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Post by John on May 6, 2018 9:50:13 GMT
Another amp I not heard off
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Post by julesd68 on May 6, 2018 10:06:13 GMT
Yes boiiiii the SMSL strikes again! Still loving my M3 DAC / headphone amp - beautiful things in small packages ... Tell us about the Trigon amps Jerry - how do they rate against your recent competitors. I presume these are not one of your budget offerings?
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Post by jandl100 on May 6, 2018 14:55:29 GMT
Trigon. Some may recall I used to own a Restek Consens preamp that I was very fond of. I kept it for a couple of years, which is a bit surprising for me. Well, in some way Restek schismed or metamorphosed into Trigon some years ago, so I have been keeping my eye out for Trigon things in a low key kind of way. And in January this year, happily coinciding with the annual renewal of my hifi budget, these monoblocks appeared on ebay auction from a high end German dealer (both Restek and Trigon are German). So they became mine. Minty and still a current item - Audio Emotion have them here at £1850 per amp, so £3700 a pair. www.audioemotion.co.uk/trigon-tre-50m-mono-power-amplifier-single-monoblock-782-p.asp135wpc and they sound great. Coming up for 4 months now and they continue to please. And they look seriously cool with the black fascia and red LEDs. Darth Vader's amps.
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Post by Slinger on May 6, 2018 15:31:10 GMT
I've looked at a few DACs lately, and I thought that "Xiang Sheng DAC-01A" rang a bell. Minor(?) correction on the price - £107.93 with the standard Chinese 6N3 valve. I'm not sure about one I spotted for £105.00. The text says "-01A" but the pic shows one marked as simply "-01" Nice to see you, by the way, Jerry.
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Post by jandl100 on May 6, 2018 15:35:14 GMT
Yes, I actually got mine new for £86. But add £50 or so for the superduper Western Electric valve to bring out the very best in it. It is worth rolling the stock valve - a good cheaper choice is Reflektor 6n3, available for a tenner or so on ebay.
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Post by jandl100 on May 6, 2018 15:37:13 GMT
Nice to see you, by the way, Jerry. Thanks. I note the change in your by-line, to past tense since I was last around. Commiserations or congratulations, as appropriate.
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Post by Slinger on May 6, 2018 15:42:00 GMT
Nice to see you, by the way, Jerry. Thanks. I note the change in your by-line, to past tense since I was last around. Commiserations or congratulations, as appropriate. Unfortunately, it's the former, not the latter.
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Post by jandl100 on May 6, 2018 15:44:04 GMT
Ah, sincere sympathies in that case.
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 12, 2018 16:27:02 GMT
New preamp - Herron VTSP-2. 6 EH ecc88 valves tucked away inside. I think it goes rather nicely with my 2 Trigon monoblocks. Early days yet, only arrived this morning, but I'm really enjoying it!
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Post by MartinT on Jun 12, 2018 16:38:06 GMT
It certainly looks the part, Jerry. What were you running before?
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 12, 2018 16:46:14 GMT
A Schiit Saga passive (with switchable valve buffer stage).
Quite a different presentation, especially dynamically - the Herron rocks! -- tonally, as well. More richness and tangibility with the Herron.
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Post by Slinger on Jun 12, 2018 17:16:43 GMT
I can't get used to the fact that the display is larger than that (comparatively) tiny little volume control.
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 12, 2018 18:10:47 GMT
I can't get used to the fact that the display is larger than that (comparatively) tiny little volume control. Hmm. Well. I must admit that would never have occurred to me! It has a 1 minute mute period on switch-on for the valves to come up to working state and the circuit to settle - and the aforementioned display does a countdown from 60 to 0, then there's a soft click and away we go. Amazing, really.
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Post by MartinT on Jun 12, 2018 21:06:11 GMT
Quite a different presentation, especially dynamically - the Herron rocks! It's the reason why I far prefer active preamps to passive ones.
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 13, 2018 6:11:35 GMT
... and a more extended view - with, far left, my new DAC peeping into the pic. A SMSL M8 DAC with a Chinese linear PSU (with the large red LED voltage display) - with thanks to Paul slinger for prompting me to get the PSU! The DAC is only just larger than a pack of playing cards but it has a serious tech-spec and it sounds seriously good. The PSU was a very effective upgrade (only about £50 direct from PRC). The Review of the M8 DAC that tempted me into trying it when one came along used on eBay. It's a shame that the DAC is silver and the PSU is black but hey-ho. I connect the DAC to my music streaming laptop via a Halide Bridge USB to digital co-ax converter. Bottom left is my ancient Arcam DV29 DVDP, for DVDs and also used as a rather good CD transport.
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Post by MartinT on Jun 13, 2018 7:28:04 GMT
The DAC in my SMSL Q5 amp driving my PC speakers is also impressive. In fact, everything SMSL make seems to be a good product.
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 13, 2018 7:38:24 GMT
The DAC in my SMSL Q5 amp driving my PC speakers is also impressive. In fact, everything SMSL make seems to be a good product. I had a Q5, it was enjoyable but I would place it several rungs below the M8 in sound quality - imo the Q5 is mid-ranking hifi, the M8 is high end sound - but the Q5 includes a class D amp as well, you can't listen to the DAC alone, so definitely not comparing the same functionality. The Q5 is great for a 2nd system or the TV, but not in the main hifi rig.
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Post by Slinger on Jun 13, 2018 10:49:02 GMT
As I mentioned in another post, I have a Q5 hooked up to a PC, and with the addition of an old pair of (DL4 S2) speakers, I don't think you can get a better "bang-per-buck" solution for computer sound, especially when you add the subwoofer capability of the Q5. Sorry, Jerry, I didn't mean to propagate another SMSL thread hijack.
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Post by MartinT on Jun 13, 2018 10:58:30 GMT
imo the Q5 is mid-ranking hifi, the M8 is high end sound - but the Q5 includes a class D amp as well, you can't listen to the DAC alone, so definitely not comparing the same functionality. The Q5 is great for a 2nd system or the TV, but not in the main hifi rig. Agreed, I was thinking in terms of the piddling £70 or so that the Q5 costs for a DAC and amp. When I heard it driving Steve's (Electric Beach) Blackwoods speakers it really did make superb music. For me, the Caiman SEG is several rungs up, too, and still only costs £200.
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 13, 2018 14:24:51 GMT
Yup, I've had a SEG and I would class it as high end rather than 'middling hifi' as well.
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