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My exp. with Focal Sopra No.2 , Harbeth 40.2, Passlabs XA30.5 and Hypex NC400

Hello. Long time reader here.

I want to share my listening experiences since i bought my Sopra No.2’s last year. I think it may shed some light on people who suffered from brightness on their system. Please excuse my English as it is not my native language.

My other components are Primaluna Dialogue Premium Preamp and Gustard x20pro Dac with Singxer SU-1 via HQ-Player and Roon. Interconnects are DH Labs Silversonic and speaker cable is Kimber 8TC. My room is 45m2 and not treated. I would say my room has some echo and can sound harsh on higher volume levels. (I will deal with this later hopefully.)

I will try to keep it short below:

Sopra No.2’s with NC400’s:
Pros: Extreme clarity with huge sound stage , speed&timing , dynamism , attack , total control on bass , good instrument separation. NC400 allows all this without breaking a sweat.
Cons: Fatiguing after some time , especially with higher volume. Bright and forward on almost half of the music i listen to and neutral on the other half but never warm. (I listen to almost every kind of music though it’s mostly Jazz both with vocals and instrumental only.) Mids and low-mids(esp. on vocals) were not rich and full as i wished.

The fatiguing alone bugged me to change my speakers and my dealer sent me Harbeth 40.2’s to try at home.

Harbeth 40.2’s with NC400’s:
So compared to Sopra No.2’s it was less hi-fi and more of a live music experience with the midrange of Harbeth’s as we know it. Non-fatiguing , just slightly warm ,sweet sound and overall a wonderful match with the speaker and the amp. Believe it or not it was more than just a glimpse of when i listened to 40.2’s with Dan D’Agostino MOMENTUM LIFESTYLE AMPLIFIER. Last weekend we tried the NC400’s with my brothers SLH5’s and i think he is now considering selling his Naim setup which is 6 times more expensive then NC400’s :)

I wanted to keep Harbeth 40.2’s but we could not agree on price with the dealer so i kept my Sopra’s and decided to try a well regarded amp with it. That was Pass Labs XA30.5.

Sopra No.2’s with Pass Labs XA30.5 :
Brightness and fatiguing gone for good. You get the magical warm sound of Pass Labs , suddenly Sopra’s are different speakers now. The amp really has it’s own color as they say. Bass is less controlled and almost too slow compared to NC400’s. I was worried about 30w is not going to be enough for my room but i never miss 200w’s of NC400’s unless i listen to electronic dance music.

I am never selling my NC400’s as they will come handy when i want to listen instrumental tracks or EDM.
For example , Chuck Mangione - Children of Sanchez or Charles Lloyd & The Marvels - La llorona gives you goosebumps when listened through NC400’s while with XA30.5 they won’t impress you as much.
They are really more than their money’s worth but the XA30.5 is still a better match with Sopra No.2’s.

I guess i couldn't keep it short. Oh well..


tonediary

Showing 3 responses by audiotroy

audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,587 posts
 
Part of your problem is your ancellory gear isn't up to snuff.

The more revealing a set of speakers the more it shows you the limitations of your cables and Gustard Dac.

With a $14k speaker that are resolvling you need far superior dac and cabling. 

Ncore amps are highly detailed but lack the magic that conventional Class A/B amps have hence you prefered the Pass.

We tried a number of highly rated Hypex and Ncour amps  impressive but not magical. Your tube preamp was partially responsible for you getting good sound in the beginning. 

As per Naim vs Ncore, if your friends system was wired up with Naim cabling he has never heard his system and a brighter amp might add more excitement to his rig. We love Naim hate their cables. 

Go find your self a T+A Dac 8 DSD and an Innous server and you will be shocked at just how much better your system will sound..

Ditch the 8TC for better cables, also the Silversonic is okay at best. 

Also treat your room by using bookcases filled with books or wall haniging some rugs. 

You will see that a well matched set of speakers with resolution trumps a set of "musical" speakers which don't have the resolving power, but are more laid back. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,587 posts
 
Contuzzi many people don't have the funds to invest in real room treatments. Hence our comments.

As per being a high end snob, guess what we aren't at all or we would not even made that recommendation. 

If your definition of a snob is to recommend the appropriate cabling and accessories then we are. 

Your argument doesn't hold water. Cabling is like tires to a car, go buy a Ferrari and put on some glass ply tires at $200 a tire vs the $1,000.00 Pirelli P0 that Ferrari specs on the car and see if the car performs.

If you lose information from point A to point B you are not going to get it back no matter how good the components and speakers are. 

As per room treatment, trained with Tony Grimani of Lucas Films and did the Russ Herchelman course, you can see the Theater we built for Rev Runs Rennovation. Online look up DIY networks Rev Runs Rennovation.

You can also see pictures of our rooms at the different NY Audio shows with different acoustic panels, Shakti Holographs and other acoustic devices

https://www.facebook.com/audiodoctor1/photos/a.122500301156525.22643.122499304489958/163219852685335...

or here

https://www.facebook.com/audiodoctor1/photos/a.122500301156525.22643.122499304489958/138072913200029...

Dude your ignorance is showing through when you dismiss cables and power conditioners, I sit here in our reference room and I am demoing one $5k power conditioner vs a $14k one and guess what they make a huge difference with the expensive one not right now sounding better than the cheaper one and if I plug directly our amps directly into a dedicated 20 amp circuilt with Furutech outlets the sound is way more flat and lacks a huge amount of the life that running throught the power conditioner adds.

As per cable demos we can give you the names of clients where we have changed one cable and we both heard a large and noticable difference.

AQ cables are hardly our reference standard, as per cables sounding different yes they do. We were a Kubala Sosna dealer and all of their cables imparted a bit of warmth to the sound. Nordost cables all tended to sound super clean and detailed, and the Wireworld tended to be the most balanced.

Again, your ignorance and bias is showing through. 

We have invested thousands and thousands of dollars in showroom cables, way over $22k in fact, do you think we would have spent that kind of money if there were not difference manifested in our demo systems?

Contuzzi you sound like many of the angry audiophiles that deny the facts that many, many people who are Doctors, Lawyers, CEO's of company smart, educated, people would not pay money for cables or power condtioners if they weren't demonstrably better and made their systems sound better. 

Yes certain companies do make ridiculous claims, others do not.

Our experience is based on empirical testing we listen.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ


audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,587 posts
 
Contuzzi we made those suggestions as some people don't have the money to invest in real high end acoustical solutions.

If you check our NY audio shows photos over the years you will see plenty of examples of the room treatment products we use and endorse.

https://www.facebook.com/audiodoctor1/photos/pcb.1632190780187462/1632198526853354/?type=3&theat...

As per acoustical training, bet you we got a lot more than you, trained with Toni Grimini and Russ Herschelman at Cedia. 

We build real movie theaters and design and fabricate our own room treatments. as mentioned earlier not everyone has the funds to do acoustics correctly.

Prof the power of suggestion works both way, the reality is we have spent about $40k and more on cabling for our rooms, do you honestly think we would spend the money if we couldn't hear the difference.

We did one demo were we changed one ethernet cable from a generic to a high end $200 one and the differences to both the client and ourselves was staggeringly obvious.

Most people don't want to spend the money us included, if we couldn't hear the difference nobody would purchase these products. 

Mass hypnosis it isn't  Over 30 years we have done numerous cable shoot outs and tests. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

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