Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

I reckon, in terms of sound quality, the days of 1k+ amps are done. That’s not to say people won’t keep making and buying them.

It’s like a wee secret and now you’re in the gang. Just need a £50 DAC now.

You know your phone has the time on it yeah?

Lol - that I do.

I have absolutely no desire to switch out my Topping E30 and won’t unless it dies.

Yeah, for normies I agree. Will probably just end up with a Hypex based Auidiophonics power amp.

Need to pick up one of those Wiim Mini’s, still.

in terms of sound quality, the days of 1k+ amps are done

Depends on the load. There's still a certain cost involved in building a PSU to put lots of power into a tough load with good regulation, particularly if it also has to be silent and pretty.

have hypex not nailed the first two parts though? Up to the manufacturer to then make it look pretty.

have hypex not nailed the first two parts though?

For a fee, and if the hype is correct. By the time you've got modules and PSUs and put them into a nice box, you're still the best part of a grand in for entry level power output (which might be plenty, I'm not saying anybody is likely to need over 100W at home) and you've had to DIY. Class-D output stage and SMPS might have improved your bang for buck, I'm just not sure that only £1000 is now the cut off between actual improvement and TASwank

283 GBP: https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/power-amplifier/audiophonics-mpa-s125nc-rca-stereo-class-d-power-amplifier-ncore-2x125w-4-ohm-p-12756.html

and 354 GBP: https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/power-amplifier/audiophonics-mpa-s250nc-rca-class-d-stereo-amplifier-ncore-2x250w-4-ohm-p-14278.html

125w and 250w into 4 ohm respectively. Not 'pretty', but who cares for that much money. No DIY required.

I spent about £300 DIYing this 250w hypex, I think it’s pretty. Just plugging things in and screwing stuff together really.

Happy to see that 250w Audiophonics is actually £435

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It says 354 if I put UK in cause no VAT. Or is that not the case? I'm out of touch with the whole Brexit VAT stuff.

This is not about how cheaply you can get a good amp, it's about how much you will spend before the next "upgrade" becomes pointless because you can't actually detect an improvement in a blind trial. A one-box two-channel amp is unlikely to be the pinnacle, since you can upgrade to two of them and biamp your system 🙂

It says 354 if I put UK in cause no VAT. Or is that not the case?

Sales over £135 will not pay EU source country VAT, but UK VAT will be collected on import.

I don't think the Ncore NC122MP has enough power to drive your Totems, as you almost certainly know you want to be really careful with underpowering your speakers and clipping.

There's been a lot already posted in this thread about Hypex amps - worth a read. Personally, I went with NC500s from NordAcoustics (also not 'pretty') but I got a deal with some really nice Sonic imagery 994 opamps that I convinced myself that I wanted.

Anyway, the NC400/500 range is a bit more spendy but when you look at the teardowns you'll see what you're paying for. Look at the size of the power supply on the NC500s for example:

Really? 88db and Totem recommend 30 W – 125 W p/ch.

Tbh I don't know enough about Hypex modules - hence asking about them.

And yeah @gbj_tester that makes sense.

Totem recommend 30 W – 125 W p/ch

...at 8Ω. This means that the speakers will just about work with a 30W amp but can take up to 125W.

The Ncore NC122MP will only go to 75W at 8Ω, I'd say you need at least twice that to avoid the amp running out of power as it'll start to clip which can be the end of your speakers. If you want to hear what your speakers can really do then I'd pair them with an amp that can deliver a consistent 200w+. FWIW my KEF R300s (similar sensitivity) are rated at 25W-120W and I run them with 500w monoblocks.

I'm far more afraid of damaging my speakers through clipping than I am of attempting to honk 500W through them.

Roger that. Not suggesting I'd use a 30w per channel amp at 8 ohms, btw, just pasting their specs.

FWIW, I live in an apartment and am maybe too respectful of my neighbors. My listening levels are exceedingly low.

yeah I'm in the same living situation. That said, a more powerful amp at lower volume will bring a speaker to life, compared to a lower powered amp pushed harder.

Anyway, there's reasonably good stuff posted on the Hypex amps at ASR here and here

That said, a more powerful amp at lower volume will bring a speaker to life, compared to a lower powered amp pushed harder.

100% my tannoy sounded a lot better when I had both arcams running them. Which reminds me to fix the power unit.

Anyone have the Leak Stereo 130? Can pick one fairly cheap. Sucker for the retro look but worried the sound may be too dry and digital.

I think this key to why so many bookshelf speakers sound crap at low volume. People think small speaker, low power amp will be fine.

Big fan of an old fashioned loudness button and/or tone controls with plenty of range for listening at low volumes.

I’ve been building a Bottlehead Crack headphone amp over the last couple of days, finished last night - I’ve been listening to music until 4AM, sounds magnificent. Good kit too, with excellent instructions.

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Nice, I was wondering how you’d got on with this. Love a bit of tube amp.

In J69 tube life, I did a couple of tweaks to my Mullard preamp initially, but it’s basically been in daily service ever since. I had planned to alter the frequency range of the tone control, but the ranges work so well with my current speaker/amp combo that I’ve left it as it is. Excuse the clutter!

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Nice. Is that built from plans, or a kit?

That was from plans. It's in a Hammond chassis. I used Russian valves and period components where I could for an authentic sound. I could do with a more permanent solution for the knob labelling.

I also built this 3W single-ended class A amp for a bit of fun and to see what it was like. I started off with the Mullard 3-3 circuit but couldn't get it to run satisfactorily. In fact, it nearly beat me. I rewired it as a BBC AM8/2, which is a very similar single-ended class A amp but has more conventional DC coupling between the input and output stages. It needs a few tweaks and could do with better output transformers but it works for now and sounds ok. Just need to find an actual use for it because it's not my main amp!

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Was looking at getting one of these myself, but also had the same concerns, but would solve all my connection issues.

Just gauging interest, would anyone be interested in a pair of Klipsch RP600-M speakers? One owner (me), looked after and in great condition.