Sooo just wired up the nc500 to my Monitor Audio PL200. Initial thoughts, they are very similar to my TAG McLaren 60P amplifiers!? Am genuinely surprised as was expecting to hear new things I'd not heard here before
Will let these cook for a while and try more music over the weekend
The TAG 60P are a tad warmer - they cost around the same as these nc500 when new, so how much better does amplification get if these nc400/500 sound as good as £5000.00 amplifiers ...or have we already reached the top of the mountain and differences are marginal hereafter?
I don't regret my purchase but was expecting to be blown away
To be fair, I listened to those new £60,000.00 B&O Active Loudspeakers a month ago at B&O Knightsbridge, Harrods and Selfridges in London...wasn't that impressed either and the treble made my ears bleed...maybe I'm searching for something that doesn't exist
Will let these cook for a while and try more music over the weekend
The TAG 60P are a tad warmer - they cost around the same as these nc500 when new, so how much better does amplification get if these nc400/500 sound as good as £5000.00 amplifiers ...or have we already reached the top of the mountain and differences are marginal hereafter?
I don't regret my purchase but was expecting to be blown away
To be fair, I listened to those new £60,000.00 B&O Active Loudspeakers a month ago at B&O Knightsbridge, Harrods and Selfridges in London...wasn't that impressed either and the treble made my ears bleed...maybe I'm searching for something that doesn't exist
I think that is definitely the case - and has been for a while. Improvements are mostly coming from speakers and room acoustics (either traditional improvement or DSP).
The problem is that audiophile magazines and online forums still go for all the "night and day difference" hyperbole, creating unrealistic expectations.
Lol well they are definitely quite powerful - they are doing what 2 X TAG amps do, on their own.
...and at least I can say that they don't 'sound DIGITAL', they sound as natural as any TAG McLaren amplifier does, so are good amplifiers in my books
There is now the question, infamous question, of Burn In!
...and at least I can say that they don't 'sound DIGITAL', they sound as natural as any TAG McLaren amplifier does, so are good amplifiers in my books
There is now the question, infamous question, of Burn In!
Why should they sound "digital"; there is nothing digital in them.
And by the way what is "digital" supposed to sound like?
I remember that Bruno described the sound of ncore with reference to single ended tube amplification whatever that may be....
Supposed to not have solid state "glare"....
And by the way what is "digital" supposed to sound like?
I remember that Bruno described the sound of ncore with reference to single ended tube amplification whatever that may be....
Supposed to not have solid state "glare"....
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Indeed, that is one of my pet peeves - the totally meaningless audiophile use of the adjectives "analog" and "digital" to describe not a technology, but some obscure characteristic of the sound. Just as a reminder:
digital
- Having to do with digits (fingers or toes); performed with a finger.
- Property of representing values as discrete, usually binary, numbers rather than a continuous spectrum.
- Of or relating to computers or the Information Age.
analog
- (of a device or system) in which the value of a data item (such as time) is represented by a continuous(ly) variable physical quantity that can be measured (such as the shadow of a sundial)
Sooo just wired up the nc500 to my Monitor Audio PL200. Initial thoughts, they are very similar to my TAG McLaren 60P amplifiers!? Am genuinely surprised as was expecting to hear new things I'd not heard here before
Will let these cook for a while and try more music over the weekend
The TAG 60P are a tad warmer - they cost around the same as these nc500 when new, so how much better does amplification get if these nc400/500 sound as good as £5000.00 amplifiers ...or have we already reached the top of the mountain and differences are marginal hereafter?
I don't regret my purchase but was expecting to be blown away
To be fair, I listened to those new £60,000.00 B&O Active Loudspeakers a month ago at B&O Knightsbridge, Harrods and Selfridges in London...wasn't that impressed either and the treble made my ears bleed...maybe I'm searching for something that doesn't exist
I have had 4 amplifiers in the last 3 years and the NC500 is without doubt the best but also the most expensive. In my system with the Burson op amps it is marginally more realistic than before and I believe that yes this is the top of the mountain and its just not worth spending more.
As you know I have some pretty awesome speakers too. Previously I had some Monitor Audio Silver 6s and the difference was not night and day. The Troels Gravesen design is again without doubt very realistic sounding but if I had paid £8000/£9000 I would have thought that I had gained very little.
I bet if you paid 2 or 3 times again you would be pushed to hear a difference. Unless of course they had 10 or 12 inch bass units and there was more bass.
I have never thought of B&O as being the best sound wise just ultra modern looking and the most expensive, also like you I have always found the speakers to be ultra bright along with some other designs from that part of the world.
Sooo just wired up the nc500 to my Monitor Audio PL200. Initial thoughts, they are very similar to my TAG McLaren 60P amplifiers!? Am genuinely surprised as was expecting to hear new things I'd not heard here before
Will let these cook for a while and try more music over the weekend
The TAG 60P are a tad warmer - they cost around the same as these nc500 when new, so how much better does amplification get if these nc400/500 sound as good as £5000.00 amplifiers ...or have we already reached the top of the mountain and differences are marginal hereafter?
I don't regret my purchase but was expecting to be blown away
To be fair, I listened to those new £60,000.00 B&O Active Loudspeakers a month ago at B&O Knightsbridge, Harrods and Selfridges in London...wasn't that impressed either and the treble made my ears bleed...maybe I'm searching for something that doesn't exist
Your amp is never going to be better than your source. A good amp won't polish turds. If you want to be blown away get a decent DAC.
We are both waiting for our John Westlake FDACs which we should get about July this year I am sure this will be a very decent DAC
A DAC definitely gives more possibilities to "tweak" the sound (various filter configurations etc) compared to an amp, it is still nowhere as significant as the speakers and the room.
You definitely have a point with "your amp is never going to be better than your source", but I would actually state it as "your amp is never going to be better than your source material". It is always interesting to look at what kind of stuff the material has been recorded and processed on - and realize that compared to that whole chain, the DACs and amps that we use in our homes have a rather limited role.
But what were your other 4 amplifiers? At least your paying a little more correlated with improved performance.
I do wonder how the NC500 would sound driving my Andra III versus my ageing Krell FPB-200. The guys I chat to who have deployed the Prometheus are running some very nice speakers (e.g. Kev Blade and Aerial Acoustics 7T and up)...
I found the NC500s were a significant improvement on my previous (Arcam) power amps, especially in terms of detail and bass control. The Arcams really had a "sound" and made different preamps sound similar and different DACs sound close to identical.
The NC500s make different preamps and DACs sound really, really different...
Nevertheless the biggest improvement I ever achieved was finding speakers that worked with the constraints of my room, namely ATC SCM19s with an infinite baffle design.
Indeed. And that is the problem with speakers - no matter how many reviews you read, and no matter how much you listen to them at a dealer, you won't know how they sound in your specific room until you try. And sometimes moving house turns speakers that you love into a less than wonderful experience...
Hopefully DSP technology will alleviate that issue a bit.
Hehe I was being facetious about the Digital comment, Class D is not Digital as we know... but read people claiming they sound like digital amps in months gone by
However, I could say thy are clinical (clean) by nature, much like my A/B Tag Amplifiers... there is not a Tubey/Valve treble signature to these as I had hoped and as Julf had pointed out many pages back.
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