Not after comparing it to the Hypex Ncores. Although it may have been handicapped by the rest of the circuitry before it like the DAC section and USB interface.
Great article on "Analogue Warmth"
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Not after comparing it to the Hypex Ncores. Although it may have been handicapped by the rest of the circuitry before it like the DAC section and USB interface.
I have used Devialet here and Hypex NCores and Mola-Mola's Kalugas, the difficulty is that the Devialet is a one box system , you can't divorce the amp from the interface and the dac, so it is very difficult to compare.
Alied to the Illusonic processor the Molas create the best sound I have heard in my room, I suppose I need to get a Devialet back here and compare again with Christof's EQ.
Keith.
Depending which DAC was used. And very hard to say where the compromises lied. When I used the Resonessence Mirus, the soundstage was deeper, and everything just sounded more natural. Bass was better as well. And this was with 24/192 PCM. Source was an I3 NUC computer connected via USB, and jriver as media player. Of course with DSD, there was no contest in any department. This was in a dealer showroom, and everyone there agreed as well.
Then with my chipless DSD DAC using HQplayer to resample all audio to DSD 256, it was in another world in every category. Enough so that my friend with the Devialet 400 setup, just sold his and I'm setting up a 4 room system for him soon with chipless DSD and Hypex ncore power. Roon/HQplayer will run on a central server on his office Imac and act as the brains for the system. Ipad will run everything.
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Since when is Keith many? If I call Harlequin Everyone, do you know what Everyone will have to say about many?
A similar approach, although likely not at the same level i'm talking about. And yes this is the future of high end audio folks
I'm sorry but it's a big world outside of your little bubble. You should considering popping it and go on an adventure
A similar approach, although likely not at the same level i'm talking about. And yes this is the future of high end audio folks
You should investigate this. Likely your approach is not on the same level. I don't think it is still available or I don't know where. There were some interviews with the guys behind this and what they are doing. The emulation they do is well beyond just shoot a test signal thru it and convolve the result.
I know all about this. It's not DSD compatible for 1, and it runs on low powered Sharc processors that don't have near enough power to process the emulation profiles at the same level as I'm talking about. It's for studio use, and is a turn key system on a PCI-e board, or external thunderbolt.
Both SS and tube devices can do warmth but they are not the same characteristic IME.
Both can approach kinds of fidelity in terms of tonality and transparency in limited ways.
Every bit of gear I've heard displays some characteristic vestige of its process.
Technical Brain amps have a transparency but it was more like a clear liquid transparency rather than the transparency of luminance that great valve can do.
Some gear is more transparent in context, some more so in spirit. But everything has its nature and imparts that in some level so when we add colouration I figure we are additionally masking and adding to the mix rather than creating an absolute copy. recreating.
Systems with SS and valve in them tend to a masking of some of the characteristics of the different processes but we end up with complex and layered characteristics rather than pure simpler ones. Everything in the end is a compromise
Both can approach kinds of fidelity in terms of tonality and transparency in limited ways.
Every bit of gear I've heard displays some characteristic vestige of its process.
Technical Brain amps have a transparency but it was more like a clear liquid transparency rather than the transparency of luminance that great valve can do.
Some gear is more transparent in context, some more so in spirit. But everything has its nature and imparts that in some level so when we add colouration I figure we are additionally masking and adding to the mix rather than creating an absolute copy. recreating.
Systems with SS and valve in them tend to a masking of some of the characteristics of the different processes but we end up with complex and layered characteristics rather than pure simpler ones. Everything in the end is a compromise
We already have that with vinyl and tube gear
The sound from the mic feeds is awful. This is why we need the DSP, to enhance the horrible reality with tonal density and timbral richness.Choice is a great thing. If someone wants to hear Jimmy Page on LZ2 to sound like he's using a modern SS amp stack, and John Bonham to have ProTooled-sounding drums, that option should really be available.
You miss my point: that the two options on offer were both 'wrong'. They started from false assumptions.
What's the false assumption? That most audio gear drops in resale value over time?
Spaz, it's not me who thinks everything can/should be homogenized out.
I'm just saying, why stop just at making vivacious tubes sound like tonally dead Class D.
Why not have an amp that can make all the great analog rich musicians of the 50's-80's sound like flattened digital facsimiles of the 00's/10's?
Want yr Miles "Kind Of Blue" to sound hot mastered/brickwalled - yep, there'll be an amp option for this too!
(in case Blizz detects any sarcasm/vitriol from me)
I fully understand one can buy an amp that sounds sharp and astringent, and one that sounds warm and wooly. But I really need to hear an amp that is so neutral, so chameleon-like, so adaptable, that it has no sound in itself, plug-ins for every signature out there. Just why would you even bother to be a designer in future when the big boys will knock these off no problem at all?
I'm just saying, why stop just at making vivacious tubes sound like tonally dead Class D.
Why not have an amp that can make all the great analog rich musicians of the 50's-80's sound like flattened digital facsimiles of the 00's/10's?
Want yr Miles "Kind Of Blue" to sound hot mastered/brickwalled - yep, there'll be an amp option for this too!
(in case Blizz detects any sarcasm/vitriol from me)I fully understand one can buy an amp that sounds sharp and astringent, and one that sounds warm and wooly. But I really need to hear an amp that is so neutral, so chameleon-like, so adaptable, that it has no sound in itself, plug-ins for every signature out there. Just why would you even bother to be a designer in future when the big boys will knock these off no problem at all?
Class A/B even class A if it is capable of driving the loudspeaker and Class D are extremely similar, provided all are capable of properly driving the loudspeaker in question.Spaz, it's not me who thinks everything can/should be homogenized out.
I'm just saying, why stop just at making vivacious tubes sound like tonally dead Class D.
Why not have an amp that can make all the great analog rich musicians of the 50's-80's sound like flattened digital facsimiles of the 00's/10's?
Want yr Miles "Kind Of Blue" to sound hot mastered/brickwalled - yep, there'll be an amp option for this too!
I fully understand one can buy an amp that sounds sharp and astringent, and one that sounds warm and wooly. But I really need to hear an amp that is so neutral, so chameleon-like, so adaptable, that it has no sound in itself, plug-ins for every signature out there. Just why would you even bother to be a designer in future when the big boys will knock these off no problem at all?
It is possible to design a very low distortion valve amp, which measures almost as well as solid state, but it would sound like a solid state amp.
There is no harm in admitting that you enjoy distortion.
Keith.
I suggest that an interesting experiment would be to make a piece of software that doesn't actually do anything at all, but displays an image of each amplifier with a fade to silence in between changeovers to simulate the valves 'warming up', or a nasty click to indicate a changeover between the naturally-nasty (of course) solid state amps. I would put money on the results being "night and day".
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