Hi @MrUnderhill what caused you to swap over to the Icon4? Like you I read M.Colloms review of the Icon4 and followed that up by a call in to Icon. They were very happy to send me one, I think they offered a trial or return basis.
I recall MC thought the Icon4 very close (but not quite) to the sound of the Townshend Allegri.
I can see that the option for a remote control Vol. would be attractive to me.
I had an extended demo at home, I didn’t have any preference between the Icon and the Allegri. As Martin said, you need a £100k system to be able to pick one or 'tother; and the remote together with the Audio Passthrough for AV are great bits of added usability.
Pal is a gent to deal with and is doing great business, including lots of exports to the US!
Is the Etude simply neutral and accurate, and others not, perhaps? (N.B. I have no experience of Chord amps, nor have I read any reviews, just wondering.)
I think the Cor is noted for its neutrality (see reviews on the Ear and What HiFi websites, possibly HiFi Plus as well). There must be reviews of the Etude out there as well, but I haven’t sought them out. In the end demos are essential. To my ears, in my system, the Cor was better.
The Etude like most amplifiers I am sure is accurate… it’s notable technical characteristic is its speed and timing accuracy as well as being able to provide peak power using separate power rails.
To me listening to it driving my ATCs the characteristic i hear is its musical flow whilst providing layers of detail, nuance and subtle dynamics… as well as the thump, gravitas and welly when there in the music. I end up turning up louder to be more enveloped than my previous amp. It’s happy rendering a wide range from Green Day, ABBA, Pink, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Tallis Scholars, Count Basie to the LSO.
I doubt it’s unique in any of these… but it integrates very well with DAVE and it’s a relatively small footprint.
Thank you @MrUnderhill, your feedback, as ever, is most helpful. As you have said Pal was very helpful when I connected them and I am pleased that they are doing well.
If I had opted for a passive pre it would have been the Icon, mainly down to the remote control! but I hesitated, and I am currently considering an active preamp option.
Yes, the proof of the pudding etc. A friend of mine has just reviewed the Icon4 and he asked me for a 2nd opinion. This meant I had it in my system for a couple of weeks. Of course Pal is now supplying the Pro versions, so the Icon4 is old hat. Srajan on 6moons writes one of his large missives on the newer pre.
ahh i see - I don’t honestly know!!! Its what my dealer gave me to use - it certainly seems to work well (at least that might rule out subconscious bias )
not really - i am not comparing surgically - i am enjoying what sounds best. The Naim cable has Naim connectors which are not compatible anyway. The NAP driven by DAVE directly is not good at all to my ears - so also makes this moot.
Its nice not to worry about brands and things with cables - i can simply enjoy - i will find out soon enough.
It certainly performs very well, allowing me to hear things in my recordings I have not heard before etc and most importantly entertaining and enjoyable - it might actually be a keeper
No, I didn’t bother. That said, I do have Chord Shawline power cables on the Matrix 2 power block and Aries G1. The TT2 power supply is plugged into the Matrix 2 so will benefit a bit from that.
That said, I tested the TT2 with a power bank / battery, the sound was identical to that with the standard power supply. Given this and that Rob Watts said the TT2 has specific RF filters for the supplied power supply inside the DAC… plus 6 large capacitors to provide clean power that can cover moments of high demand I decided to use funds elsewhere. The capacitors are large enough to run the DAC for about 10 secs with no power supply.
Money is better off spent on a good power bank for the Mscaler and using an optical cable from the transport to Mscaler. This isolates the scaler from the mains and the transport and prevents the flow of Mscaler generated noise into the TT2.