A Visit to Paul's

[Nick]

Hi,

I was lucky enough to spend last Saterday at Paul's place, with Paul and his family, listening to Paul's system.

It's a while since I last listened to Paul's music system which had improved again with Peter's latest significant release of XXHE and Paul adding an X-Sound PCIe card in to his PC. I always love the sound and as usual it drew us into some very enjoyable listening with its strikingly real portrayal of musical events.

One of the reasons for my visit was for us to try my newly built bi-amped and bridged gainclone amplifier in Paul's system. After a nervous hour getting out ears "into" the system playing through Pauls single ended bi-amped gainclones we swopped in my new bridged gainclone amp.

It was one of those "one note demo" situations we just felt immediately that things had fundamentally improved. Stand out changes were the significant improvements I substance, presence, stage size (I didn't think that was possible given the starting point) control and the effortless flow and  super fast dynamics.

A violin solo played using the single ended gainclone amp was really wonderfully portrayed but didn't quite cure my aversion to reproduced violin music. There was still just too much cat gut in the sound and not enough resonance from the body of the instrument. With the bridged amp in place the resonance of body coupled with strings was simply mesmerising, a real first for me.

Paul summed up the amp change by saying that he had been wishing for an amp that could provide more body, control and detail without losing out on the great points of his single ended bi-amped gainclones. The is exactly what the bridged gainclone amp manages to do. The rest of the afternoon passed listening to track after track smiling like idiots and remarking on elements of the musi's portrayal. I suspect that Paul has found his new wished for amp and for me the new bridged amp is a keeper, no question.

Thanks to Paul and family for putting up with a hifi nut for the day and for such such wonderful hospitality.

Kind regards,

Nick.



 

[Scroobius]

As always Nick is a most welcome visitor and I was looking forward to hearing Nicks new balanced biamped GC in my system.

To say that I am satisfied with the sound of my system as it is now would be an understatement. Since the latest software from Peter the sound has been detailed smooth and refined to a level where to be honest I had lost interest in up-grading preferring instead to get on and listen to the music.

I had decided to build a new GC amp anyway because I am building a system for my brother and passing my current biamped GC on to him. So why not go the whole way and build a balanced biamped GC?

However, I was a little concerned that the performance on the balanced amp may not be perfect. Sure there would be more power but would I lose any of the SQ? would the inevitable mismatch in performance envelope between 2 chips driving each driver affect the SQ etc etc?

There is a comment on the Peter Daniel website that the dynamics of a balanced GC can sound a little odd. I was concerned because the sound of my system is very dynamic and I did not want to upset that aspect.

I need not have worried. The improvement in SQ was immediately obvious. As soon as the new amp started to play Nick and I looked at each other and laughed. This was really something. Every single aspect of SQ was improved there was no downside at all. To take an already great sounding system and improve it in every single aspect is something that does not happen very often but that is what happened.

As Nick states the sound became fuller richer more dynamic with a big improvement in bottom end control and extension. I was expecting that the bottom end control and extension would be improved but to honest I was not expecting the mid to top end to improve significantly. But that was the area that really stood out - it sounded as though the amp had grabbed total control of the speakers. Any real instrument with strings sounding so natural - the natural tone of the instrument being presented in such a life like and natural way. The dynamics and presentation of the music was simply stunning.

I was expecting an improvement but I have to say I was taken aback. There were no downsides at all that either of us could hear.

Listening to Bonobo "Black Sands" the electronic strings at the start of the album have always been edgy. I always though that was due to the recording quality but playing it with the balanced GC really improved the presentation with the "strings" sounding much better rounded smooth.

Ravel's Tzigane an old but stunningly good recording was good before but now the quality of the string reproduction and tonal quality of the violin simply moved into another league.

The one thing that has always surprised me on my journey to getting this system is that at no point have I thought the GC was holding back performance. I just wonder how many people out there really know just how good GainClone amplifiers are? certainly this level of performance is much higher than my old SE mono block tube amps (£17k retail!!!)

For anyone interested I am going to regularly post progress on my new balanced GC amp build. That project has gained a new urgency now that I have heard what it is going to sound like.

Paul


 

[manisandher]

Thanks for the write-up guys. Shame I couldn't make it. It would have been interesting to see (hear) where my BD-Design gainclone monos came out in the comparison. IMO, they are seriously good amplifiers - in many ways as good as my Sauermann monos, though with a tad less warmth and body (attributes I just love). But still certainly better than any other amps I've previously owned.

Maybe next time...

Cheers, Mani.

[Scroobius]

Mani - no problem we will schedule another meeting in a few weeks when I have finished my amp and it is bedded in.

Paul