Well, finally installed -- a week later than indicated - Apologies! With some of the reports of failed channels, I got spooked and decided to at least test mine out. Intended to do this 3 months earlier, and now, the unit may be beyond any warranty?
; but so far, so good. It is serving as the primary front L & R channel amp in my living room right now (it's really intended for my bedroom setup; that's why you'll see the mixture of black and silver components).
Cranked the volume all the way up on the DAC (
Topping DM7) and the secondary preamp (
Topping Pre/Ext 90) [without the source playing, of course] and absolutely NO speaker hiss (speaker [actually component] hiss bothers me terribly and I've returned several mid- to high-end units for the same); so, at least, the SNR on this amp seems really great. Can't say if it sounds "superior" to my basic
Denon AVR-A110 setup, but I doubt I could really tell the difference, anywhose. The
Denon A110 is a decent-measuring component as far as AVRs go.
I've been concerned about the few reports of this amp in use, and a significant number (although extremely small reported overall sample) have had issues. Time will tell if this amp is reliable, but so far, no issues at all. And, I am pleased with its operation, although I've still got to put it through its paces. I'm also using it as the front channel amp for Home Theater Bypass use with the
Denon and it's working as planned. But, to get it all automated and remote-controlled as I want will take a little finagling. Haven't tried the trigger, but I am expecting it won't work as reported previously and pretty much confirmed by
Soncoz. I have a wireless power switch that I will employ, if my new AV power protection unit doesn't have a delayed power-on for amps.
Here are a couple of pics (please ignore the spaghetti of cables in the background, still moving things around
):
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