Popular Post adamaley Posted May 13, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted May 13, 2020 I'm giddily anticipating the arrival of a Sean Jacobs DC4 LPS to power a newly built audio server. I've scoured the web for impressions on this power supply, but they are quite scarce. Sean was kind enough to point me to impressions from a recent customer on hifiwigwam where the reception to a high end LPS wasn't quite welcoming by the objective majority there. I was quite surprised that googling Sean Jacobs DC4 fails to point you to their website, and rather, the more nondescript customhificables.co.uk is where they digitally reside? I was similarly surprised that there isn't a dedicated thread here ( at least I couldn't fine one) for his products. I know there are current users of his power supplies here, and would love for them to whet my appetite with their various DC3 and DC4 experiences. I promise to do the same in good time. quanghuy147, RickyV, Iving and 1 other 2 2 Link to comment
adamaley Posted May 15, 2020 Author Share Posted May 15, 2020 @magnuska I'll definitely report back once everything burns in. I'm happy to hear you are enjoying your DC 3. I am thinking about going down that route eventually for the ancillary network components closest to the DAC. I was under the impression the DC 3 could only have a single output. It's always great when one component replaces two- you get to save on power cords. @Blackmorec I've always enjoyed your writing - thanks for breaking down your journey and impressions of Sean's products. Thanks for making my wait more unbearable;-) I myself have gone through a gamut of linear power supplies: LPS 1, LPS 1.2, JS-2, Sonore Signature Rendu LPS, and now Farad Super3s. Each step brought significant improvements and a realization that power is the most critical aspect of a networked digital chain. I must also add how responsive and accommodating Sean has been throughout my ordering/build process. Link to comment
adamaley Posted May 15, 2020 Author Share Posted May 15, 2020 Here are some more impressions from the wam: https://www.hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/141102-sean-jacobs-dc4-lps-powering-my-dave-and-mscaler/ Link to comment
adamaley Posted May 15, 2020 Author Share Posted May 15, 2020 5 hours ago, magnuska said: Thank you! Yes you can have up to 2 rails on the standard DC-3 enclosure. He also builds custom builds in a wider case to accomodate even more rails. So will you power only one item with your DC-4? He can do up to 3 outputs on that too. If you are considering powering ancillary components as you say.😀 The modules are galvanically isolated from each other. And in my case powering the Etherregen with one 12 v rail, he also suggested adding a grounding terminal on the DC-3 for connecting a wire between them, very convienent and good service. I'll be powering 4 devices with my DC4. I don't know what misled me to think the DC3 could only be made to power one device. Yes, my DC4 case had to be modded by Sean to cater to the extra heat generated by the high current requirement for the CPU rail @10A. Sean recommended a bigger heatsink on one side of the case. Link to comment
Popular Post adamaley Posted May 15, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 15, 2020 2 hours ago, Blackmorec said: There is actually more to the story and some future plans I’d like to get some feedback on. I left my system above with an Innuos Zenith SE kicking some serious ass. With the upgraded, optimised network I now had SJ power supplies from Modem to USB output and I was more that delighted with the result, which I considered to be some of the best sound I’d ever heard, anywhere. Clearly I could do better if I upgraded my room to a custom build and my speakers to some of Magico’s top of the range but why bother when every listening session was such a complete and total pleasure? The only thing was, my analog system was utterly redundant. Not as dynamic, not as rhythmical, not as holographic, not as pure, as transparent and without the ability to utterly grab your attention, it was no longer worth all the messing around with record and stylus cleaning or just handling vinyl records and super delicate styli in general. When Innuos announced the release of the Statement I didn’t hesitate and traded in both the Zenith SE and the Michell. I kept the Zenith until the Statement delivered. For me the appeal of the Statement was in the engineering. Specifically designed to minimize EMI and RFI, with in-house developed, SQ optimised InnuOS Op System, and genuinely genius topology for the clocks, customized MOBO and SJ designed power supplies, I believed the Statement to be a major step forward in server technology and I wasn’t wrong. While the Zenith SE did everything right and lacked nothing in terms of SQ and was, in my opinion an almost perfect product for its price, the Statement added a whole plethora of musical qualities. The way that musicians played together was enhanced, subtle rhythmic interplays and nuances revealed and most difficult of all to describe, the genius and unique talent of musicians showcased as never before. The soundstage ceased to be a soundstage and became a recording venue or soundscape created by master recording engineers. Some soundscapes were like firework displays in terms of how sounds flew around, bloomed and decayed. Simple notes became glorious essays of percussive pinpoint source, bloom then directional decay into distant inky blackness. Then I added some Chord individually screened umbillicals and yet another level of detail was revealed, notes sounding like they were ‘made by’ rather than ‘coming from’ instruments, the listener able to sense the trumpet or saxophone horns, the body of the guitar, the subtle mouth noises of singers, the ‘collectiveness’ of massed strings. I knew DC cables could make a difference, so I followed Nenon’s advice and tried some Ghent Audio Neotech UPOCC JSSG360’s, which again brought improvements in the focus and specificity of instruments. Indeed they brought such significant SQ improvements that I decided to take more of Nenon’s advice and try his Mundorf Silver/Gold JSSG360 cables . The result of this was to make my system spookily holographic with a level of transparency and purity I have never heard before. My system now transports the listener to fully developed recording venue or studio created soundscape that is totally and completely independent of the listening room, whose dimensions are no longer part of the sonic equation. The contradiction between visual and auditory is now so immense that you can only listen with eyes closed. The reason I mention all this is to give an appreciation of what happens when you improve your DC supplies. Normally, as a system improves, those improvements in SQ get harder and harder to come by. This does not seem to be the case with digital DC supplies. The better and more revealing my system gets, the greater the contribution of each improvement. Frankly. Its hard to understand (at least for me) why a DC cable to a network switch should even be audible let alone make a night and day difference, until you consider that what a network switch is doing is actually modulating the DC power to create an analog representation of zeroes and ones. In that scenario, anything riding within the DC power is going to become part of the digital feed, to then interact with clocks and DAC’s. It therefore seems logical that the higher the DCs quality, the better the SQ. If you follow this concept, then it’s also perfectly logical for a better DC supply or cable to have a major effect on SQ. If you continue with this argument, then adding a $3000 power supply and cable to an $800 switch would be entirely logical, as all you’ve essentially done, in terms of SQ is to create a $3,800 switch! So, back to my system and SJ’s Supplies, my next step is to once again follow Nenon’s advice and upgrade all my DC3s by adding Statement level transformers, Mundorf Silver/Gold DC cabling and DC4 regulators. At some point I may also consider substituting a Melco S100 switch for the AQVox SE , although I’d really only do this on a 30 day trial basis, given that my AQVox with its SJ power supply and Mundorf cable sounds nothing like the original OEM product. Some of the descriptors you've mentioned here are what my system has been hinting at as I've tackled power/digital from multiple fronts. For example, slotting in an Edgerouter yesterday took me past one hitherto unseen ceiling to a level where I'm now sensing so much more harmonic content from instruments. "Notes sounding like they were made by" as you put it, was heightened by this addition. You won't get any arguments from me over the contribution of better DC cabling. I'll be using all @Nenon built cables for my DC4 rails. I'll be amiss if I didn't state @Nenon's selfless contributions to my system. His build thread was inspirational to me going all in. Along the way, he provided constant advise, helped with speccing the power supply, and so much more. IMHO, he gives out nuggets of information that many would hoard for commercial gain. I must say most of us owe a debt to the likes of him and @romaz whose experimentations richly enhance our individual journeys. Blackmorec, Jonder, Iving and 2 others 1 4 Link to comment
adamaley Posted May 15, 2020 Author Share Posted May 15, 2020 Hi @dminches Here are the specs for my DC4. ATX/Motherboard - 20V (5A) (overspecced as I believe 19V would be sufficient). EPS/CPU - 12V (10A) Jcat Femto Net card - 5V (5A) ( CX Filter will limit it to 2A, but removing jumpers will allow 5A) Pink Faun USB card - 5V (5A) (CX Filter here as well). These are all specific to the Asus ROG Crosshair 7 Hero + Ryzen 3700x combo. Link to comment
adamaley Posted May 15, 2020 Author Share Posted May 15, 2020 I will quote and defer to Sean's description of what it is as he relayed it to me here: "for low-current rails the module works best if the CX section is enabled. If the current draw is more than around 2A then it is best to disable the CX filter, as it has no benefit at higher currents. I know that the 20V and 12V rails need to be high-current rails, the USB and NIC cards probably draw less than 2A (I would estimate they draw less than 1A in fact)), so for these I could enable the CX filters. It can be changed later on if you need the full 5A though, it is just a small set of jumpers to move on the circuit board." Link to comment
adamaley Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 After looking through my correspondence with Sean in order to answer some PMs I received on here, I think I have to clarify one important thing. The DC4 is made with three outputs as the standard maximum limit. My build with four outputs was a one off, and it had its own set of difficulties that Sean had to address. I cannot assume that Sean will be willing to make another DC4 4 rail in one case again. Link to comment
Popular Post adamaley Posted May 21, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 21, 2020 My DC4 arrived today. First impressions are a little overwhelming. It leaves me wondering why I hadn't made this jump all this while. Ah well. Sometimes it's the journey and not the destination, but the destination here is oh so sweet. I'll post impressions once things are run in some more. Nenon's DC cables are being used now for the first time, and the LPS needs to break in those caps as well. beautiful music, RickyV, Exocer and 3 others 3 3 Link to comment
Popular Post adamaley Posted June 5, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 5, 2020 I'll post what I sent a member on here via email last week: Yes, the sound is better than I could have anticipated. Everything has just clicked into place. Most importantly, the fortitude of instruments to maintain their integrity and not be interfered with by other instruments in front, behind, or beside them. I believe this comes from the instantaneous power delivery and control of that delivery mechanism. Nothing overstays its welcome. Attack, body, decay are given their just due without any overhang. The venue is now more vivid as well due to the removal of noise. Noise removal also lends to the timbral accuracy of instruments, and more airy overtones and harmonics pour forth and decay delicately. Anyway, tldr: you'll love what the DC4 will bring to your setup. I can go on and wax lyrical about it, but I'm not much of a reviewer. Since getting the DC4, it's forced me to improve other elements of my system. I've added an Audioquest Niagara 5000 to my setup this week. I'm also using a new Audioquest Hurricane PC to power the new conditioner. I've been experimenting with plugging the DC4 into the High Current outlets on the conditioner to good effect. I originally had it on the outlets meant for digital components. Upon switching it to the non-current limiting (90A) outlets, the soundstage grew, and sound was more untethered and seemingly less restricted by speaker or room boundaries. Good stuff. dminches and BigAlMc 2 Link to comment
adamaley Posted June 19, 2020 Author Share Posted June 19, 2020 https://www.hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/141102-sean-jacobs-dc4-lps-powering-my-dave-and-mscaler/ Link to comment
adamaley Posted August 7, 2020 Author Share Posted August 7, 2020 43 minutes ago, Fourlegs said: I’m a bit late to this thread but I think I was the first person to have a DC4 powering a Chord Dave. The result is staggering and worth every penny. Rob Watts is being coy about a Dave 2 but really I don’t mind because the DC4 has taken my Dave into new territories. I am lucky that I also have a DC4 powering my MScaler but really I think I would prefer a DC4 driven Dave to a stock Dave with MScaler. Oh, and that was my thread on Wigwam. Your thread was one of the reasons I made the full commitment to go through with the DC4 purchase. Hope you're still enjoying it and not letting the doubters on there lessen your enjoyment. Link to comment
Popular Post adamaley Posted September 24, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 24, 2020 I've added a DC3 with 4 rails to power my NAS, etherRegen, Arris modem, and edgerouter. It replaces 4 Farads in my system, and I was surprised to experience a decent increase in performance. Saved me a lot of clutter as a side effect. ASRMichael and dminches 2 Link to comment
Popular Post adamaley Posted September 28, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 28, 2020 I had Farad Super3s on all the devices I've listed, so I simply replaced all four of them with the 4 rail DC3. No experimentation was necessary. I did some experimentation back when I was adding the Super3s to my system one at a time. Consistently, having it on the device closest to the endpoint yielded the best result. For streaming, however, the modem also seems to be more important than the distance away from endpoint, so it's worth experimenting there as well. ASRMichael and auricgoldfinger 1 1 Link to comment
adamaley Posted September 29, 2020 Author Share Posted September 29, 2020 My DC3 was converted by Sean Jacob's tech here in the US to 12V on an rails. I find 12V to be the most flexible power output for fixed voltage power supplies to be used on as many devices as possible. Two are at 5A and two are at 3A. Link to comment
adamaley Posted September 29, 2020 Author Share Posted September 29, 2020 10 hours ago, vutranchitam said: Could you provide more info? How many rail? Which voltage? And How much? Sorry, I'm not trying to sell the DC3. I just got it and like what it brings to my system. Link to comment
adamaley Posted September 29, 2020 Author Share Posted September 29, 2020 17 hours ago, Fourlegs said: This is interesting. I have a spare DC3 having replaced it with a DC4 and was wondering were to reallocate it to new duties . . . . . It's worth a try. Link to comment
adamaley Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 On 1/25/2021 at 6:58 PM, Ricardo007 said: Hello 4legs Did you finally compared Farad super 3 to your other supplies? Interested by your feedback regards Richard I went from LPS 1.0 to 1.2 and then Sonore Signature LPS, then to Farads which were better. I replaced 4 Farads with a DC3 and that was also an improvement. I have never compared anything else to a DC since my DC4 is custom configured to power my audio server, and that would be an impossible comparison to make. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now