FedEx and SMc brought me some fun today.

breal74 wrote: »

Awesome and I love the packaging. It is ready to rock! I can't wait to hear more about the improvements made and the difference in sound.

yeah, the packing was fine, but a cr*p-ton of peanuts, which I despise. Maybe I should karma them?
It was in my original box, with some of my original 1 1/2" foam and packing, and double boxed surrounded by peanuts.
I didn't have time last night to change things around.... going to do that tonight, get cabling in order, and let the amp sit powered up for a couple of days. Most likely I will start listening Friday night or Saturday.
Basically, the only things left from the original amp are the chassis, the transformer (the toridial upgrade was another $600), and the output boards/transistors.
I can't pretend to understand much of it as far as the technical details. But the main board was replaced with a new , built like a tank mainboard, all components and wiring updated, posts and RCA jacks, a Furtech IEC, and the amp sat in between their two reference systems for a week being evaluated by Steve and Pat.
I spoke with Pat numerous times on the phone, and wish they weren't so busy as it was very interesting.

tonyb wrote: »

Sounds like a plan, I'm jonesin to hear your thoughts. Go figure, they actually listened to it for a week before shipping back to you, take note Onkyo. lol Ken really had a hard time with them.

Any Parasound owners in the hca1200-1500 area, this is the brand you should move up to. One of the best SS amps for the money that don't sound like your typical SS amp.

Yeah.... I thought it was an impressive part of the upgrade process. Both Pat and Steve spent time listening, and moving things around between the two systems as needed for other projects. Their systems have Vandersteen and Genesis speakers, so nothing outrageously high end, but nice.
Also, I had briefly considered moving up to a DNA 1 Deluxe, but was told that my money would be better spent on the DNA 0.5. There is a lot of love there (still) for this model of amp.
All in all, nobody should EVER worry about dealing with SMc..... hands on, accessible super nice people out there. They told me 4 weeks, it took 4 weeks.

breal74 wrote: »

What's the good word on the amp?
On a side note, I grew up in Cedar Rapids and most of my family still lives in the area.

The month my amp was at SMc, my rig had my old NAD 2150, which has seen some better days. It needs recapping, but is good enough to keep me from jonesing.... so that is where I am coming from into this DNA 0.5. I have switched between 5jr+, RTA 11T, and my Infinity Rsb, which happen to be currently hooked up.

First impression is the dynamics are incredible. Madonna's "Ray of Light" just started, and the bass/drums enter, it literally made me jump as I was typing. I may or may not be putting the amp through it's paces at a somewhat elevated volume.

I would say it's control is iron fisted, even with these 10" woofers. The degree of separation between voices, instruments.... is just nutty... I think this might be what is called air in critiques. I have Nathanial Rateliff on now, and the placement of his band is just solid, and even during the fuller passages I can distinguish the entire bass line like never before.

There has been experimentation with placement of speakers. My room is dead horrible for this, and I do the best I can. Right now with the Rsb on stands, I have them toed in slightly, which seems to work the best, and the soundstage is pinpoint and 3-D , and to the best of my memory, has more verticality than before.

During the clapping in "S.O.B", the dynamics are such that I can feel the hand clapping during the beginning.....

Listening to Cake, the pick on guitar strings and the growl of the amp..... the "feel" of a stick on a drumhead. I can "hear" the elasticity of the tom heads.....

In feel and dynamics, I would say the amp is detailed and fast, especially since I have listened to the NAD for a month (which has dynamics, but to me sounds warm and fuzzy).

Right now, the one negative.... I would call the overall tone of the amp just a smidge hot (on all three sets of speakers.) at the moment. Even though Steve and the techs did some listening, I would still chalk this up to a little break in time needed. But what I hear is the same thing I get when freshly recapped speakers are first hooked up.

I have some cable swapping to be done over the next week as well, experimenting.

I sent SMc audio an email updating my thoughts on the "new" amp last week. In their own hands-on style, I received a phone call from tech Pat on Sunday, thanking me for my thoughts. As always, it lead to a somewhat lengthy phone call discussing present and future upgrade paths, tweaks, and thoughts on the state of audio.
He asked if I had replaced the fuses yet with higher quality ones, and I expressed a need to slow down on audio spending at the moment due to very recent medical costs I have incurred.
He then gave me a couple of "free" tweaks to try.... one thing that has some up even since mine was upgraded in February.
#1... lid off. Everyone there has always thought the amp really opens up once the lid is removed. To this end, he told me they have tried many, many differing substrates to make a new series of chassis lids, and have decided on carbon fiber. These will be available soon... they found an audible difference over the metal lid.
#2... the old yellow /green power light original to my amp was replaced by a blue LED, as the "soft on" feature of the amp was removed. They have been disappointed to find that, since it is plugged directly into the driver board, it creates an audible difference and that I should experiment with unplugging it. They have since been spending time figuring out how to re-route it so it has no impact.
Ok, gotta run to work... just thought I would share these thoughts.