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Class D monoblocks, which one?

DonH56

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Tube amps are great since the second harmonics bring out the chocolate in chocolate cookies. For spice cookies, you need a SS amp to emphasize the third harmonic for a little more bite.

Now that I think on it, I bake cookies with a tube fairly often, in a microwave oven...
 

Puska

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Roon rock on nuc7i3bnh powered with Teddy Pardo 19V, sotm sms200 Ultra Neo powered with Sbooster,
Topping D90 xlr, 2 Hypex 400 mono, Goldenear Reference ====>> end game for me.
 
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birkbott

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These "Alchemy" series amps from ELAC sound really nice. They are designed by Peter Madnick of the original Audio Alchemy. They use a Class A first stage and then a Class D second stage providing the power. This allows the amp to retain the sweetness of a class A design without the expense, heat, weight, etc. https://www.elac.com/series/alchemy-power/dpa-2/?r=us

I mean sure if I had $4k to drop the on some monoblocks I’d try ‘em
 

UCrazyKid

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I mean sure if I had $4k to drop the on some monoblocks I’d try ‘em
Didn’t see what your budget was. They are configurable as stereo or mono blocks so you only need one.
 

oldsysop

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@SIY
I appreciate your efforts.
It seems we still have a long way to go.:(
 
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birkbott

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So I think I might be losing it. It totally forgot that I had moved my speakers back against the wall while changing between the Vidar and the PA-1s. I moved them back to the original position and my midrange came back.

Having corrected this, I think the PA-1s sound great, certainly comparable to the Vidar in terms of resolution. Plus imaging and soundstage are both excellent.
 

Bikerbw

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So I’ve now lived with the Crown XLS 1502 for a while. I can’t tell if it’s just psychological or what but it doesn’t sound as crystal clear as my memory of the Vidar is. If I put my ear up to the speaker there is a slight hiss/hum which is reduced by lowering the gain. It is nearly eliminated by changing the input sensitivity to 1.4 and putting the gain at 12 o’clock. However if I do this I can turn my pream(Schiit Saga S) all the way up and barely hit 80db.

I have read that using the balanced inputs eliminates any hiss or hum. I have also heard that a high gain preamp is needed to provide enough headroom to keep the noise floor low.

So the question is now: what preamps pair best with an amp like this? Are there cheap, high gain, balanced preamps out there? I haven’t been able to find much.
I had the same issue when I had one of the 1502 - with the gains all the way up I could hear a gentle hiss from about 1-2 feet away from my Buchardt S400 (these are not efficient speakers) and PS Audio GCD. I used balanced connections (and no connections at all), through a power regenerator and still the same. If I turned down the gains to about 75% the hiss went away, but no other amp in my recent future had this issue, and it was not something was going to live with. There was plenty of power/volume with this combination but not an impressive experience. Having been a musician in my former life I knew better than to try to use what amounts to a PA amp for critical in-home listening, but I thought I'd give the Crown a try, due to all of the glowing reviews I'd read.
 

Matt_Photo

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For its part, the Audiophonics one has a pass through option that could be used with a DAC with high voltage output.
I have a Chord Qutest, which has an adjustable output voltage of 1V, 2V and 3V, would that be enough to use the pass through option? If so, what benefit would that give?
(Sorry for my ignorance, its my first post and i'm relatively new to the site, i'm trying to read as much and as many posts as I can on ASR but the real technical data is still over my head)
 

rodtor

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I have a Chord Qutest, which has an adjustable output voltage of 1V, 2V and 3V, would that be enough to use the pass through option? If so, what benefit would that give?
(Sorry for my ignorance, its my first post and i'm relatively new to the site, i'm trying to read as much and as many posts as I can on ASR but the real technical data is still over my head)
Hi, I am afraid that Im not expert either. The Audiophonics site indicates that the amp would need 10 volts with the pass through setting. Most DACS can't provide this. The advantage, per Amir's measurements for the Purifi, would be a somewhat better SINAD level. However, I doubt that the difference would be audible, certainly not for me, and I expect that a properly built Purifi, or Hypex 400, would be very good even with 2 or 4 volt inputs from a DAC, which seem to be the typical levels. Welcome to ASR and good luck with this!
 

Matt_Photo

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Thanks Rodtor, looks like the Qutest isn't up to the job but no drama as I guess thats what a preamp is for. I'm currently looking at power amp options as currently using a Cyrus Integrated.

I'm looking at possibly a March or Audiophonics and whether to do Purifi or Hypex NCore, hence doing a lot of reading and trying to learn as much as I can about the difference.
 

Wes

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I’m torn between these:
-DIY NC400 from diyassd
-Pre-assembled NC400 from audiophonics
-Ghent Icepower based GA-M500P
-Emotiva PA-1
-March Audio

...


which one has sweetest warranty?
 

Wes

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but how are the amps mounted?
 

Lorenzo74

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I’m torn between these:
-DIY NC400 from diyassd
-Pre-assembled NC400 from audiophonics
-Ghent Icepower based GA-M500P
-Emotiva PA-1
-Any others I don’t know about?

Currently using a Schiit Vidar to power X-LS Encores from GR Research. Looking to free up space in my main cabinet and having the amps close to or on top of the speakers. Also looking for something more efficient and cooler to run.

All other things being relatively equal I’m inclined to go with the Emotivas unless there’s something big to be gained by going up in price. I’ve only seen measurements of the NC400 so I don’t know how the Emotiva or Ghent would compare.

Looking for any info or suggestions.

Maybe too late but Danny Richie got best sound at Axpona with 2X10W tda 7297 3$ chip amp. You can buy on ebay and tune for 80$ with Gr research components.
check this
https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2019/06/04/gr-research-dodd-audio-lone-star-audio-fest-2019/
And this
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=124981.0

Enjoy
L.
 

tmtomh

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D Sonic are built here and the owner is a good guy to talk with about your particular situation. Perhaps he would send one to Amir for testing?
https://www.d-sonic.com/

Interesting! Am I missing something, or does the site not specify what modules are used in their amps? I see specs but no module typologies. Would love to see amir be able to measure one of these units.
 
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VintageFlanker

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Am I missing something, or does the site not specify what modules are used in their amps?
No, they don't. Highly misleading IMHO...:mad:

Looks very much like Pascal modules to me:
M3a-1500M_Top_ISO__58883.1516639986.jpg


X-PRO2-topshot.png


https://www.pascal-audio.com/product/x-pro2

Edit: they list highly detailed specs with datasheet. They use the same commercial name for modules... But never mentioned Pascal in it!!
 

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