dCS Bartók on steroids - minor breaker box upgrade, major effect
[originally posted on the dCS ROON community page]
Since end of February I am enjoying my dCS Bartók, both through my speakers, and headphones.
Because of a planned renovation in our apartment, I got the easy opportunity to ‘lend’ the present electrician, and asked him to replace and upgrade our MCB [miniature circuit breaker] distribution board/ breaker box. I finally got my dedicated 16A circuit, only powering my audio rig. It is using a Kemp Elektroniks Supreme³ Cylindric Fuse Cartridge MCB, containing 2 HiFi-Tuning Supreme³ Fuses. Audio part of the upgrade was just under € 300, parts and labour, including high grade separate wiring to a dedicated wall socket.
Result: dCS Bartók on steroids! The audible result of this upgrade is a bass response that’s even more taut and goes deeper, an even better reproduction of details, and all together an even more natural, richer and cleaner sound that’s reproduced with the right timbre and texture. Voices are as real as they can get.
From the dedicated electrical wall socket and to Bartók and amp are: Audioquest Hurricane power cables to/ from Audioquest Niagara 1000. They were already in place before the MCB breaker box + fuse cartridge upgrade.
Roon is running on a Win10 PC, fed separately, not on the audio group.
The electrician told me before he started: “Electricity is just electricity…”, suggesting a ‘snake oil’ upgrade. I believed him until my ears told me he is completely wrong.
The sound quality of the dCS Bartók already was very pleasing, but it has improved that much that I want to share my experience. The amplifier parts in my audio rig [power amplifier, and Bartók headphones amplifier part] seem to benefit the most. Specially bass response has improved a lot.
I have no scientific explanation for how this worked. But I like it!
I am curious to hear if you have a similar experience, or background info on how this works. And dCS team: what do you think of this?