Gromit's music centre...

[Gromit]

Ah I see. I was just wondering how versatile the 2010is are .

They're strange little things - on the surface of it they sound sweet with pretty much anything. I've driven them with amps from a KEL84 to the 770ES - opposing ends of the power-spectrum - and they just get on with the job very nicely. However to really wake them up they definitely need plenty of juice, or certainly like being driven hard.

The Q's sound better on the 770ES and Exposure XV than they do with the Naim though, the Sapphires seem to prefer the latter. The Exposure sits half-way between both camps, sounding great into either.

[jandl100]

Re: the Q-Ac 2010i -- when I was looking after your room for a while this year at Scalford, Richard, a guy came in and was just slack jawed at the sound.
"I've got a pair of those speakers" he said " and they don't sound anywhere near as good as these. Mine are softer sounding and a bit boring.".
I can't remember what amp he said he had but it wasn't very gutsy - I pointed at your Sony 770ES amp - "that's what makes the difference", I said.

[Gromit]

You're right Jerry - that Sony amp really grabs the Q's nicely, and what also helps is the V-D Blue speaker cable.

Unleashed the big Sony as needed to do some interconnect write-ups today so to kill 2 birds etc though it'd be useful to compare all the amps at the same time. The results which are forming are quite interesting:

[struth]

I,ve got my pair attached to my yaqin 100 and they really rock...not the I,s but still a fantastic little speaker and your right in that they like some oomph...

[Gromit]

Today was amplifier bake-off day. Had an old mate of mine up for the day who brought with him my old Nait 2, still doing sterling service in his 2nd system (like me he's an Exposure nut). Anyway was good to spend a few hours spinning some tunes but will start another thread about our thoughts - and results - of the comparisons we made.

A few pics anyway...

[istari_knight]

[Gromit]

Patience, my friend.

<truth is I've been a tad busy and just need time to sit down and put metaphorical pen to paper>

The basic results are as follows - I'll get on to explaining what/why when I get chance:

1st: Exposure XV
=2nd: Naim 42.5/HiCap/110 & Sony 770ES
3rd: Nait 2
4th: Naim 42.5/110 (ie without the HiCap).

It was a really interesting few hours, and Robert & I agreed on 90% of what we were hearing. The above results were based on using the amps' line stages as the little Nait only has an MM input obviously. However, between the XV, Sony & Naim pre-power using their respective phonostages the Exposure was a long way ahead. The equal 2nd place isn't a cop-out - it really was swings & roundabouts here they were so close.

I'm off to see Darran at Class A on Thursday to have the HiCap serviced as from looking inside it would appear it's never been touched in 25+ years (it has the old red caps). Ok it may not yield huge improvement, but unless I get it done I'll never know.

[selby]

Guess that means I've got even less chance of getting my hands on that Exposure!

[Tarzan]

Patience, my friend.

<truth is I've been a tad busy and just need time to sit down and put metaphorical pen to paper>

The basic results are as follows - I'll get on to explaining what/why when I get chance:

1st: Exposure XV
=2nd: Naim 42.5/HiCap/110 & Sony 770ES
3rd: Nait 2
4th: Naim 42.5/110 (ie without the HiCap).

It was a really interesting few hours, and Robert & I agreed on 90% of what we were hearing. The above results were based on using the amps' line stages as the little Nait only has an MM input obviously. However, between the XV, Sony & Naim pre-power using their respective phonostages the Exposure was a long way ahead. The equal 2nd place isn't a cop-out - it really was swings & roundabouts here they were so close.

I'm off to see Darran at Class A on Thursday to have the HiCap serviced as from looking inside it would appear it's never been touched in 25+ years (it has the old red caps). Ok it may not yield huge improvement, but unless I get it done I'll never know.

Yes, that could be said of all the amps you mention there Richard?

[istari_knight]

Interesssting ! I must admit, I wouldn't expect a Nait 2 to outperform a 42/110 even without Hicap ... Had the Nait been serviced at all ? No accounting for taste of course

Looks like that Expo has turned has out to be a good buy !