Welcome!

Hi Graham. Thanks for the welcome.

I started my GSP journey with a humble Gram Amp 1, which I found astonishing compared to other stages of similar outlay. Well defined bass, articulate highs and a well defined soundstage made for a sound that one could be content with indefinitely.

My next step was an ERA GOLD V intro, again from Brian at Decibel Hi Fi. I was expecting subtle improvements, but was not prepared for the increase in width of the soundstage and dramatically improved localisation of each instrument. The ability of the Era Gold to display instruments outside of the physical placement of the speakers simply floors me Graham, and I often find myself sitting with my eyes closed conducting invisible musicians with enthusiastic gesticulation, much to the amusment of my children...

This weekend I will be upgrading to a PSU1 to extract the last ounce of detail from my setup, and my eye is keenly placed upon a future purchase of a Solo to match my Sennheiser HD 595's.

I have noticed in the various forums the appearance of the "green" varieties of the Solo and have to ask, "what's this all about?" From a strict sound quality point of view, which Solo sould I have my heart set on? Indeed, should I be purchasing the Psu1, or waiting for a "Green" power supply upgrade for the Era Gold V? What's this "green" stuff all about?

Yours in sound fidelity,

Kreyfish

Hi kreyfish,

Welcome to the community!

The "green" business is all about complying with the sweeping new laws being imposed country by country all over the world to reduce energy consumption. Whether it helps global warming or not is another matter. I am poised to do an article on it at www.gspaudio.co.uk.

To use a "green" power supply (read "switched mode technology") a circuit usually needs some modification to stop the high frequency distortions they produce, breaking through. It's something designers never had to bother with using the good old linear mains transformer power supplies.

The Era Gold V is an "archived" design now - why spoil something that's reached it's "peak"?

Therefore we won't be making a green version of it, so that's one less headache in the upgrade decision process. Yes, obtain a PSU1 off Brian and I think you'll experience another improvement.

Now, on the subject of "green" Solo, it is still a pre-launch "pilot" where the mods are hard-wired on. I'll be shortly tracking up a PCB with all the mods and we may simply change over to the "green" variety rather than running two different models. They both do the "trick" and they both have their own qualities. In most cases it's been very difficult to say which one's best - they are that close. At the end of the day if you feel satisfied using a slightly more energy hungry linear power supply (PSU1), go for the original. But if you feel obliged to save energy, then it's the "green".

Hi Darren/Audio,