Upfront, I want make this clear if your total system value is under $3000. This is probably not a product review that you should be considering for your system. Because noise reduction is truly along the edges of your system’s resolution. While eliminating noise or reducing it does improve your sound, that improvement becomes far more noticeable once you moved up the chain in the quality of equipment that you have. Therefore, if you don’t fit into this parameter, I would honestly suggest that you look into things like speaker placement, room treatment, among other possibilities first.
Between $3000-$5000 you may want to look into Vera-Fi Audio’s highly regarded budget noise products, the Snubway and Mainstream, which I have reviewed and found quite worthy. For the rest of us, who are truly vested in the goal of music nirvana, this review is for you.
In my pursuit of eliminating as much noise while listening, I begin by asking myself not long after my previous step up in noise elimination had been completed, am I now becoming perceptive to noise that I blocked out after the last noise remover or filter was put in to my listening space? First of all, that means replicating as closely as possible what electrical appliances in the house are running to make sure that they are once again off in my home. That means the dishwasher isn’t running, the television in the family room is off, the washer and dryer aren’t doing their duty. Now I should say, that all the fluorescent lighting in the house was changed in favor of LEDs when we bought the house 4 years ago.
The next step was listening to my reference Buchardt S400 mkii and the Magnapan .7 with each of my amplifiers as well as any amplifiers that are in for review. Currently, that means the Orchard Audio Starkrimson Ultra, and the Peachtree Audio Carina X integrated. I also regularly go around and make sure that all my plug-in points are tight, and that I am wisely limiting the use of wires, interconnects, and power cords in an effort to keep those items from laying on top of one another.
What is this all leading up to is that I recently received from Mark Schifter of Vera-Fi Audio two noise reducing/eliminating products, the Snub Station Zero (SSN) and the Line Noise Black Hole (LNBH) working in tandem. (He also sent the Infinity Fuse, which will be in a separate review).
What did I notice with the SSZ and the LNBH like with Vera-FiAudio’s Snubway and the Main Stream which I reviewed some 7 to 8 months ago is another level of improved clarity. What these two items do is make the music more vivid by reducing the auditory noise even further. The best way I can describe it is when under the right type of lighting outdoors, the colors in a garden of flowers are more vivid or after a rainstorm when the nitrogen is absorbed by the plants leading to the enhanced greens, blues, yellows, oranges, and reds, basically every color in the spectrum.
Now the amount of improvement is really going to be based upon how your home electrical system, plug-ins, and so forth are set up along with how good the grounding is. If you have an electrical pole with a little transformer unit next or near to your house there’s a chance that you’re going be getting more noise from that, especially if it’s older one that’s buzzing. If you have a family full of kids, some people have their computers running, their desktop units may be outputting more noise that way. It’s just very dependent. If you’re in an apartment or a condo or a townhome, you may experience more noise, the point being, that if you are at the point where you’re happy with your system, but feel their is room to improve and you haven’t investigated line noise and ways to reduce it, the Sub Station Zero in the Little Noise Black Hole are definitely worth investigating.
Since the Snub Station Zero is the unit closest to the equipment, therefore, I’ll start with it. The casework is a single piece curved onto the sides, no edges. The front panel has three sockets. In a cost-effective touch, the three outlet sockets are multi compatible. Two are for low power, such as DAC, turntable, CD player, streamer. And one is designed for amplifiers, with a slow start. This is critical to note, as long as they are 10 amps or less. My reference amplifier, the Galion TS A75 at 8 amps is a great match. The idea is for the SSN to capture the flood of energy that hits the equipment when power is first turned on and doing so, noise is filtered out. The secondary benefit is that it should increase life of the component by not having to deal with the impact of powering up. The other two were the WiiM Ultra streamer and the Denafrips Ares II DAC. The back panel has a power cord socket and rocker power switch.
The power cord from the SSZ goes into the Line Noise Black Hole (LNBH). This unit goes after the EMI/RFI noise that occurs with electronics. The LNBH is a product of Dr. Viet Nguyen’s work bench. The LNBH acts like a sponge, absorbing the “pollutants”. With this design, current is not limited in any way! This sponge filtering is broken up into two parts. Like the SSN, the LNBH is also limited to equipment of 10 Amps or less. Once again, the back panel has the power cord socket and rocker switch.
In my listening space I definitely experienced subtle improvement in clarity. I won’t say that it’s massive, but there is more air, space, and definition the shimmer of the symbols, the various and sometimes very unique notes and resonances that the Piano Boys get out of their instruments in their recordings is impressive. The various great guitarists, especially with an acoustic model is more alive. While these are recordings and not the actual live instrument in front of me the Substation and the Line Noise Black Hole are getting me closer to my Nirvana.
To further test the SSZ and LNBH, I made sure to listen with and without the units in the chain while our washer dryer were running, as well as the vacuum cleaner, and hair dryer were powered at the opposite end of my home. I could not hear the units running. First off, I always hear a short “bump” in my system when the vacuum is turned on. With the SSN and LNBH that was all but eliminated. Secondly, a background undercurrent of graininess disappeared. That same auditory issue that also occurred with other appliances mentioned before the Vera-Fi dual products was tamed as well.
You want to make sure that the music you were listening to is uncompressed in other words, lossless or original bit perfect because if you’re not doing that, in this reviewer's humble opinion, you’re wasting it your money. You need to be getting the original sound quality of the recording before stepping into the noise reducing/canceling, eliminating path.
Listening to Neil Young‘s classic Harvest, I found the harmonica to be a nice little reference for improvement. It is one of those instruments that reveals harshness easily. Cymbals are another instrument that exposes noise in a system. Pulling up my favorite percussion dominating songs definitely revealed the improvement the SSN and LNBH cleaned up. As did the various pianists who recorded via the Windham Hill library.
What I also really appreciate is how I noticed more detail and residence and richness in the choir passages, because that’s where lots of times the little nuances get lost that are in the music. We are not talking 10 or 15% here I would say 3% to maybe 5% at absolute most depending upon the level of resolution of your own system and the noise in the home’s electrical system. Now some people are going to ask, is it worth plucking down extra money for these. Well, as I said at the beginning, if you have invested, let’s say $5000 or more in your system I would say yes. But if you’re just streaming music to your system over Bluetooth from your phone, then no.
I do wish the SSLZ and the LNBH were the same size just for appearance sake nothing else. It might help with the economies-of-scale for Vera-Fi Audio. I say this as a fan of Peachtree Audio and their single case-size work for all but one product.
Final Thoughts
The Vera-Fi Audio Snub Station Zero at $599 and Little Noise Black Hole at $428 (Both are on sale as of the posting of this video at $395 each) are still less expensive than virtually all of its competitors. This is a far bigger deal than one may think. Allowing the listener to buy more music, upgrade other components in their system, or just keep money in their pocket for other joys in life, like a live concert. Honestly, this "far more for less", has been the mantra of Vera-Fi Audio’s main man, Mark Schifter. One only has to look at the universally praised Vanguard Scout Speakers, and Caldera subwoofers to recognized that Vera-Fi Audio has hit on the secret sauce combo of value/sound quality.
The Snub Station Zero and Little Noise Black Hole nail the key point in audio, improving the quality of your listening experience. Placing you closer to the recording by removing the various forms of noise “grey” the music. Remember, this is returning to the original color, not adding to it. Without this film, music is able to do what I crave so much, the touching of my soul. In doing so, the SSZ and the LNBH are the pathway to increasing those ultimate escapes into the beauty of music. Highly recommended!
Comments
Post a Comment