agree and not
well I expected this kind of answers and you are all right. I also agree that these both amps goes loud and quiet without audible distortion and fatigue. They are both light to the ears. but...
oh, yes, i remember my years with the stereo built from technics and aiwa cd player and some yugoslavian EI Nis loudspeakers - I enjoyed music. And remember also the second one- rega kyte speakers, arcam 5+ amp and several CD players (from nad, arcam, marantz, sony, micromega). That system played music. But when the Harman Kardon 620 amp came in just for comparison what it can do, well then again the "phile" bug started to eat. That amp reminds me at the comparison I experienced as I did now with UCD. It opened up the space in music, separated individuals in soundstage and gave pace and rhytm that arcam never achieved. Oh, yes I traded - and missed. After while I started to tame the sound that was obviously a bit to brittle and not homogenic enough that music would play as a whole from the system.
As a musician (flute), painter and digital artist through and through I must all the time deal with colours, forms, time delays in compositions and tonality not mentioning pinnacle details and fragments that accompaigne all the things that once put together they must fit 100% or the result does not vibrate life and magic. It is not true. It is forgettable. And that what is all about, for me of course. I heard UCD400AD in full optimized version that is possible to obtain directly from Hypex (only the transformer was his "idea"). It was much much better then UCD180AD but still things I found were same. And I thought the same - they do not mask anything - they leave bad recordings bad and do not add anything - but if that leads to unemotional tool that is waiting for recording companies to make much better recording so everything will be in its place, then... wait. Like I said, it was much easier to enjoy music as music when I had simple colourful system that did not expect audio industry to make musical CDs but it made them. Like I said I will wait and will not make final conclusion, but as I said my first out of the box impression of the amps was - they do something wrong or they do something that none of the amps did before - but then I am in dee... shi... .
I will audition them again with new CD and some more revealing FR speakers but if I find same mistake then I am glad that again I cannot fool myself.
well I expected this kind of answers and you are all right. I also agree that these both amps goes loud and quiet without audible distortion and fatigue. They are both light to the ears. but...
oh, yes, i remember my years with the stereo built from technics and aiwa cd player and some yugoslavian EI Nis loudspeakers - I enjoyed music. And remember also the second one- rega kyte speakers, arcam 5+ amp and several CD players (from nad, arcam, marantz, sony, micromega). That system played music. But when the Harman Kardon 620 amp came in just for comparison what it can do, well then again the "phile" bug started to eat. That amp reminds me at the comparison I experienced as I did now with UCD. It opened up the space in music, separated individuals in soundstage and gave pace and rhytm that arcam never achieved. Oh, yes I traded - and missed. After while I started to tame the sound that was obviously a bit to brittle and not homogenic enough that music would play as a whole from the system.
As a musician (flute), painter and digital artist through and through I must all the time deal with colours, forms, time delays in compositions and tonality not mentioning pinnacle details and fragments that accompaigne all the things that once put together they must fit 100% or the result does not vibrate life and magic. It is not true. It is forgettable. And that what is all about, for me of course. I heard UCD400AD in full optimized version that is possible to obtain directly from Hypex (only the transformer was his "idea"). It was much much better then UCD180AD but still things I found were same. And I thought the same - they do not mask anything - they leave bad recordings bad and do not add anything - but if that leads to unemotional tool that is waiting for recording companies to make much better recording so everything will be in its place, then... wait. Like I said, it was much easier to enjoy music as music when I had simple colourful system that did not expect audio industry to make musical CDs but it made them. Like I said I will wait and will not make final conclusion, but as I said my first out of the box impression of the amps was - they do something wrong or they do something that none of the amps did before - but then I am in dee... shi... .
I will audition them again with new CD and some more revealing FR speakers but if I find same mistake then I am glad that again I cannot fool myself.
very interresting reply T11
i didn't considered this side of the coin as the speakers i designed (active computer controlled X-over with digital amps built in) are my production tool . I listen music on theses, but after all, i settled with my love of the most unforgiving sound possible a long time ago.
I understand through your post that this is not the only way to appreciate an hifi system though
thanks !
i didn't considered this side of the coin as the speakers i designed (active computer controlled X-over with digital amps built in) are my production tool . I listen music on theses, but after all, i settled with my love of the most unforgiving sound possible a long time ago.
I understand through your post that this is not the only way to appreciate an hifi system though
thanks !
Nemophyle said:
Perfect Nemophyle - absolutely perfect!
I could frame your statements and put them on my wall.
Well with a little editing 🙂
Hi T11.
As a first impression of it your review is good, as a final commentary on the technology as a whole it seems to hold little value.
I take issue with your review on a few grounds. You gave really no meaningful detail at all on your setup of the amplifier, just that whoever set it up has previous experience with other amps, does it in the blink of an eye, and supposedly deals Hypex parts locally.
To me that means very little effort went into doing it right, likely done with a wide profit margin in mind (cheapest possible parts) and so on.
We know you had a less than ideal transformer, what made it so, you didn't really say why you thought that, but that's enough to kill an amp from sounding as musical as possible. You seemed to hint at mechanical hum, that could mean alot of DC on your AC line, I'd imagine that could lessen the musicality of it somehow. It could mean a few other things as well and non equate to good sound.
I'm sure if you disclosed more specifics about the implementation more non idealities could be pointed out. For all I know it could be a 10 dollar supply, parts and labour.
Further, while you've tried the AD models, I wouldn't say they're at all modified, they simply use a better op amp. Was the module even given time to break in that electrolytic coupling cap?
Lack of 3D? Lifeless? That tells me you have work left to do on it.
In stock form it can be very musical if all is done right, if not it can sound as you've described. That's a matter of implementation entirely based on my experience, and I've seen it happen in mine, one wire changed places and it went from an empty feeling to "wow" musical and full of life. Once you've achieved musicality out of them in stock format you're still free to take it a step further and modify them.
Maybe all you need to wait for is someone who knows how to wire it properly or is at least willing to put the time and effort into doing it right. With this kind of thing saying it's been wired in a flash is unimpressive when the final review sounds like it does, and we know it's a very capable module.
Best regards,
Chris
As a first impression of it your review is good, as a final commentary on the technology as a whole it seems to hold little value.
I take issue with your review on a few grounds. You gave really no meaningful detail at all on your setup of the amplifier, just that whoever set it up has previous experience with other amps, does it in the blink of an eye, and supposedly deals Hypex parts locally.
To me that means very little effort went into doing it right, likely done with a wide profit margin in mind (cheapest possible parts) and so on.
We know you had a less than ideal transformer, what made it so, you didn't really say why you thought that, but that's enough to kill an amp from sounding as musical as possible. You seemed to hint at mechanical hum, that could mean alot of DC on your AC line, I'd imagine that could lessen the musicality of it somehow. It could mean a few other things as well and non equate to good sound.
I'm sure if you disclosed more specifics about the implementation more non idealities could be pointed out. For all I know it could be a 10 dollar supply, parts and labour.
Further, while you've tried the AD models, I wouldn't say they're at all modified, they simply use a better op amp. Was the module even given time to break in that electrolytic coupling cap?
Lack of 3D? Lifeless? That tells me you have work left to do on it.
In stock form it can be very musical if all is done right, if not it can sound as you've described. That's a matter of implementation entirely based on my experience, and I've seen it happen in mine, one wire changed places and it went from an empty feeling to "wow" musical and full of life. Once you've achieved musicality out of them in stock format you're still free to take it a step further and modify them.
Maybe all you need to wait for is someone who knows how to wire it properly or is at least willing to put the time and effort into doing it right. With this kind of thing saying it's been wired in a flash is unimpressive when the final review sounds like it does, and we know it's a very capable module.
Best regards,
Chris
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