Review: XSP-1 PreAmp with Oppo-105 DAC

[BassThatHz]

Bit of background on me:

My system has changed substantially since my last review.
emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/13579/review-rotel-1068-asus-xonar

My previous systems consisted mainly of Yamaha AVR, some Rotel Processors, and the UMC-1, and the Oppo 105.
That's the perspective I'm coming from. The Oppo 105 being the best of them all, thus far...

I hate distortion with a passion. My system is pure-SQ first and foremost. EQ'ing tweeters... don't even go there with me! LOL

I'm a direct-wire type of person.

Moving forward:
Thought I'd post a review of the XSP-1 in combination with a Oppo 105 DAC.
My XSP-1 is expected to arrive Aug 7th. (YYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!)
Until then, this will be a placeholder.

My mains are quad mono-blocked B&W N803's. (5300watts each side.)

In an attempt to maximize Sound Quality. I will be "trying" the High Pass filter, probably set somewhere between 100 to 200hz, this will go to the HF pair of monoblocks. This should free up amp headroom, even though the B&W's have their own passive-crossover, this active-crossover would be inline and of course stacked, obviously. [If it sounds worse, then I won't keep it that way, just full-range.]

The LF monoblocks will be feed from the stereo sub-outs in full-range.
The subwoofers will also be feed from this in daisy-chain, I have 10 18" subs, 5 on each side (stereo).
All bass units have their own independent XO and amplification channel.

All of my amps are XLR-ONLY, hence the need for the XSP-1.
Actually, since the Oppo 105 already has support for stereo XLR out, I don't really need the XSP-1 at all.
I'm mainly buying it for the following 3 reasons...

Other than the active HF XO, more V-out (like 30x), and a physical volume knob that I can "touch"; the XSP-1 doesn't really gain me much else (don't have turntable)... and according to the AP charts I've seen, it would probably worsen the SQ, going from 130-140db SNR to 120-130db SNR(?) [Probably undetectable, I hope.]

I have high hopes for the XSP-1, can't wait to see what she can do...

[garbulky]

Welcome to the forum! Nice gear!
I would advice against your power conditioner despite its hefty rating unless your power has audible issues. Compression of dynamics and all that. An additional electronic circuit will introduce some distortion into your signal. But the good news is that the XSP-1 is one heck of a buy and I doubt you will be dissapointed. Congratulations!

[arthurz]

Aug 1, 2013 14:54:59 GMT -5 BassThatHz said:

going from 130-140db SNR to 120-130db SNR(?) [Probably undetectable, I hope.]

BEYOND undetectable. A super expensive soundproofed recording studio is lucky to have 20 dB SPL of background noise. If music is played at 100 dB SPL (quite ridiculous), then 80 dB SNR would be inaudible by definition. Realistically, 60 dB SNR is pretty inaudible. You're talking 120 vs. 130...

[BassThatHz]

Aug 1, 2013 17:30:37 GMT -5 garbulky said:

Welcome to the forum! Nice gear!
I would advice against your power conditioner despite its hefty rating unless your power has audible issues. Compression of dynamics and all that. An additional electronic circuit will introduce some distortion into your signal. But the good news is that the XSP-1 is one heck of a buy and I doubt you will be dissapointed. Congratulations!

Well not to derail the thread about Power Conditioning. haha, but...

The PPP removed the groundloop problem I had with my cable tv coax wire, and I only plug in the low-power devices to it (not amps), such as:
Bluray player, HTPC, Projector, Subwoofer EQ, cable tv, and HDMI matrix box.

I have a KillOWatt wart and it says 300watts RMS consumption at full power, both conditioners are rated for nearly 5x that. The CyberPower is designed for (small) mission-critical Data Centers; and both are Pure Sinewave devices, not some lowend step-modified junk.
I've been using the PPP for 5 years and it has only made my equipment sound better (if it make things worse I would have disposed of it long ago). There is also a product review that has measured it to reduce distortion as per Fluke power-analysis charts.

In 2014 I will probably by a Fluke power meter, just so that I can measure all my components myself (I have trust issues HAHA) for both low-voltage and high-voltage inputs/outputs. Then I will be able to see when things are clipping or THD is increasing above 0.1%

Also I'm looking at buying a TermLab SPL meter for taking Bass-SPL measurements of my theater beyond 130db, but that's a whole 'nother topic.

[garbulky]

Ah, I don't have much of a problem with the low power devices plus it DOES correct a ground loop for you so it's needed. My issue is that it's not so much that they are rated at or beyond the capacity but how fast they can deliver very quick bursts of power. But I'm not an engineer or have any objective evidence to prove that they do or don't.

[BassThatHz]

I was able to find his review. He has a new one, of the P10 now. Here it is:
PS-Audio Measurements

Before:


After:


My bad, he doesn't have a THD calculator; but it's not making it worse, it is definitively cleaning the power and if the input was worse the Before/After difference would "probably" only increase.

I thought I could hear the difference back in the day when my UMC-1 was my reference DAC, not sure if I can still hear the difference (my ears are only getting worse) but perhaps I should subject myself to an A/B/X test.

[emovac]

Welcome to the forum. I also use a regenerator. IMO makes a nice difference getting clean power. Had the PPP for a short time, and moved into a P5 last year. I went from about 1.8% - 2.0 THD at the dedicated circuit, down to 0.2 - 0.3% THD at the back panel of the P5. Like the fact you can review and track wattage, voltage, and THD stats on line.

Its not a conditioner though, but a regenerator.

Take care not to blow your eardrums out with that 130+dB SPL testing.

[BassThatHz]

Been fighting with FedEx trying to get it delivered for the last two days.
They are the only shippers that we DON'T have a drop location for in town. (Small town).
Additionally, I think they've just been slapping the paper on the door and running away.
I'll be taking the day off work tomorrow (even though I shouldn't), and will waiting at the door with high powered binoculars the whole day, Area 51 style. Cannot miss the third attempt at any cost!!! LOL

[BassThatHz]

The XSP-1 has arrived.

It sounds as good as the 105.
I'm so glad it didn't degrade the sound quality, now I have a volume knob I can touch.

I can't tell the difference from what I had before (which is a good thing).
and it sounded good right out of the box... unlike the 105 which took 200hours to break-in.

Even at +12db gain (which is well above unity) with my ears right up to the tweeters, the hiss is still lower than any AVR I ever recall hearing.

I'd only ever go above zero for the quietest of songs, very rare indeed.

At -20db I'm reaching THX Reference levels with pinknoise (85db-A per speaker).




Had to rewire all 17 of my xlr cables. 7.3 audio going into 7.10 speakers, takes a lot of cables and amps obviously.


You can see the UMC-1 and rear channel Rotel amp hidding out. I only use the UMC-1 for FM radio and non-summed LFE RCA to XLR conversion. Both movie-mode only.



My system idles at a wall draw of 1200watts RMS on mute, all of that gets converted to heat.

Here's 35000watts on a low volume; 10600watts on the fronts (more than overkill), turned down to THX Reference to keep the mic from clipping; as a result only a few watts are actually going to it (obviously).


Too bad you can't hear how it "actually" sounds via the internet...

[BassThatHz]

So I tried some extreme SPL with the XSP-1, it's actually an improvement!!!!

I believe this is because it has enough voltage output headroom to fully saturate the amps, with twice the power to spare, whereas I had the 105 completely maxed out at 100 and still wanted more....

Now I just need an XMC-1 and another four 9000watt amplifiers sporting XLR, then I'll be able to sell 5 of my lower-powered amps, while saving 4RU's of rack space and gaining better phase coherence.

[garbulky]

Props on the room treatments! Nice video.
You really should meet N88dogg on this forum. I think you two would get along. He has about the same amount of watts as you do.

[BassThatHz]

After almost 1 year with the XSP-1 Oppo-105 combo I'm still happy with it.
It just gets out of the way. Unlike the UMC-1 and Rotel RSP-1068 it replaced.

Still sounds as good as new...


Built my own speakers since then (which are nearing completion...)



My system can get to 5hz without issue, unlike the UMC-1, which would distort.


From what I can tell both are (no worse than) -1db @ 2hz.


Here's how I have it wired:

I needed 7.X in XLR and the XMC-1 wasn't out at year ago.
It's a true 7.4 system, Left Bass, Right Bass, Center Bass and LFE bass in movie-mode, and in music-mode it is 7.2 stereo-bass.

The front three speakers are fully active. All the bass is dynamically re-routable, I can switch to from stereo bass to Mono LFE or any combination thereof with a click of a button.

The top box is a 3DNow processor.
Then VOD Cable TV PVR.
HDMI matrixing box.
Two DCX's.
DEQ.
Oppo 105
XSP-1
PS Audio PPP
CyberPower Pure-sinewave 20amp 2200VA UPS.

Which as you can see is using 330watts RMS (which includes a hi-end PC with 24" LCD attached to that, which is were most of the power is going.)
My projector is also protected by the PS Audio PPP and CyberPower UPS.


I bought a power-analyzer so that I could see electronic waveforms.





Incoming wall socket AC:



One leg of Incoming wall socket AC:



PS Audio PPP power conditioned socket (AC-DC-AC power regenerator):



The Fluke is displaying the waveform correctly.
Normal wall-socket AC power has 2% to 5% distortion in it.

I'm glad all my sensitve electronics are protected by a PS Audio PPP.

CyberPower 2200VA Puresinewave UPS on battery-power (note: non-active type):


Not to shabby for running off of battery-power.

[novisnick]

Are you having FUN yet?

[milsap195]

Glad you had good luck with your oppo and xsp combo. I have tried it several different times over the last year and just cannot make my self like it. I prefer the oppo with other components and pre amps.

[bitsandbytes]

That is one impressive system. Must sound breathtaking on location.

Your PS Audio PPP power conditioned socket really made your waveforms appear symmetrical rather than skewing to the right - with the upper peaks perfect and the lower ones probably about as perfect as someone can make them. How would you describe the improvements in sound this conditioner makes? Does using the battery power come close to achieving the same kind of those results?

Am I reading correctly that using this increases the temperature from 80 degrees to 152 degrees? How do you dissipate the kind of heat such awesome amounts of power in your system generate?

[Gary Cook]

Jun 25, 2014 0:58:57 GMT -5 bitsandbytes said:

Your PS Audio PPP power conditioned socket really made your waveforms appear symmetrical rather than skewing to the right - with the upper peaks perfect and the lower ones probably about as perfect as someone can make them. How would you describe the improvements in sound this conditioner makes?

Technically I'd say none, diddly squat, SFA, inaudible, non existent. The AC that goes into the amplifier's power supply is irrelevant, it's the DC that comes out that affects the sound quality and quantity. If the power supplies are so badly designed that the AC input affects the DC output then that's the fault of the power amp design/manufacture.

Bet that gets a reaction

Cheers
Gary