SimAudio Moon North Collection

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.