2018 at 5:35 PM, limniscate said:

I just received a shipping notice. My unit is number ten. 

May we know what is the original due date to receive your PSU unit in order to know the delay time.

[limniscate]

Lol, original due date was in August of last year. I ordered my unit at the end of May last year. It's been quite the wait! 

[limniscate]

On 6/6/2018 at 12:55 AM, guillaume31 said:

I have number 24 and my unit was on the schedule for end of July, now end of September....

 

I wouldn't expect it until 2019.

[beautiful music]

13 hours ago, limniscate said:

Lol, original due date was in August of last year. I ordered my unit at the end of May last year. It's been quite the wait! 

And what is the updated due date?

 

Did you receive your unit after the updated due date with one month and a half or two months or what?

[limniscate]

6 hours ago, beautiful music said:

And what is the updated due date?

 

Did you receive your unit after the updated due date with one month and a half or two months or what?

I should receive it in the next two weeks. 

[KMan]

I am #13. Paul just informed me that my SR7 build is complete and goes into soak test Monday.

[limniscate]

Mine has shipped, and I should receive it this week or next week.