I knew I shouldn’t have thrown my Electrical Engineering text book in the campus pond!


My apologies in advance for the length of this post.  Feel free to skip it but I feel a little background is needed for perspective. 45 years ago in my 2nd year as a Civil Engineering major, i took the mandatory introduction to Electrical Engineering course (the same one taken by Electrical Engineering majors). Suffice it to say, the class that covered from this is current to these are MOSFETs, JFETS, FPGAs absolutely kicked my butt. I prepared myself and my parents for the inevitable F.  I even skipped the final so i could prepare for my other finals. So when my semester grades arrived I had my mom open them. She, dad, and i broke into cheers when we saw that i received a D!   It was at that moment that I promised I would never risk anyone’s safety and would stay away from electronics. Upon returning to campus for the next semester, i sealed the deal by throwing my EE text book in the campus center pond.
Fast forward 45 years and here i am neck deep in the hobby i love trying to figure out the potential benefits of adding linear power supplies to either my streamer (Lumin D2) or digital music server (Roon Nucleus) or both. I just bought a RME ADI-2 FS DAC (to take over DAC functions from the Lumin) and for the first time i heard a step function improvement in sound quality in my system. I’ve made many tweaks/equipment upgrades over the years which have each make incremental improvements, but this was a wow with ear-to-ear-grin improvement! As i get older, the still curious engineer and researcher in me likes to read audiophile books like “The Complete Guide to High-End Audio“ by Robert Harley, magazines like The Absolute Sound and Stereophile, and forums such as here on AG to understand how and why a tweak or upgrade could affect the music of my integrated system. So, long story short, if i had known I’d be going down this awesome but at times frustrating audiophile rabbit hole, i would not have thrown the text book in the pond and i would have repeated that EE course so i would truly understand the miracle that is electronics and be a better educated hunter for the next upgrade to my system. I need that knowledge to understand and leverage all of the information that is out there on LPS; a way to separate the marketing/bias and be able to analyze & predict LPS cause and effect in my particular system. So, if you’ve come this far, in addition to the digital pieces already mentioned, my analog front end is a Linn Sondek LP12 with Linn K3 cartridge playing through a Vincent PHO-701 phono pre. Both digital and analog front ends play through a Primaluna Dialog HP Integrated amp into Goldenear Triton 3 speakers (which will be my last significant upgrade improvement investment…thinking of Joseph Audio Perspective 2’s).  I listen mostly to Various Jazz sub-genres.
 Thank you if you’ve gotten this far.  If you have any insights or recommendations regarding the addition of LPS to either Streamer or server, or both, i would love to hear from you. 
ezstreams

Showing 3 responses by ezstreams

Thank you for your thoughts and perspective (pi) soix!
i just am not sure if the investment in something like an SBooster for the Lumin (which voids its warranty) and a Teddy Pardo for the Nucleus should and would make a big difference. So many people talk about night and day improvements that i’m still leery, even after the example i just recently experienced. 
Unfortunately the nearest Joseph Audio dealership is about a 7 hour drive from me, so i’m relying on reviews and opinions from others. I need to bite the bullet and make a long weekend out of it.  You’re “don’t litter” comment struck a funny chord in that I was an Environmental Science major before changing to Civil Eng. 
Thank you all for your insights, suggestions and advice.

I talked to the tech support guys at RME about cable and power supplies. In regards to my question about using an LPS, they wrote “
Thanks for choosing the ADI-2 DAC FS! RME does not recommend changing the power supply. The unit is designed to work optimally with the included switching power supply, and there are multiple power conditioning stages built-in inside the DAC to take care of any potential issues with the resulting power.
They say as much in their owners manual, but i wanted to double-check. In regards to cable, they advised me not buy an expensive digital cable for the Lumin to RME connection, but do buy a good quality set of analogue RCA cable for the RME to Primaluna connection. 
The frustrating thing is i live in a small city that has the second highest percentage of post graduated degreed population in the country and a very high average income level, but the only high end audio store here went out of business maybe 20 years ago. So, i have to drive 2 hours to Nashville or 3 hours to Atlanta to listen to anything. I love a good road trip, but these stereo shops seldom carry the pieces ive read and researched so most times. So, testrun, you are spot on, Goldprint in NC is where ill need to go to listen to the JA Perspectives. Thank you for letting me know the owner their is a good dude. I had done some rading about ether-re-gen products before and wiil read the one you sent lalitk. Thank you. 
Steakster, I’d love to know which LPS(s) you would recommend for my digital front end components based on your experience.