watts

I get it 😉 Since my last comment here I have picked up a tube pre, and 100 watts of Coda class A power which I use for the high channels. This is a solid-state style sounding tube pre, with clean non-warm NOS tubes installed, and it definitely adds body to the sound and roundness to images. The Coda has gained me more detail with no lack of speed or clarity, and enough power for my Magnepans- and added realistic richness- I love them both. The really odd part is the Coda has a surface temperature lower than the "efficient" class D Apollon NCx500. I still have the NCx500 powering the bass channels. But it is a heck of lot more money spent so it better sound better. 🤑

SOLD

We would never judge sound quality on looks, of course, but which of these op amps look like they might sound better?

I had the 1656's installed in my Apollon NCx500. Tibor said he preferred these as well. When I received the amp last year I went back and forth between these and some Sonic Imagery 994's I had from my Nord's. I prefer the SI's. They sound smoother and less congested to my ears. Maybe there is a little more treble information with the 1656 but I feel it is not as well resolved. The one exception was brass/horns- I feel with just these instruments the 1656 I prefer, for whatever reason. After reading this thread yesterday (quite a few twists and turns in between the Purifi discussions :) I just put them in again today as I have changed my front end, and was curious if they would be any different, but no, I came to same conclusion. Bass remained the same of course as this is done with a different amp in my system.

I'm going to be conceited and quote myself 😁 I just decided to put back in the TI1656 that came with the amp- I made the conclusion previously that I preferred the SI994 in the Apollon, (this is in just my high channel amp) but I have made some changes to my system so I'll see what I think of them now.

I don't know what they are getting at. Perhaps this was posted on ASR to satisfy some flat-earthers- perhaps they measure the same before and after, I don't know. But absolutely a class D amplifier sounds horrible new. Absolutely they require many hours to sound less tight, etched, strident, cold, and will sound more full, rich, open, warm and relaxed the more the playing hours pass. I have had 4 different class D amps, 3 of them new. You will see. Don't touch anything, don't make any adjustments, just listen to the same tracks each day and you will see. There are many capacitors in the signal path- which all of the SMPS have many of, and the modules as well. Yes, I am a believer that everything that passes "electricity" needs burn in. No, I can't prove it. But some items are not as pronounced as others- on another forum thread recently someone asked about burn-in on the Puritan PSM156, and I recall some very positive sound improvements immediately after plugging it in, even stone cold, and it most likely improved as the hours piled but that was not as noticeable as many other components like speaker cables etc. In my system with me ears and brain of course. Unlike many others I have not been through dozens of power cables, so I am not good to recommend a good match, and it has to do with matching your other components in your system/speakers/cables etc. as well. Honestly you gotta try some to compare and see which "flavour of ice cream" you prefer. And I am quite new to higher-end cabling: My first "real" power cord I bought less than 2 years ago. But I can say my first "wow" was when I replaced the stock power cord in my Nord NC500OEM to an Audio Sensibility Testament, which is a well-constructed and very reasonably priced power cord, and they are quite popular in Canada, so they are readily available used on Canuck Audio Mart. I have since upgraded to Zavfino Silver Darts and I have 4 of those. An even bigger "wow" was experienced going from a $300 to that Zavfino $1000 power cord, and I'm sure I would say the same "wow" again if I tried an Audioquest Dragon, so I am not going to 😉. But yes, with most things in life you get what you pay for. I have some other brands on my radar to try out, I'll get around to trying them against the Silver Darts eventually. I also don't have any experience with power cords on any other amplifiers, the Mcintosh amps I had before the class D had attached cords, so unless I wanted to do some major surgery it was not an option. I do notice that all the modern Mcintosh amps have detachable power cords now though. 😊 I wish I could tell you power cords on class D have a bigger impact than replacing power cords on a class A/B, say a Pass labs, but I have not had the opportunity to prove that to myself. But I do know you have not heard how good the NCx500 is until you put a "quality" power cord on it.

As someone who owns both, yes the Apollon has a much higher build quality, and many custom parts including proprietary copper binding posts. Attention to detail is evident from the person who builds this. And yes, it must not be the same person who ships it. 😉 the VTV by comparison has wires that have plier marks in them so deep the bare wire is exposed. But yes, if one desires Weiss op amps (me) the VTV is much less money to do so.

Yes, they do. I would say op amps made a bigger difference than the change from NC500 to a NCx500, both from different manufacturers. Dude, don't even bother posting listening impressions of any kind until these have at least 200 hours on them of continuous playing time- break in is a real thing. And do you have a decent power cord on it? Power cords on hypex amps make a huge difference.

Just caught this thread or I would have responded earlier. Sonic Imagery 994 all the way with mine. I haven't tried the 2590 pro's though- the sparkos 3602 just sounded unresolving to my ears but I know many who liked the more "analog" sparkos sound. And if I recall I felt they sounded best at full gain- I asked Tibor about this and he overlooked the email.

I see in Chris's K50 review he used an AES into one system, and USB into another, but did not make any comparisons between connectors. Mark Jenkins was quoted as preferring AES output, so that is what I chose to do, especially as I have a Gen2 K50 that does not have the upgraded USB, but I was curious if others have compared various outputs and came to the same conclusion? Is AES the way to go?

Well it's about time Antipodes got some love around here 😁

Thank you Alex, and you're welcome. And/or it might be due to the increase of noise on the internet highway! I need to do this experiment again today. I still can't believe the difference, and it is so easy to do- easier than a power cord swap- Turn off DAC, pull out one ethernet cable and insert the other, turn on DAC, sit and wait about 10 seconds for Roon to kick back in, and listen. Yes those 1's and 0's sound so much better with this stuff inserted. All your friends at ASR don't know what they are missing. 😉

Listening impressions part II: I first posted my listening impressions here 2 years ago, only 2 pages ago (page 57). Not much action since then I see. I have made many changes in my system last year: I since acquired a newer better built version of hypex amplifier, a better power conditioner, a higher resolving DAC, and have some more expensive and better sounds cables. Additionally, regarding the streaming/etheregen I previously simply had an Amazon cat 6 cable from router to etheregen, then cat 6 direct to DAC. I now have cat 5 to Cisco 2960 from the router, then optical to etherregen, then Audio Sensibility Supra ethernet to my Weiss 501. The etherregen is also powered by a Plixir BDC connected with an Audio Sensiblity copper DC cable. I had the Plixir LPS kicking around after selling my exasound player, so I decided to keep it and try it on the etheregen before selling it. I most recently added optical line as many have claimed it improving SQ. The DC cable that came with the Plixir didn't fit in the etheregen, so I ordered one from Audio Sensibility. With my new DAC I thought possibly it does a better job filtering compared to the older DAC, as this higher-end DAC has its own in house built power supply and renderer, so anything else in front of it might not be needed. So I just decided to unplug the etheregen/Plixir/optical/AS cat cable and go direct from the Cisco switch with the cat 6 cable to the Weiss and compare. Well turns out I'm keeping everything. I am shocked. The difference is HUGE. I just read my post from 2 years ago, I stated yes it made a difference, but it wasn't huge. I have since thought to myself over the past 2 years for the $700 US yes it made a noticeable difference, perhaps significant in how it smoothed out the treble, but I always thought a $700 upgrade in cables may have been money better spent. Keep in mind I didn't just buy this and post 2 hours later saying "OMG, this is night and day!" like we read from posters many times. I have owned this etherregen and it has been plugged in my system for 2 years, 🙂 But I will restate- it is unbelievable what a difference it makes. Track: LIberty by Anette Askvik: it takes about 3 seconds to hear the difference- with the etheregen (etc.) the song begins with there is swirling of sounds, finely resolved drums and various other percussion, in 3d space, and then her voice is beautifully and naturally rendered in space. The sax sounds sublime. Exceptional recording. With ER and everything removed the whole soundstage collapses- it becomes 2D- the swirling is gone, there is just so much less to hear- her voice is sibilant and much less realistic. The sax first seems like it has more air, but the 'air' is distortion-poorly resolved air, and it no longer suspends itself in its own space, it falls flat. Seriously, it is obvious in mere seconds. If anything I thought it would be much harder to discern any differences. Now, it is not just a layer of grunge getting removed, but the whole soundstage undergoes a massive change, and with the ER/attachments my DAC goes from sounding like a $1000 player to the $10000 player it is supposed to sound like. Here is another way to define the difference: that track Liberty, using just Amazon cat 6, I listen, and about half way though I have the desire to stop it and put on a more familiar track. With the ER/Plixir/fibre I listen from start to finish, and then have the desire to listen to the track again. And again. So much more music is gained- so much more engaging. I am not inclined to see which part contributes to what particular percentage of overall improvement (etherregen 70%, LPS 20%, optical 5% Cisco 5% etc. ) I just wanted to know that this money spent for these streaming "tweaks" or components positively affect the sound quality compared to not having them. Yes, unequivocally! So I am happy! First because my ears are better than I thought they might be, and because I trusted many in this thread and bought this switch. Like we all know, the higher the quality and more resolving one's system the easier it is to hear differences. And I keep reading from those with much more experience than I, when it comes to streaming "everything matters".

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