There are references to this excellent LPS peppered around WBF; I just wanted to briefly remark on my experience, which also included their service.
I put an SBooster on a Matrix X-SPDIF Mkll, converting USB from a Melco unit to the i2s of my Metronome Le Dac 2. I'd already found the i2s presentation from a 'bare' Matrix to be less 'brittle' than USB but the addition of the SBooster seriously lowered perceived digital harshness further, expanded soundstage, increased coherence and imaging and gave a more relaxed but no less dynamic sound. (Addition of an AQ Blizzard power cord further increased the level of smoothness and appeared to lend more weight to the bass).
A few days ago, my sound was unusually harsh and the soundstage shrunken. I went over everything and couldn't see anything wrong. Decided maybe the mains power was suffering a polluted evening - though I have dedicated mains for the hifi. Next day I got behind the cupboard where the SBooster lives to unplug the Blizzard and plug it into my phono amp. I noticed the green power light was off and the unit dead. So the previous night's listening had been with the Matrix powered by the USB cable. 'Please let that be the reason', I thought to myself.
Opening the unit revealed nothing obvious and the fuse looked intact. I emailed SBooster asking for a UK repairer. Just 20 minutes later, Wiebren replied asking me to run a simple test. Having become accustomed to some pretty shoddy service from all over, these days, I was blown away by the fast and helpful response. I ran the test, reported the result and, another 20 minutes later, got another reply from Wiebren saying he thought the fuse had blown - even if it didn't look like it. I'm not known for my patience and had ordered a new unit which arrived next day. Dropping the spare fuse into my old unit confirmed that it was indeed the culprit. Must have blown when I swapped power cords and failed to turn off the SBooster in the process - forgot it had a power switch. Next day I reported back to Wiebren and asked for a reference for a fuse source in UK to get some spares. He immediately replied to say he'd send me some spares, free of charge. Stunning. And on dropping the new unit back into the rig, my beautiful, big, grain free sound was back. What a relief - and what a validation of this little LPS.
I really wanted people to know that not only do I find the SBooster a truly worthwhile, realistically priced and effective power supply, bringing clearly tangible improvements to sound, but it is backed up by a level of service and customer care that's rare and to be applauded.
I put an SBooster on a Matrix X-SPDIF Mkll, converting USB from a Melco unit to the i2s of my Metronome Le Dac 2. I'd already found the i2s presentation from a 'bare' Matrix to be less 'brittle' than USB but the addition of the SBooster seriously lowered perceived digital harshness further, expanded soundstage, increased coherence and imaging and gave a more relaxed but no less dynamic sound. (Addition of an AQ Blizzard power cord further increased the level of smoothness and appeared to lend more weight to the bass).
A few days ago, my sound was unusually harsh and the soundstage shrunken. I went over everything and couldn't see anything wrong. Decided maybe the mains power was suffering a polluted evening - though I have dedicated mains for the hifi. Next day I got behind the cupboard where the SBooster lives to unplug the Blizzard and plug it into my phono amp. I noticed the green power light was off and the unit dead. So the previous night's listening had been with the Matrix powered by the USB cable. 'Please let that be the reason', I thought to myself.
Opening the unit revealed nothing obvious and the fuse looked intact. I emailed SBooster asking for a UK repairer. Just 20 minutes later, Wiebren replied asking me to run a simple test. Having become accustomed to some pretty shoddy service from all over, these days, I was blown away by the fast and helpful response. I ran the test, reported the result and, another 20 minutes later, got another reply from Wiebren saying he thought the fuse had blown - even if it didn't look like it. I'm not known for my patience and had ordered a new unit which arrived next day. Dropping the spare fuse into my old unit confirmed that it was indeed the culprit. Must have blown when I swapped power cords and failed to turn off the SBooster in the process - forgot it had a power switch. Next day I reported back to Wiebren and asked for a reference for a fuse source in UK to get some spares. He immediately replied to say he'd send me some spares, free of charge. Stunning. And on dropping the new unit back into the rig, my beautiful, big, grain free sound was back. What a relief - and what a validation of this little LPS.
I really wanted people to know that not only do I find the SBooster a truly worthwhile, realistically priced and effective power supply, bringing clearly tangible improvements to sound, but it is backed up by a level of service and customer care that's rare and to be applauded.
