The two are strongly correlated. I.e. equipment that measures well, generally, sounds better than equipment that measures poorly. This was documented by Harman Kardon and published in a controlled study years ago. You can find links to the studies in this post: Post #79. Harman Kardon's experiments have been replicated by others.
If you want the Readers Digest version, this sums it up nicely: Relationship between Loudspeaker Measurements and Listener Preferences.
~Tom
If you want the Readers Digest version, this sums it up nicely: Relationship between Loudspeaker Measurements and Listener Preferences.
~Tom
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That's a long wait... but I think your patience will be rewarded!
I also built pair of Sympatico along with pair of Modulus for my 3way active speaker project. The plan was to compare them then order my fav for the midranges. I just ordered another pair of Modulus.
Sympatico is warmer, less detailed, but more power, better bass, bigger overall sound due to more gain, more power and less up close presentation. Perfect for my bass drivers. They both sound really good, but the modulus draws me in more than the Symp for the music I like, classical chamber music which enjoys the extra detail and tone texture, so Mod is better for me on SB Satori almighty midrange. The Symp was more fun on rock, pop, produced music, and symphonies where the scale was more important than tone. Symp is well detailed like normal 3886 amp, just not as much as Mod which is abnormally detailed for a chip amp.
I'm glad I have both. I'll use the Symp on the bass drivers and Mods on M/T. I would use Sympatico on full range speakers over the stock 20dB 35W Mod, but 2 bridged Mods @26dBgain would be hard to decide. The choice is detail vs warmth, the age old question. Warmer amp lets you listen to the music and avoid distraction by the sound quality, but the higher detail of Modulus forces attention onto the music, prevents background listening, and allows deeper involvement with music on good recordings.
Anyway, the SQ is very different between the two amps. Choose your poison. I'm glad I have both!
I also built pair of Sympatico along with pair of Modulus for my 3way active speaker project. The plan was to compare them then order my fav for the midranges. I just ordered another pair of Modulus.
Sympatico is warmer, less detailed, but more power, better bass, bigger overall sound due to more gain, more power and less up close presentation. Perfect for my bass drivers. They both sound really good, but the modulus draws me in more than the Symp for the music I like, classical chamber music which enjoys the extra detail and tone texture, so Mod is better for me on SB Satori almighty midrange. The Symp was more fun on rock, pop, produced music, and symphonies where the scale was more important than tone. Symp is well detailed like normal 3886 amp, just not as much as Mod which is abnormally detailed for a chip amp.
I'm glad I have both. I'll use the Symp on the bass drivers and Mods on M/T. I would use Sympatico on full range speakers over the stock 20dB 35W Mod, but 2 bridged Mods @26dBgain would be hard to decide. The choice is detail vs warmth, the age old question. Warmer amp lets you listen to the music and avoid distraction by the sound quality, but the higher detail of Modulus forces attention onto the music, prevents background listening, and allows deeper involvement with music on good recordings.
Anyway, the SQ is very different between the two amps. Choose your poison. I'm glad I have both!
Gosh, you mean that the statement that "all well designed amplifiers sound the same" is wrong?!!The choice is detail vs warmth, the age old question. Warmer amp lets you listen to the music and avoid distraction by the sound quality, but the higher detail of Modulus forces attention onto the music, prevents background listening, and allows deeper involvement with music on good recordings.
Anyway, the SQ is very different between the two amps. Choose your poison. I'm glad I have both!
... or, the Sympatico is not well designed, or, the Modulus is not well designed ... ahhh, all the dilemmas!! Seriously, the Modulus sounds the deal - you're making the right noises about how it comes across, a bit of fine tuning of the overall system should allow for exceptional sound on any recording ...
I think what he's saying is that if you want to extract every bit of detail from the recording, build a Modulus-86.
That lines up with my experience as well. I've had the MOD86 as my daily driver for quite a while now and am still finding new details in my music collection. In particular details on acoustic guitar and other midrange stuff. The MOD86 is very precise but not in your face about it. I perceive more precise bass as less boomy bass, which, to me, is a positive. I'm really enjoying the MOD86 on my Dali 3A (sealed 2-way) speakers. I've tried it on a pair of Mark Audio Alpair 6Ps as well. Me like...
~Tom
That lines up with my experience as well. I've had the MOD86 as my daily driver for quite a while now and am still finding new details in my music collection. In particular details on acoustic guitar and other midrange stuff. The MOD86 is very precise but not in your face about it. I perceive more precise bass as less boomy bass, which, to me, is a positive. I'm really enjoying the MOD86 on my Dali 3A (sealed 2-way) speakers. I've tried it on a pair of Mark Audio Alpair 6Ps as well. Me like...
~Tom
Gosh, you mean that the statement that "all well designed amplifiers sound the same" is wrong?!!
Good one Frank.
I just think it is necessary to understand. This is pretty much what I do whenever I ask someone to help audition a different design. Usually everyone have something of value to contribute, the importance is communication to understand.
The paper material does absorbe some of the detail in the music. It does help filter out some of the annoying problems upstream. If you look throught my posts in the ENABL thread, you can find examples how I clean up sound from alimunimum cones. But there are also other designs in the works trying to improve metal come driver design. The idea is that once signal is lost, you can never properly restore it which is why is try to stay away from material like paper or cloth.
When I'm done with my build, I'll be comparing the NCore 400 to a bridged set of Modulus 86 amps. Given that I have 96 dB sensitive speakers, it should make for an interesting and reasonably fair comparison. My hunch is that for those individuals who don't need the 200 watts/8 ohms the NCore offers, the Modulus 86 should be an excellent choice and be quite economical too.
Best,
Anand.
Best,
Anand.