verdantaudio
Responses from verdantaudio
| smaller speakers for critical listening? This is a great question. I personally prefer monitors to floor standing speakers. I owned Infinity Kappa 8.1s for many years and was quite satisfied and then I got married. Not surprisingly my (now ex) wife was not a huge fan of 4' high, 15" w... | |
| Suggestions for some Monitor Audio The Sphinx is wonderful but I would plan on getting a pair of NOS Mullards to warm the sound a hair. They will be a good match. | |
| Selecting Preamp for MC452 amp seeking most enjoyable experience possible in price range The C49 is a brilliant preamp. I find B&W speaker a bit forward and Chord DACs tend to be forward so for me, I would be biased toward slightly warmer preamps that Mc SS. This is my bias. You may find it an acceptable sound profile. This ... | |
| Speaker for Nagra VPA If you like the Goldenears, check out Audiovector. The R3 might be an interesting option for you and would be a little less than $11K with the grounding wire. It is relatively efficient 90.5dB and is an easy set of speakers to drive. https://... | |
| Mixing & Matching Components Fascinating. Part of me loves the idea of everything matching and delivering synergy of sound and electronic synergy. This is extremely appealing but is not always possible or logical. I love Chords new Ultima line of power amps. I am not sure... | |
| Selecting Preamp for MC452 amp seeking most enjoyable experience possible in price range There are a million preamps available including several McIntosh preamps in that price range. The McIntosh C22 is brilliant at the high end of your price range and would be one of my first choices. Alternatively, there are other brands that yo... | |
| Analogue only preamp ideas? - no need for internal DAC! Tubes in a preamp take 20-30 minutes or so to warmup. This is irrelevant for pass through. You will find that until the tubes are warm, sound will be a little flat. AVM tubes should never need replacement and were explicitly designed for AVM. ... | |
| Is a Chord Qutest Dac my best option The Qutest is a super value and delivers amazing sound. I think people would zero in on the Qutest because it offers only single ended outputs and is superb for its price.there are better DACs from Chord and from other brands. The Qutest is phen... | |
| Analogue only preamp ideas? - no need for internal DAC! The McIntosh C70 is awesome but doesn’t offer home theater pass through. Same issue with the C22. If you want HT Passthrough with a tube stage, check out the AVM PA 5.2. It is in the same price range as the C22 at $5495. They offer a phono car... | |
| Are there any tube amps that don't give off any--- @rushfan71 The Musical Fidelity NuVista 600 and 800 are hybrid amps that have a tube preamp stage and use bi-polar transistors in the output stage. For these units to sound really good, they need 20-30 minutes of warmup time. | |
| Are there any tube amps that don't give off any--- LTAs run relatively cool. The other amps that run cooler are the current Bob Carver amps. Neither are cold but both run dramatically cooler than traditional tube amps. | |
| Hybrid Amplifiers suggestions The two I am thinking of both have Class D output stages rather than a MOSFET Output stage. The AVM A5.2 and Canor Audio AI 2.10 are both awesome amps but require you accept Class D. | |
| upgrade suggestions from wilson sophias (original)? This is a tall task. Finding a "better" speaker than the Sabrina for under $10K will be no easy task. In the end, the Sabrina is outstanding for the money and in its price range, is a strong value. You could get Magico A3s or S1 MKiis. You cou... | |
| DAVE w/ or w/out M Scaler? @jjss49 this is an interesting question. On the surface, you are right. The approach with a NOS DAC is the exact opposite of what Chord is trying to do with the M-Scaler. NOS DACs are trying to serve up a digital signal in its purest form wh... | |
| I am indecisive about choice due to room size My opinion (which is worth what you payed for it) is that the Sonetta VIIIs are going to be a really big speaker for that room. I don't think you will gain anything by moving to the larger speaker in that small of a room. I would look to step up ... |