Hello again, everyone!
Having received so nice comments from all of you, I went this weekend on listening to the gear.
I should say that listening experience is also quite a challenge: you have to deal with the desire to have all right now, prejudgements, pressure of retailers, tiredness, even with own memory, logical thinking, feelings and perception. Should also mention that I hate to deceive expectations of others, saying something like "ok, guys, I'll think over and come back if decide, etc."
So, I decided to compare Leema Pulse MKII, Musical Fidelity M3i, Roksan Candy K2 and Arcam A28, applying for a time in show room. I took my RS6 with my QED Silver cable. Unfortunately, local seller didn't have Roksan available, finally it came out that there are no any in the city at all until the 2nd half of May.
Pulse was not bad, dynamic, distinctive, pulled together, but I would not say that it was that much clear and bright on highs, what is aprreciated by me in music listening (I remember in fact how in early 90s I used a little screw-driver to fine-tune the position of magnetic head in my tape player to get the clearest high frequencies possible ...
. There was no Van Damme cable, unfortunately. I tried to switch to copper cable, it was one of Nordosts, of quite a price (about 1/3 of Pulse's price). It was a quite impressive change with a lot of added in the mids and lows. Anyway, as I said, I couldn't here the highs that sharp as before and probably was a bit missing them to get out the wallet and pay the sum.
Then came Musical Fidelity, and the sound was seeming better. I don't know, at least brighter and sharper, than Leema. It was also 500 euros less expensive. Nevertheless, I couldn't make my mind, because there was no Roksan, or Arcam A28, or Creek Evo2 available. And no Peachtree as well. So I decided not to hurry and go to next shop. Unfortunately, there were not many options around, since I couldn't find any Roksan in the city, and just went to hear Arcam A28. To be short, it played the music flat and with no expression, from my point of view.
But than things changed and I should say it was a literally day break. I mean, really...There was something looking very nice standing on the shelves of this little shop, and with quite in my budget (about 1500 euros). The gear was called Vincent, I never heard of that. In fact, I was never investigating this part of hi-fi market before because of usual price level for this kind of staff. It was nicely looking silver metal box with tubes on top, so I asked the guy if I could listen to that as well. He told me about this brand (German origin and design, Chinese subcontractor fab to produce) and turned that on. It was great sound, believe me or not, but it was better than anything I heard that day. I was different in nature, with more sound shapes and warmth, clear and just nice. The model was called T.A.C.-88, it had 55 W per channel, and we plugged it I think with 8 Ohms output.
We also tried hybrid amplifier of the same brand (SV-226MKII), about the same price. Was also very impressive and clear sound, sometimes just too clear, all the instruments were heard so bright, about to say separated from one another. It was a minus in comparison with fully tubed. But still very musical, and what was obvious, more powerful (2x100/8 ohms; 2x200/4 ohms).
I also tried one integrated amplifier Hegel from Norway, and it was also quite interesting product. Never heard of them before, but the sound was very neutral and clear. Again the price was around 1500 euros...
We used Nordost expensive cabling (500 euros) and cheeper Black Rhodium which I after all purchased (Jiva).
So everything was looking good for this Vincent product, but one thing was making me cautious - it's production origin and price. I understand that labour cost in China is very low, but I'm not sure it's very nice idea to get the best edges of such thin matters in so industrialized and not very well fed country. Also all these notorious quality issues, tracing China, makes it a little bit risky...I don't know, of course, in our age of automatic machines maybe it's too exaggerated difference between "Made in UK" label vs "Made in China".
But the staff was musical and so affordable!
So, I don't know. Money is still with me, I listen music still with Denon AV-receiver, but with the new copper wire (by the way, begin to like the sound more and more, are cables working better after one day?)
Maybe, someone has unbeatable arguments against Vincent? Will really appreciate because I seem internally to be close to buy that.
I also have some questions:
- during testing tube amplifier, left side was pickng heat faster than right side. I tested three different CD's, the effect was the same. Also after turning it off for a while and after half hour turning it back on, the left speaker gained sound faster than right one. I was a bit suspicious, but the guys in the shop were no concern about it. Does anyone know if that is abnormal?
- the tubes are something that can be improved if I'm not wrong? Can I increase the power of such amplifier or that's it what I get now? Just not sure that RS6 which are nominal 120W with 6 Ohms will show everything with 55W/8Ohms Vincent.
- for by-passing the signal through amplifier from Av-receiver the guy in the shop said just to use usual inputs, not a phono in input. Is it so?
- hybrid amplifier has a little bit scaring spec 100W/8ohms, 200W/4 Ohms. Any danger to RS6 with 120/6 Ohms specs?
- can I improve tubes in hybrid purifier later?
I hope for your experienced advice and thoughts for me to make a right choice. Thank you very much!
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