Updated impressions after around 65 hours of burn in. I’m very impressed with the N7 and quality of the musical experience it delivers. All below with Mest 2.
Voices - in class A, created an emotional connection. You can hear every nuance in the voice from the warmth and power of the chest, to firmness of the throat, to the softness of the lips. It’s the details like the quiver and cracks in the voice that got me and created chills.
Classical instruments - still class A, I can hear the sound resonance in the instrument cavities such as violin, woodwind and horns. Violins have texture and I can almost pick up bow switching from string to string. Horns are solid and cymbals crash. Bass can be localized but then spreads to fill the stage. Layering is musical and engaging.
Rock - class A is a wall of sound. Great lateral width and lead guitars are solid and crunchy - they project force. Drums have attack and cymbals are splashing with nice decay. The only flaw I could detect is the drums are too forward in the stage and while they sound amazing, it is too flat of a soundstage.
I switched to AB and the drums were further back in the stage and sound more correct, however the power and aggression was not as strong. Less exciting but more analytically satisfying. Still very good sound and dynamics in AB, interesting that it deepened the perceived soundstage. On a whim I switched to high gain and it restored a lot of what was missing for rock while keeping the dimensions of the soundstage. So that was an exciting find.
I think I prefer class A because of the higher engagement it creates with voices and classical, I think it’s the improved palpability and presence which connects emotionally. That magic may come at the expense of the perception of depth. For rock the formula is high gain AB, which creates exciting slam and a huge stage.
I’ll do some more experimenting later on but the overall experience is incredible and has exceeded my expectations when I purchased the N7.
Voices - in class A, created an emotional connection. You can hear every nuance in the voice from the warmth and power of the chest, to firmness of the throat, to the softness of the lips. It’s the details like the quiver and cracks in the voice that got me and created chills.
Classical instruments - still class A, I can hear the sound resonance in the instrument cavities such as violin, woodwind and horns. Violins have texture and I can almost pick up bow switching from string to string. Horns are solid and cymbals crash. Bass can be localized but then spreads to fill the stage. Layering is musical and engaging.
Rock - class A is a wall of sound. Great lateral width and lead guitars are solid and crunchy - they project force. Drums have attack and cymbals are splashing with nice decay. The only flaw I could detect is the drums are too forward in the stage and while they sound amazing, it is too flat of a soundstage.
I switched to AB and the drums were further back in the stage and sound more correct, however the power and aggression was not as strong. Less exciting but more analytically satisfying. Still very good sound and dynamics in AB, interesting that it deepened the perceived soundstage. On a whim I switched to high gain and it restored a lot of what was missing for rock while keeping the dimensions of the soundstage. So that was an exciting find.
I think I prefer class A because of the higher engagement it creates with voices and classical, I think it’s the improved palpability and presence which connects emotionally. That magic may come at the expense of the perception of depth. For rock the formula is high gain AB, which creates exciting slam and a huge stage.
I’ll do some more experimenting later on but the overall experience is incredible and has exceeded my expectations when I purchased the N7.
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