It takes time to find a well-matched power amp.

I've been through Croft 4S, Leak Stereo 20, Chord SPM-1200C followed by 1200E. I've tried Parasounds and Magtechs and even a Linn Klimax. It was only when I bought the Belles SA-100 that I finally found an amp that got out of the way of the music while maintaining brutal control over my big Ushers.

Nice write up
The NVA amplifier is a good amp and will be hard to beat at its price.
Nice to hear some more love going to the Leo Bodnar, its worth putting the best cable you can with it.

We listen to all opinions about hi-fi here, some of our ideas like grounding boxes, power cables and even clocks themselves get short shrift elsewhere because a vocal minority insists that such differences are all 'placebo'. Except ASR, who are exceptionally vocal.

That may be so but our common experiences (many of us have visited others' systems and heard the effects quite clearly) show that it's not placebo.

I have not tried any clock change other than Stan Beresford changing the clock in my Caiman SEG + the 50 mod  along with the super cap mod large improvement that over a couple of weeks got better still, even when I changed the RCA phono sockets from board to chassis I could hear a difference slight but an improvement. As for the fuse I replaced it with a ceramic sand filled one of the correct value whether  it improved things I can't say as I fitted it when everything else was done, I did the same with all my other internal fuses maybe placebo but I think not.  


30 years ago I replaced 2 thin power leads feeding a dual mono amp & noticed a big improvement, recently I replaced my Hydra single 4 way mains plug with 4 thick solid leads festooned with clip on ferrites feeding the pre & power amps, phono stage & tuner.  I replaced them with 30 amp unshielded  cable using the clip on ferrites large 3 pin mains plugs with 10 amp Busman fuses & extra large IEC plugs,  again slight improvement was it leads or new clean contact surfaces?.   I do not know whether expensive fuses are better, on a pension with 2/3 other  expensive hobbies  + the bank of mum & dad, other than a lotto win I am unlikely to find out.  The same is true with speaker leads, my OTA Quad 57's work with TNT inspired cross-connected coax cable having tried many leads & amps.

It really pisses me off that people hiding behind their keyboard & screen rubbish anything from power leads to valves/tubes  or fuses without listening to them  you find them on most types of forum's in my case shooting & car as well as HiFi,  their theoretical knowledge & qualifications probably far exceed mine, I have spent a lot of time with PHD's, members of Royal Societies  etc  I was able to talk to them whilst they were waiting to give evidence to Parliamentary committee's,  above all I learned from them & friends in the Judiciary to keep an open mind until you can prove/hear otherwise.  

Right I read quite a few of the blogs and things on here and as a fairly new member could i make a suggestion when you mention things like Magic Scientist Contact enhancer put a link in to where in the UK you can buy it or mention that it is only available from US etc . Just a suggestion . This is a little tale of how things can go wrong for you without really doing much at all and having a decent facility with digital tech .

Now for years I have run Logitech Media Server as my music library and this has in the main resided on various Raspberry Pi units from earliest to the Pi 4 8GB . I have used max2play and Picoreplayer Distros to load LMS on the Pi and since the very early days I used the Pi as a server only shutting it down as player and also wireless , bluetooth and anything not needed to function as a server. This may well be overkill but in my view anything which could use CPU speed or power which is not being used does not need to be there . I have also always used an LPSU to power the Pi .

Now later this year I will have a room at the Wam Show near Barnsley (Room 240) and as such I will need to take a Music server and Library to use with the system . I could use my Laptop but that is frankly noisy and a backward step . Earlier this year I replaced my Pi with a Vortexbox in the guise of a LIV Zen which was Innous before the name change . Main reason for this was it was cheap and that I could install a really big hard drive which will hold all of my music both today and going forward. So I had my original Pi4 doing nothing and it seemed simple flash a new sd card with an up to date version of Picore set it up with a USB HD with my music on it and I had what I needed to get things sounding good in my Wam Show roo.

Now I have done this process probably twenty or thirty times and know the routine of setting up and the order of things to do . As always I had a spare LPSU a cheap Chifi one so format the sd card download Picore then let Balena Etcher do its thing . All done and confirmed place the SD card in the Pi attach an ethernet cable then power it up . All at this stage goes as I expect it and find the URL and straight on to Picore Webpage . Then resize the SD card , choose the Audio out (none in my case) , change the name to LM-Server , install LMS . So far so good . Go on to configure LMS and this I think I could do in my sleep I know what plugins I need to add which ones to remove and then Mount the HD , First issue the SSD HD I attach is not showing up at all . Well not a disaster switch to a standard 2 TB USB HD and it appears and it is mounted. Then as normal after showing LMS were to find my music it starts up with scanning the HD . Given the size of my library I know this is not goiwn to be a quick job . So go and have a cup of tea and a quick chat with Linda . Back up and find the scan has stopped midway and is stuck . CLose down via the Web Page and try again . Same result .

Sit quietly and have a think decide to pire up the Three Way Active system to have some music while I work . Turns on goes to the right page music appears to start and is showing as playing on the screen but no sound . Fiddle with that for a while but no amount of rebooting gets any music . Just turn it off and decide to deal with one thing at a time . Had a little time while waiting for all the reboots etc to think and recall a similar issue when setting up an LMS in a friends house . The Pi 4 is quite a hungry little beast and your power supply needs to be at least 3 Amp to keep things working 4 Amp is better . So I swap out the chifi LPSU for a Sean Jacobs one I have power things up do another clean install and start again .

This time the 4 TB HD I would like to use with the Pi shows up straight away so that gets mounted and the LMS install is as before as is the scan starting from the top once again . So off for another tea and chat and have to listen to Linda's assertion that I am foolish and should just get simple plug and play items , well she does have a point but were is the fun in that . Back up and things have progressed as they should and a full scan has concluded with 68500 songs loaded . Now start the process of removing unwanted plugins and adding things like BBC Sounds , Radio Paradise , Material Skin etc . Reboots along the way . Then try and get the settings on all these done and the LMS just will not reload the opening page just hangs. Well enough for me for that day switch my systems off and leave LMS on with another reboot back in the morning .

Return switch on and access both the Vortexbox and the Pi LMS and both are ticking along nicely able to update the plugins and sign in were needed on the new LMS and switch players from one server to the other playing music all the while . Turn on my Active Three Way and it sits there looking at me all smug and just plays as it normally does . I touched nothing as I left it last night and had not tried anything this morning but now both servers are working perfectly and are available to any player . Sometimes this is what happens I have no idea what the issue was yesterday or why it is fixed and working today but this is digital life . The music is still wonderful and I can forget about things now till the Wam Show knowing I have a nice portable source of good quality that I can use for the whole weekend .

So things fired up to day and the \Three Way Active system is sounding sublime with real bite and texture listening to Foxy Lady by Harry Manx and loving the delicate guitar and vocal interplay . As often happens with digital things have settled back down and every thing is playing nicely . later today may well start my Wam Show play list .

Delight for me is that at least two of my systems are going in the right direction and sounding as good as I have ever heard them . One thing being on this forum has taught me is that changes need time . Things and even full systems need to settle back down after a change . I also know from your advice that using Tara Labs burn in can shorten this . But I find it fascinating to listen to the changes as they settle over a few hours of music. So my main system is just getting better quieter not detailed an above all more natural listening to an oboe playing right now an all the moodiness and timbre are clear and on show . Three way active is also sounding fantastic I will be putting in NVA interconnects soon but just loving the Music so being lazy . Sadly my two way active is not the same change of control software for my MiniDSP DDRC 24 has meant I needed to do a complete new DIRAC Live session and during this it looks like on of the Linn Sara tweeters has a fault and stops working above 3kHz . In most speakers this is just a simple replacement job . But on the Sara the tweeters are hard glued in place and getting them out is a job that requires skill and patience neither of which I have . Will have to source some replacements first then take a deal breath and on a day when Linda is out get to it .

There is nothing worse that keep changing internet providers.
What annoys me most is that my router is right next to my Hifi, so the engineer has to work leaning over the left speaker and beside the Dac. Terrifying.