@Mark Johnson Thanks for IPS9! I'll be ordering boards for Milpitas as I am sure many others will be doing.
With the kind blessings of @Mark Johnson I am offering up Milpitas boards at cost. I ordered 50 today for less than it cost to have them shipped. The total cost was $28.70 which turns out to be $1.15/pair including DHL shipping. I expect them to arrive in 7-10 days or sooner. I will be willing to mail them out to forum members for cost of boards plus cost of postage including materials (eg mailers). I am disinclined to ship out of the USA since it probably costs more than you ordering boards printed and mailed to you, but I will consider it.
The boards are green and are exactly what Mark Johnson's Gerbers described. Many thanks to Mark for another innovative board for the M2X. I am really looking forward to hearing the "wow" of IPS9.
If you want to reserve some boards send me a PM with your shipping address in a format that I can cut and paste, and your desired shipping method (USPS Priority mail, USPS First Class, UPS, or Fedex). I will let you know you the exact charges and when you PayPal me the cost, I'll drop them in the mail to you. If you choose a prepaid mailer option it makes it easier for me. That said, "First Class letter" is the least inexpensive way to ship a couple of boards.
Sorry @potepuh, I don't have any M2X boards but the store does: https://diyaudiostore.com/collections/power-amplifier/products/m2x
Audiobear
The boards are green and are exactly what Mark Johnson's Gerbers described. Many thanks to Mark for another innovative board for the M2X. I am really looking forward to hearing the "wow" of IPS9.
If you want to reserve some boards send me a PM with your shipping address in a format that I can cut and paste, and your desired shipping method (USPS Priority mail, USPS First Class, UPS, or Fedex). I will let you know you the exact charges and when you PayPal me the cost, I'll drop them in the mail to you. If you choose a prepaid mailer option it makes it easier for me. That said, "First Class letter" is the least inexpensive way to ship a couple of boards.
Sorry @potepuh, I don't have any M2X boards but the store does: https://diyaudiostore.com/collections/power-amplifier/products/m2x
Audiobear
When Mark put up the message seeking reviewers, I raised my hand because, well, an opportunity to listen to another variant of daughter-card buffer in the M2X is not to be passed up. I also met with the type of reviewer he was seeking: Love the M2X, had the time to give it a serious listen, could reply back in a timely fashion, and could keep my mouth shut until he decided to release the beastie.
I also enjoy writing (as you'll see below) and wanted to take a shot at doing a subjective high end audio magazine-style review, taking notes and everything, and coming up with clever quips and following sonic flights of fancy.
The below is what I sent to Mark. I ramble on, but I sure had fun rambling on. The good stuff is right up front, getting into more details as I went along.
Of course he had to go an name IPS9 Milpitas so my cutesy IpsyNine moniker is out the window. But Millie... hmm...
----------------------
Bottom line:
Thumbs up, yes.
Brief sonic summary:
Detailed, tonal balance towards the upper range, puts things in very locked-in spaces, doesn't have much air around those things, and struggles to reveal and articulate bass instruments (electric bass, kick drum, rhythm section). This sounds critical, but it is not; it is wine tasting. Not that I ever drink wine. Gin and bourbon, thanks.
Thoughtful summary:
IPS9 is exciting, but achieves that by being forward. It is detailed at the expense of dynamic range (headroom?) and with a tonal balance weighted towards the upper end. It pointed out to me things in recordings that, when I listened again with Ishikawa, were there, and were more natural in presentation in the Ishikawa, but the IpsyNine helped me find them first. It seemed to compress on busy sections, losing ability to track the characters of individual instruments, especially electric bass- the tone of the pluck, the roundness of the sound, hard to find finger-vibrato I know is there in electric bass playing.
And with that, my listening notes and observations through the week. Text in italics are song titles and my notes while listening:
Monday evening.
With the amp fully warmed up, I pretty much went through the play list detailed in a section below with the Ishikawa, and then did it again with IpsyNine. Let's pick up when I switched in IPS9:
IPS9 locks sources down to specific locations. "It's over here. Right here." For example, on Imelda's Call Me, the first track I played through it, the initial three-seconds-in gut reaction was Hell yes! My notes say things are much more focused. Electric guitar left, acoustic right, Imelda center. Drags of the brushes on the snare are self-evident. Sounds do come out of a silent background, but it has to break through that silence and in doing so it loses space around the source, be that a vocal in a room, an acoustic guitar. More about Imelda, but less space… bass thump tighter… more articulation on the electric guitar solo, but honky/compressed when a lot was going on. Moving on to Ribot's Aurora, some notes: overtones!... Dynamics of fingerstyle playing… Bongo much more detailed… Wooden tone block, it struggled to show the reverb around it. After these two songs, Initial impressions are all positive, though clearly in the more detailed, pointed sense. Will it stand up to hours of listening or will it be too sharp?
Dynamics seemed to compress, affecting timbre. Tears for Fears, Woman in chains I found to be not as micro-dynamic. The cymbals that go ft-t-t-t-t aren't as open, as far into the room. They don't sound as metallic; they are more muted. About a half hour into listening, I have a note: maybe not. It's not everything, there are trade-offs. When stuff happens, seems compressed. From Bad Man's Song, which opens with a series of kick-drums then adds in piano, electric bass, electric guitar as the band "tunes up" for a "one, two, three four!" Kick is BOOM! Congestion… it lets go of the air when compressed. I'm used to individual instruments bringing their own dynamics while everything is at eleven. Ipsy seems to put everything at eleven.
But without a lot of things happening, without business, on to Monk's Blue Monk, and now it's foot stomping from foot tapping. His pressure on the keys; overtones again. So it handled a piano in a big space quite well. Epistrophy had me noticing mics are more merged, integrated. Soundstage not as wide. Onto Art Blakey's drum solos, Not as much body, bass in Art's hi-hats; not as much foot in it. It's there, it has space, but not as much heft to it… it doesn't punch as much.
Rhythm section, when kick drum and bass player work together, Queen's All Dead, All Dead was great Deacon and Taylor are swinging it along, percussive. Steely Dan's Babylon Sister got this reaction from me, The room! Drummer's rolls, organ, Fagen's in and out articulation… swelling sax as background singers' "tell me I'm the only one" was fading out. Again, it seems that if the mix doesn't get busy, we've got detail and strength, but if it does, compression.
Tuesday evening.
On Tuesday evening I went with IPS9 first and then to Ishikawa. With a warmed up amp (Super Mario brothers has some great sonics, by the way, and is a treat of a way to spend time warming an amp), let's see what 24 hours and IPS9 playing leadoff hitter has to offer.
Some free listening, Alan Parson's Project Prime Time: Background vocals have their own space. Kate Bush, Snowflake from 50 Words for Snow, made this impression: doing a good job with the bass impact. Not quite as much space around things, but lots of detail.
Back to the playlist. Imelda: Powerful, isolated, controlled the bass. Ribot, Aurora, I could tell when he switched on the tremolo… the musicians performing… but electric bass was out of control, taking over. Beatles, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Not as much emotion. Bonus Beatles Love track, Because, led me to not enough room, not able to follow individual voices, birds panned but no soundstage depth.
Which is a great back-to-back comparison.
So I put the Ishikawa in at this point and with Because- much bigger soundstage, hints. More emphasis on the voices, throats. Always the noise floor rumble from the venue it was recorded in. Things don't break out of darkness; they're already there. An working through While My Guitar, Ishikawa notes said much more percussive acoustic… weeping violins at 1:35… there's space around things. Ribot, Aurora much more twang in his electric… Not only do you hear him engaging the tremolo effect, but adjusting it. At 2:18, Electric bass in control, can hear its tone, bass amplification. And so on, with notes like timbre, dynamic range, no compression… when a lot is happening, there's always room for another layer, doing its own thing. So there you have it, my ears prefer the Ishikawa.
Wednesday
What about Tucson? I spent an hour listening to IpsyNine. Some of the play list and some free listenting, which took me Rush's The Weapon from Signals, which opens with Neil Peart on the kick drum as the mix brings up its volume, and then Alex Lifeson comes in with some arpeggiated chords around it. Toms, cymbal crashes. Nothing new to add here; my impressions were reinforced: strong bass, detail, but compresses when the full rush happens. And so on to Tucson, which is apparently kind of a muffled place. Relative to IpsyNine, I found much less dynamic range. No distortion, but no air, nothing breaking through… there's nothing around the instruments.
And so, my limited-exposure Daughter Card pecking order:
Of the three I have, it's Ishy first, IspyNine second, and Tucson a distant third. For me, IpsyNine brings a more analytical nature to the M2. I could happily have the combo as my only amp and do serious listening for weeks on end. I am curious how other reviewers' impressions compare with mine. Hopefully, some consistency. Otherwise I'm just not as perceptive as I hope I am. To me, this his is wine tasting. The differences are of one's taste buds and ears. White wine with fish and chicken, red with beef. What? There's more than one kind of red wine? And hundreds of variations of those from different parts of the world? Well, at least Bourbon all comes from Kentucky.
I must try to make Norwegian Wood good again. It was my first real attempt at surface mount and it failed. I haven't even attempted to see what I did wrong. For another day.
Observation:
How in the world can such a simple portion of a larger circuit, a buffer, who's main-gain job is to first do no harm and then do nothing: "just output what you input, pal", have such a broad set of effects, especially here in what is, arguably, such a "slow" band of an AC signal spectrum. I mean, we're not broadcasting in mega or giga hertz. It floors me. And yet on my F5, which uses basically the same fets in the same architecture, though taking from the drain rather than the source-follow (am I getting that right?), the paralleled RV1 on its source resistors radically alters its sonic signature by adjusting its 2nd vs 3rd order harmonic distortion.
And that's my sonic impressions if Ipsy, Ishi, and Jo Jo from Tucson in the M2X. The rest of this describes how I listened, what I listened to, gear talk, etc. I like writing and listening. What a great opportunity!
Listening methodology:
While hardly scientific, I tried to be consistent with conditions, system, volume and the music played. I took subjective notes along the way like I was working for Stereophile or something. I've never really tried that before. I learned a bit about that method as I went along and did have a few "wait a second" moments where I went back to the previous night's notes and was able to re-affirm something I'd heard, or come across multiple impressions of the same experience with different songs. So there is some value to subjective listening with a martini in hand. Martini optional.
System:
Guys like to talk about their gear. DIY Audio guys like to make their gear. Real DIY Audio guys like Mark Johnson actually engineer their gear. I hope to get there some day. Right now I like to think of myself as an audio electronics mechanic, sweeping the shop and studying at night and putting my own pony car up on the lift when the shop is closed. But what I've learned over the last year enables me to look at a schematic and recognize the fundamental architectures of a circuit. Stuff there was never time for in high school or college, even though basic electronics was part of engineering physics. What a hobby!
Muh gear and the listening chain:
Conditions
Here's the musical obstacle course, which has accumulated through the years of listening to music and equipment, some standouts that I enjoy for the music, the recording-engineering, the challenges and rewards they present to critical listening sessions with new stereo equipment.
Songs to listen to:
Mark,
If you've read his far, congratulations and thanks for putting up with me. More importantly, thanks for including me in the chance to listen to another buffer in this M2 amp that I love, and which has inspired me to trust in transformer-based efforts such as the F6 and Zen Mod's Iron Pre. I'm in this hobby from a lifetime of love of stereos, as well as a diy attitude to many things, especially fixing cars, motorcycles, bicycles, appliances. The DIYAudio community plus many other sources on YouTube have helped me gain much more of an understanding of how the electronics I love work, and in my journey I hope to get to the point of engineering my own. Sure, simple ones at first, but then hopefully taking all earned knowledge and making an amp I can call my own. I've learned a lot just from your M2X buffer designs.
Happy listening,
Dennis
I also enjoy writing (as you'll see below) and wanted to take a shot at doing a subjective high end audio magazine-style review, taking notes and everything, and coming up with clever quips and following sonic flights of fancy.
The below is what I sent to Mark. I ramble on, but I sure had fun rambling on. The good stuff is right up front, getting into more details as I went along.
Of course he had to go an name IPS9 Milpitas so my cutesy IpsyNine moniker is out the window. But Millie... hmm...
----------------------
Bottom line:
Thumbs up, yes.
Brief sonic summary:
Detailed, tonal balance towards the upper range, puts things in very locked-in spaces, doesn't have much air around those things, and struggles to reveal and articulate bass instruments (electric bass, kick drum, rhythm section). This sounds critical, but it is not; it is wine tasting. Not that I ever drink wine. Gin and bourbon, thanks.
Thoughtful summary:
IPS9 is exciting, but achieves that by being forward. It is detailed at the expense of dynamic range (headroom?) and with a tonal balance weighted towards the upper end. It pointed out to me things in recordings that, when I listened again with Ishikawa, were there, and were more natural in presentation in the Ishikawa, but the IpsyNine helped me find them first. It seemed to compress on busy sections, losing ability to track the characters of individual instruments, especially electric bass- the tone of the pluck, the roundness of the sound, hard to find finger-vibrato I know is there in electric bass playing.
And with that, my listening notes and observations through the week. Text in italics are song titles and my notes while listening:
Monday evening.
With the amp fully warmed up, I pretty much went through the play list detailed in a section below with the Ishikawa, and then did it again with IpsyNine. Let's pick up when I switched in IPS9:
IPS9 locks sources down to specific locations. "It's over here. Right here." For example, on Imelda's Call Me, the first track I played through it, the initial three-seconds-in gut reaction was Hell yes! My notes say things are much more focused. Electric guitar left, acoustic right, Imelda center. Drags of the brushes on the snare are self-evident. Sounds do come out of a silent background, but it has to break through that silence and in doing so it loses space around the source, be that a vocal in a room, an acoustic guitar. More about Imelda, but less space… bass thump tighter… more articulation on the electric guitar solo, but honky/compressed when a lot was going on. Moving on to Ribot's Aurora, some notes: overtones!... Dynamics of fingerstyle playing… Bongo much more detailed… Wooden tone block, it struggled to show the reverb around it. After these two songs, Initial impressions are all positive, though clearly in the more detailed, pointed sense. Will it stand up to hours of listening or will it be too sharp?
Dynamics seemed to compress, affecting timbre. Tears for Fears, Woman in chains I found to be not as micro-dynamic. The cymbals that go ft-t-t-t-t aren't as open, as far into the room. They don't sound as metallic; they are more muted. About a half hour into listening, I have a note: maybe not. It's not everything, there are trade-offs. When stuff happens, seems compressed. From Bad Man's Song, which opens with a series of kick-drums then adds in piano, electric bass, electric guitar as the band "tunes up" for a "one, two, three four!" Kick is BOOM! Congestion… it lets go of the air when compressed. I'm used to individual instruments bringing their own dynamics while everything is at eleven. Ipsy seems to put everything at eleven.
But without a lot of things happening, without business, on to Monk's Blue Monk, and now it's foot stomping from foot tapping. His pressure on the keys; overtones again. So it handled a piano in a big space quite well. Epistrophy had me noticing mics are more merged, integrated. Soundstage not as wide. Onto Art Blakey's drum solos, Not as much body, bass in Art's hi-hats; not as much foot in it. It's there, it has space, but not as much heft to it… it doesn't punch as much.
Rhythm section, when kick drum and bass player work together, Queen's All Dead, All Dead was great Deacon and Taylor are swinging it along, percussive. Steely Dan's Babylon Sister got this reaction from me, The room! Drummer's rolls, organ, Fagen's in and out articulation… swelling sax as background singers' "tell me I'm the only one" was fading out. Again, it seems that if the mix doesn't get busy, we've got detail and strength, but if it does, compression.
Tuesday evening.
On Tuesday evening I went with IPS9 first and then to Ishikawa. With a warmed up amp (Super Mario brothers has some great sonics, by the way, and is a treat of a way to spend time warming an amp), let's see what 24 hours and IPS9 playing leadoff hitter has to offer.
Some free listening, Alan Parson's Project Prime Time: Background vocals have their own space. Kate Bush, Snowflake from 50 Words for Snow, made this impression: doing a good job with the bass impact. Not quite as much space around things, but lots of detail.
Back to the playlist. Imelda: Powerful, isolated, controlled the bass. Ribot, Aurora, I could tell when he switched on the tremolo… the musicians performing… but electric bass was out of control, taking over. Beatles, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Not as much emotion. Bonus Beatles Love track, Because, led me to not enough room, not able to follow individual voices, birds panned but no soundstage depth.
Which is a great back-to-back comparison.
So I put the Ishikawa in at this point and with Because- much bigger soundstage, hints. More emphasis on the voices, throats. Always the noise floor rumble from the venue it was recorded in. Things don't break out of darkness; they're already there. An working through While My Guitar, Ishikawa notes said much more percussive acoustic… weeping violins at 1:35… there's space around things. Ribot, Aurora much more twang in his electric… Not only do you hear him engaging the tremolo effect, but adjusting it. At 2:18, Electric bass in control, can hear its tone, bass amplification. And so on, with notes like timbre, dynamic range, no compression… when a lot is happening, there's always room for another layer, doing its own thing. So there you have it, my ears prefer the Ishikawa.
Wednesday
What about Tucson? I spent an hour listening to IpsyNine. Some of the play list and some free listenting, which took me Rush's The Weapon from Signals, which opens with Neil Peart on the kick drum as the mix brings up its volume, and then Alex Lifeson comes in with some arpeggiated chords around it. Toms, cymbal crashes. Nothing new to add here; my impressions were reinforced: strong bass, detail, but compresses when the full rush happens. And so on to Tucson, which is apparently kind of a muffled place. Relative to IpsyNine, I found much less dynamic range. No distortion, but no air, nothing breaking through… there's nothing around the instruments.
And so, my limited-exposure Daughter Card pecking order:
Of the three I have, it's Ishy first, IspyNine second, and Tucson a distant third. For me, IpsyNine brings a more analytical nature to the M2. I could happily have the combo as my only amp and do serious listening for weeks on end. I am curious how other reviewers' impressions compare with mine. Hopefully, some consistency. Otherwise I'm just not as perceptive as I hope I am. To me, this his is wine tasting. The differences are of one's taste buds and ears. White wine with fish and chicken, red with beef. What? There's more than one kind of red wine? And hundreds of variations of those from different parts of the world? Well, at least Bourbon all comes from Kentucky.
I must try to make Norwegian Wood good again. It was my first real attempt at surface mount and it failed. I haven't even attempted to see what I did wrong. For another day.
Observation:
How in the world can such a simple portion of a larger circuit, a buffer, who's main-gain job is to first do no harm and then do nothing: "just output what you input, pal", have such a broad set of effects, especially here in what is, arguably, such a "slow" band of an AC signal spectrum. I mean, we're not broadcasting in mega or giga hertz. It floors me. And yet on my F5, which uses basically the same fets in the same architecture, though taking from the drain rather than the source-follow (am I getting that right?), the paralleled RV1 on its source resistors radically alters its sonic signature by adjusting its 2nd vs 3rd order harmonic distortion.
And that's my sonic impressions if Ipsy, Ishi, and Jo Jo from Tucson in the M2X. The rest of this describes how I listened, what I listened to, gear talk, etc. I like writing and listening. What a great opportunity!
Listening methodology:
While hardly scientific, I tried to be consistent with conditions, system, volume and the music played. I took subjective notes along the way like I was working for Stereophile or something. I've never really tried that before. I learned a bit about that method as I went along and did have a few "wait a second" moments where I went back to the previous night's notes and was able to re-affirm something I'd heard, or come across multiple impressions of the same experience with different songs. So there is some value to subjective listening with a martini in hand. Martini optional.
System:
Guys like to talk about their gear. DIY Audio guys like to make their gear. Real DIY Audio guys like Mark Johnson actually engineer their gear. I hope to get there some day. Right now I like to think of myself as an audio electronics mechanic, sweeping the shop and studying at night and putting my own pony car up on the lift when the shop is closed. But what I've learned over the last year enables me to look at a schematic and recognize the fundamental architectures of a circuit. Stuff there was never time for in high school or college, even though basic electronics was part of engineering physics. What a hobby!
Muh gear and the listening chain:
- Amazon Music streaming service (really! Seriously, it's fine) high def
- Through television optical out
- DacMagic 100 (16bit, 44k from the tele)
- Zen's Balanced Iron Pre, using only single ended inputs and outputs, though it is constructed in a dual-mono power supply, one doughnut per channel.
- M2X and her daughters Ishi, Jojo from Tucson, and of course IpsyNine.
- My Ishy does not have RV1 (200R Pot), but does have C1 output cap. You can make more out of that than I can.
- Signal to noise transducers by HSU: HB1 Mk2, bookshelves with a 6" woofer and a controlled-directivity horn. 91db sensitivity. Timbre and soundstage width, depth are astonishing to me. Paired with HSU VTF2-Mk5 12" sub via high level inputs (basically wired in parallel with the bookshelves)
- Martini (Sapphire, olives, no vermouth)
- But in seat
- Ears
Conditions
- Gave the amp an hour to warm up while doing other chores or playing Super Mario Brothers. You know, important stuff
- The room's baseline noise level, as measured with whatever that dB-meter app is I have on my phone (Science!), was 24dB
- Most listening was around the 70dB level as measured standing about a yard from a speaker, phone in one hand and aforementioned martini in the other. This translated to about 67dB at my isocolean listening position about 10 feet from the speakers. This is actually louder than I usually run. Even when I crank up Eddie's Eruption, I don't really get to 80dB. My long-haired 80s self just stands there, shaking his head in disbelief as to what has become of the kid who heard ringing for two days after that Stryper concert at Boston's the Channel in '86. That show wised me up. I'm all ear plugs on the motorcycle or working with power tools. Even long drives. As a result, my ears are pretty darned good for a man in his mid-fifties; I can enjoy the fruit of my audio labors.
- Monday: an hour of Ishi followed by an hour of IpsyNine, through the list
- Tuesday I reversed the order: an hour of IpsyNine followed by an hour of Ishi.
- Wednesday: IpsyNine open listening night, just enjoying whatever music tickled my fancy
- Thursday: IpsyNine for an hour, and then I JoJo from Tucson
Here's the musical obstacle course, which has accumulated through the years of listening to music and equipment, some standouts that I enjoy for the music, the recording-engineering, the challenges and rewards they present to critical listening sessions with new stereo equipment.
Songs to listen to:
- Call Me, Imelda May
- Here Imelda steps away from her typical jump-and-jive coquettish fun to a bluesy and emotional number. Acoustic right, Electric left, brushes on the snare, electric bass, and her plaintive wail.
- Aurora en Pekin, Marc Ribot
- Starts with Marc's hollow body and builds steadily throughout, adding in a tone block right, bongos left, electric bass. The groups is playing live together and feeds and swells.
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Beatles, Love, track 22
- The Cirque de Soleil Las Vegas show covering almost the whole Beatles catalog mixed very cleverly together is an audiophile's delite. The opening track is the lads singing the harmonies of "Because" from Abby Road in some kind of stone belfry. An absolute challenge for stereos. But it's George's acoustic guitar and his voice in While My Guitar Gently Weeps that reveals what a system (or just a buffer) does with the signal.
- Woman in Chains, Bad Man's Song, Tears for Fears
- I mean, this is listening to stereo stuff, and what better test of dynamics than these first two tracks from Sowing the Seeds of Love? After 30 years, my wife is sick of hearing them.
- Thelonious Monk:
- Ruby, My Dear, Alonein San Francisco: Piano is the ultimate test. Here's Monk, solo, in a room, and we get to hear his mumbling and foot stomping out the time. Different amps do their best to showcase how hard he's leaning on the keys.
- Epistrophy, Monks Music, The Thelonious Monk Septet: Apparently the first stereo recording in the label's studio in 1957, they had a fully separate stereo recording set (mics and all) from the mono recording. Incredibly dynamic, It's fun to hear the engineers scramble to turn mics up and down during tracks, and hear the bleed through of… Art Blakey's cymbals as Coltrane comes on or goes off. That and Art's two solos show a system's dynamic range and timbre. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monk's_Music
- All Dead, All Dead Queen
- I like harmonies, especially male harmonies in Rock. Oh, and guitar too. And piano. All Dead, All Dead combines all of the above, going from heavy reverb on the piano to very dry lead vocal not by Freddie but by Brian May. Bass-n-drums rock and roll rhythm section. Big, bad, bawdy, bombastic Queen really did a great job in the studios from album one.
- The Flat Earth, Thomas Dolby
- In spite of his quirky "Blinded Me with Science" hit in 83, Thomas has had an interesting entrepreneurial music and music/recording technology career, with five or six great albums. In 1990 or 91, as a spry 22 year old wishing I could afford to build a speaker, I attended a seminar he put on for about 50 people where he showed how he now used his Apple Macintosh to do digital music editing, zooming in on a wavelength from one of his songs, marking, cutting, and pasting, thereby rearranging two lines. Mind blown.
- The Flat earth combines sound effects, broad pans left and right, and electric bass, synths and background vocals. Has always been a favorite.
- Babylon Sisters, Steely Dan
- Also in the "how can you evaluate a piece of stereo equipment without listening to" category
- My wife is also sick of hearing them.
- Replay Call Me and Aurora to be fresh.
- After exploring these songs, I played the first two again so that after a switch of daughter card, they'd be fresh in my mind.
Mark,
If you've read his far, congratulations and thanks for putting up with me. More importantly, thanks for including me in the chance to listen to another buffer in this M2 amp that I love, and which has inspired me to trust in transformer-based efforts such as the F6 and Zen Mod's Iron Pre. I'm in this hobby from a lifetime of love of stereos, as well as a diy attitude to many things, especially fixing cars, motorcycles, bicycles, appliances. The DIYAudio community plus many other sources on YouTube have helped me gain much more of an understanding of how the electronics I love work, and in my journey I hope to get to the point of engineering my own. Sure, simple ones at first, but then hopefully taking all earned knowledge and making an amp I can call my own. I've learned a lot just from your M2X buffer designs.
Happy listening,
Dennis
Belt and suspenders. I've PM'd and now replied for one to two pr. paid for by best/easiest method for Audiobear.
I'm not sure I understand the question. They're a bookshelf two way, ported woofer, directivity-controlled horn. Is that what you were asking?
What a big-hearted and generous thing to do! Thank you for your benevolence and kindness.
Inspired by your discovery of super-cheap prices, I placed a PCB order too. I bought 20 IPS7 boards, plus 20 Cedarburg (IPS8) boards, plus 20 Milpitas (IPS9) boards, in various not-green colors of the rainbow, for $35.06 plus shipping. Fab charges $2 extra for nongreen boards but I'm a big spender as you can see. I like to always keep a supply on hand because I enjoy sending out M2x IPS boards as little thank-you gifts when someone does me a big favor. These sixty boards ought to be plenty enough to last at least until Thanksgiving (a US holiday in late November).
Since my review is quite different, less formal, different circumstance, perspective than Toadroller, I think it’s worthwhile to share too. Here it is as I sent to Mark:
Mark,
My wife walks in without knowing a change was made, says: “did you make a change to the system? It sounds so lifelike!”
Thanks, Mark, for this opportunity. I’ve had great few days with the IPS9 and plan to continue listening to the daughterboard. It has replaced the Ishikawa in my system. I did finish the Norwood, and am curious to see how that one sounds compared to the IPS9 but will keep playing the IPS9 for the next while. I wanted to wait before sharing my thoughts to be sure of my opinion. I’ve been playing the IPS9 continuously since Tuesday and feel that it is beginning to show what it’s capable of and because of that, I’m feeling confident my opinion wont change much from where it is now.
As you know, I’ve been listening to a dual mono M2X with the Ishikawa daughter board exclusively since last fall. All my notes are based on that being my reference. My source is a mix between lossless streaming and vinyl. I control volume with a TVC with an added inline 1:5 edcore transformer. The whole idea is that I want a super clean sounding system because i like to listen to as close the source as possible. I also find it improves low level listening.
I’ve been listening to the amp under a variety of conditions that represent all the ways I typically listen to the amp and tried to take note of what circumstance at the time is associated with my thoughts. Overall, I am really enjoying this amp. I don’t think that I will be removing it from my system anytime soon I’m looking forward to hearing how the sound changes as it breaks in or opens up. My first impressions of IPS9 after changing from the Ishikawa daughter board are this:
*my first impressions haven’t changed, except where noted.
-Very Transparent - this was the most obvious difference and was quite surprising. I was not expecting the drastic change here. This transparency was even more obvious when playing vinyl. My cartridge and phono stage are known to be very clean sounding (Ortifon Black cartridge and Trichord Diablo phono stage).
-Much wider soundstage - The IPS9 cast the sound stage beyond the width of my speakers and cast it forward of my speakers where the Ishikawa held the sound quite close to the speakers and not too wide.
-More space between sounds - it was like time slowed down and I could hear each sound in isolation rather each sound blurring into the next.
-Overall Laid back sounding - casual (in the good way). Showed Full control over difficult electro Jazz recordings. Symphony music was effortless.
-Bass is more nuanced and controlled - still lively.
-Lifelike mids - I can’t emphasize this enough. The mids were oddly lifelike. Simply, outstanding. It wasn’t just the mids, overall the IPS9 had a lifelike and accurate sound with a nicely balanced EQ. I have not heard such lifelike music from my system before this.
-Much better at low volume playback than Ishikawa - less loss of tone and detail at extremely low volumes.
-Some will say IPS9 is bright. I’m not convinced. I think it’s a matter of resolution in the highs I’m unaccustomed too. It just comes across as incredibly natural. This brightness, which has eased off progressively over the past few days, is not always present which makes me think it more of the recording or source showing through. I noticed it mostly when listening to a digital source playing very bright acoustic electric guitars recorded within the last 10-15 years. Old blues, Jazz and folk recordings did not sound overly bright.
-There is a new thump/pop when I turn off the amplifier that wasn’t there before.
Perhaps the best compliment is that my wife, who is very sensitive to overly bright/harsh sounds, hasn’t asked that I turn down the music despite playing music at a volume louder than normal.
Seriously, I’m at a loss of words to describe this. Maybe because IPS9 is so lifelike and gentle yet authoritative. I’ve thrown as much as i can at this during the last few days and it’s getting better - subtler. I’ve been playing music non stop since the daughterboard arrived Tuesday evening and plan to keep listening to this one. I feel I am just beginning to understand the sound of this amp and because of that I have no question this is my new favourite.
Thank you again for this experience. Let me know if you have any questions or want me to elaborate on anything I’ve said or if you want me to hone in on anything specific while listening. I didn’t swap daughterboards to compare IPS9 with the Norwood or the Mountain View because want to get this to you asap and to do that I would want to spend at least as much time with each one before a conclusion was made.
-Adam
Mark,
My wife walks in without knowing a change was made, says: “did you make a change to the system? It sounds so lifelike!”
Thanks, Mark, for this opportunity. I’ve had great few days with the IPS9 and plan to continue listening to the daughterboard. It has replaced the Ishikawa in my system. I did finish the Norwood, and am curious to see how that one sounds compared to the IPS9 but will keep playing the IPS9 for the next while. I wanted to wait before sharing my thoughts to be sure of my opinion. I’ve been playing the IPS9 continuously since Tuesday and feel that it is beginning to show what it’s capable of and because of that, I’m feeling confident my opinion wont change much from where it is now.
As you know, I’ve been listening to a dual mono M2X with the Ishikawa daughter board exclusively since last fall. All my notes are based on that being my reference. My source is a mix between lossless streaming and vinyl. I control volume with a TVC with an added inline 1:5 edcore transformer. The whole idea is that I want a super clean sounding system because i like to listen to as close the source as possible. I also find it improves low level listening.
I’ve been listening to the amp under a variety of conditions that represent all the ways I typically listen to the amp and tried to take note of what circumstance at the time is associated with my thoughts. Overall, I am really enjoying this amp. I don’t think that I will be removing it from my system anytime soon I’m looking forward to hearing how the sound changes as it breaks in or opens up. My first impressions of IPS9 after changing from the Ishikawa daughter board are this:
*my first impressions haven’t changed, except where noted.
-Very Transparent - this was the most obvious difference and was quite surprising. I was not expecting the drastic change here. This transparency was even more obvious when playing vinyl. My cartridge and phono stage are known to be very clean sounding (Ortifon Black cartridge and Trichord Diablo phono stage).
-Much wider soundstage - The IPS9 cast the sound stage beyond the width of my speakers and cast it forward of my speakers where the Ishikawa held the sound quite close to the speakers and not too wide.
-More space between sounds - it was like time slowed down and I could hear each sound in isolation rather each sound blurring into the next.
-Overall Laid back sounding - casual (in the good way). Showed Full control over difficult electro Jazz recordings. Symphony music was effortless.
-Bass is more nuanced and controlled - still lively.
-Lifelike mids - I can’t emphasize this enough. The mids were oddly lifelike. Simply, outstanding. It wasn’t just the mids, overall the IPS9 had a lifelike and accurate sound with a nicely balanced EQ. I have not heard such lifelike music from my system before this.
-Much better at low volume playback than Ishikawa - less loss of tone and detail at extremely low volumes.
-Some will say IPS9 is bright. I’m not convinced. I think it’s a matter of resolution in the highs I’m unaccustomed too. It just comes across as incredibly natural. This brightness, which has eased off progressively over the past few days, is not always present which makes me think it more of the recording or source showing through. I noticed it mostly when listening to a digital source playing very bright acoustic electric guitars recorded within the last 10-15 years. Old blues, Jazz and folk recordings did not sound overly bright.
-There is a new thump/pop when I turn off the amplifier that wasn’t there before.
Perhaps the best compliment is that my wife, who is very sensitive to overly bright/harsh sounds, hasn’t asked that I turn down the music despite playing music at a volume louder than normal.
Seriously, I’m at a loss of words to describe this. Maybe because IPS9 is so lifelike and gentle yet authoritative. I’ve thrown as much as i can at this during the last few days and it’s getting better - subtler. I’ve been playing music non stop since the daughterboard arrived Tuesday evening and plan to keep listening to this one. I feel I am just beginning to understand the sound of this amp and because of that I have no question this is my new favourite.
Thank you again for this experience. Let me know if you have any questions or want me to elaborate on anything I’ve said or if you want me to hone in on anything specific while listening. I didn’t swap daughterboards to compare IPS9 with the Norwood or the Mountain View because want to get this to you asap and to do that I would want to spend at least as much time with each one before a conclusion was made.
-Adam
Great review. Thanks. I can hardly wait. Mouser shipped the parts I needed today. Now all I need is a PCB (or two).
@Audiobear , we (collectively the diyAudio membership) really did benefit from phenomenal luck -- getting the Milpitas reviewers we did. Enthusiastic, serious, perceptive, and attentive listeners every one. Any worries I may have had that IPS9/Milpatas might be a dud, were washed away once I received all three reviews. Of course, future opinions will differ and evaluations will vary -- I'm sure there will be people who Really Don't Like Milpitas, but nevertheless: I was, and I still am, absolutely thrilled with the level of proficiency and skill demonstrated by the Milpitas reviewers. Every designer should be so lucky!
Adam H,
Thanks for sharing your listening impressions.
Would you mind sharing a few details about your speakers and room dimensions?
Thanks for sharing your listening impressions.
Would you mind sharing a few details about your speakers and room dimensions?
My room is an open concept 24’x24’ space and my system is set in the living room portion off to one half of the room. Speakers are Harbeth HL5plus.
Hi guys. I'm considering building an M2X. As Mark Johnson may say, the correct number of amplifiers we need is n+1. !
I have ACA Racam ( really good), ACA Mini ( amazing for its size and considering SMPS power) and also an Aleph 30.( Obviously pretty special)..amongst some other class d offerings. Mini is in use for summer at the moment.
I am not sure I understand the Aleph topology so I don't want to build the M2X if it gives me another very similar amp. However I believe I like the SE class A sound of the ACA and and so was thinking the M2X would give me that same pleasure but with a 'bit more '?!
I have ACA Racam ( really good), ACA Mini ( amazing for its size and considering SMPS power) and also an Aleph 30.( Obviously pretty special)..amongst some other class d offerings. Mini is in use for summer at the moment.
I am not sure I understand the Aleph topology so I don't want to build the M2X if it gives me another very similar amp. However I believe I like the SE class A sound of the ACA and and so was thinking the M2X would give me that same pleasure but with a 'bit more '?!