Not having very much chance to listen properly due to family presence within earshot (but been running Qobuz Christmas playlists to keep the family happy and get some hours through the speakers) but yesterday afternoon I had a brief spell on my own in the house. And I was so moved by the joy of the sound I made a special effort to say a big thank you to my wife for tolerating my excesses!
I think the n1z must be bringing something to the party as playing from that it seems to be a clear way above Qobuz in a way I haven’t noticed before
Visually I preferred the mass ranks of green lights - not keen on the linn and Melco blue lights so much but the sound is the most important thing and wow it’s delivering. And it has no right to - not even got the new mains spur in yet so it has lost the benefit from that. I can only assume that the 500 is doing a lot and that the melco is helping abs that having the racks in the new location is also helping - and that the 808s like being a little further out from the wall
I don’t think “slumming” is a word to describe SL2s. They are still fab speakers, and lots of money had to be spent to beat them convincingly (I have never been interested in small leaps)
Joking aside the 808s must be special for you to move on your SL2s, I love what the SL2s add to my setup and personally I would struggle to part with them…but I have never listened to the 808 maybe one day perhaps
Once you hear real deep bass on a good speaker, its hard to go back, the SL2’s are nice, but they are never going to compete at this level, completely different ball game as they say.
It’ll be the 500. The 300 is great amp but the 500 is a big step up. Too many think it’s just about more power and it’ll be too much for smaller rooms but there’s more to 500 than that. Dynamics, speed and transparency are just a few of the things it does better and any size room will benefit from that. I doubt you’ll be giving Pete the 500 back now you’ve heard what it can do.
Acoustica are very, very good at providing the upgrade advice to provide a meaningful step up in performance, which, together with constructive thinking about trade-in values against list prices is, quite simply, why they’ve been my dealer for many years.
Plus, they will always go the extra mile to provide correct installation, so there’s nothing not to like.
Likewise, I don’t recall ever saying “No thanks” to any of their suggestions.
I said no thanks to his offer of lending me 808s in about September. But then a few weeks later I started totting up the value of the various things I had to p/x if I abandoned the active approach and thought “I wonder if…” and Pete came up with figures that meant I could afford the 808s - but he gave me around three weeks listening time before I decided I wanted them. He was great at not pressuring me to make a decision too quickly, as there was a spell after a couple of weeks or so when I really wasn’t sure. Then when he was here moving them a bit he dropped the idea of a 500 into the conversation. A bit more px maths and hey presto I am now close to being at my end game
It’s very good - sounded fab on Christmas Day afternoon
but I do have an intermittent problem on the right channel - a crackle / distortion on bass. Will get Pete back shortly but not bothering him over a holiday weekend
I have humming transformer issues on my two power supplies for the 500 and 552 even though there on a dedicated spur. Not keen to get a mains conditioner so Pete suggested disassembly and remounting the transformers at the same time as installing a new 555PS DR for the NDX2 in the new year… clever fella !