The Two Channel Advice Thread

Discussion in 'Advice Threads' started by purr1n, Nov 10, 2016.

  1. JayC

    JayC Resident Crash Test Dummy

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    Yep, I thought I heard some clipping at High (I always used low so far) when I tried it last night but wasnt sure because it happened when I was cooking dinner and I couldnt leave the stove to go check so I just switched back to Low. I find that the bass is a wee bit fuller on Low as well, and I prefer that so its all good.
    I just needed to ask because I wasnt sure if clipping was possible and also didnt want to try again in case it caused damage (if thats possible).
     
  2. Big D Design

    Big D Design RIP 2021

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    Just came across this thread. Here's my 2 cents are the inexpensive side of amps available right now that I know of. I see someone mentioned Crown. Over the years I have seen Crown used in many situations and they are very linear when raising the volume and have excellent high current draw. They are overlooked by many audiophiles because they are considered Commercial amps. But they actually sound quite good with a proper preamp up front. There is so much crap out there that when you turn the volume you get something other than expected. An amplifier should be linear in delivery, period. And it it should be able to handle when the ohms drop and deliver the current needed to keep the music growing. Schiit Vidar looks like a nice beast of an amp, regardless of price. The innards show me that they aren't playing with power delivery. Our course it has to sound good. And I trust that these guys have the experience to get the job done.

    The next amp I like is the Vincent. I think it is the Vincent 331. It's about $1,300.00 and is rated at 150 RMS at 8 ohms and almost double that at 4 ohms. It is also rock stable at 2 ohms. It is a hybrid amp with a tube output stage. It has a nice powerful low end and a very smooth mid and highs output. Great for those who find Solid State a little too edgy. Last in my favorites is the amp that I just bought. It was $650, the NuPrime STA-9 Class D amp. The claim from the manufacturer is that the sound is kind of tube like and not edgy. Well that is true. My Martin Logan ESLs don't like edgy. They want some fullness and a little bit of tube type sound to be their best. Right now I am very pleased with the NuPrime, and look forward to combining the Freya and the Modi Multi-Bit with it. Those items are in transit and I will be getting them in a few days.

    I see that NAD has come out with this new line of Class D amps. I think that they will sound horrible personally. I used to own NAD and it was never even close to having a soundstage that a proper amp would have. Linear power delivery yes, but the sound was just budget sound. Not audiophile sound. All the other Onkyo, Yamaha and Pioneer stuff.... stay away. Buy components from companies like Schiit and NuPrime. Integrated amps are a waste of time. I have yet to see anything "WORTH THE MONEY" to go integrated. You can always get your system to sound better with separates. There is room to tweak in them there hills.
     
  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Thanks for your perspective on Vincent. At least another data point (among other data points I have). I never felt anything from NAD was good, as in good enough for someone past level 5 audiophile, but the prices were good for people starting out.
     
  4. cizx.5

    cizx.5 New

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  5. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    The NAD M22 uses Hypex Ncore modules (the NC400 I believe) and the D3020 uses some (custom?) UcD modules, but I'm not sure about the rest of the lineup.

    NuPrime is one of the few guys that makes their own class D amps instead of slapping in modules from someone else. I've had a few of their items over the years, and currently have the IDA-8 integrated which I feel is quite good overall.
     
  6. Big D Design

    Big D Design RIP 2021

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    I think I may have been a little too harsh on the Integrated Amp discussion. My points were made at the $1,000.00 price point. That's a lot of moolah. Yes the NuPrime ID-8 is a great choice of integrated and probably the best at the $1K price point.

    Is it the best integrated available at this price point?....

    you betcha. I think that if it had a remote control it would sell more than they could make. But do you want to have sound that will send you to heaven.... The NuPrime STA-9 amp at 120 watts RMS is "near reference" sound at $679. So you could buy some Schiit equipment in the preamp side and you would have sound a step above the NuPrime ID-8. See my logic with separate preamp and amp setups.

    I would not myself spend anything over $600.00 for any of the big brand name integrated amps. I just want to clarify,,,,, that when you are spending a grand that you can combine a nice headphone amp with preamp outputs or preamp and a good amplifier and get an order of a magnitude better sound. The NuPrime ID-8 is the one that is bucking this philosophy. Sorry for being harsh in my last post about mainstream products, but it's just too much money to spend a $1,000.00 on them when you can get such quality from a select few audiophile companies that care about the rest of us.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2017
  7. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Eh? My IDA-8 came with two remotes...
     
  8. ak2angel

    ak2angel Acquaintance

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    Does anyone here have experience with Quad current-dumping power amps ? I managed to snag a 606 for quite cheap and but have trouble finding a proper preamp for it. It have quite unusual input impedance and sensitivity (20k Ohms and 0.5v respectively), so a passive preamp would be out of the question. I'd love to try the Saga and Freya, but unfortunately the dealers here don't have plan to import them any time soon. (shipping directly would be very costly). My budget is <$500, but stretching several bucks more is fine. The speakers are Quad 12L and AR4x.
    Any advice would be most welcome !
     
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    WTH, Why are they so expensive? I thought the rational behind class D was light, inexpensive, and efficient?
     
  10. Big D Design

    Big D Design RIP 2021

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    Did not know that. Yikes.
     
  11. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Light and efficient yes, but cheap went out the window as with all things hifi. Chip solutions can be done cheap and are of wildly varying sound quality. More advanced stuff like the Ncores will run you $1k+ for a 2ch DIY. Slap on a nice case, boutique parts and "custom" input section and "streamlined" power supply, put your brand on the case with the usual retail markup, and there you go.



    Did you check the cardboard inserts in the box? the remotes are quite slim and tucked away inside.
     
  12. pedalhead

    pedalhead Friend

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    On a slight tangent, I'm wondering what you guys/gals think about vintage receivers as a viable 2-channel option? I've got a couple of Luxmans (1978 R-1120 "monster" receiver and an early '70s SQ-507X), but nothing else decent to compare them with. Unfortunately, the older Luxman is pretty scratchy despite multiple De-Oxits, and the monster is away to have blown transistors replaced atm, but I have read a lot to suggest some of these old units have a lot to offer compared to new stuff (other than being unreliable!!).
     
  13. cizx

    cizx Friend

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    What's the conventional wisdom about hooking up amps? Long XLR from preamp to amp, short cable from amp to speaker, or the other way around?

    (Assuming balanced mono blocks.)
     
  14. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Typically it's long interconnects and short speaker cables. There's a turning/balancing point somewhere, but that's only when you get to something like 50+ feet.
     
  15. OJneg

    OJneg The Most Insufferable

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    Long cables to you power amp, assuming you're smart with the impedance matching
     
  16. cizx

    cizx Friend

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    I don't know anything about impedance matching. What cables from freya to vidar?

    I was assuming standard blue jeans xlr cables.
     
  17. OJneg

    OJneg The Most Insufferable

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    You don't want to drive a 600ohm input coil off the plate of a 6SN7 or other high Rp tubes, but so long as your preamps Zout is low you can drive most anything
     
  18. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Yeah, or Radio Shack XLRs. Get whatever. Don't waste your money at this point. Freya should drive any power amp you put after it. That's the reason for an active preamp - so you don't have to worry about impedance mismatches between source and amp.
     
  19. Hrodulf

    Hrodulf Prohibited from acting as an MOT until year 2050

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    For long runs XLR>all. Audiophile companies hate XLR, because proper differential connections are extremely interconnect agnostic.
     
  20. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    Posting here to not clutter the main Freya thread. Want to buy either Freya or Saga and planning on using a Vidar when they come out this year. DAC is Yggdrasil. Currently using only RCA-out into a Torpedo III and a Peachtree integrated powering Magnepan 1.6QR speakers. Per Jason's posts, the Vidar is not rated into 4 ohms as a monoblock, which may be a problem with Maggies. Don't listen super loud, but still worried about long-term reliability running monoblocks.
    1. Go for monoblock Vidars or just one running single-ended into Maggies?
      • If monoblock Vidars, Freya's the easy choice.
    2. If single Vidar, go for Freya or Saga?
      • Freya can take the balanced out from the Yggdrasil which seems ideal. Haven't yet used Yggdrasil's XLR out.
      • Not sure how good of an idea double JFET outputs would be, so likely considering passive vs. tube modes in either preamp.
      • Or just better to go with Saga for simpler circuit and more transparency, foregoing XLR out from Yggdrasil? Don't want to use an ISO MAX or similar.
    Also considering waiting for some sort of Pivot Point Ragnarok upgrade with remote, but haven't seen anything substantive yet.
     

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