I think this is a great question to ask. Your upstream components will point your amp and speakers to a sound balance… the amp being the final component. You have really good components, so worth really taking some time. I think in your other post you said you live far from a city. Consider taking an audio trip. A day or two. Make arrangements with one or more audio shops. Make schedules with them. Listen to pure systems looking for “the sound” you like. Read professional reviews of the equipment you hear. This will calibrate you to a standard. Will make reading about equipment useful.. Forums have people with opinions but without standards of terminology and values. For me, it has always been Audio Research has had the warmth and details. But that is for you to decide. |
Thank you for responding! I honestly didn't expect anyone to reply after such a long time. I used to live in London and I would regularly visit several hifi shops. Where I am living currently is very difficult to find dedicated hifi shops and with Covid almost impossible to travel. I do read all the usual reviews and visit several forums but you are right there is nothing like listening to the actual equipment.
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Wow, you are right it has been nearly a year, I don’t know how I ran into it. My partner and I have been vaccinated for a couple months the audio shops are opening up by appointment. Have you done anything about an amp? I am in the US but lived near Edinburgh for a year and traveled to our office outside of London a lot. How’s the pandemic? |
Glad you have been vaccinated and you have freedom to move around. I have done anything about the amp yet, we have been busy renovating a dream house which we are just about finishing off. I lived in the UK for many, many years always in London and the south coast but I am moving back to my native country, Greece. I see you are from the US as I guess most of the members over here, I have been visiting the US very frequently, mainly with work. The pandemic has been devastating and travel restriction still apply, I am waiting for my second jab.
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Well, if you get back to it. Feel free to PM me. We could have a discussion. You are clearly shooting for a great system. |
Thanks! I will PM you soon as I will start looking in the next month or so.
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Interesting revival of an old thread! As a precurse to your quest and looking at your shortlists, here are some subjective comments.
I would prefer the Vitus to the Gryphon 120, but I might prefer the 300 to the Vitus. The Vitus is very controlled, extended and authoritative, I find the big Gryphon a tad more relaxed in the high register, but very capable as well.
As I remember it, the big ASR (the 3 box model) sounded a bit tinny by comparison.
If you like the Gryphon sound, you might also consider a CH Precision integrated.
Good luck!
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Bought the original Diablo used just a month ago and it is amazing driving my Salon 2's.
Now of course curious about the even bigger Gryphons :-) but unsure if they produce enough watts to satisfy the Salons. Current they do have.
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@gregm, first of all are we in the same country? :) Thanks for the suggestions, very interesting that you put the Vitus above the Diablo 120 but below the 300. Is there that much difference between the two Diablos? I thought the ASR emitter II exclusive was fuller that the Diablo but there you go. Do you have personal experience of these amps? Please tell me more.
@gosta, did you have a change to compare the Diablo with anythng else before buying it? If you do upgrade to the Gryphon Class A amps, they have tons of current, they can drive extremely difficult loads so they should be able to drive the Salons well.
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I would try this - drive your Hypex NCore amps with the Weiss directly and use Filter A (sharp roll-off).
This will give you an ultra clean signal path and will let you know if it is the amp that's producing the harshness you hear.
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I compared to JC-1, Tidal Impulse, Bladelius Grendel and a NuPrime class-d. And more. I will also during summer (hopefully) try Nelson Pass 250.8 and Hegel H30.
The Gryphon deliver what I want. From bottom to top.
Yes, they sure have current for any possible peak, but will they play the Salon 2’s loud enough without having to play at full volume is what i’m uncertain about. With the Salons the saying is that you need at least 500w at 8 ohms to fully control them. A mono H30 will give you that.....and current. |
@yage I am using the Weiss Filter A, Daniel promised some more filters but never had the time or felt the need to implement them. I was planning of doing exactly what you are suggesting, passing the BAT.
@gosta. That is an impressive list of amps you tried, The Hegel H30 was in my radar too, also some Audionet MAX amp monoblocks. Unfortunately there aren't as popular for some reason.
If you go
pre/power amps you have to consider carefully the preamp of course, perhaps you need one with high gain if you want to play really loud. What are the dimensions of your room? I don't know anyone who run out of power with the big Gryphons (Antileon upwards).
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What I know the Diablo has a very high gain. Having thea 16 channel Storm as source.
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Benchmark AHB2 is a fantastic amp to use with Mahlers. I have this setup and it is the first amp that really controls the Eton woofers precisely. Previous amps were B&K Class A/B and ATI Class D (528NC) - also NCore. I too felt the Mahler high end was a bit sharp with my class D ATI amp. Perhaps there's more IMD byproduct with the ATI than the AHB2. |
BTW, you mentioned upgraded xovers. Were those something offered by VA as a service item or an aftermarket kit? |
@csarcone,
Thank you. That was/is exactly my issue, the treble sometimes is too sharp, that is the reason I would like to try something else than Ncore. Before the Ncore I had the Nuforce Ref9seV3 which exhibited similar behaviour. I have read that some guys think the AHB2 is too analytical though it has excellent measurements. Perhaps that is what is needed with our speakers.
The upgraded xovers were not offered by VA nor were they part of a kit, I have analyzed the circuit and I replaced what I believe are key capacitors with Mundorf Silver/Oil ones that I had leftover from another project.
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@gosta,please let me know your impressions when and if you try the X250.8 and the H30.
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@greg_f I am very pleased with AHB2. IMO, amplifier should be wire + gain. If you want even order harmonics, there's always EQ ;). I ended up buying two AHB2s. Have you tried the tweeter attenuation switch on the Mahler? How about room treatments? Both may be cheaper than buying a new amp... |
@csarcone
Good to hear you are satisfied with the AHB2. So you are running them in bridged mode? Why did you feel the need to add a second one?
Yes, I have tried the tweeter attenuation but didn't 'cure' my issue. I am moving to a new house with a dedicated music room which will be measured and then acoustically treated. As for EQ, I haven't mentioned that there is a Trinnov ST2 Hifi between the digital transport and the DAC used in the digital domain to provide room correction. The point is I am trying to get as good as possible sound before I apply room correction, which of course brings its own problems.
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@greg_f I bought the second AHB2 to power my VA Maestro center. I'm only running that amp in bridged mono. The Mahlers are powered off a single AHB2 in stereo. The stereo setup is plenty loud for my room without amp clipping. |
