McCormack DNA-1 upgrades by McCormack of Virginia

Mscott58,

yes, upgrading the DNA-1 is a bad idea because of the resell value. I made this very mistake myself, with my DNA 0.5!

I do like the DNA 0.5 revB. It has great timing and musicality, very good imaging, and great timbre. The only small issue is that it does not have the absolutely grain-free sound of TOP amplifier. However, consider that I do not use any AC filtration, which might make the mccormack grain-free. And to put things in perspective, the sound of my old Classe' Seventy was much harsher than that of the DNA.

Oh, given that the Chario are 85 dBs sensitive I guess the DNA0.5/125 should work fine.

About the Chario: what is it that you like about them? If you like the sound of 2-ways mini-monitors, you'll be delighted with a pair of Tannoy coaxial speakers... With those small drivers something tells me that the Chario distort a lot, albeit you won't hear that as distortion (been there, done that!). Just to make sure, I checked the Stereophile review, and, as I suspected, they don't measure the distortion...
This is meant as constructive "criticism", in no way I want to question your choice of the Chario.

Luigi - I love my Chario’s, my sub and my TADAC DAC, the Rega as a transport is fine, and while the Rotel 1080 does a good job, I feel that the amp is is the weakest link in the system. The Chario’s are great monitors, but they are not “mini” at all (the are 14"x8"x13" and weigh 20lbs each). They are constructed and finished beautifully, like or better than a good pair of Sonus Fabers of comperable size. They go low in bass for a monitor, but I also have a True Jr. sub that integrates really well with the Charios. In fact I had a professional system tweaker (works for a local high-end shop) say that he was amazed at how well they worked together seamlessly. I used to have a much larger and less controlled sub in my system and the Sunfire is so much better and more musical. The Charios mid’s are definitely their best feature, but the high end is also very good and clear and as stated before the low end is also good, although the sub integration makes the whole system rather moving. I also use steel shot filled stands with the Charios and that also made the low end more powerful. Overall each upgrade I have made so far has been fully revealed by the Charios, they’ve kept up as far as I can tell. So they aren’t the rate limiting step (yet). By the way the greatest system adjustment advice/tweak I ever received regarded room dynamics. So I now have heavy curtains on the front of my room and small hangings in corners in the rear of the room. This really opened things up. Thanks for the input!

From what I can see, in Italy Chario is considered to be better than Sonus Faber – by COMPETENT people.

What I wanted to get to with my comments is just that people sometime are overly concerned with their electronics but the problem lies in their speakers. And I say this because I made precisely this mistake...

Once I heard guy dismissing an amp because said amp had 0.2% THD. And many people would agree with him.. But do you know how much THD typical HI-FI speakers have? 5-10% (no, it's not a typo...).

That said, if you love the Charios by all means enjoy them!