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Sell your $$$ cables and conditioners... affordable LITHIUM is here!

I wanted to give you a frame of reference as to where I'm coming from and most importantly a first impression after 24hrs!
I've been an addict since my first system of KEF Concord speakers, Crimson Electric amps and an Ariston turntable back in college in '81. Since then I've been down the entire Linn system with Active Kabers, Full Meridian active system with DSP5200's as well as some burly NZ Perraux mono blocks with Sonus Faber when I lived in NZ. Since moving to the US in 2001 I've been through years of altercations between solid state camps from Bel Canto, Levinson stereo 336 to mono 436's, 532H and Mac 452 to speakers from B&W 802N and D2 to Wilson Sophia 2's, Sonus Faber Amati Homage and Revel Studio 2's. I've tried conditioners from Transparent, AQ Niagra, Isotek and others and every time come back to a decent cable straight from the wall.
Three years ago I took the plunge and went down the Devialet rabbit hole, streaming direct from a MacBook Air with ROON my Devialet D200 (soon to become a D400) drives my Focal Utopia Diablos via Analysis Plus Solo Crystal 8 speaker cables (and that's another whole can of worms with enormous cable differences), a JL Audio Fathom F110 (also about to be doubled up) rounds it out. My livening room is about 22x25 with 10ft ceilings and partially treated as best I can accommodate. 
Suffice to say, I've been around the block with hifi, listened to way more than my fair share at dealers and friends with diverse systems and currently run one of the most reveling systems I've ever heard. Sure, there's not that thick syrupy warmth the tube guys will clammer for, but then I'm hearing so much further into not just tonality but intent within the playing. 

If you read the review in Enjoy the Music from Tom Lyle, you'd see he equates the GZ Yeti to the $30k Stromtank. His review was the $400 Yeti 400. The Yeti 1000 was $1099, the 3kW Yeti 3000 is $2999 and will power almost anything. So, like Tom I took the plunge and bought a Yeti 1000 figuring it'd have plenty of 'headroom' for my meagre 600w consumption. (Though I have since plugged my JL Audio Fathom in too)

After playing the "FedEx f'ed up" again game, I finally went to their depot and picked up my new toy myself. After a handful of songs to establish a baseline for the evening, I simply plugged the Yeti 1000 in, reconnected the Devialet and sat back... My girlfriend was first to break the silence and then immediately regretted it as I couldn't help myself interrupting her for the next half hour of gushing over what a profound difference it was making.
H-U-G-E. Truly component level and an absolute game changer. 

I was immediately texting my good friend with his PS Audio Directstream, Gryphon Diablo, Audio Physic Avantera III all powered by the latest Synergistic Research Powercell 12SE and Gallileo power cord with AQ Hurricane to each component - SELL- SELL- SELL it all, get a Goal Zero! 

We stayed up until 2am listening, flipped it back for a handful of now unlistenable tracks and then back again to Yeti 1000 happiness. In over six hours of powering my Devialet and Fathom at 90+db levels it'd dropped to a laughable 98%. I'm guessing that means it'd run off the grid for 300hrs or more? That's probably a several months of listening for most people. Who even cares, it simply sounds spectacular and the single biggest improvement I've ever heard from anything less than a major amp or speaker upgrade. 

I know my system is fairly frugal and green running, my buddy Matts, Gryphon would probably need the 3000W Yeti as his amp pulls 1900W at full song and his full stack of components albeit front end certainly add a few hundred more.   He's headed down to me in a couple of week with a stack of exotic power cables and conditioners  to try and I can't wait to share my results - I'm guessing he'll want to steal it away for his own demo right after. I would imagine he'd even get away with the Yeti 1000, so long as he doesn't run it too hard?
leeagc

Showing 9 responses by leeagc

leeagc OP
66 posts
 
It's a bigger across the board improvement than anything I've ever done, other than a significantly more expensive amp or speakers.  No cable or conditioner comes close and best of all you don't need either.
With the lithium power pack you aren't even connected to the wall apart from recharging - at night or whenever you want to.  You can leave it connected to trickle charge and still play but it sounds best disconnected.  It's not regenerating like the PS Audio, the power is coming directly from the lithium batteries with more than sufficient power to run the system for days. You just have to match your system power requirement to the Yeti model.  I haven't done a back to back to see if the extra headroom of the Yeti 3000 makes and difference at all.
leeagc OP
66 posts
 
It all depends on your amp and systems power requirements - simply add the power draw wattage of each component and match to the next level up Yeti, they go all the way up to 3000W, that's enough for all bar the most power hungry monster amps. For example a Pass Labs X350.8 or x600.8(pretty big and beefy) only draw 550W, that's actually just under what my Devialet draws at 600W!  The XA200.8 only draws 760W.
Add in an XA30 pre that takes 45W, a PS Audio Directstream that draws 30W and you're still way under the Yeti 1000 capability.  I'm really not sure who'd need the 3000?  All the models max out at 12.5A though I'm not sure what their surge capability is.
leeagc OP
66 posts
 
@frostdotcom 
Are you referring to a different thread? Maybe you skipped pages from something you were reading elsewhere?
leeagc OP
66 posts
 
From my listening, audiophile were better than stock cords. Not hard since most stock cords are barely there anyway!  Super high-end cords didn't make much  difference as the power source is already so clean, obviously everything counts but what I found was that the rapidly diminishing returns negated anything more than $1k power cables and the $4-600 cables seemed pretty good too.
I thinking is that the Yeti is feeding stable, clean power with minimal noise.  I'm going to bring it into work in the next week or so and test it. I'll report back.
leeagc OP
66 posts
 
@abd 
 I'd suggest the Yeti 1000 as the one to go for as it supplies a full 12.5 amp whereas the Yeti 400 only supplies 2.6A

Plus you'll be set for whatever changes you make - 'cos you know you will! ;-)
leeagc OP
66 posts
 
The fan is a little loud, but only runs a short while and usually only when I'm playing loud <95+dB
leeagc OP
66 posts
 
My load runs mid-thirties to mid seventies depending on volume.  My Yeti 1000 fan comes on maybe 10% of the time.
I'd suggest persevering with it, at least as long as your return policy allows!
Glad to see you're also hearing a significant improvement.
leeagc OP
66 posts
 
I find the fan comes on after an hour or two of listening, last for maybe 15-30 mins and then goes off again for ages.  Might come on twice in a whole evening.  I unplug while listening as I think it does sound best that way and plug in and charge overnight.  Loud listening drops from 100% to maybe 80 something percent over the course of 5-6 hrs of listening.
It's a small price to pay for the improvement.
leeagc OP
66 posts
 
An update a year in:
My system is on standby 24/7 and in use maybe three hours a day.  I've made a few cables changes and added an Intel NUC driving ROON instead of my MacBook Air - all worthwhile and noticeable changes.  A couple of weeks ago the system was dead when I came home from a business trip of a few days.  Turns out the Yeti wall wart that keep sit topped up had expired.  Yeti immediately shipped a warranty replacement, but I had a week without it, my system being powered directly from the wall again.. OMG - horrified and almost unlistenable.  It sounded like junk, thin, flat and lifeless.  Everything had changed massively for the worse.  New power supply restored, there's happiness in the household.
The Yeti is a gamechanger.  
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