twelvebears
03-12-2010, 14:58
Right then Chaps.
While mostly spending my time avoiding having my arse sued off, I have finally managed to resolve my outstanding amp dilema, but in an unexpected way.
So after a long and boring saga involving a Chapter Preface and Couplet pre/power, I was (im)patiently waiting and waiting for the MBL 7008 I had decided on. Unfortunately this was taking AGES and I happened to come across some fairly stunning reviews of the NAD M2 HERE (http://nadelectronics.com/products/hifi-amplifiers/M2-Direct-Digital-Amplifier#heading-reviews) completely by chance. I also came across some very positive comments about it on another form made by our own Mr C of Coherent Systems, and he's not easily impressed....
Despite reservations about a) it's looks b) the NAD badge and c) that it was a true DIGITAL amp with SWITCHING output stage (grief I can hear the thuds of valve-lovers passing out and hitting the floor now), I was curious. Mark at Audio Emotion was being very accommodating because of the Chapter debacle and so he sent me one to have a play with.
This has probably turned out to be the biggest piece of luck in my whole audio history, and it was driven by complete fluke/bordom.
It's big, square and boring to look at. It is however VERY well made and an ergonomic dream to use. However that would mean bugger all if it didn't sound good too.....
The short version is that I absolutely love it and have bought it. The longer version is that this amp was nothing at all like I was expecting it to be, and more than I could have hoped for.
It's clean, fast and very transparent and yet in no way digital sounding. By that I mean that it isn't harsh or edgy and just lets we concentrate on the music and not the sound (if that makes sense). The other extremely weird thing is the way that the damn thing is TOTALLY silent. I mean I understand WHY it is, but the freakish way that with the volume cranked right up there is absolutely NO hiss from the speakers is just WEIRD! The only way you can hear hiss is to have a digital recording which used either analogue mastering or editing, then you can hear the mastertape hiss beautifully reproduced!
So it makes a wonderful job of all my digital sources and has meant than I've sold my Benchmark DAC and several cables, but surely it makes a dog's dinner of an analogue source right? Well actually no. I've got my Techie and phono stage using one of the two 'analogue' inputs (analogue signals are immediately converted to digital) and I'm enjoying it just as much as ever. I even tried back to back comparison of CDs via digital from my SCD777ES vs the same CD via the analogue inputs and believe that the changes were more down to the analogue outputs on the CDP than the M2's A/D stage.
Anyway, I'm loving the new member of the family and think it's here to stay for a long time. :cool:
While mostly spending my time avoiding having my arse sued off, I have finally managed to resolve my outstanding amp dilema, but in an unexpected way.
So after a long and boring saga involving a Chapter Preface and Couplet pre/power, I was (im)patiently waiting and waiting for the MBL 7008 I had decided on. Unfortunately this was taking AGES and I happened to come across some fairly stunning reviews of the NAD M2 HERE (http://nadelectronics.com/products/hifi-amplifiers/M2-Direct-Digital-Amplifier#heading-reviews) completely by chance. I also came across some very positive comments about it on another form made by our own Mr C of Coherent Systems, and he's not easily impressed....
Despite reservations about a) it's looks b) the NAD badge and c) that it was a true DIGITAL amp with SWITCHING output stage (grief I can hear the thuds of valve-lovers passing out and hitting the floor now), I was curious. Mark at Audio Emotion was being very accommodating because of the Chapter debacle and so he sent me one to have a play with.
This has probably turned out to be the biggest piece of luck in my whole audio history, and it was driven by complete fluke/bordom.
It's big, square and boring to look at. It is however VERY well made and an ergonomic dream to use. However that would mean bugger all if it didn't sound good too.....
The short version is that I absolutely love it and have bought it. The longer version is that this amp was nothing at all like I was expecting it to be, and more than I could have hoped for.
It's clean, fast and very transparent and yet in no way digital sounding. By that I mean that it isn't harsh or edgy and just lets we concentrate on the music and not the sound (if that makes sense). The other extremely weird thing is the way that the damn thing is TOTALLY silent. I mean I understand WHY it is, but the freakish way that with the volume cranked right up there is absolutely NO hiss from the speakers is just WEIRD! The only way you can hear hiss is to have a digital recording which used either analogue mastering or editing, then you can hear the mastertape hiss beautifully reproduced!
So it makes a wonderful job of all my digital sources and has meant than I've sold my Benchmark DAC and several cables, but surely it makes a dog's dinner of an analogue source right? Well actually no. I've got my Techie and phono stage using one of the two 'analogue' inputs (analogue signals are immediately converted to digital) and I'm enjoying it just as much as ever. I even tried back to back comparison of CDs via digital from my SCD777ES vs the same CD via the analogue inputs and believe that the changes were more down to the analogue outputs on the CDP than the M2's A/D stage.
Anyway, I'm loving the new member of the family and think it's here to stay for a long time. :cool: