[vkvedam]

Here are my final impressions and views of Graham Slee Novo. First of all I would like to thank Joshua for coming up with such a loaner program so that potential buyers (Like myself) can go through all the reviews and impressions before shelling out about £235 for an amplifier which is considered to be a budget investment. Let me just make few points clear so that you might have a better understanding of my point of view and my impressions. This is my first high end (Kind of) desktop headphone amplifier. Before this I've never auditioned or listened to any of the dedicated high end headphone amplifiers neither a portable nor a stationary.

Source: Sony 1-Bit DAC PCDP and iPod 80 GB (Lossless & MP3 320 KBPS)

Headphones: Ultrasone HFI-780, Sennheiser HD 600

Construction of Novo:
Built like a tank, no other words, Solid and very robust construction. No power switch, a slight disappointment as I am kind of an environment friendly human being. Nice volume control and plenty of gain, in fact I couldn’t go past the 10’O clock mark even with the HD 600s and with my HFI-780s not more than 9’O clock setting. There is a slight amount of hiss though that I could easily pick as soon as I turn it up. It doesn’t really bother once fed with music as you blend in. This unit came with the wall-wart power supply and this could be one of the several reasons for the amp to hiss. Or my ears are way too sensitive that I could pick-up the usual PCB noise floor that is associated with gadgets like these.

Sound:
I am not entirely sure about the burn-in as 4 people have auditioned before myself and I had this with me for more than 10 days and I’ve left it plugged in as long as that was in my possession. But it should have had at least 200 hours on it prior to my burn-in and that should be sufficient to get the things started. So I have started my listening sessions with Sony’s line out feeding Novo and I had all the headphones mentioned above in front of me. Then I started off with a couple of my rock favourites, one being Led Zeppelin’s Presence and the other being Neil Young’s Greatest Hits compilation. Now getting into categorization…

Ultrasone HFI-780 (Stock Ones):
With just turning up the beautiful volume pot at about 8’O clock position the SPL was more than sufficient for my listening. Not to mention again I could hear the entire slightest possible hiss in the background and started playing Achilles Last Stand from Presence. The opening of this track in general is incredible with all the instruments taking off one after another straight away with electric guitar being the dominant. It’s a 10 minute track full of vocals and all the synergy that is associated with a good rock band playing on your face. It was quite engaging as well with Novo. Then I have decided to do an A/B with the way I normally listen to my PCDP/iPod with line out being fed directly to my headphones with the Shure in-line volume attenuator. I started off with the same track with my 780s plugged into the line out of the CD player and astonishingly it sounded similar to the earlier session. Every nuance I heard was similar to the Novo audition. I was taken aback because Novo costs about £235 retail. I did this A/B with the entire Presence album and Nobody’s Fault But Mine and Candy Rock Store are being the other picks. After that I have decided to go with Neil Young’s Greatest Hits. This is a beautiful compilation I have to say as each track on this master CD is a delight. I did an A/B with the entire album again with the picks being Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Southern Man, Old Man, Ohio and Like A Hurricane for extensive comparison again and again. I was still ambiguous as I didn’t see any significant improvement in texture, definition, bass, vocals or anything. I have done the same test with my iPod being the source with lossless files. I did the same test again and again. I was disappointed as I didn’t find any improvement over the way I normally listen.

Sennheiser HD 600 (Stock Ones):
After the disappointing attempt with 780s I have decided to go with my HD 600s which are known to be power hungry cans. The very first thing that indicated this phenomenon is that I had to place the volume pot position at 9:30  10’O clock position. But I couldn’t cross 10’O clock setting as I can’t listen for longer periods beyond that point. I started off with my favourites spinning again (In the CD player). Immediate sense was there was plenty of gain to the whole music. But I am not interested in just a gain and what I am looking for is more synergy when I place an amp of Novo’s range in the middle. Yeah the synergy was there as if the music being pumped from high resolution near field speakers. But a part from that I didn’t hear much improvement as I can achieve this with few more turns on my attenuator.


I was and am still puzzled looking at this piece of equipment costing a bit. All that it has got is plenty of gain to drive monstrous headphones with a noticeable hiss. And it had put me in a situation where my mind has started to think that investing in a budget stationary amplifier would be a waste and I would rather save up towards a more expensive and rewarding mid to high end amplifier. Or else I would just go with something like a Corda 3Move or iBasso D10 as these two little monsters serve more than a purpose or two and I can actually plug in my headphones/IEMs to my PC and enjoy hours of music at a much higher level. They are even portable and I don’t have to sit near a plug point all the time.

On the other side of this write up you could say I haven’t got a proper high end source. Well in that case I need to look into spending on a high end source rather than spending it on this budget amplifier. In fact with out this amplifier I can still spot differences with all the gear that I have and it adds nothing to me and I am not missing this at all.

Comments and suggestions are quite welcome.

 

[vic1890]

I use a solo - and they are noiseless, right up to its max - I'd think Graham would have designed the Novo the same as well. When you got this hiss - turned the volume up - was your ipod/sony connected to the amp?

 

[vkvedam]

My rig don't produce hiss at all. I am not worried about the hiss at all, my disappoint is with regards to it's performance as it didn't show much of an improvement as I've thought.

 

[mbd2884]

Here is a picture of the interior of the Novo if you are curious. Graham took the picture himself.

 

[LostChild1]

Hm, I'm sad to hear you had a bad experience.

I'm personally looking at buying the Solo, and I've literally heard nothing but good things about it, especially for the price it is.

 

[vkvedam]

I am not actually making a point about the hiss, it's not the normal sort of hiss you get from your player's headphone out. It's sort of negligible. My disappointment is about the improvement in the sound.

 

[JonathanHF]

It's weird to see that the review of the Novo is so bipolar.
Some think it is a great performer within the budget, some hear literally no difference in sound.
Thanks for the review. Maybe more inputs from other users will be very helpful.

 

[ferraro25]

When you do go for a higher-end desktop amp and want to be guaranteed to hear a difference, get a tube amp. It is a known fact that tube amps change the sound by adding harmonic distortion, resulting in a fuller, more musical sound.

edited to add: Or a solid state amp with its own non-neutral frequency response, like the Purity Audio Caliente.

 

[scootermafia]

A good tube amp is going to be hard to beat on HD650s. A more substantial amp like the M3 for the same money is going to destroy the Novo. It's probably a better deal than the Solo which has even less going on inside than the Novo and costs nearly twice as much for some odd reason.

None of this surprises me, someone had the courage to come forward and admit the Novo was nothing special rather than lying to themself and us. These things are put together with ordinary-grade parts...I don't see any boutique caps, Dale resistors, or Alps volume pots...just the cheapest stuff available. I know design is important, but I do think that building the Novo kit with top shelf parts would improve its sound. An M3 is just in a higher class and is built on a larger scale than amps like the Novo and Headamp Gilmore Lite, though, you can't expect a commercial amp to sound as good as a DIY amp for the same price.

 

[vkvedam]

I am still confused about amps and what they bring a part from plenty of gain. Or do I need to spend more time to get my ears tuned.

 

[imademymark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scootermafia /img/forum/go_quote.gif A good tube amp is going to be hard to beat on HD650s. A more substantial amp like the M3 for the same money is going to destroy the Novo. It's probably a better deal than the Solo which has even less going on inside than the Novo and costs nearly twice as much for some odd reason. None of this surprises me, someone had the courage to come forward and admit the Novo was nothing special rather than lying to themself and us. These things are put together with ordinary-grade parts...I don't see any boutique caps, Dale resistors, or Alps volume pots...just the cheapest stuff available. I know design is important, but I do think that building the Novo kit with top shelf parts would improve its sound. An M3 is just in a higher class and is built on a larger scale than amps like the Novo and Headamp Gilmore Lite, though, you can't expect a commercial amp to sound as good as a DIY amp for the same price.

i dont understand why u have to take every opportunity to diss amps u've clearly never heard just to make yourself feel better about your m3 choice.

 

[XXII]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imademymark /img/forum/go_quote.gif i dont understand why u have to take every opportunity to diss amps u've clearly never heard just to make yourself feel better about your m3 choice.

x2

Especially given what you posted here:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/5238845-post15.html

A lot of whether an amp sounds good to you or not depends on many factors including

1) Personal taste including taste in music.
2) Synergy with the rest of your equipment
3) Previous amps owned/listened to.

It's perfectly normal and expected for some people to like an amp and some people to not like it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by scootermafia /img/forum/go_quote.gif None of this surprises me, someone had the courage to come forward and admit the Novo was nothing special rather than lying to themself and us. These things are put together with ordinary-grade parts...I don't see any boutique caps, Dale resistors, or Alps volume pots...just the cheapest stuff available. I know design is important, but I do think that building the Novo kit with top shelf parts would improve its sound. An M3 is just in a higher class and is built on a larger scale than amps like the Novo and Headamp Gilmore Lite, though, you can't expect a commercial amp to sound as good as a DIY amp for the same price.

So people who don't share your views are "lying to themself and us"???

 

[DennyL]

When I tried the Novo using my AKG K501s, K701s and Beyer DT880s, and compared it to my Darkvoice 332 and my Headamp GS-1 I was really tempted to buy one because I enjoyed the resolution of treble detail so that I could hear singers breathing, scraping of strings, etc. I didn't notice any hiss.

 

[QQQ]

Pro-ject headbox anyone?

 

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by QQQ /img/forum/go_quote.gif Pro-ject headbox anyone?

Well, it's the first of April, but ....
... if that was serious, what good sounding headbox did you hear?

The Headbox I've listened to sounded awful.