I wouldn´t place too much belief in a digital volume control unless I understood exactly how it operates and how it affects sound.
At a costumers who use a sonos as digital source for his converter which then feed his tube amp, I experienced that for the sake of having remote control over the volume, he used the sonos to attenuate the volume. To say the least it didn´t sound convincing but he still appreciated what my speakers brought over his existing. Then I convinced him that it was worth trying to adjust the volume on the amp instead of the sonos by turning the sonos to max and attenuating the volume through the amp knob. This brought to both our surprise a magnificent lift in dynamics, detail, naturalness. I convinced him.
I am not the expert on these devices and guess that they are not all equal, but I prefer to leave the digital to do as little as possible as that is probably how it will do its job best. The sonos probably "removed" bits to adjust volume down (my guess), but the fact was that it degraded the sound significantly.
Personally I still prefer proper active preamps with bulky heavy old school power supplies and find them to make the sound into music -if they work well. More distortion, maybe, more music definitely, if a proper pre is used 🙂
cheers,
At a costumers who use a sonos as digital source for his converter which then feed his tube amp, I experienced that for the sake of having remote control over the volume, he used the sonos to attenuate the volume. To say the least it didn´t sound convincing but he still appreciated what my speakers brought over his existing. Then I convinced him that it was worth trying to adjust the volume on the amp instead of the sonos by turning the sonos to max and attenuating the volume through the amp knob. This brought to both our surprise a magnificent lift in dynamics, detail, naturalness. I convinced him.
I am not the expert on these devices and guess that they are not all equal, but I prefer to leave the digital to do as little as possible as that is probably how it will do its job best. The sonos probably "removed" bits to adjust volume down (my guess), but the fact was that it degraded the sound significantly.
Personally I still prefer proper active preamps with bulky heavy old school power supplies and find them to make the sound into music -if they work well. More distortion, maybe, more music definitely, if a proper pre is used 🙂
cheers,
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Ok I gave it a try. The Vectuer sounded pretty much the same as it always has. Then I switched back to the Ncores and noticed immediately the sound was more holographic and detailed. But it just seems to lack the body and soul of the Vectuer. I'm thinking that maybe the Ncores are more sensitive to the output of the mac mini\dac combo, and it may take having the full un attenuated output level of the DAC, regulated in a different manner to sound it's best. Hopefully my passive attenuator boards from Bent audio will make the difference. If anyone else has some insight, please let me know.
Has anyone found any sound improvements after 100-200 hrs of burn it. I know my DAC completely transformed after burn in. The difference was night and day.
Stig, sorry if this is redundant, but can you outline your entire signal path all the way out to the speakers and any subs you are using, including what you are using for the crossover and what amps you compared to the NCORE on your bass in addition to the UcD? Many thanks for sharing your experience.
(Or that of the Vecteur. I can't seem to find any serious review of it, let alone a measurement report)
Or more likely the sound of the Vecteur..
When you are accustomed to listening to a colored device (whichever device it is) your hearing adjusts to it. For example if you listen to speakers with a deep notch somewhere in the frequency band and then switch to a pair of flat neutral speakers, the latter will be perceived as having too much energy at the frequency where the notch previously was.
What I'd propose is to listen to the ncore amplifiers for a couple of days then switch back to the Vecteur for comparison. Give your ears some time to make the switch.
When you are accustomed to listening to a colored device (whichever device it is) your hearing adjusts to it. For example if you listen to speakers with a deep notch somewhere in the frequency band and then switch to a pair of flat neutral speakers, the latter will be perceived as having too much energy at the frequency where the notch previously was.
What I'd propose is to listen to the ncore amplifiers for a couple of days then switch back to the Vecteur for comparison. Give your ears some time to make the switch.
that's what I meant. I'd be surprised if I found that the Vecteur has low distortion.
I think it's measurable with caps. [joke]oh and with cables, obviously.[/joke]
If you don't want to read my 118 pages long speaker saga, the answer is:
Squeezebox -> computer-based XO -> DAD AX24 -> Ncore -> Speakers
Speakers are:
200 Hz -> B&G RD-75 ribbon, dipole
20-200 Hz Dipole H-frames with Beyma 21" drivers, four per channel, soon to be eight per channel.
I think you guys are right. The sound keeps getting better by the hour. But the vecteur is a great amp. Here's the only current review i can find. It is a 10 year old amp.
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damn it, then connector break in is the major factor.
ok, quote request for a finished case sent to HiFi2000. I'm expecting an astronomical price because of the "NCORE" logo but I'll give that up if it turns so.
balanced in's, vandal switch for power and NCORE logo in a slim (40 mm case).
Regarding enclosures, here you'll find a sexeh looking one sold at a very good price!
This specific enclosure is too big (300x200x142) for a mono build - a rough sketchup model indicates there is room for a dual mono and then some (i.e. 3 or even more channels, depending on arrangement and SMPSs used).
I've asked for more pictures but build quality looks excellent.
I'm also trying to persuade the vendor to provide us with a smaller enclosure to better suit a monoblock build (180x180x100 or something). 🙂
This specific enclosure is too big (300x200x142) for a mono build - a rough sketchup model indicates there is room for a dual mono and then some (i.e. 3 or even more channels, depending on arrangement and SMPSs used).
I've asked for more pictures but build quality looks excellent.
I'm also trying to persuade the vendor to provide us with a smaller enclosure to better suit a monoblock build (180x180x100 or something). 🙂
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