Snub Way road test

I honestly don't know if it would help or not. You could always be added to the list of folks who are trying it out. Most out of pocket would be about 10 bucks to ship it to the next person in line...

If you don't want to wait, according to their website;

Vera-Fi's Website wrote:

Try our products in your home for 30 days risk free, if for any reason you are unsatisfied with your purchase within the 30 day window, return the product for a full refund. We will even cover the return postage.

https://verafiaudiollc.com/policies/refund-policy

You may also want to reach out to Vera-Fi and ask them if they have any feedback concerning this, from either testing, or user experience.

Tom

Emailed Mark about my problem and he said it should fix it so I ordered one.

Milito wrote: »

Emailed Mark about my problem and he said it should fix it so I ordered one.

Hope it works out for you Mike. Be sure to let us know if it solves your problem…and if you realize even more benefits.

I tend to agree with that. A pop will reside on the circuit.

Time will tell.

Tom

The pop just stated happening recently so it may be something in the fan. I'll still get to test the Snub Way when I get it to see if it helps and the effect it has on my system. I should get it at the end of the week. I'll post the results if I can hear a difference. Like I have posted before, my hearing isn't as good as it was a few years ago. I really don't want to spend the money for a dedicated line for that reason. If it was 10 years ago then I would look into it. All of you younger guys take care of your ears, it sucks when they don't work as well when you get older. I'm 74.
BTW my house is only 4 years old. If it doesn't help, I'll buy a new fan with a remote.

Yes, I read when I was searching about the problem a person replace his fan with a remote only fan and it cured the problem.
Like I posted above this is a recent problem, it use not to pop. It's a cheap builder fan.
I'm far from an expert on this, just going by what I have read.

Yea I miss the old Hunter fans you use to have to add oil to. Had then in our 2nd house we built, had 3 of them. They were very heavy, but would last forever.

Looking forward to your impressions. We still on track for Friday?

Tom

Yeah, I chatted with Mark today via text and he said that they are overwhelmingly swamped with orders. Anyone ordering right now should expect a 2 to 3 week order to deliver timeframe. Did you happen to check and see if the ground is properly hooked up at the switch?

Tom

treitz3 wrote: »

Looking forward to your impressions. We still on track for Friday?

Tom

If this was for me, I will most likely be shipping it out to the next in line tomorrow!

Thankfully I was given a bit more time with it so that I could get it into my fathers system, as I think he will want one of these.

As for initial impressions, I'll leave it at this, I've already placed an order for one.

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.

Good write-up. Nice pics. Your experience is similar to mine except I had very noticeable effects, likely due to my computer stuff being on the same circuit as my system. So it's very likely that the dirtier your power situation the more you will notice the improvement.

I now have a Master Class plugged into the circuit in the outlet that feeds my computer gear. Still evaluating it. Earlier, I'd had it placed into the first receptacle in my Niagara 1200 and it had a detrimental effect there. In its current location, as I did a lot of A-B'ing the other night, it went from neutral (no effect) to subtle positive effects. I wonder if there's a break-in period for the device that I've been going through.

Got the new Snubway in on Monday (the one I purchased). Letting it burn in.

I'll try and spend some time listening this weekend.