Hi,
I am an absolute novice and I'd appreciate some advice. I recently found out about chip amps and they looked interesting to me because I read that they were relatively easy to modify. I bought a sonic impact 5066 which came with a power adaptor and plugged it in to my computer via an m-audio delta 44 soundcard and ran it to a pair of klipsch F-10's. It sounded surprisingly good. I had read that the bass response was weak but I didn't hear that. The bass was there but it was loose (not tight) and seemed to wash over some of the other frequencies. My nad 3020 had much nicer bass and better spacial separation (I know that there is a more accurate term that you audiophiles use, but I can't think of it right now). My hafler dh-110 and p1500 have bass that's at least as good as the nad and the spacial separation sounds better than the nad (to my ears). I have a mcintosh c-24 coming around Christmas time that I can run with one of my two hafler amps. I realize that the sonic impact 5066 was the first one of it's kind and I'm sure these chip amps have improved but in your experience, do any of them sound as good as the haflers, nad or mcintosh? I ask because I'd like get into some diy projects but maybe my time is better spent learning to recap and update some of my existing gear. If I go with the solid state gear I'd eventually like to build a preamp with only one input and no tone controls. Almost all of my music is on flac files in the computer so I can easily use software eq and single input wouldn't bother me. Anyway, I'd be interested in what people think would sound the best.
Thanks for your time,
Arthur
I am an absolute novice and I'd appreciate some advice. I recently found out about chip amps and they looked interesting to me because I read that they were relatively easy to modify. I bought a sonic impact 5066 which came with a power adaptor and plugged it in to my computer via an m-audio delta 44 soundcard and ran it to a pair of klipsch F-10's. It sounded surprisingly good. I had read that the bass response was weak but I didn't hear that. The bass was there but it was loose (not tight) and seemed to wash over some of the other frequencies. My nad 3020 had much nicer bass and better spacial separation (I know that there is a more accurate term that you audiophiles use, but I can't think of it right now). My hafler dh-110 and p1500 have bass that's at least as good as the nad and the spacial separation sounds better than the nad (to my ears). I have a mcintosh c-24 coming around Christmas time that I can run with one of my two hafler amps. I realize that the sonic impact 5066 was the first one of it's kind and I'm sure these chip amps have improved but in your experience, do any of them sound as good as the haflers, nad or mcintosh? I ask because I'd like get into some diy projects but maybe my time is better spent learning to recap and update some of my existing gear. If I go with the solid state gear I'd eventually like to build a preamp with only one input and no tone controls. Almost all of my music is on flac files in the computer so I can easily use software eq and single input wouldn't bother me. Anyway, I'd be interested in what people think would sound the best.
Thanks for your time,
Arthur