What was the last bit of gear you bought in 2023?

Lovely Phil.
What convinced you to go with Chord amps?

They have a long-standing reputation for sounding too boom & tizz, though we find this not to be the case with the Ultima amps.

Best regards, BF

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Isnā€™t that a problem I donā€™t buy into a lot tweaks here but Iā€™ve always thought the speaker leads need to be the same length.

Signals along a speaker lead travel at 3/4 the speed of light, so I donā€™t think youā€™d notice. Itā€™s not an issue for a modern Naim amplifier; I wouldnā€™t have done it on a CB 250 for example. Better a shorter lead on one side than having the excess coiled up in a heap. Iā€™ve only noticed a few funny smells, and will only start to worry when I see sparks.

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Solution is to swivel your head a few degrees so one ear is fractionally closer to the speaker with the longer lead & vice versa.

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Or put the speaker with the longer lead closer to your listening position. :grin:

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Youā€™ll soon be back to a full stack of separates and SL2s

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Heā€™s waiting for the new 300 series being released later this week :roll_eyes:

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Thank you Bluesfan.
Iā€™m my room with my speakers and my music this was simply a more engaging and enjoyable system.
The presentation is different to my previous system, lots more space between instruments, greater clarity too. I agree more boom but still very natural, my foot has never tapped so much, the rhythm is spot on. The Ultimaā€™s perform beautifully.

Of course. And the moon is made from cheese.

As @HungryHalibut said, timing wise it wonā€™t be audible. The amp will see a difference electrically, but that will be small in the grand scheme of things and any decent amp should be able to cope. After all, with stereo there will regularly be a difference between left and right as they play different frequencies.

Having said that, even though I donā€™t believe it matters, Iā€™ve always played it save and had equal lengths. Then again, yhe difference is probably 50cm or even less.

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Great Phil, thanks.
We heard no boom when we tried an Ultima 6. The speakers just went deeper and punched harder with greater transient speed and dynamic range. Given that we were using NAP135s at the time, this is saying something.

We ended up with the Ultima 2 pre (the 3 hadnā€™t been released at the time) and the 5 power amp like yours. The sheer speed, iron fist grip and very low noise of this combination continues to make music compellingly engaging for us, whether streaming music or playing records.

Enjoy!

Best, BF

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Well at the lengths discussed here it makes little difference but at longer runs itā€™s effectively like having a capacitors and inductors of different values on each channel.

If you had the amp next to a speaker connected by a short 2m run, and a doorway between the speakers so went the long way round the room with a 10m run, you would hear a difference.

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Sure, but thatā€™s 5x the length. I guess I could have added a caveat ā€œunless taken to the extremeā€.

But even then is it audible yet at 10m / 5x ? I have no idea to be honest, but certainly the capacitance is still miniscule compared to whatā€™s (likely) used in the crossover itself. Inductance might be, but Iā€™m not an electrical engineer.

Great to hear, I also moved from 135ā€™s to the Ultima 5.

Thanks and you!

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Iā€™m really interested in the Ultima 6 did you compare the 5 vs 6? What were your impressions

I didnā€™t compare the two, but I think @Bluesfan may have. Iā€™m sure a good dealer will arrange a demo for you. I used Fanthorpes in Hull, a long way up the country from me, but no regrets, the service was A1. Happy listening.

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As intensive written in the other thread ā€¦ :rofl:
This one I bought (fivefivefive) :heart_eyes:

Together with lovely EE8switch and Clearway chord ethernet

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We didnā€™t compare the two either on a back-to-back basis, though both have been in our main system at home.

Maurice just convinced me to go for the 5 to pair with the 2 Pre. The 6 had more control over the speaker bass drivers and went deeper than our 135s could manage, which is saying something. The 5 has even greater reserves of control and effortless dynamic range. Both are well worth a listen.

Best regards, BF

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I acquired a REL S510 for my sopra n1, itā€™s not a light subwoofer and needed some help to install it.

Itā€™s working great, need to experiment and discover the best pairing in the next days or weeks, never used a subwoofer for 2 channel audio, but at the moment I Am sold by the effect it adds on the low end.


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I have the ultima 6, didnā€™t compare to the 5 but it was a considerable step up from my 282 250dr with two hicap drs at the time. Itā€™s a superb amp

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