SimAudio Moon North Collection

I'm certainly interested in the new moon north series. Jay at Jay audio lab seemed to love them at munich. Has anybody heard them yet. I would be looking at the 70 p series 

I thought they have not been released yet. The LA dealer that I bought some speakers from will call my in Oct when they come into the shop.

There will be a few older models in the used market soon.

I have an 860A V2....I've been very happy.  The North Collection will hopefullly resulted in some hitting the market for me to grab it and run them in mono mode!

Mono by Simaudio is making some very nice kit. 

@overthemoon  Shelleys in Woodland Hills CA, my local dealer is trying to sell their demo 860A V2. They have a 861 coming in.

http://www.shelleysstereo.com/

As good as the 860 a v2 is the North collection is way better, with the new MDCA circuitry It's a whole new ball game on a whole different level, I'm going to be upgrading my w-8 to the 861 I'm sure I'll be shocked at how much better it will be.

@magnuman I just listened to the 791 in my house versus my 390...it was a significant change and I'm going to get the 791.

And given the sound I won't be looking to move the 860A v2 to monoblocks.  The sound stage, depth, texture and dynamics were a significantly upgraded with the upgrade of the source.

I heard moon north 791/761 combo in two different occasions, once at the Toronto audio show last Oct and recently at a local shop. At the show, the moon set was paired with B&W 802 and Joseph Audio perspective2s at the shop. I found them very appealing visually. Real highend look, but soundwise, one could do better with that much of money, imo

What did you find lacking and relative to what gear (to provide some context).

In the show setting, I am familiar with sound of B&W. I think they sound best with Classe electronics. There’s more fleshed out mids with aliveness. With the moon combo, they sounded more flat and less vivid. I got a similar experience when listening to perspectives with the moon setup. I listened to Perspective2s with full McIntosh tubes electronics and EAR V12/Chord Dave in different settings at the same store. I liked V12/Dave the most then followed by McIntosh then Moon. The reason for this is that, again the Moon setup took away these magical tones n timber that I normally hear from Perspective2s. The store owner loved sound of new Moon with the perspectives. When he was saying all the good things about them, I was thinking well with that money I would buy something else. I just read a professional review on this moon combo and too me, the review sounded like defecto high praises for expensive new hifi products and then off they go to the next reviewers. This is just me, but I think Moon has pretty noticeable house sound that if you happen to like it then you’d love these new offerings from Simaudio. I don’t so maybe that’s why.

Thanks. I was surprised to see B&W and Moon paired together. Paradigm Persona and Moon is another combination that may not work the best for me.

I am going to compare a CODA SYSTEM 150 with the Moon 761 or 861 to see what matches best with my Yamaha NS5000.

I own the older 760A Amp and recently reviewed the newer 761 amp from the North Collection for about a month. The 761 is authoritative - everything sounds more precise, attack is amazingly quick, everything starts and stops on time without sloppiness. But, I can say the same thing about the older 760A or many other well built solid-state class ab amplifiers though. Throughout the year, I switch between the 760A and an Octave RE320 w/SSB.  There's nothing in the newer 761 that I don't get from the older 760A. The 761 won't deliver that smooth tube purity.

So aside from the increase in price, I'm not sure why Moon designed an amp that has no special attributes over predecessors.  Purely a financial decision I assume.

Looking at their product manual and web content, I'm not sure their engineering heart was in this North Collection. The launch of HiFi Rose makes the tiny mobile screen on their Preamps look ridiculous. 

I think the company may be on the edge of bankruptcy or a serious leadership crisis. Just my 2 cents.

yyzsantabarbara Did you get a chance to compare CODA to the new Moon North?

@audphile1 Four weeks ago I drive from LAX airport to a HiFi store that had my speakers and the Moon North. Unfortunately, that arduous drive was not successful because the dealer closed early for some unstated reason.

This Thursday I make the reverse commute to LAX. I am trying to figure out how I can leave early to hit the store. The timing may not work out.

BTW - my early issues with my Livingroom system which uses the CODA have been resolved exactly as I wanted after I switched the Schitt Yggi+ LIM DAC for the Yggi+ OG DAC. I really have no issues with both my systems today. My desire to go and listen to the Moon is just for curiosity. I bought some speakers from this dealer so I do not think they would mind.

Cool. Good to hear you found synergy. Good schiit. 
Hope to hear your thoughts on Moon North!

What a timely thread! I’ve been a fan of the Simaudio Moon amps for a while traversing from the 330a, 760a, and 860a-v2; I’ve been demoing at home the 641 and 681 components and have been extremely pleased with the design direction they have taken, and results achieved, with the new North series. The 641 stereo integrated amplifier is a marvelous amp. I can’t praise it enough. I have had a coda csib, which is another stellar overachiever. IMHO, I believe the 641 is next level, pretty much across the board. The 641 has an uncanny ability to generate a “detached from electronics” kind of tone; music springs forth in a buoyant and round manner, full of color and vitality. I honestly don’t know how they engineered such an organic and beautiful rendering of sound, as I’m hearing with this amp. The top end is truly exquisite at this price point and from my experience as good as any amp I’ve ever heard in my home systems. I can’t say the same thing about the 860av2, however, as I felt that amp was too stark, too hard-edged, too cool. There was something about it I was not able to get to sound right to me, despite cable swaps, source swaps etc. The new north amp signature is different, it definitely possesses the core signature of the later generation of moon amps- lucidity, clarity, focus, accuracy, speed, low noise, etc but it does so in a more engaging manner and fluidity-ness.
I strongly encourage listening to the 641 or 761 when you can.

I just heard the 761 amp with the 700 series streaming DAC preamp. It was playing on the Parasound Persona 9H. When I had previously heard the 860 v1 it was on the Parasound Persona 5F.

I spent over an hour listening to various tracks and I came away thinking that it was smoother and more detailed than the 860A v1. The Persona’s still had a bit of an edge to it, but it was much less with the 761. The BE drivers on the Persona have a bit of edge to them compared to my NS5000.

There was great detail without much irritation. The sound was projected out more than with other systems I have heard. I am not sure if that is because of the Persona or the amp. The slight irritation I got was from the Persona or the smallish room.

I use a CODA #16 with my Yamaha NS5000 speakers. The NS5000 has some 6th degree of separation lineage with the Persona lineup. I think the NS5000 have better drivers than the Persona. I think the 761 (or 861) would great on the NS5000 and I will likely replace my Sanders Magtech with one of the North Collection amps.

I can rotate the CODA #16 and the Sim amps around with the Magnepan LRS+ and the Yamaha NS5000 speakers. The Sanders is not great with the NS5000. I will keep the CODA #16 which is great with both speakers and slightly different sounding from the Sim. Compared to the #16 the 761 sounded a little cleaner on top and maybe more detailed. Ernie Isley’s guitar solo on Summer Breeze sounded better on the 761, more details which made it sound like I was there. The slight Class A warmth of the #16 is something that I also love. The Sim does not have much of that.

My only uncertainty was whether the 761 could drive the bass of the NS5000 as well as the CODA. The 9H has powered subs so I was not really taxing the 761 during the listen.