A noobs GC sound quality comparison

[markiemrboo]

I say noob, because I am quite rubbish at describing sound. The short version is, I really love the sound of this GC I have just built!

The slightly longer version is as follows:

I've been listening to the following setup's all day today now:

Cambridge Audio A5 + Celesion 7's (built in pre-amp and such)
GC (CarlosFM LM3886 + CarlosFM regulated snubbered PSU) + Eltax Monitor III's (straight to sound card, using good old Windows for volume)

The GC and my older Eltax speakers sound amazing The bass seems to go deeper, but I wouldn't call it boomy and horrible at all. I like it! The treble also seems much nicer, listening to the same track on the two setups, the GC makes the Cambridge seem quite audibly distorted in the trebley regions! It sounds quite flat in a way I suppose.

I used to have these Eltax speakers (I know, neither set is probably all that good compared to what some people here have!) on the Cambridge, and when I got the Celestions they sounded very similar, only the bass on the new Celestions seemed to go deeper.

I'm shocked, to be quite honest. I'm really loving it! I am honestly not sure that I am going to be able to live with the Cambridge while I build myself a pre-amp for this GC


There is the possibility that the old Eltax speakers are just better, but... I am having a hard time believing that because they sounded so similar on the Cambridge!

[Nuuk]

I'm shocked, to be quite honest. I'm really loving it! I am honestly not sure that I am going to be able to live with the Cambridge while I build myself a pre-amp for this GC

I'm sure many of us on this forum experienced exactly the same thing when we built our forst GC.

There are many suitable pre-amps for the GC, some described here .

[markiemrboo]

Originally posted by Nuuk
I'm sure many of us on this forum experienced exactly the same thing when we built our forst GC.

Quite likely

There are many suitable pre-amps for the GC, some described here .

I have seen these, but I am going for ESP's P88 to start with (and that 555 timer "short the preamp outputs with a relay" circuit on your site somewhere!). I have no doubt that I will try one of the discrete buffers afterwards though, as a first non-opamp discrete project