What happened to the thrill of the bench? Been a long time or did we lose posts?

[Lex]

Just checking the pulse, seeing if the ole girl still had anything left.

Lex

[ergo]

Jon seems busy with work and life and he was the main driver behind this section.... I have something in works that might produce some interesting material in a month or two. I just received two Hypex NCore NC500MP modules that I plan to make into two monoblock amps. I also have IcePower modules I've been listening to, so I'll try to put those on a test bench and see the difference once I've listened to both. Don't wanna bias my judgment before listening

[5th element]

That is correct, Jon bought the AP to do all the measuring and then real life hit him hard.

[JonMarsh]

That is correct, Jon bought the AP to do all the measuring and then real life hit him hard.

Remember any of the flying scenes from “Always”, the movie with Holly Hunter, Richard Dreyfus, John Goodman, and Brad Johnson about aerial fire firefights- when one of them is pulling out of dive, and the plane’s wings are still occasionally clipping tree tops while the fire blazes all around them?

Well, it’s not been quite that bad, but at times it has felt that way...

I finally moved into a real place after the 1 year lease on my apartment was up, for which the only selection criteria was how close to Bevelry’s home and how close to the planned location for Hospice. Put it on a narrow vector, and as it turned out, over 60 years old. Imagine kitchen counters only 10” deep and drawers too shallow to orient flatware front to back- all original... dishwasher that flooded the floor... etc., etc.


Last month I got moved into a much more useable place in San Ramon, about 45 years newer, 9 ft ceilings, a real kitchen, and a second bedroom that doubles as a small workshop. It’s probably too early to say “back in business like the old days” but it’s close.

Also, we have had and still have hiring and personnel issues at work... I have a new manager who though having a PhD, is new to our company, hired because our new director knew him at a previous firm. His technical knowledge is weak- all three of the AE’s on our team that interviewed him gave a thumbs down. And he is learning the organizational issues while trying to lead it. If that sounds like a weak plan, just imagine what it’s like in real life... then square it.

But I think some things are turning around for me as regards having some time for audio- without going into a lot of details about the things I’ve had to do at work in the last 12 months (OK- a little bit of detail- I have $18K of personal test equipment loaned out to two other engineers because they didn’t have CapEx budget planned to take care of their needs, and a hire which had been planned and in process for over 9 months had no CapEx budget planning (fortunately I was able to recruit a very able guy that I’d know over ten years) and the only way to equip him was to strip my bench, and I brought in $50K of equipment from home, with my AP in reserve for doing testing on our new Digital Amplifier ICs (which I spent a couple of months on last year- there is no other equipment for that in our team in the US other than what I have at home).

So, a lot of dumb stuff...

On the positive side, I’ve been testing some newish SB Acoustics drivers, and other parts of interest, and will have some info to share soon...

Steve Manning and I have been working on some enclosure ideas, and hope to have more information about that- we want to put together at least a small demo system to start- I’ve got the main drivers and just finished driver testing.

And I’ve got a couple of interesting pieces from Denafrips to run on the AP as soon as I can find a little time- both are benchmarks in price/performance, in my opinion. Did the listening first, because if it dosen’t sound great, the numbers on the bench don’t matter. But in this case, I think we’ll find things in close agreement.

So I’m going to try to make 2019 an interesting year for audio again...

[Dave Bullet]

It's nice to see you back Jon. As they say, you can't keep a good man down.

[fastponies]

Jon, Just a quick note to let you know how much you have been missed. It's great to have you back.
I'm largely a lurker on this site--not enough knowledge to contribute in a meaningful way although I'm trying to learn. I built Natalie P's a few years ago (love them) and am strongly considering tackling the Wavecore Ardents. Also bought some gear based on your testing. In addition to the regular contributors, I expect that there are many, many more like myself who greatly appreciate your expertise, insight, and time! Huge thanks.

[JonMarsh]

Thanks for the kind words, guys... I'm looking forward to getting back in the swing of things soon!

[sdl2112]

Jon, I concur with others. Nice to hear from you. I knew you would be back when you could. I know this hobby helps keep me sane during tuff times. I look forward to whatcha got cooking.

[Supernova]

Jon, Just a quick note to let you know how much you have been missed. It's great to have you back.
I'm largely a lurker on this site--not enough knowledge to contribute in a meaningful way although I'm trying to learn. I built Natalie P's a few years ago (love them) and am strongly considering tackling the Wavecore Ardents. Also bought some gear based on your testing. In addition to the regular contributors, I expect that there are many, many more like myself who greatly appreciate your expertise, insight, and time! Huge thanks.

Yay! I was wondering if you had been kidnapped by aliens (again) or something.

[JonMarsh]

Yay! I was wondering if you had been kidnapped by aliens (again) or something.

Some days it feels like I've been absconded with and dropped back into an alternate reality I never would have anticipated a year or two ago... so yeah, that hits a little close to home!


BTW, not to let the cat completely out of the bag, but I have a couple of pieces from a Chinese company I'll be benching (hopefully soon) as I've spent enough time listening even with some not so special associated gear to know that they have much to recommend-


Denafrips Terminator (ya gotta either love or hate that name, it's the top of their line of R2R ladder DACs- and I'm an R2R fan). It has a full selection of the usual inputs, then goes a step further and adds some unusual ones, which apparently the DAC is particularly optimized for- several flavors of I2S. I went through some pains coming up with a testing interface for a new CLASS D audio chip for my day job company when they acquired a Danish firm- US managers wanted me to take a look at it, but the only Eval boards shipping last summer were I2S input versions- which makes sense for a development platform for something like a boom box or bluetooth speaker, but my relatively standard AP didn't have that option... so I had to explore add on interfaces.

Now I also have some relatively hard to find items, such as a couple of network render boxes to I2S, one from Sonore, the other a Singer SU-1 USB to I2S, reputed to produce exceptional listening results with the Terminator.









The other item was something of a whim, but seemed appropriate given my current circumstances living in a rented condo... frankly I bought it mainly based on the apparent design choices I agreed with in the power supply, the specs, and because of how exceptional the Terminator sounds.


Denfrips Hyperion power amplifier 80W/ch @ 8 ohm, 150W/ch @ 4ohms












I've been so busy that in 1-1/2 months at the new place I haven't even had time to hook up my TV or the stereo system bits I haven't take to storage in Idaho. And I haven't had time in the last year plus to build the set of Minerva's that I have all the parts for...

Hopefully I'll be rectifying that situation, but there are indicators it may be a challenge... things I'll have to get involved in at work that I shouldn't have to, but that are being carried out in a very ineffective way at this time, but which are important.

[Supernova]

You had mentioned the Terminator previously but not the amp. The Hyperion has pretty impressive FR, THD and S/N Ratio. Should be interesting, especially at the price of $1247USD and free shipping.

[JonMarsh]

It's ratings would lead one to say that it's not a power house, but the PS seems to be quite well designed, has no power supply modulation to speak of based on load currents, and in the brief listen I've given to it it doesn't sound like a "small" amp at all, other than the stereotypes of small amps having more speed- yet it doesn't do that - it just passes through everything rather well, and like the Terminator DAC is rather harmonically and tonal dense. The sound is reminiscent of a Sonic Frontiers tube amp amp in some ways, but with the bottom end grip of an Aragon. Or like the Ayre V5 I used to have, but with a more transparent midrange and presence region, and again, more grip in the bottom end. Certainly for the price it's a good value; I got a good return on buying unheard.

A while after I bought it more review info started coming out on six moons. Worth reading if your'e curious.

https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/denafrips2/

I'm curious about the preamp, too, but having bought a Benchmark HPA4 last year, I'm hardly in the market for something new now. It's been a good performer.

https://benchmarkmedia.com/products/hpa4

[Supernova]

That Benchmark HPA4 looks fantastic. I wish I had seen this before I took the plunge into a DIY Doug Self Preamp. I was looking for something extremely neutral and low noise. I'm still excited to build the unit after I finish the Modulus 686 Amplifier, but I probably would have refrained if I had know about the HPA4.

[JonMarsh]

Yeah, that can be a problem in this endeavor- I'm sure you're still enjoy your Doug Self unit, but I have to agree, in this case I think Benchmark made a lot of good design choices and focused on the important things for a relatively high end preamp with simple signal chain requirements. For that alone, putting it on the bench should be very interesting- frankly, it was the least expensive new design that I thought might perform in the same league as my Halcro DM68's (which are up in storage in Idaho...)

But you know what? My first reaction upon reading about the Denafrips Hestia preamp was that, damn, maybe I should have waited and bought one of these! But you know, the Hestia is about 1/3 the price, too... no headphone capabiliy, but I don't normally use that anyway- it wasn't a factor in my purchase of the HPA4.
The distortion specs on the Hestia point to very similar ultra low noise performance as the HPA4.

If money weren't so tight due to increased monthly expenses for rent and medical, I'd probably be buying a Hestia just to check it out...








You may notice there are a lot of balanced connectors on the back... that's the way I prefer to roll, because of my background in pro audio.

[Hdale85]

Hmm, when you mentioned Chinese I was hoping for a budget option haha. Looks nice though.

[JonMarsh]

Budget or BUDGET!?

Well, there's budget, then there's BUDGET! Needs vary!

So, a DAC that performs with the $15K to $20K big dogs but is only $4.5K is "budget" in my book. But can bet out of reach for others, of course.


An amp that "only" does 80W/channel is not a big dog, EXCEPT that if is has specs such 125dB/SN and THD+N < 0.0008% (let's be realistic and just all that less than 0.001% then it's in relatively rarified territory, and at < $1500, it is pretty budget. If I wasn't so booked with mandatory stuff I'd have benched it already- I'm rather interesting to see how it compared with the Halcro DM68, and if it lives up to it's specs, with just 3.5 dB less output, compared with a $38K per pair new amplifier, then I'd say there is a clear value proposition.

A quick reminder of the Halcro's THD+N versus output level:



Now, it is better than the claimed performance of the Hyperion, but is it better enough for most people to hear the difference in their system at levels below 80W?

The reason I was willing to risk buying that amp besides the very positive experience with the Terminator DAC is the power supply design, which does physically exactly what I would do and have done in the past- a plethora of smaller caps in parallel which gives the benefit of higher self resonant frequency and better cooling and lower total ESR, and distributed lower current density for interconnect wiring. To me, that was a clear clue this designer knows what he is doing.

Hang tight, in a few weeks I hope to get things squared away in the lab room- I'm still not finished setting up my office area for my day job, but it's functional enough to get by.

Another potentially fun thing- the lower output of this amp has "encouraged" me to think more about higher sensitivity speaker designs, and there are a couple in the 88-90 dB/2.83 VRMS percolating on the back burner- driver measurements and crossover feasibility evaluations are underway.

Necessity being the mother of invention?