Jerry's Hifi Blog

Jerry, can you please recommend a good BT transmitter.

Never thought of that Jerry. Might give that a go. Thanks.

Have now played around a bit, and I really can't justify the money invested and space taken up by the Feliks Echo headphone amp.
So it's up for sale.

I suspect that if I had headphones that were more difficult to drive I'd appreciate its contribution a lot more. But I seem to like low impedance cans the best and a pukka audiophile amp is wasted on those.

After finally selling the Ayre integrated (at a disheartening loss)...

I'm actually very happy with the Shearne amp still. It does the job. The job being to convey musical satisfaction.

Other amps that are still in favour, but resting for the moment, are a Phonic Max500 class g power amp, a Pro-Ject Amp Box DS Hypex power amp (which, annoyingly, has just died on one channel), the BRZHIFI JLH1969 Class A amp, and a TPA3116 chip amp which is excellent once it has a LPSU up the jacksie.

So while my hifi budget wallet is bulging in a reasonably healthy way, I'm in no great rush to find something new.
I guess I'll be keeping an eye on eBay to see if anything I fancy comes along.

I got a new to me piece of gear last week.
I've been a bit embarrassed about it tbh.

It was a random, totally unplanned eBay purchase that left me with an immediate "what the hell did I buy that for?" feeling.

It's an Emotiva UMC200 preamp.

The unpacking experience was a thoroughly positive one.
Double boxed, firm fitting softish Styrofoam, Emotiva cloth bag.
It's a nicely solid unit that exudes competence.
The remote is plastic and uninspiring, but works well.
The display could usefully be just a little bit larger to get an easier view of the volume setting, but the ability to adjust display brightness so as to match ambient light conditions goes a long way to help.

I have to confess to post-purchase / pre-arrival low expectations.
After pressing the BIN-Button I came across the ASR technical measurement review which totally slammed the digital SPDIF inputs. I've not tried them yet.

I bought it as an analog preamp / input switching device, and it has floored me in that application.
The dang thing is transparent, taut, fast, dynamic.

I've had not a few preamps pass through my system, I don't think I've heard significantly better and I know I've heard far worse!

I wasn't expecting that at all.

Sometime soon I may even pluck up my courage and try the digital inputs, ASR notwithstanding!

The headphone output has been briefly and positively auditioned. I'll be returning to that.

Oh, and it's got onboard room correction that I may get around to trying sometime, although once again ASR slammed it, although other reviewing sites liked it.

Top purchase for low £££.
I'd be curious to try one of Emotiva's power amps.

Current electronics.



Lower right quadrant ;
John Shearne 3.5 power amp, Emotiva UMC200 Preamp.

Lower left quadrant ;
Dragon; combines a Stereo Coffee LDR preamp (not currently in use), and a high spec valve buffer (very much in use, I love it).

Top left ;
Arcam DV137 DVD player,Consonance Reference Linear CD2.2 CD player.

Top right ;

SMSL SU-9 DAC,
Philips CD751 CD player (encompassing my fave TDA1549 chip) with a full valve output stage (E180CC)...
... I may have neglected to tell you about the Philips cdp, it arrived a couple of days ago.

Good stuff Jerry.
I have reached a point where I don't 'need' anything else, so enjoying the swapsies vicariously is a good thing.

Doesn't stop me looking at stuff though, doh!

Some new (to me) headphones.



AudioQuest Nighthawk.

Intriguing (that is, mixed) reviews on these.
But interesting enough for me to take a punt on.

They come with 2 cables.
1 is the AQ audiophile edition, intended to capitalise on AQ's cable expertise. The downside being that they aren't the most robust, and would fail the industry standard 50,000 bend test.
The other is thinner, and allegedly extremely flexible. But of poorer sound quality.

Whoa. Initial impressions are that I don't get on with the audiophile cable at all. Way too bass rich, almost plummy.
Whereas the skinny cable hits it about right.

Happily for me, and as expected from the reviews, these are the antithesis of the HiRez bright treble screechers that I dislike so much.
Violins have a very nice timbre, not unnaturally smooth but no unnatural edge.
Loads of unhyped detail.
Sumptuously rich, vibrant mids. Yummy!
Soundstaging is very well laid out.
Mmm, yes. Liking these so far.

The skinny lofi cable is just fine. No need to change it.
I suspect it thins out the textures a bit, and that works well with these cans. They are a bit over-ripe for my tastes left to themselves.

I've another pair of headphones on their way but they seem to have got caught up on the Royal Mail strikes and are now several days overdue.

I still think the SMSL SU-9 is superb. Definitely the best DAC I've had. It's not even close.
It's got vibrancy and presence without etch. It just nails it for me.

jandl100 Liking them is all that matters, oh and I don't use any CCC, either pure silver or OCC.

How are you getting on with the Consonance CD player Jerry?

Can only agree Jerry, they are excellent. I had them connected to the cdp and the musical pleasure was a joy, plain and simple.

I'd read loads about them in the past, others like you and I just loving them, and i sensed that they were the ones.  couldn't believe it when I put the wanted post out, on the sheer off chance, and you had some. 

I would never have sold them, only that Olster is a very bad and influential man   I took a punt on some SAEC CCC speaker cable and SAEC XR3000 interconnect terminated with KLEI plugs, for tonearm duty and that was it, my OCD kicked in and I've gone a bit 'CCC  throughout crazy'

I await another rca terminated XR3000 CCC for amp to phono stage duty, and another pair for cdp duty.  Will be interesting to see how the CCC on the cdp, compares with the Atratus and I'm stuffed if I want the Atratus back  

I'm on the lookout for more Atratus 3 interconnects.

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