Thanks Audiozen,
That sound great!
I have a doubt in two things regarding TUBE gear:
Why don't they use Balanced inputs and outputs and are the watts on TUBES same as the watts on SS?
Best
Miguel |
Miguel..I have owned BAT gear back in 2001 and had problems with the equipment. Sold my BAT gear three months later. The company was having hard times recently and was just purchased by Music Direct. Regarding CODA. One of my top favorite solid state companies of all time. Much better than Parasound and would take it over BAT any day of the week. The CSIb integrated currently for sale on Gon is a steal for the performance it delivers. Tremendous power and very efficient. Smooth, warm, organic with tremendous dynamics and transparency. Since the Triton's are a little on the cool side, the Coda would be the perfect balance to deliver the warmth the Triton's need. |
Audiozen,
Let me check on that!
I just sold my Calyx DAC to a guy who after some different audio systems he is now using the Primaluna Prologue set (preamp and monos) and he says it outperforms his last Roguepreamp with Kismet's Stratos and other setups, also i have had some chats with the team of GE and they say that the Triton can handle any kind of amp very well, i saw a BAT (bk6200 2-channel) also, how would put this one against the Parasound?
Best regards
Miguel |
Miguel..there is an option that I would highly recommend you take advantage of or it will probably be gone in several days. Up for sale on Audiogon is perhaps one of the top three performing integrated amplifier's on the planet. The CODA CSIb. Very powerful. 330 watts
@8ohms and 660 watts @4ohms. Mint condition with only 100 hours of play time. $4500.00 out of Colorado.
Having owned and listened to Coda gear in the past, this beast is about
as musical as you will ever want regardless what you run through it. Built like a Rolls Royce. Warm, rich, lush, with outstanding bass and dynamic's. It will give a lot of separates a run for their money. You will notice a solid top cover since it does not get very hot for a Class A/B amp. Rare to see this on Gon. Will bring out the very best from your Triton's. Hand built in Sacramento. |
Miguel..I highly recommend you check out two videos on Youtube. Type in the search bar "Parasound A21 Amp". The listed menu will show two videos. Both are narrated by the owner of Parasound Richard Schram. Their both sponsored by Audio Advisor. One video is Parasound A21 Overview, the other is Inside the Parasound A21. It provides helpful tech
knowledge of how good the amp is. |
Ah!..Sandy Goss speaker's. Their known for their extremely
neutral open transparent sound. Very power hungry even though they have high sensitivity at 91 db's. It would be best to use warm sounding electronics with the Tritons. I would never use Class D amps on the Triton's knowing Sandy's history with DefTech. The Parasound would ad a very good balanced sound with its warm full character that would result in a more forgiving relaxed sound from the Triton's. |
Audiozen
The speakers that i already have are the Golden Ear Triton Two's with powered subwoofers (Class "D") already...
Regards
M. |
Pound for pound...I would go for the Parasound given John Curl's reputation for the past 40 years. The review of the A21 in England seems to be more positive and accurate.
HiFiPig and Hi-News reviews love the amp describing it as very
natural, organic, and very smooth with outstanding bass and soundstage and imaging. Its a steal for $2300.00 |
The Kismet is a damn good amp based on the review's I've read. Handsome looking too with those four chrome corner pillar's and that velvet looking black face plate. 160 watts per side. Heavy at 60 pounds a piece. The Parasound peaks at 300 amperes from both channels which is a helluva lot of current. What speaker's are you using or plan to use? |
Audiozen
Thanks a lot for the suggestions, very thankful
I am an 80´s and 90´s guy who loves music more like Rush, The Police, Sade, Bowie, Sting, Ac/DC...Rock, heavy, jazz, Pop, latin, New age (Andreas Vollenweider) and so, its kind of very mix but i don´t hear any classical at all.
Considering my style of music do you prefer the Parasound above any of the Class "D".
Klaus from Odyssey was giving me a deal on his Kismets in Stratos cases with all his upgrades for $3,500 pair of monos, any thoughts?
Thanks again for your kind help man.
All the best
M. |
Miguel. If you want warmth and richness, here's what I would recommend. Don't buy Class D. If its for convenience
I can understand. Buy the Parasound A21 amp from Audio Advisor for $ 2300.00 and the Wyred4Sound STP-SE. You will
have a match made in heaven. The Parasound is now available in black. Its heavy and very powerful and will give much greater musicality than Class D. It is the best amp on the market in its price range. Its a John Curl design. He has always been a better amp designer than a Preamp designer. |
Audiozen,
Thanks for your feedback,
Despite the tech and mods on any of these brands, do you still consider W4S is the best choice sound wise?
Glen from 6 moons said that he consider the W4S is a cooler sound than the D-sonic and Jeff Dorgay claims that New Clear is beyond the mAmps of Wyred4sound...there is where iam hesitating.
Butb actually as iam going to purchase both W4S DAC2 SE and STP-SE preamp, match would do a pretty important synergy, right?
Miguel |
Mikicasellas..I have had several conversations with Sean, and have seen pic's of the interior of his stereo amp. Very little mods. Has two small Lundahl transformers and DH Labs silver plated copper wire with teflon jackets to the inputs and outputs. Thats about it. The problem with NewClear is that the input impedance has not been adjusted
to a higher number. Its at 30kohms, so it would be best to use a Preamp with a low output impedance.
Between the three I would go with Wyred4Sound. Why? the owner of the company
EJ Sarmento, has a degree in electronics. He is a circuit engineer. There are more extensive mods in the Wyred4Sound than in the NewClear. The input buffer circuit board is designed by Bascom King and raises the input impedance to 60Kohms which is easier to drive. Other mods are done by EJ
including different caps and resistors. Sean Brady and Dennis Deacon are business men, not circuit engineers. Wyred4Sound and Bel Canto are companie's that do the best job with the Bel Canto amps since both companies are owned by circuit engineers. D-Sonic uses Pascal and Abeltec
amps with very little mods. The new Jeff Rowland integrated uses
Pascal amps with major mods with added large power supplies. For the money, Wyred4Sound is the wisest choice. |
Hello Audiozen,
I am trying to decide between D-Sonic m2 (600 or 1200) or NewClear CL1000l or W4S SX-1000
Any suggestions which will be the best performer...i emailed with Sean form NewClear and he said his technology outperforms D-sonic's.
Any suggestions will be appreciated.
All the best
Miguel |
Dave_b.. Sansui is under different ownership and is mainly a flat panel television company. You can still buy restored Garrard's out of the UK but the very best restored Garrard's that are completely gutted out and restored to brand new condition are from Artisan Fidelity in Hammond, Illinois. Artisan does the very best restoration on classic turntables. Chris, who owns the company is at the top of his game. No one in Europe, the U.S. or in Asia can come close to Chris's Rolls Royce quality restoration. Look at his restored tables on Gon. Masterpieces. |
Audiozen...grew up listening to the same vinyl and a Sansui Model 8 driving a pair of Bozak B313's. Turntable was a Garard. |
Vicdamone..I currently own ten pairs of the Bel Canto R1000M's, three pair's of the Nuforce reference 18's, (one pair in the shower), and two DAC Cherry amps. I own ten pair's of speakers including the Wilson Grand Slams which I keep in my small den. |
Audiozen, I don't mean this to be a antagonistic question.
I'm interested in which switching amplifiers you have had first hand experience with in your system and what speakers you are using? |
Ahah, another delicious thread on one of my favorite types of amps... I see I have missed some intriguing technical development in the last little while. G. |
Mapman..Dennis at D-Sonic pointed out that he only uses B&O
ICE amps for the surround channels only in his multi channel home theater amps. He has done major mods on the SOA core amp. On The D-Sonic website select the products tab and click on the 6Moons picture which takes you to the review. Go in several pages and there is some good interior photos of the SOA amp. You will notice a red p.c.
board on a raised platform which is a modified input stage
that Dennis designed. He also added EMI/RFI shields and filters and added a higher quality A.C. filter which improves grounding, and uses all silver teflon wire. |
Jult52..Dennis brought up the zero feedback issue in my conversation with him last Sunday and pointed out this the
is the problem with other Class-D amps. Other companies have zero feedback amps including Hegel, Sanders Magtech and Soulution just to name a few. |
If D-sonic is price competitive with wyred with alternate/newer technology I will have to read up on them. Last time I looked, they were selling essentially stock Icepower models in a box for reasonable cost. That's not hard to do, and might offer good bang for buck for many. Wyred, Bel Canto and others cost more but added enhancements like custom input (for better results with a tube pre-amp) and power boards for better power supply. |
Audiozen - I just wanted to make sure I'd understood this correctly: Dennis Deacon said that his new amp series, which I take to be the M2 series, has zero feedback. Zero feedback? If that is correct, that is a very intriguing technical development. There was a review of the M2 in the SixMoons from Sept, written by Glen Wagenknecht. It's a very positive and interesting review, but there is no mention of zero feedback.
BTW, the M2 series retails for a bit less than the W4S, so it's an affordable high-end component. Wagenknecht couldn't make a direct comparison between these two brands but based on memory stated that he thought the M2 had improved treble tonality and warmth. |
BTW, I suspect average sound quality for most listeners on various devices including portable is better today than back then, but the frontiers of hi fi/sound quality have moved forward, as has the cost of "high end sound" in many cases, plus also high fidelity is no longer a novelty, rather something that is assumed by most in accordance with their individual expectations, so you just do not hear about it anymore very much outside of audiophile type circles. |
I remember selling a large format video disk player at Radio Shack back in teh 1980 timeframe or so. The only two movies we had to show though were "MASH" and "The Muppet Movie" both of which I know by heart from ongoing store demos. |
Mapman..here's some useless trivia..The first retail CD player came out in early fall of 1982, the Sony CDP-101, followed by the Philips Magnavox players that came out that
November.. CD's started showing up in the stores in fall selling for $ 25.00 a pop. Phew!! However, the very first disc players ever made was in 1980. Pioneer that year bought out a company that invented and made the first laser
disc movie player. Pioneer slapped their badge on the player and were sold under their name. Denon also in 1980, made the worlds first CD player. It was a test player that was for studio use only. |
" I would say the late 70's was the golden years of high fidelity. "
I would say yes in terms of market size and # of users, but amps and speakers have come a long way since then. Digital sources as well since their inception in the mid 80's. |
Dave b_your right about that. My first amp back in the 70's
was the Sansui AU7900 integrated at 75 watts per channel. One of the finest sounding amps I ever owned. Had it hooked
up to a large pair of Advents and a Dual 701 turntable with
a Shure V15 cartridge. Warm, rich, lush sound with a full mid-range. Ran very hot. You could fry an egg on the back.
The rise of the digital age changed the sonic character forever of high end separates. I would say the late 70's was the golden years of high fidelity. With half speed
cut master vinyl records from Mobile Fidelity and Telarc, and advanced improvements in cartridges and turntables and cables. It was the peak of true analog. |
I heard the new NAD digital amp and was surprised just how good it sounded...I'm stickin with Class A/High Current designs however. Based on what I hear today, the 90's were "The Golden Years of High Fidelity"...gear does not sound more musical today than it did back then and it often sounds worse:) |
One important technical item..Dennis Deacon with D-Sonic, in our conversation this past Sunday, explained the technical reason why he dumped the B&O ICE amps, is that their is a flaw with B&O ICE and other Class-D amps in the upper mid-range and high frequencies, that they have feed back problems in those upper bands which can compromise smoothness and greater weight in those areas, which is why
some Class-D amps can sound dry, cool, and slightly hard in the upper frequencies. Dennis claims that the new SOA Class-D core amps he's using with his own mod's added, have zero feedback through the entire frequency spectrum
which is why he states, as well as 6Moons, that his amps come closer to tube amps then other Class-D amps on the market resulting in a more refined and smoother high frequency and mid-range frequency performance. I assume that Hypex has addressed this problem with
Bruno's new SMPS 1200 amp, which has positive results. If the new SOA core amp from D-Sonic sounds as good and performs as well as Dennis and 6Moons claims, then its a no brainer to go for
the SOA core amp over Hypex since the cost is 80% less. |
Hifial..you got lost and need to put your glasses back on. Nowhere at any time did I state anywhere in this entire thread that Bill Parish said that the D-sonic blew all the other Class-D amps away. I stated Dennis Deacon's comments
comparing his SOA Class-D Core amps to others. The technical upgrades I mentioned are a combination of whats described on the Merrill site and the many emails of technical details I received from Merrill back in November.
Merrill also offered me to Rep his product and he would pay
me $ 100.00 per listening session to any potential buyer. You must've accepted that offer since your replies sound like hard sell. Besides, I'm getting sick and tired of Audiophiles in the States constantly defending European designers as superior to American designers. What a load of crap. America and Japan still make the best designed and best sounding Audio gear on the planet and our Audio design engineers in the States are second to none.
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Audiozen
All you did is recite the the press on the Merrill Audio website. YOU make a BIG assumption that is all there is too it.
Why is it you do not make the same claims and statements for the Acoustic Imagery NC1200 based amps and the Mola-Mola M1. Their press tells you even less of what is in their amps.
No company HAS to list ALL of their assembly.
Again you single out Veritas without ever hearing it and take things out of context to be bias. You also compare an older design of Hypex that Genesis used, the UCD, to the NCore NC1200. They may be similar but the UCD responds well to being highly customized while the Ncore does not. Also the Genesis Monos only sounded best with all the extras and sold for a lot more then the Veritas. And again if the Veritas sounds better then the older Genesis...What is your point. The better sound WINS!
How many Hypex Ncore NC1200 based amps are FOR SALE RIGHT NOW. Two! And in the spring the Mol-Mola M1 for 50% more then the other two.
Also earlier you said how Bill said the D-Sonic blew all the other Class D amps away and now the Ncore 1200 is the best he has heard. And you had nothing but disdain for the Mola-Mola for their pricing because there is nothing to their design and in the chases. You seem to want it both ways when it suits you.
I am tired of your baiting and nonsensical postings.
I am sure you will post some other remarks. |
Forgot to mention..that Hypex will also be coming out this year with an integrated amplifier using the Hypex 1200 amp. |
Hifial..I am not putting down any company. Other companies using Hypex amps selling in the same price range, do much more upgrades than Merrill. Merrill adds his own flavor? The only upgrades done to the Veritas using Hypex, is wiring. 10 awg Cardas litz wire to the power board. 11 awg Cardas litz bi-wire for power transfer from the board and 19 awg Cardas wire to the input connectors and 14 awg internal ground wire and solder mounting instead of screws. Thats it.
There are no additional p.c. boards or added power supplies or larger transformers that
you will find in amps from Genesis and Channel Islands using Hypex amps.
I called back Bill Parish at GTT Audio four days after Bruno left from Beta testing The Mola-Mola M1's at GTT.
Bill informed me the sound is magnificent and the most musical Class D amp he has heard to date. Bruno is also coming out this year with his new Mola-Mola Preamp that is his own design. It appears at the current stage of where Class D technology is at, that the Hypex 1200 and the SOA Core amp used by D-Sonic, are the two most advanced amps currently on the market. |
Dave b
I agree that Class A (not so much A/B) can sound great and is hard to beat.
But after hearing the new NCore NC1200 by Hypex (done right) IMHO Class A has a fight on its hands. I have seen DIE HARD Class A / SS-Tube Audiophiles sit slacked jaw hearing the Veritas in their systems. Then they start bobbing their heads and toes a tapping with big smiles on their faces. I am talking about Pass Labs, ARC, Lamm, Mcintosh, Atma-Sphere, Krell, Melos, and other well known names and not so well known.
And I love the sound of a Class A Pass Labs mono amp.
I have had High current and Massive power supplies amps in my system and not one has made my hard to drive B&W 802D SING from top to bottom. They sound like a different speaker. And everyone remarks how they sound so much better. I never ask, they say it on their own.
And yes some were the names above.
Dave, put aside what Class the amp is and get a demo. It will put a smile on your face. (but please NOT a NC400 DIY amp)
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Audiozen, You said all class D and Hypex, not just some of the Hypex. My remarks are again just on the NC1200.
Your assumption is totally wrong as Merrill has added his own "tweaks/special sauce" as they say to the Veritas. And no I am not at privilege to discuss and I do not know all of them but they are there. He has no desire to assist his competition. It is easy to call him silly but I do not see you putting your money were you mouth is.
The reason that the NC1200 only has an XLR input is it sounds better by XLR and if a RCA is added then it degrades the sound of the amp.
I do not understand way it is so important that the NC1200 has to have a RCA input when it is easy to use an adapter.
And if it bothers you so much then do not buy it.
So your opinion is in order to justify a price point a product MUST have SIZE, WEIGHT, MANY PARTS, BIG POWER SUPPLY, but not GREAT SOUND to justify the price. I would think great sound should be the only point not how the manufacture satisfied the bias of old school thought.
So if I put in a bunch of parts and made it large and heavy but they did not alter the quality of the great sound but were there for show, that would be OK then for you. You see a bunch of parts and size, they do not add to or alter the sound, but now it justifies the price.
This a new tech just like the D-Sonic is. So why do you think IT MUST HAVE all the add ons of the past Class D to sound great. You have no idea all the tech that is behind the NC1200. It is not just what is built into the product.
The NC1200 puts out a whopping 1200 watts into 2ohms but so what if it is 2 or 4 ohms if it does not sound any better for it.
You have no reason to put down a product that you have not heard but from your remarks I doubt it will matter.
To end this I must say again I have no financial or otherwise with Hypex or Merrill Audio.
If you have noticed I have said that the D-Sonic looks interesting and I would love to hear it. I have not questioned the integrity of the manufacture or the quality of the sound or product based on price or components or what he did or did not add to it. In my book the quality of sound is what matters. So until you HEAR a Veritas and a Mola-Mola M1 do you think you have an opinion.
End of discussion. |
There is something special about Class A or enriched Class A/B with high current and massive power supplies...the sound is more colorful and organic! |
Hifial..Dennis with D-Sonic never specifically referred to the NC1200, but to Hypex in general. There has been several
companies for years in the States using Hypex amps which includes Channel Islands and the Genesis Reference amps out of Seattle. Genesis does more extensive mods with Hypex than anyone else which includes a large separate power supply with a beefy toroidal transformer and capacitor bank. Their custom additions and circuit mods is the best I've seen to date with a Hypex platform. I spoke to Merrill in November regarding his Veritas amps and he mentioned he does not provide interior photos of his amps fearing that design engineers will copy his platform. How silly. What he's really saying is that there is not enough meat and potatoes under the hood to justify the high retail
price of $10K a pair. Heck, for that money, the amp should come with either balanced or single ended inputs, which it does not. Balanced ony. You can order the Genesis amps with either balanced or single ended inputs. I have seen close up pics of the Hypex NC1200 amp and the Ncore power supply. You can hold either in one hand. Very small. There's not enough there electronically in terms of parts or power supply to justify the outrageous high retail prices. I think that the Mola-Mola M1 amps coming out this year will be a hard sell at $15K a pair, and they also come with balanced inputs only. My sense is that the D-Sonic M2-600M mono amps at $1950.00 a pair, utilizing the new Class D SOA core technology is the best bang for the buck and put out a whopping 1200 watts into 4 ohms and come with both balanced and single ended inputs. |
Mapman
What you say is true for most amps regardless of Class.
But, as I stated above the Veritas has made all types of speakers sound better. There may be ones that will not play well but I have not seen it yet.
Through other Audiophiles I know it has been tried on all your typical and not so typical speakers and from low to high Sensitivity and Impedance. They never broke a sweat.
To say it shocked most of the owners of the speakers is putting it mildly.
Audiozen
Well unless he received an Ncore NC1200 from Hypex or listened to both of the only two OEM Ncore NC1200 in the USA I do not think he can say that. But that is still a bias statement coming from a competing company. I have heard and owned many other Class D and I can tell you that the NCore NC1200 is in another Class. The Acoustic Imagery version in my opinion has some design issues and is not a good example of how well the Ncore NC1200 can sound. I am not saying that the Veritas or the Ncore NC1200 is the only ones capable of great sound.
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One additional item I neglected to add..when I spoke to Dennis Deacon with D-Sonic a few days ago, he mentioned their are currently seven Class-D platforms being used globally which includes the B&O ICE, Nuforce, Hypex, Spectron, and other's, and hes listened and evaluated all of them, and states his amps are the newest and most advanced Class-D technology and by far the most musical and natural sounding Class-D amps he has ever heard. No way in hell will he divulge the Designer and manufacturer. Thats about as likely as getting the secret to the Coca-Cola formula. He is the first in the country to use this new technology. |
I'm of the opinion that class d amps in general these days have raised the
bar on price/performance possibilities. Best results require careful
speaker matching, pretty much as is always the case.
I am really hard pressed to fault the pairing of the bel canto ref1000m
monoblocks with either pair of my ohm walsh series 3 speakers. I can
cite shortcomings with either my dynaudio or triangle monitors that i
would attribute mainly to their small size, though both still sound quite
good as small monitors go. . |
Hifial..Go on the D-Sonic home page and click on the 6Moons
picture on the left which will take you to the review of the M2-1500M amps. Very impressive. One would conclude from the review the term organic should be taken as a positive. |
Audiozen, hi.
I wish I had the chance to meet Bruno and hear the new Mola-Mola amps to see how they compare to the Veritas that I own. Though I can not afford the cost of the Mola-Mola right now.
Have not heard the new D-Sonic but now I will search for them to hear. I agree that "organic" should be a good thing that most amps should have but maybe too much of a good thing makes it bad. They say too much is not good for you. Maybe it is dark or slow when he says it is "too organic". Or maybe he can not let go of "class D" having to be inferior to class A/A/B.
If you want "organic" with transparency, speed, micro and macro detail, dynamics-both at low and high volumes, timbre and tone that is lifelike, control over your speakers like no other, no added color and dead quite you owe yourself a listen to the Veritas. I know Merrill has been doing home demos like some other Internet only companies or he might be able to set up a listen at a nearby owners house.
Not sure where you live but I believe he is going to show at the upcoming Audio Show in NYC in April. |
HiFial..I mentioned in another thread recently of the new Hypex Mola-Mola M1 mono amps coming out next spring. Weigh around fifteen pounds each. Bruno Putzeys, the owner/designer of Hypex, came over to New Jersey from the Netherlands just over two weeks ago to do the final Beta testing on the amps
at Bill Parish's GTT Audio store. Took two days for the final adjustments. Bill informed me the retail price is set at $15K a pair. Phew!! One thing that really impressed me in the review I read several days ago in 6Moons on the D-Sonic M2-1500M amps is that the review concluded stating "Some may find the D-Sonic amps too organic for their tastes"...Too organic?..thats exactly what has been missing with class D amps..is a very natural organic character..its about time.. |
Ok, here is my 2 cents or IMHO.
First, the Mola-Mola are much less expansive then many other high end amps, many costing, on the low side $30,000, and into the low $100,000 mark. The new top end Classe, Bryston and others start at $16,000-20,000 and go up from there.
No, do not get me wrong, $14,000 is not cheap but it is not outrageous.
Also, just because some class D amps are light weight or have, what you can see, only a few parts, does not mean there is not a lot of R&D and Tech behind the design.
Have you heard a Hypex Ncore based amp (assembled properly)? Before I give you my take let me comment on the BelCanto, ARC and Spectron amps.
Of the Bel Canto amps that I have heard the Mono Blocks are the only ones I liked. The also seem to work better with some speakers, but not others. But when paired right they sound really nice.
The Spectron I liked a lot. It seems to play well with more speakers. Again I liked the mono version more but the stereo version had really good sound also.
The ARC, well, not so much. I have always liked their products and was looking foreword to their venture into class D. I thought if ARC was coming out with their own design it must be great. Now, I only heard the stereo version but I did not like it at all. I have heard others over the years describe the sound of Class D as "under glass" and after hearing the ARC I could relate to that statement. And I had high hopes of walking out owning it after the demo. Just my opinion.
I have heard the Ncore NC400 DIY amp and the Ncore NC1200 OEM.
The NC400 DIY mono blocks were in a word "WOW". They blew away other OEMs from $10,000 down. Now these were in solid cases and quality parts and vibration control. I heard them also in cheap stuff and they sound very good but much better "tricked out" and worth the extra cost.
The NC1200 OEM mono blocks were in a word, "MUSICAL". They are true "game changers". Fantastic amps. I bought a pair and I have been toe taping with a smile as I am listening to the best I have heard my system sound. I own B&W 802D speakers and the are very hard to drive and get the best out of them. They SING now. If you thought you heard these speakers before you have not till you hear them with the NC1200. The NC1200 I bought has two binding post outputs per mono block and I bi-amped the B&W 802D and WOW, did I tell you WOW! And yes I have bi-wired and with amps that have way more watts but the NC1200, WOW.
By the way they play well with just about any speaker type I know of. And yes I tried with friends, planar, horns, electrostatics etc.
The OEM I heard and bought are the Veritas by Merrill Audio. So all my comments on the NC1200 are only based on the Veritas.
They blow away amps costing many times their cost and that is also the opinion of the same people who have sold their $30-50,000 amps to buy the Veritas.
The Mola-Mola amps, IMHO, are true game changers and they probably have some tech they will add of their own and make the difference in price justifiable, unless the extra cost is for the dealers. Then we might see a MK II at a higher price in a few months to a year.
If you can get a chance to hear the Veritas in your system or in someone else's run do not walk, you will not be sorry you did. Just make sure you are ready to have a new pair of amps in your system.
I have no affiliation, financial interest or compansation in Hypex or Merrill Audio. Just a fan of how great they sound.
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Neglected to mention that the term SOA in the D-Sonic amps means Safe-Operating-Area, a technical term that Bob Carver used back in the 90's with his Sunfire amps. The other term for SOA is Semiconductor-Optical-Amplifier which is not the type in the D-Sonic amps. |
Thr ongoing Sea of evolving Class D technology is hard to keep up with since new products keep popping up several times a year. Regarding the ARC DS450M, I discovered in threads during the past week a problem with the amp that could be a deal breaker. Buzzing transformers. I spoke to Stereo Design in San Diego last week informing me they have experienced this as well with the larger ARC tube amps in recent months. The DS450M uses a block transformer which are much harder to shield than a toroidal transformer. I decided to go back and check out a Class D company I forgot about, D-Sonic in Houston and discovered on their site a new Class D technology their using. I can't believe that the owner, Dennis Deacon, called me on Sunday afternoon. Dennis explained that he has done away with using the B&O Ice Amps, and is using the most adavanced Class D amps on the market, the new SOA Class D core Amps. These amps are far superior to B&O, Hypex, or Spectron. No more dry sound, much better deeper bass, a more fluid, fuller and richer mid-range, and very smooth high frequencies. Read the recent review in 6Moons on the D-Sonic M2-1500M amp using this new technology. Very good photos of the interior. The SOA amp completely eliminates all RFI/EMI problems, so your Magnum Dynalab FM tuner is good to go. Dennis states these new amps are currently the very best that Class D has too offer. |
I got to audition an ARC DS225 over the weekend running a pair of Nola Baby Grand Reference speakers. The Nola's were not quite my cup of tea, but the ARC seemed to do a good job, though I did not hear enough to make any comparisons. Definitely a nice product. |
FYI..I spoke to Eric at Audio Perfection store in Minneapolis, fifteen minutes from Audio Research in Plymouth. Audio Perfection is a Bell Canto and Audio Research Dealer. Eric's take on the Bel Canto REF1000M
and the Audio Research DS450M is this.." Both amps have outstanding sound but the DS450M has much more body and weight with individual instruments"... |
Gregm..LOL..No..I do not market or sell any Audio products
at all. I'm not in the retail business. My "ad copy" style
of writing is a habit I'll never shake resulting from being in the publishing business for fifteen years. I'm just an older dude that has an intense passion for music as everyone else on Gon. Having been a hard core Audiophile
since 1975, I get excited when I see a high end company moving forward with an innovative approach to conventional
amp designs and I'm very impressed that Audio Research is the first to come out with a class D amp with the largest power supply on the market. It has been over due for quite some time and I have been hoping for many years that someone would eventually produce this kind of Class D amp. |
