The Paul Hynes SR4 PSU

[octaviars]

Got my SR4 today. After the first one was lost by UPS in december and Paul had to ship a new one it finally arrived with DHL today.

 

Some pictures of it.

 

 

 

Have it connected to my SOtM SMS Ultra now and will give it a couple of days to burn in.

 

 

 

[magnuska]

Hi Fredrik,

are you ready to give a first opinon of the new ps?

 

I also have a soTm  sms-200 Ultra .

 

Regards Magnus

 

[octaviars]

1 hour ago, magnuska said:

Hi Fredrik,

are you ready to give a first opinon of the new ps?

 

Well I have the SR4 connected to my SOtM and it have been powered up for three days now. Unfortunately I have not had much time with my system so not done any critical listening. 

[Emcee]

I should have mine early next week. I'll be anxious to see if there's an improvement over my CIAudio unit. Will have it plugged in and listening within 5 minutes following delivery.

One of them will for sale a week or so later...

[beautiful music]

may i know how much it costs and does it come with DC cable?

[octaviars]

I payed £364 in total for a SR4 shipped to me @beautiful music and it does not come with any DC cable. I use a Ghent made Canare cable with Neutrik 4 pole XLR and Oyaide DC plug.

[rickca]

3 hours ago, beautiful music said:

may i know how much it costs and does it come with DC cable?

Paul does sell DC leads for the SR4.  

DC3CXLR annealed copper with Teflon insulation for SR4, SR5, SR7 £055

DC3FSXLR annealed fine silver with Teflon insulation for SR4, SR5, SR7 £090

[yellowblue]

I wrote Paul and wanted to order a SR4. He answered within minutes. The SR4 cost 330 pounds but shipping to Sweden was 92 pounds plus extra 20 pounds for insurance. He pointed out that the weight of the SR4 exceeds the Royal Mail International small packet limit of 2kg. So UPS was the only option (he didn´t know that when he send the SR4 to Octaviars)

When you compare with the LPS 1.2 from Vortexbox (which still have 3 on stock) the SR4 maybe the better option for those living in the UK, but unfortunately not for me, and maybe not for all those living outside UK.

[paulhynes]

Hello yellowblue,

 

The £92 was for two SR4 that you initially requested. If you only want one SR4 the shipping cost would be £46 and £10 insurance for loss or damage in transit. Lower cost services are probably available if you are prepared to accept longer shipping time.

 

Regards

Paul

[yellowblue]

Thank you for the clarification, Paul. But you didn´t answer my question in your mail how much it would cost if I ordered just one instead for two SR4. So I thought it was the same. Vortexbox takes about 23 pounds to Sweden.

[Emcee]

I received my SR4 yesterday and am very happy with the product and the service.

[Chiswickian]

On 25/02/2018 at 4:51 PM, rickca said:

Paul does sell DC leads for the SR4.  

DC3CXLR annealed copper with Teflon insulation for SR4, SR5, SR7 £055

DC3FSXLR annealed fine silver with Teflon insulation for SR4, SR5, SR7 £090

 

What would the benefit of the silver cable be?  Would there be an audible benefit that justifies the increased costs?

[rickca]

Deleted

[rickca]

2 hours ago, Chiswickian said:

What would the benefit of the silver cable be?  Would there be an audible benefit that justifies the increased costs?

I haven't personally made the comparison.  I bought the silver cable with my SR4 on Paul's recommendation.  You can ask him directly by email to [email protected].

[str-1]

Mine should be arriving tomorrow, or Wednesday at the latest.  I ordered with the silver cable and will be using to power my tX-USBultra at 9V.  

 

Paul said that most run-in occurs in the first month, with further improvements tailing off after that.  Is that what those who have had their SR4 for more than a month have experienced?

[Chiswickian]

str-1.  Brilliant stuff.  I've had some really interesting conversations with Paul recently regards the technicalities of his designs and I'll be extremely interested in what you think of its audible effect.

[str-1]

2 hours ago, Chiswickian said:

str-1.  Brilliant stuff.  I've had some really interesting conversations with Paul recently regards the technicalities of his designs and I'll be extremely interested in what you think of its audible effect.

Happy to give my impressions after a reasonable run-in.  But will only be able to compare it with the LPS-1 (the only other quality power supply I have) on my ISO Regen at 5V and/or 7V.  My tX-USBultra is set at 9V and I’m not going to open up to change that during the 30-day window I have for returning it.  

 

The SR4 should clearly beat the excellent LPS-1 once run-in.  A fairer face-off would be with the new LPS-1.2, which I don’t have.

[Chiswickian]

True.  It would be great if someone somewhere could head-to-head the PH SR4 with the LPS 1.2, but unlikely anytime soon.  Still, I'll be interested in your observations with the LPS 1 all the same.

[LTG2010]

3 minutes ago, Chiswickian said:

It would be great if someone somewhere could head-to-head the PH SR4 with the LPS 1.2

@austinpop recently reviewed both in the thread ''a novel way to massively improve.......'' I think he considered both as equal the SR4 warmer sounding of the 2.

[str-1]

SR4 just arrived (successful 1-day delivery to London) and is already plugged in and doing its work feeding my tX-USBultra with 9V through the supplied silver dc cable.  I’ll offer some thoughts after a few days run-in.

[Jiffi32]

18 hours ago, str-1 said:

Happy to give my impressions after a reasonable run-in.  But will only be able to compare it with the LPS-1 (the only other quality power supply I have) on my ISO Regen at 5V and/or 7V.  My tX-USBultra is set at 9V and I’m not going to open up to change that during the 30-day window I have for returning it.  

 

The SR4 should clearly beat the excellent LPS-1 once run-in.  A fairer face-off would be with the new LPS-1.2, which I don’t have.

Looking forward to your impressions, i'm on the March build list and the SR4 will be replacing an LPS-1, also good to hear that delivery was that quick! 

[str-1]

On 24/02/2018 at 8:37 PM, octaviars said:

 

Well I have the SR4 connected to my SOtM and it have been powered up for three days now. Unfortunately I have not had much time with my system so not done any critical listening. 

Hi octaviars.  You’ve had your SR4 for about four weeks now.  Have you noticed changes/improvements over that run-in period.  I’ve only had mine plugged in for two days and am wondering what to expect over the next few weeks.  Thanks.

[tims]

For running/burning in a PS such as the SR4, is there an alternate method rather than connecting it immediately to your stereo to run-in.  

What about using a 12v car headlamp bulb or heavy duty resistor connected to the SR4 for a few days?  

Would this be a good method to run it in or does the PS ideally require a varying load to run-in properly?

[Emcee]

What's supposed to happen after burn in? Mine is two weeks old and there doesn't appear to be any noticeable difference.

Maybe there is but my human brain can't remember how it sounded out of the box.

Besides loudspeakers physically loosening up I always wondered how much of the perceived change is burn in and how much is our ears adapting.

But we don't want to go ''there'' (again) now do we?

[sockpit]

5 hours ago, Emcee said:

What's supposed to happen after burn in? Mine is two weeks old and there doesn't appear to be any noticeable difference.

Maybe there is but my human brain can't remember how it sounded out of the box.

Besides loudspeakers physically loosening up I always wondered how much of the perceived change is burn in and how much is our ears adapting.

But we don't want to go ''there'' (again) now do we?

 

No you don’t want to ever go there.  Just keep it to yourself, and remember that no one ever claims that burn-in made their stuff sound worse.  That would suggest a surprising correlation between physics (in so far as something physical is taking place) and human aesthetic perception, which is itself a very complicated matter.