My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!
Techno, you are avoiding my proposition.... I’ve asked you to send me your cable so I can compare. As a matter of fact, I’m willing to send shipping labels to anyone willing to send me their cable so I can do a shootout here in my home. Any takers??????? If you believe in your cables being better then speak up and let’s do this. Let’s stop assuming stuff by reading specs or magazine reviews. You all know my opinion is based on gear I have my hands on. |
No it's not Accuphase. I plan to keep listening to it for the next 3 weeks and then have a better understanding of what this amp can or can't do. It still needs more time in the "oven" before I can form an opinion. I believe this amp WILL make a splash. For now, I am thinking about having 3 reference amps in my room at all times in order to see how they all behave with different speakers and cables. |
Wow, I am thrilled to take on this challenge with you techno but there’s one problem: you aren’t a challenge. Never have been and never will. I might just build my daughter a small system consisting of a single luxman 900u amp, McIntosh preamp and Dynaudio contour speakers so she can play the song "happy" by Ferrell Williams as well as all of the frozen songs all day long. Stay tuned for that. I might make that my second system in the house. She is 4, so I’m sure she will be thrilled !! I'll put this together just for you since that is the exact system you have at home . |
All- it is clear to me that some of my daily followers are very offended by strong opinions from people who formulate opinions based on the “expertise” they gather from reading magazine articles which are often times financed by the big audio companies needing marketing in order to push product out the door. Although at times there are indeed honest articles that are informative and can help in making a big purchase, my thread gives input/opinion with gear that I own and that I DO NOT NEED for the manufacturer to give me a special deal in order to promote their product. I know factually some reviewers are bribed and given perks. Hell I wish I was given perks. Audiogon doesn’t even give me a discount code to save me some money in order for me to list my gear once I’m done with it and yes I know my thread draws traffic to this site which they benefit from. I don’t get a free taco with all the effort, time and money I spent and some of you certainly appreciate the fact that I don’t expect anything from anyone but one thing: Keep this thread going by stating FACTS with evidence and without drawing conclusions by what you read or someone else told you. I think this is indeed what is ticking people off. Talking in depth based on pure speculation. If someone wants to debate me then I welcome it AS LONG AS YOU CAN SAY YOU OWN OR HAVE OWNED the product. |
Well I can say this to you: there’s NOTHING lean about Odin 1 in my set up and the highs are better than they were before and mind you I’m still using wireworld interconnects and speaker cables. I’m switching to odin speaker cables next week so I guess we will see what happens. Right now, my set up sounds the best I’ve ever heard it. |
So I’m not sure if some of you know, but there’s a big audio show going on this weekend in Tampa. It actually started today and I was told the Neolith are there and sounded awful.... well, then when I was sent pics and saw what they were using (check my virtual system and look at the red pair of neoltihs) and sooooo Martin Logan was showcasing neoltihs with a parasound stereo amp, parasound preamp and aurender as a source. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING !!!!!! This is a perfect example of what I’ve been saying all along. You CAN NOT do this to these speakers and I’m shocked that Martin Logan would do that. It’s almost like they don’t care to do this to their flagship speaker. Why in the world would they do this?????? Who buys a 80k speaker and uses 3k amplifiers, 2k preamp with it!!!!! it just fires me up and this is why I said it a few pages ago that I wish I was there brought my full set up so I can embarrass them. It really is ridiculous what they are doing. How stupid do you have to be ? |
I hate seeing those Neoliths in that environment. I would have fired everyone who put that together. It’s a disgrace to see their best speaker with Parasound gear. Please don’t take this as an insult to parasound but it’s in no way, shape or form at the level of a Neolith. That speaker is made for the “heavy hitters” such as Dag, constellation, soulution, block, etc. Why don’t I go buy a corvette zr1 and order some Chinese tires to run 200 mph laps around the homestead speedway and then fill up the tank with 87 octane fuel? Gas is gas right ? I am so happy I didn’t go to the show. I probably would have gone off. ONE LAST THING FOR ALL OF YOU WHO GO TO SHOWS ALL THE TIME: this is the kind of garbage they do at shows. This is how SOME OF YOU judge gear. Take THIS as an EXAMPLE that what you hear at shows isn’t always how a component should sound. You actually need to remember that there are idiots there connecting rca and xlr cables and pretending to create magic. This is why I do my own thing and don’t listen to magazines or stupid shows. It’s all polluted with lies and stupidity. |
Thats correct. I did try to buy an external microphone for the phone which cost me like 400 dollars and that was a waste. I returned it. As I said before, I don't have an issue buying microphones but that will happen when I have enough subscribers that I can at least monetize and offset the cost of any recording equipment. I believe I need to have around 2,000 subscribers to qualify to monetize and I am at around 800 subscribers. I think by the end of the year I should be at around 2000. |
ALL, So that everyone here understands WHY my opinion changes. 1. When i review an amplifier, i give my opinion right at that particular point and i am comparing to everything i have owned previously. 2. As i continue to push forward and bring other amplifiers, my ratings/opinion of previous amplifiers will change. Why? because i am trying new offerings that i had not tried before. And to address the entire pass labs opinion, hell yes the statement above about the 250.8 was TRUE at that point in time before i tried plinius, luxman, hegel, block audio, jeff rowland, simaudio, etc, etc, etc. WHY would anyone think in their right mind that my opinion won’t change when i am continuing to try new high caliber amps? It is no different than you going to your room and declaring the Parasound A21 sitting in your room the very best amp ever. Of course you would say that because you haven’t tried luxman, hegel, simaudio, plinius etc. My thread evolves as new things are entering my living room. Closing note: Yes, Pass labs is behind many amps right now. Unless you own the top XS amps, or possibly the 200.8, 200,5, you don’t know what you are missing out on. I remember trying the luxman 900u vs the 350.8 and it was just a shame how broken the 350.8 sounded. Huge monster amp and it has no way besting a 150 watt/channel amp. |
The only WAY to get REAL ANSWERS is for people to BUY all the gear they want to try rather than reading reviews from magazines or the HE/SHE SAID mentality. You all wanna know the issue? most people dont have the money or time to try all the gear i go through so what else can they do? follow my journey....that is all they can do... end of story.. |
Diablo is far better than the 585 Levinson. Not worth comparing. Same thing goes for the momentum integrated that’s collecting dust in my garage. It’s far better than the gryphon Diablo. yes I’ve owned all 3 and this comes from hands on experience. For the money, the 585 is awesome but it is nowhere as muscular sounding as the Diablo. Levinson isn’t known for having dynamics but rather awesome mids. That’s what they are known for. |
Omg....from a dead cold start, 3 seconds of playtime, the ansuz signalz c2 xlr is impressive...HUUUUUUUGE SOUNDSTAGE. My Valhalla 2 xlr will need to sweat hard as hell to best this xlr. I’m HIGHLY impressed right out of the gate. Zero break in and it is EASILY one of the best xlr I have ever owned. EASILY. The Valhalla 2 vs ansuz MUST HAPPEN ! |
Nordos Odin speaker cables are here. New, fresh out of the box with zero miles here are my impressions: 1. Smaller soundstage when compared to my wireworld platinum 7 2. Presentation is congested 3. Some instruments are appearing that were not there before 4. Excellent separation of instruments 5. There seems to be more “rhythm” to the music. More to come |
This is a video that pretty much echoes how I feel about this matter. Please watch https://youtu.be/fQBgvwDMSFQ |
Odin speaker cable and powecord update: 15 hours of playtime so far. I hear more decay with this speaker cable but the soundstage width is gone? I find things to be not as huge sounding as they did with the platinum 7. Instruments are better separated and have more articulation. That said, I’m now using a brand new Odin 1 on the dac so both the speaker cable and the powecord are with only 15 hours of playtime so it’s 2 components that are now breaking in. I’m also using the dac as a preamp. The ref10 has not been connected yet but I suspect that it will now really begin to show its true colors with these new speaker cables in the mix. |
There’s nothing wrong with stating an opinion, but CLEAR that this is based on what you heard or were told. The real issue here is when people give strong opinions making seem like they’ve owned the equipment when in reality they’ve only seen it on pictures. They’ve never even seen the equipment in person. |
I’m going to not mislead anyone right now and say that I just realized I had the nordost speaker Odin cables connected the wrong way.... they are directional cables and unfortunately I wasn’t told. I had both cables connected the opposite way. The end that is supposed to go into the speakers was connected into the amps. Not sure how much of an impact this will have on things or if anyone in here has done a trial by using directional speaker cables and connecting them the other way. Will I notice a difference in the sound ? We shall see... |
Sooooooo I just plugged in the ref10 and threw it to sink or swim and it is now an entire different animal. The speaker cables have created more of a focused image and made the presentation totally different. The dac was sounding probably better with the platinum 7 speaker cables when used as a preamp but the ref10 seems to sound better with the Odin speaker cables. I still am getting slight shoutinness from the speakers when cranked up. Things are still a little bright right now. |
So with that said, do you all see WHY my impressions of these cables weren’t great? That’s HOW MUCH my ears are dialed in with my equipment. I know when something comes in and misses a beat. I can probably tell you if something is out of phase by listening to a song for 10 seconds or less. I have been playing this game for long enough that I can tell you when something isn’t right for a component (for the most part). For instance, i didn’t like the B&w d3 tweeter with luxman. It sounded too aggressive at times and I fatigued quickly. I did not like Mark Levinson with my Sonus Faber cremonese because they fall flat on their face. I love panels with tubes in the mix or class A. I hated classe audio and electrostatics. I liked pass labs with electrostatics and hated it with Wilson audio. This type of exposure to different components allows me to know when there’s something missing or not there. This is what keeps me going and going in order to keep adding an extra ounce of this n that. I got my neoltihs pretty good given my room dimensions. That’s my bottleneck at this time. That said, I’ve heard big rooms with nice gear and I’m not going to say I was blown away. It will take a very well thought out system for me to acknowledge it as vastly superior. So far, the only systems that seem to be kicking a$$ at shows are Wilson with arc gear or agostino. |
So I’m listening to the Odin 2 speaker cables right now without the Odin powercord in the mix right now and I gotta be honest, the platinum 7 sounded far deeper and wider. Right now, at this very moment, I’d take the platinum 7 wireworld speaker over the Odin 1. Yep, you heard it from me. The Odin 1 pc on the dac with the rest being platinum 7 sounded SPECTACULAR here. Just clean sounding, zero harshness and huge HUUUUGE. If the Odin 1 speaker cable doesn’t morph TREMENDOUSLY by next weekend, then I can say this experiment failed me and synergy begins to be the name of the game. PS. I’m playing with the block audios in Class AB and yes they don’t sound anything like in class A. I remember some people saying that they heard zero difference in the Plinius sa103 in class a or Class AB. Well, let me tell you with these block audios you’ll hear quite a difference. It’s like in Class AB the amps are on 6 cylinders and then in Class A they are a v12 twin turbo engine. |
If I had 30k to spend, I'd buy a luxman 900u and simaudio 860v2. This way you can't be second guessing yourself as to what you like best. Trust me there will be recordings where you will prefer the luxman over the simaudio. I tested this theory myself and it is the case. The gryphon is amazing with slam and dynamics but it does add a hint, a smudge of honey due to it's class a design which is well received in my book with piss poor recordings. As far as WHAT PREAMP would sweeten the 860v2... Look, don't even try to go around burning money; Buy a ref10 and prepare to be FLOORED with the synergy it has with simaudio. I did this YEARS ago when I owned the v1 860a and I was in love. It is a combo that will put many systems to shame with the right speakers. |
Totally agree with your assessment above. That said, if someone is looking to be surrounded by an immense amount of musicality and soundstage, Id choose the ref10 for the simaudio. That said, the momentum HD is becoming more and more that component that I am simply afraid to even think about parting ways with. It really is the most enjoyable solid state preamp I've owned. Is it better than the boulder 2010? Its hard to say because my system has changed so much... |
I need to give these cables a fair shot before I try to do anything. I’m going to take them back to my dealer and he will burn them for 210 hours. Time will tell what is going to happen. That said, I’m shocked how amazing the oppo 205 sounds when streaming music using roon and the Odin powercord on it. It is unreal how that cable can turn a 1200 Blu-ray player into something that can compete with far more expensive sources. |
