This morning my friend and fellow PFM member
@TheFlash invited himself to my house to drink coffee and to listen to the Innuos Phoenix.
The initial system set up was Innuos Zenith SE connected to Chord Dave by USB (Supra USB 2.0). The Dave is connected direct to Pass Labs XA60.8 mono power amps and they feed Spendor SP200 speakers. The system had been switched on for a couple of hours before Nigel arrive.
The purpose of the session was simply to establish whether inserting the Phoenix made a difference that we could hear and whether we preferred it. Nigel suggested a track called 'Salt Of The Earth' by Bill Fay on his 'Countless Branches' album so we used that. It has clear piano with some bass and a Bill Fay singing. I liked it and it was a good suggestion.
After listening to the track with the base system set up we inserted the Phoenix between the Innuos Zenith SE and the Dave. The Supra usb cable was taken from the Zenith to the Phoenix and the Innuos usb cable supplied with the Phoenix was used between the Phoenix and the Dave.
Within about 15 seconds Nigel and I looked at each other and asked if we could stop the track and go back to without the Phoenix because we both heard a clear and compelling difference with the Phoenix that we liked.
Going back to without the Phoenix clearly removed the difference that we had heard but we then added back the Phoenix just to make sure and back came the improvement. With the Phoenix we both felt that the bass was easier to hear and had more clarity and perhaps a richer sound. The mids and top end were somewhat sweeter and less 'digital'. We both liked the improvement a lot which is saying something because it already sounded excellent without the Phoenix.
The next stage was to add in the Chord Blu2 Mscaler between the Zenith and the Dave. Even without the Phoenix this moved the bass etc in the same direction as the Phoenix and also added the very special qualities that fans of the Mscaler will recognise. Today was not about the Mscaler so I will not dwell on that but what we wanted to see was whether adding the Phoenix to an Mscaler system would have as much of an effect as it did with our first session.
Adding the Phoenix to the Blu2 Mscaler / Dave did indeed give similar results to the first session but I think we agreed that perhaps it was not quite as obvious. However to our ears the improvements were definitely still there.
Finally we tried the Phoenix in the same system but this time with the Blu2 Mscaler connected to a Dave with a custom build full Sean Jacobs external power supply with separate LPS voltage rails to the digital and analogue circuits in the Dave. At this point we reached the stage where we were no longer sure whether the Phoenix was making any difference to the sound quality despite switching backwards and forwards several times.
There is no doubt in my mind that I could hear a difference by adding an Innuos Phoenix to my standard system and that I liked the sound.
Inside the Phoenix, as well as the Innuos USB board one can see one of the power supply boards clearly labeled "
Innuos Statement Front End PSU" and this is in line with Innuos saying that the Phoenix takes other Innuos servers towards their top of the range Statement.
Innuos say this about the Phoenix,
"The Phoenix USB Reclocker takes the USB signal from ANY source (It's not limited to Innuos products) and completely regenerates it to an extremely high precision signal to feed into your DAC.
3 Components in 1
The PhoenixUSB offers in one unit the equivalent of 3 separate components:
• A USB regenerator
• Linear power supply
• External master clock with its own linear power supply.
Highly Regulated Linear Power Supplies
The USB chip regenerating the signal contains no switching regulators. All 3 independent voltages to the chip originate from an independent linear power supply with further regulation provided by 3 sets of LT305 regulators.
The use of a 3 ppb OCXO clock running directly at 24 mHz and connected via a board track just a couple inches away from the USB chip itself ensures the shortest possible connected path. No precision is lost within cables and connectors, as is the case when using an external master 10mHz clock with an additional 24 mHz clock generator.
Two independent Statement-level linear power supplies, one dedicated to the OCXO clsock and the other used for powering the USB chip 5V USB line."
We all know before we start that the defenders of the faith (aka the FM objectivists) will pounce and say that a reclocker cannot possibly make any difference to the sound quality but to be honest I am not even going to go there. They can start their own thread somewhere else if they wish and debate that in their own little safe place. This thread was started by
@cpg who listened to the Phoenix at a show and posted that he liked what he heard. That grabbed my attention sufficiently for me to want to try one to see if I could also hear a difference.
Whether what the Phoenix does is mainly down to reclocking or is due to its power supplies I do not know and I do not really care but the clear result from today was that both I and another PFM could hear a compelling difference due to the Phoenix.
It is not cheap but I suggest that if anyone has an Innuos server that is not a Statement then it would be worthwhile asking your Innuos dealer if you can get a home demo of the Phoenix.