@zlone @jrareform @moto_man So I had my first intimate session last Friday and another on Saturday. Differences with the V16 from the Furman were subtle. I did notice some background sounds seemed to be a bit more brought to the front. For example during Diana Krall's "I Can't Tell You Why" (one of my reference tracks) , there are background vocals that I definitely could distinguish a bit more clearly, more separation. Subtle, yes, but these trained ears caught it. Similar examples on other test tracks. Huge improvement? No. But definitely overall improvements. Nothing was worse. I knew I hadn't lost anything, only gained. But again I don't think the V16 nor my Magic Power cord have near enough time for full break in.
Just this morning is something I definitely noticed and will say this was a significant improvement. I am only in my room from Friday through Sunday. During the week after work I don't have time to be in my room and enjoy, so on Sunday night I power everything down. If the component has a hard power switch I flip it off. Then on Thursday night's before bed, I flip all switches back on. When I get up Friday AM I run music at low volume while I'm at work so that when I get home she's all warmed up and ready. Now tomorrow being a holiday I flipped everything on this morning. Now for some reason I have developed a habit of putting my ear to tweeter on one of my front speaks when I first flip my power amp on. There has always been a bit of a faint staticky type hiss. Can only hear by putting ear to tweeter. I know most have this, it's not abnormal. Certainly nothing that interferes with the experience at all. But I always listen to it every time I power up...Well, this morning when I powered up and flipped the amp on, the staticky part was gone! It's now just a very faint hiss. Like so faint I had to strain to hear it. So that I absolutely consider a vast improvement! Weirdly I didn't notice it last weekend when I fired up for the first time, but that may have been because there was no break in time, or because I was a bit frazzled as I had some issues on initial setup (V16 did not power on initially so I immediately went into all out panic mode-LOL). But that literally lit me up like a Christmas Tree this morning when I noticed the difference in the background noise-less is definitively SOOOO much more there
...And it was significant enough that I noticed it right away without even expecting any difference. In fact it's become such habit I really didn't even realize I was doing it and that's why I was so struck because I didn't hear it and then had to really focus to notice it-wow!
I can wholeheartedly say right now from just this morning I am thrilled with the upgrade!! I know it'll only get better with more play time, so yup, 100% excited and would do it again in a second. A worthwhile use of $ for my system.
Again thank you folks so much for all of the replies, suggestions, and advice and taking an interest in this journey with me.
Oh and @jrareform I did swap the amp from direct outlet to the V16, and weirdly it was almost as if a filter had been placed over the sound. It seemed duller. I will say that Joseph Sayhoun (owner of Earthquake) called me directly and sent me a video of him building my amp and vehemently stressed going direct to the wall outlet and bypass conditioners/surge protectors several times...And when I had my previous SimAudio Titan I initially went into the Furman, but after speaking with the folks at Sim they also were adamant about going direct to outlet and very similar experience, it was like a window as opened and really let the Titan do it's magic once removed from the Furman...
Have an awesome and safe 4th All!
! Had a couple hiccups but now finally up and running. I have my amp plugged directly into the wall for now. I will try it into the V16 at some point just to see/hear...I have not yet sat down for a session, I’ll be doing that tonight. Super excited and anxious