Sell your $$$ cables and conditioners... affordable LITHIUM is here!


I wanted to give you a frame of reference as to where I'm coming from and most importantly a first impression after 24hrs!
I've been an addict since my first system of KEF Concord speakers, Crimson Electric amps and an Ariston turntable back in college in '81. Since then I've been down the entire Linn system with Active Kabers, Full Meridian active system with DSP5200's as well as some burly NZ Perraux mono blocks with Sonus Faber when I lived in NZ. Since moving to the US in 2001 I've been through years of altercations between solid state camps from Bel Canto, Levinson stereo 336 to mono 436's, 532H and Mac 452 to speakers from B&W 802N and D2 to Wilson Sophia 2's, Sonus Faber Amati Homage and Revel Studio 2's. I've tried conditioners from Transparent, AQ Niagra, Isotek and others and every time come back to a decent cable straight from the wall.
Three years ago I took the plunge and went down the Devialet rabbit hole, streaming direct from a MacBook Air with ROON my Devialet D200 (soon to become a D400) drives my Focal Utopia Diablos via Analysis Plus Solo Crystal 8 speaker cables (and that's another whole can of worms with enormous cable differences), a JL Audio Fathom F110 (also about to be doubled up) rounds it out. My livening room is about 22x25 with 10ft ceilings and partially treated as best I can accommodate. 
Suffice to say, I've been around the block with hifi, listened to way more than my fair share at dealers and friends with diverse systems and currently run one of the most reveling systems I've ever heard. Sure, there's not that thick syrupy warmth the tube guys will clammer for, but then I'm hearing so much further into not just tonality but intent within the playing. 

If you read the review in Enjoy the Music from Tom Lyle, you'd see he equates the GZ Yeti to the $30k Stromtank. His review was the $400 Yeti 400. The Yeti 1000 was $1099, the 3kW Yeti 3000 is $2999 and will power almost anything. So, like Tom I took the plunge and bought a Yeti 1000 figuring it'd have plenty of 'headroom' for my meagre 600w consumption. (Though I have since plugged my JL Audio Fathom in too)

After playing the "FedEx f'ed up" again game, I finally went to their depot and picked up my new toy myself. After a handful of songs to establish a baseline for the evening, I simply plugged the Yeti 1000 in, reconnected the Devialet and sat back... My girlfriend was first to break the silence and then immediately regretted it as I couldn't help myself interrupting her for the next half hour of gushing over what a profound difference it was making.
H-U-G-E. Truly component level and an absolute game changer. 

I was immediately texting my good friend with his PS Audio Directstream, Gryphon Diablo, Audio Physic Avantera III all powered by the latest Synergistic Research Powercell 12SE and Gallileo power cord with AQ Hurricane to each component - SELL- SELL- SELL it all, get a Goal Zero! 

We stayed up until 2am listening, flipped it back for a handful of now unlistenable tracks and then back again to Yeti 1000 happiness. In over six hours of powering my Devialet and Fathom at 90+db levels it'd dropped to a laughable 98%. I'm guessing that means it'd run off the grid for 300hrs or more? That's probably a several months of listening for most people. Who even cares, it simply sounds spectacular and the single biggest improvement I've ever heard from anything less than a major amp or speaker upgrade. 

I know my system is fairly frugal and green running, my buddy Matts, Gryphon would probably need the 3000W Yeti as his amp pulls 1900W at full song and his full stack of components albeit front end certainly add a few hundred more.   He's headed down to me in a couple of week with a stack of exotic power cables and conditioners  to try and I can't wait to share my results - I'm guessing he'll want to steal it away for his own demo right after. I would imagine he'd even get away with the Yeti 1000, so long as he doesn't run it too hard?
leeagc
@mahgister—just order one from amazon and utilize the liberal return policy if you don’t like it. 

I have tried a few different ways to get a clean power (power conditioners, cables, etc.). They do improve the sound quality in my system.

I am a late comer in this battery game, I just order an old version of Goal Zero Yeti to try out, it will arrive in the next 10 days, I hope to find some improvement. I plan to use this Yeti to power DAC,preamp and streamer. 

May I know what I would expect in sound quality from switch to battery? I read the manual saying I can plug it to the wall outlet 24/7, it will auto charge if the power drop below 92%. Would you suggest using Yeti this way or unplug it from wall outlet completely will provide better result?

I have another question about grounding, do I need to care about grounding when using battery? I'm sorry if this question is dumb because I am a dumb in electrics so please bear with me :)

This thread has been the best piece of information I've found regarding user experiences and portable power supplies in a stereo setup. 

I'm going to try a Yeti 1500 for my front end, which is a Luxman EQ-500 phone pre (47W), Pass Labs XP-22 linestage (40W), Border Patrol DAC, and Bluesound Node. Unknown power consumption on the DAC and Node but they can't be much so let's overshoot and say that combined, they're drawing 50W. That's 137W if all devices are running at the same time, which they won't because I won't have the phono pre on simultaneously with the DAC/Node. So an 87W draw while listening to vinyl (90W digital) on a 1500Wh battery means I could theoretically get a bit more than 15 hours on a single Yeti charge. I'm trying to avoid having the fans come on at all during longer listening sessions so hopefully the extra "headroom" in the Yeti 1500 allows it to run cooler. 

I plan to plug the XP-22 directly into the unit and have the other devices use a 3 in 1 splitter. After speaking with Goal Zero customer service, they said there's no detriment to the Yeti battery if the unit is on 24/7 and having components draw on it for multiple hours a day. He also said the fan noise is only 45db (ish) when it does run, we'll see. 

With any luck I'll have the Yeti today/tomorrow so I'll report back. Honestly, I'm more curious about the new Yeti 4000 which in theory should be able to handle my Pass Labs X250.8 amp, which draws 500W while playing. I just don't know if the amp and other components running at the same time would initiate the Yeti fans immediately or not? First things first, the Yeti 1500 on the frontend!

Four hours listening tonight with the Yeti 1500, part of it while plugged into the wall and part of it totally free and disconnected. I’ll need to listen more to get a firmer handle on everything but the early report is that this is doing good things Pretty sure it sounds a smidge clearer/more open with the power cord disconnected from the unit as opposed to it charging and playing at the same time. Will need more time to confirm, just something I noticed.

Everything seems to have more space around it, making it a bit easier to follow things, but there’s more to it than just that. Decay on piano notes is really something, notes just kind of hang for that extra little bit making it easier to get lost in the song. This is the most distinct instruments have sounded from one another that I’ve heard in my system.

At no point have the fans in the Yeti turned on, at least to my knowledge.

Very excited to keep listening to see what else reveals itself!