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Post by Boomzilla on Oct 13, 2013 7:05:33 GMT -5
Elaborate: Technical Errors?
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on Oct 13, 2013 7:06:23 GMT -5
Looking forward to more detailed impressions.
Mark
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Post by garbulky on Oct 13, 2013 9:43:31 GMT -5
Looking forward to more detailed impressions. Mark Mark I will definitely give you some when I get the chance. But suffice it to say for now. This is the best sound I have ever heard. If anybody is wondering about this DAC, they really shouldn't. It's a bigger upgrade to my sound system than using an XPA-2 instead of my UPA-2.... and that's saying something! One caveat - and I may be wrong about this as I had to change out my RCA interconnects due to some very soft buzz - but I don't think I am.....it requires a warm up....a pretty long period of being turned on. It took two days to get to this sound! If I owned this, I wouldn't turn it off. It seems to have two different personailities. An unimpressive one centering around lack of treble presence, dynamics and a generally laid back sound and the other persoanlity is a very very NICE one. So....warm up. ... I've really enjoyed this unit.
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boog
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Post by boog on Oct 13, 2013 10:35:10 GMT -5
Thanks for doing this Garbulky. I will also be anxious to hear your summary on the DC - 1 as well. I have been following Boomzilla with his impressions too. BTW, did you listen to it over those 2 days or leave it and come back to it? Boog
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Post by garbulky on Oct 13, 2013 10:59:25 GMT -5
Thanks for doing this Garbulky. I will also be anxious to hear your summary on the DC - 1 as well. I have been following Boomzilla with his impressions too. BTW, did you listen to it over those 2 days or leave it and come back to it? Boog I listened to it quite often over two days. I experimented with different configurations. Initially it was connected direct to the amp. It didn't sound great and it needed something. So then I connected it to a passive pre-amp. Sounded reasonable. Then I went back to direct to the UPA-2 without the passive pre-amp.
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hemster
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Post by hemster on Oct 13, 2013 11:58:25 GMT -5
Garbulky, I'm intrigued about the extended warm-up period. I normally never turn mine off but 2 days seems a long time. I'm not disputing your findings, just intrigued that a solid-state piece of gear takes that long to really sing.
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Post by garbulky on Oct 13, 2013 12:50:00 GMT -5
Garbulky, I'm intrigued about the extended warm-up period. I normally never turn mine off but 2 days seems a long time. I'm not disputing your findings, just intrigued that a solid-state piece of gear takes that long to really sing. Actually you're just the person I wanted to talk to. Do you find there's maybe too much bass on the DC-1 at volumes where the thing sounds good?
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Post by paintedklown on Oct 13, 2013 13:02:32 GMT -5
Garbulky, we are all hanging on your your every word here. Please keep the impressions coming.
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hemster
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Post by hemster on Oct 13, 2013 13:07:46 GMT -5
Garbulky, I'm intrigued about the extended warm-up period. I normally never turn mine off but 2 days seems a long time. I'm not disputing your findings, just intrigued that a solid-state piece of gear takes that long to really sing. Actually you're just the person I wanted to talk to. Do you find there's maybe too much bass on the DC-1 at volumes where the thing sounds good? I can't say I've got this issue. I do have a sub hooked up and have it crossed over at 80 Hz (on the sub's low-pass filter). I feed it directly from the DC-1's RCA outs, while the Airmotivs are fed via XLRs. I know it's not true bass management but it helps add a low-end punch to the music.
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on Oct 13, 2013 13:32:26 GMT -5
Bass was one of the first things I noticed and liked. Strong and rich but not too much. Then again I have Maggie 1.7's
Mark
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Post by thorcorps on Oct 13, 2013 18:59:43 GMT -5
I'm also quite confused by Gar's take thus far although we do have completely different setups. My DC-1 has been absolutely stellar and requires no warm-up at all. My XPR-1's on the other hand require 6-7 hours, so I leave them on all the time (shame they're so warm in the summer). As I've mentioned in other threads, I run mine in synchronous mode and feel that an XDA-1/USP-1 combo doesn't come close to what the DC-1 does for me. Just my opinions of course, in my system/room.
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Post by garbulky on Oct 13, 2013 19:36:37 GMT -5
Guys, I think I need to probably do some more extended listening with the DC-1. My initial impressions are usually always wonky. I go by "feeling" a lot and usually at the very beginning the opinions are all over the place. So don't put a whole lot of faith in just a day or so of real listening. Like I've mentioned my full review tends to be a bit better.
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novisnick
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Post by novisnick on Oct 13, 2013 19:48:52 GMT -5
I'm also quite confused by Gar's take thus far although we do have completely different setups. My DC-1 has been absolutely stellar and requires no warm-up at all. My XPR-1's on the other hand require 6-7 hours, so I leave them on all the time (shame they're so warm in the summer). As I've mentioned in other threads, I run mine in synchronous mode and feel that an XDA-1/USP-1 combo doesn't come close to what the DC-1 does for me. Just my opinions of course, in my system/room. You say that your XPR-1s need 6 to 7 hour to warm up? Warm up what, the room? but really, you can tell a difference in letting them warm up?, ive noticed that one of my Rs runs warmer then the other but your saying SQ is improved with that long of a warm up period,right? are the amps broke in yet? I'll have to try this and see, hear, what happens. thanks. Peace, Nick
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Post by Boomzilla on Oct 14, 2013 1:48:15 GMT -5
All my previous equipment (solid state and tube) sounds consistent after the first 15 minutes of use. To save power, to avoid thunderstorm surges, and to happy the wife, I normally turn everything off between uses. This is the opposite of what my salesman friend at the local audio saloon advises. If Gar is right, then I've not really yet heard the Stealth DC-1 at its best.
I'll try leaving the big Crown amps on for a day or three and see whether there's a difference. I'm not leaving the tube DAC on for longevity reasons. The Stealth's idle current can't be that high, so next time I pry it out of Gar's fingers, I'll try leaving it on too.
Boom
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Post by garbulky on Oct 14, 2013 3:41:14 GMT -5
All my previous equipment (solid state and tube) sounds consistent after the first 15 minutes of use. To save power, to avoid thunderstorm surges, and to happy the wife, I normally turn everything off between uses. This is the opposite of what my salesman friend at the local audio saloon advises. If Gar is right, then I've not really yet heard the Stealth DC-1 at its best. I'll try leaving the big Crown amps on for a day or three and see whether there's a difference. I'm not leaving the tube DAC on for longevity reasons. The Stealth's idle current can't be that high, so next time I pry it out of Gar's fingers, I'll try leaving it on too. Boom Interestingly it may not just be warm up. It may be the pre-amp or a combination. I found it sounds really good at loud volumes. At softer volumes there is a lack of dynamics, treble presence etc. So....it needs to be turned up past -30. BTW I posted my DC-1 review.
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Post by thorcorps on Oct 14, 2013 9:18:34 GMT -5
You say that your XPR-1s need 6 to 7 hour to warm up? Warm up what, the room? but really, you can tell a difference in letting them warm up?, ive noticed that one of my Rs runs warmer then the other but your saying SQ is improved with that long of a warm up period,right? are the amps broke in yet? I'll have to try this and see, hear, what happens. thanks. Peace, Nick They do try to warm up the room, but yeah, SQ slowly improves with mine over about a 6-7 hour period. I've repeated that test many times and always found it to be the case. For the most part it seems to be an issue of the soundstage coalescing. Since I only use mine for 2-channel music, it's quite noticeable to me. If I was running them in the HT in a 5.1 setup, I probably wouldn't notice, but in 2-channel they have to build the soundstage from only the 2 channels so when I first turn them on the soundstage is not smooth and full (hard to describe, obviously). When thunderstorms are coming or I won't be listening to that setup for a couple of days, I do turn the XPR-1's off, but the next time I plan on listening to them, I'll turn them on first thing in the morning so they'll be ready for me later (I know it sounds silly, but I never noticed that much of a difference with warm-up of any of my other amps).
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novisnick
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Post by novisnick on Oct 14, 2013 13:38:21 GMT -5
I'll give it a try and get back to you, Thanks Peace, Nick
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Post by ocezam on Oct 16, 2013 9:40:04 GMT -5
All my previous equipment (solid state and tube) sounds consistent after the first 15 minutes of use. To save power, to avoid thunderstorm surges, and to happy the wife, I normally turn everything off between uses. Boom Agreed. 35 years in this hobby. I've never been able to hear a difference in SQ after 10 to 20 minutes warm up with any of my equipment. Ever.
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Post by garbulky on Oct 26, 2013 6:31:31 GMT -5
Has anybody heard of Mola Mola? The specs seems too good to be true. By the guy that bought the ncores to light. www.mola-mola.nl/
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Post by mgbpuff on Oct 26, 2013 7:42:17 GMT -5
Yes, I've heard of it. Mola-Mola is a Bruno Putzey owned company and is introducing a pair of nCore 1200 monoblocks for about $12000. It's good for 1200 watts into 2 ohms, 400 watts into 8 ohms. The pricing, though high, should put a stop to ultra hi end companies trying to sell it in products priced in the 10's of thousand dollar price range - after all who would buy one from anyone other than the inventor/designer's own company? $12000 for Class D is way too much for me to ever consider, especially if I can get really fine sounding Class A/B amps from Emotiva.
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