Best Of

Alright, I have a bit of time to sit down and go over my thoughts on the Snubway.

I tried to approach this as unbiased as possible, I skimmed over this thread and didn't really read the details posted before me, as well as pretty much staying out of Tom's Snubway thread.

Before I threw my name in the hat to have this sent to me, I popped over to the Vera-Fi website and read the description of the Snubway. After reading up on it a bit I decided I'm probably an ideal candidate for this device, if it works at all. My home is loaded in chargers, smart lighting/devices, electronics and I live in a massive neighborhood with other homes filled with the same stuff.

My 2ch system at the moment:

- Sonus Faber Venere S speakers
- Prima Luna Evo 400 preamp
- Rotel RB-1582 amp
- Eversolo DMP-A8 streamer/dac/file management
- Pro-Ject X1 TT
- Schiit Skoll phono-stage
- Furman Elite 15 DMi handles surge protection

My home was built about 50 years ago and in a fantasy world, I would have it completely rewired and updated. But that's not going to happen in my lifetime. What I have been doing, as I remodel and update the home I have been rewiring as much as possible and fixing issues. However, after my recent kitchen remodel, my breaker box is now maxed out. In hindsight, I should've put the kitchen on a subpanel...

Where am I going with this?

My house is far from ideal when it comes to wiring and clean power.

However, my 2ch system is on a dedicated 20amp line.

Once I got in the Snubway and opened it up, I was pretty impressed with build quality and aesthetics. It feels solid in the hand and to me, looks really nice. Looks aren't everything to me, but with my setup, the Snubway is plenty visible in the seated positions in my room.





Once I fired up the system I started a quick listening session without it plugged in, after a few songs I plugged in the Snubway (plugged into the top outlet of the first plug in the line).

I went back to my starting songs. IIRC, it was just the recently re-released and remastered Pink Floyd Pompeii album (96/24 downloaded to my Eversolo).

Right out of the gate, I felt like I noticed tighter and sharper bass in the introduction. As the tracks progressed, I noticed percussions sounded sharper and cleaner and overall better separation. At this point, my wife came down and wanted to watch a show (she is FINALLY watching Sopranos...). I had her pull the Snubway for about 10 seconds and plug it back in for about 30 a few times. This is where I felt like it became the most obvious that it was doing something. After enough of my wife rolling her eyes, I powered down the Prima Luna and fired up the TV.

Over the next several days I listened on and off, with it plugged in most of the time. In general, I didn't notice anything "mindblowing" and "night and day". What I did notice, better separation and a cleaner and better defined soundstage.

After about a week of it plugged in, I sat down and made a more serious listening session.

My method; listen to song with Snubway plugged in, then another listen unplugged, then another listen plugged back in (all songs downloaded to my Eversolo's internal SSD).

- Big Momma Thornton With The Muddy Waters Blues Band (44.1/16), I feel The Way I Feel. Crisper and more forward cymbals. More texture to Big Momma's voice, just an excellent gravelly undertone that is suddenly more obvious. You just melt into the song.
- Springsteen, Born In The USA (96/24), My Home Town. Better defined percussion and snappier kick drum. Exposing texture and gravel to Bruce's voice that's harder to decipher without. Backing chorus in final 1/3 of the song is more pronounced and clear, without, you know it's there, but it's more of a distant detail/layer.
- ZZ Top, Raw (96/24), Blue Jean Blues. Extended and better defined bass lines (RIP Dusty). Cleaner soundstage with B. Gibbons taking a rock solid center stage. Damn, the years in that voice. The "sigh" at 2:57, just runs up the spine like never before.
- Pink Floyd Pompeii (96/24), Careful With That Axe Eugene. Cleaner tighter bass. Vocals more forward and centered, less smearing.
- Sturgill Simpson (Johnny Blue Skies) Passage Du Desir, One For The Road. Acoustic guitar and vocals gain much needed texture and separation. Maybe a little too sibilant now? Am I getting fatigued, is it the recording? Okay, the second half of the song is here, the "big band" stops and it's more of a focused instrumental, much more enjoyable.

Across the board impressions; bass, texture, separation and cleaner soundstage was noticed across all songs. This isn't a "punch you in the face" difference, this is more nuanced and becomes obvious as you listen back to back with and without it, or hot swap it in and out. Overall, a pretty obvious drop in the noise floor.

Okay, I had my fun and I got permission, THANK YOU! @muncybob, to keep it a bit longer and let my dad get his ears on it. I was hoping to have my dad over and we could listen together during my normal trial, but dad has had a rough month thanks to a fall and some surgeries. Long story short, I had to go over and paint a new room on their home and while I was there I brought over the Snubway and left him to mess around while I painted, I didn't want my experience to influence his experience.

After a bit, I checked in on as I knew it was impossible for him to swap it in and out, so he was only listening with it plugged in, on a system he has basically not listened to in a month...

I was able to hot swap it in and out, for a real A/B test. You could see it in his eyes then, it became really clear how his system sounded with, and without it. He essentially echoed exactly what I felt, it's not a massive difference it's in the details, it's a noise layer that just suddenly "lifts off the music".

In total, I think how much this device impacts your system is dependent on your home, wiring and neighborhood. You live in the middle of suburbs with a bunch of smart devices, chargers and digital switches?

You might love this thing.

You live in the middle of nowhere with none of that stuff, you might not notice much?

A big part of me wishes my cabin was connected to the grid, then I could test it in a rural environment without all of that noise. I guess I'll have to wait another 10'ish years till I sell my main home and build my retirement cabin (that will be on-grid) to find out.

@Clipdat Said respectfully, can you try to be a gentleman, instead of a smart aleck when joining in on the conversation? It's called a Snubway. Every post you have made on this thread, and the other one, rings with the same tone. It's getting rather old and doesn't further anyone's knowledge, or the conversation. It just adds unnecessary noise to the conversation.

So, let me clarify a bit on the noise I am talking about. It's a combination of noise floor, room minimum dB level, RFI, EMI and Schuman resonance, Eddy currents, phase noise and/or jitter, ground noise, common mode noise, leakage current, Allan deviation, reflections within the room or even the cables themself, timing variances within the 1's and 0's (whether it be immediate, misread, short or long), along with noise that rides the incoming A/C waveform, or if you stream? Through that incoming cable and upstream infrastructure noise. These are just some of the things that affect the sound and yes, it's audible when these types of noises are gone.

This noises aforementioned are not the same as vinyl surface noise from a TT or tube noise, although you want to try and keep those as low as possible as well. What I am saying is that the noise I am referring too is not the same. Many people don't even know they have noise…..until it's gone.

PSOVLSK wrote: »

My understanding is that they are equal but handle different frequencies, so they are meant to be used in tandem.

Correct. The Veri-Fi Main Stream - Master Class Dynamic Parallel AC Line Conditioner is focused on and targets the frequency range from 10kHz to 20kHz, but it's particularly potent in and around the critical 20kHz region, where hum, hiss, and hash tend to be most prominent. The SnubWay's greatest range of effectiveness is targeting the problematic 400kHz-600kHz range.

I had made the comment that I would give the MC the nod as to the greater effectiveness, but this is on my system and I already had the Snubway in place for 1/2 a year, so that may very well just be chalked up to a cumulative effect. Every one has differing noise levels, so what works as "the best" for one person's system, may not reflect the situation in someone else's system. And vice-versa.

When it comes to the Puritan, it is my understanding that every outlet is on a dedicated isolation transformer, which block electrical noise and interference by providing galvanic isolation. Either one of these devices (and this is only conjecture) would be rendered useless on a device like that. In Jody's case, he found that adding the Snubway into the outlet that feeds the Puritan yielded the best results for him. That makes sense, but when he still noticed a consistent difference after installing the Snubway, it just makes the argument that the Puritan removes much of, but not all of the noise.

I have found this to be true, no matter the product used, or a companies "claim" that all noise is eliminated. I have yet to find any product that eliminates all of the noise. That said, the products that I have introduced into the rig have severely thwarted the audible noise and the end result is simply nothing less than spectacular - for what you actually hear (and more importantly, what you don't hear).

Tom

I appreciate the info! I actually took up Paul on his offer. I have never been disappointed with any of the cables that I purchased from @marvda1 , and the one @PSOVLSK offered is just that, apparently. Thank you!