Pleased for you mate.
Pretty bit of kit that
We know you love it
Much awesomeness is occurring
One does love it when oneās plan comes together
Lovely. Classy looking.
Cheers chaps!
Too strong a word, but it grew on me, and I think I prefer it to the more mundane effort.
Donāt you need a proper active preamp with that? Itās one of the few amps thatās not about the speakers, itās about the pre.
Indeed didnāt Pass mention that you could use it with a low powered SET to make it drive more sensible speakers?
Yep thatās the one, luckily the M7 has about 20dB of gain so works well with it, NP claims it is completely transparent and is his favourite FirstWatt amp.
I have two of them but one drives the tonescouts easily so will sell the other.
Surely going too well, expect explosions and fire by next week
Oh, donāt worry, fate has things in-hand: Iām away for the next two weeks.
Not even joking.
Itās sounding fucking epic!
Iāve not heard the High output Hana but I really rate the Low output version.
My favourite mid budget cart.
A few thoughts on the new amp -
Its adequate.
Its also stupidly heavy for something that only knocks out 30w - NP seems to have decided to shove a power supply from a much bigger amp in there and fitted surprisingly large heatsinks to what is according to the specs a relatively low powered amp.
Not that I need much power with 105db/w/m horns, I think the most I saw the Pioneerās meters get to was just over 0.3w and that was at 85db in the room.
Its definitely different in sound to the Pioneer M-Z1a 60w class A monos. Canāt fully get a handle on things yet without putting them back in but immediate impressions are of a stronger impression of a left to right soundstage which is wider, and a weightier feel to music overall.
Obviously my preamp is holding it back so all this has really done is trigger the next fricking upgrade (Spanks Google for the next few hours browsing potential replacementsā¦).
(FWIW) power supply size = power supply robustness =/= high wattage output - itās about current availability + dynamic headroom + the ability to reject powerline noise - less ripple downstream, better transient speed, blah-blah.
The temptation will be to match with a Pass pre, but Iāll just say Iām very much not regretting a tube-hybrid pre. VTL 5.5, AR Ref 5 would have been in on the cards but for £££££ and Iām not actually convinced theyāre better than the Eclipse, flwiwā¦
The usual suspects from Kondo / ANUK would work well. Wildcard: the ANUK M2 / M5 that Emporium have is not as sketchy as it first appears, and I found them very helpful/discounty when contacted direct⦠Couldnāt afford it even then.
Tru dat.
Dat also tru.
Iād like to hear it with an AR Ref 5SE for a start as Iāve typically preferred what they do vs say an M7 which are lovely butā¦
I would be wary of a ARC Ref 5 due to reliability, as I have seen a few in reparers.
The Conrad Johnson ACT2, Esoteric C03 or C03x are extremely good, as are some of the Gryphon pres.
Also not a fan of AN M7.
I recall one particular instance of a 5 rather than a 5SE which had been supplied s/h by a āhigh endā dealer, which turned into a saga of problems.
Any worries about expensive repairs if they occur can be slightly ameliorated by using the guy who does all the repairs for Absolute Sounds (avoiding going through them).