Graham Slee "Novo" - UK Loaner Program
Nov 12, 2008 at 12:10 AM Post #76 of 91
Quote:

Originally Posted by ufo /img/forum/go_quote.gif
After reading a lot of posts on this website about headphone and amps, I decided to order a Novo and a set of HD600's.
So after parting with my money my Novo turned up last wednesday (and that was less than a week after ordering it)and the HD600's turned up the next morning, both were set up to use with my Ipod (music in lossless format) and my cd player, unfortunately at this time my trusty old technics cd player decided to pack up and is no longer with me, still 20 odd years is not bad. but you know what its like, you cant be without one so I went out and purchased a cheap £100 hitachi player, which for a cheapie is not half bad.
I am certainly no expert on music, but I know I like it to sound good, after it was all set up I had a listen of both the Ipod and the cd player with the Hd 600's and my UE Super Fi 5 Pro's and was happy with sound from everything apart from maybee some parts of the tracks that I was listening to sounding a bit to bright for my liking.
so over the next 3 days I played all sorts of music through the amp and using both sets of headphones coming and having a listen when time allowed......then yesterday I decided to sit down and have a proper listen, I listened to several albums from Phil collins, Pink floyd, Joan Armatrading and Supertramp and was very pleased with the results, some of the brighness had disappeared and everything was sounding much nicer and more mellow, as I said before I am not an expert on music, but I have always listened to music through headphones, sometimes with the ipod on it own, or cd player and the Ipod going through an old sony amp that I had, But this is a whole new ball game.
The setup might not have cost a fortune , but I am very pleased with it.
the only thing I need to know now is..will a dac between my cd player and Novo headphone amp make anymore noticeable difference, the one I was looking at a cambridge dacmagic, any ideas if it will improve what I am already impressed with ?

Thanks for all your help guys , because if you didn't post in these threads, there would be a lot of knowledge out there going to waste..............cheers.. ufo.........


You rig will only sound as good as your source, and I don't hold out much hope that your £100 hitachi player is going to win any contests. I would guess the DACMagic will be an improvement, having heard one I know it doesn't suck, sounding very nice but not quite as good as a $700 Stello DA100.
 
Nov 12, 2008 at 12:13 AM Post #77 of 91
Quote:

Originally Posted by Gradofan2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
But... how does it sound with low impedance phones - which it was particularly designed to drive... since... the Solo does not drive them well???


It drives my RS-1, Denon D2000 and Edition 9 well - all low impedance.
 
Nov 12, 2008 at 3:37 PM Post #78 of 91
Thanks for your answer HeadphoneAddict, I guessed the cheapie cd player wouldn't be to good, and it will probably go into my workshop in the end anyway (got to have music when working on my scoot)
But to keep her indoors happy I am trying to build up my new hifi stuff piece by piece (women tend not to notice to much that way)
So I am happy with my amp, cans and Ipod ,...But do I buy a DAC next or do I hold fire on the DAC and spend £300 to £400 on a cd player then worry about a DAC at a later date.

ufo
 
Nov 12, 2008 at 4:16 PM Post #79 of 91
Quote:

Originally Posted by ufo /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Thanks for your answer HeadphoneAddict, I guessed the cheapie cd player wouldn't be to good, and it will probably go into my workshop in the end anyway (got to have music when working on my scoot)
But to keep her indoors happy I am trying to build up my new hifi stuff piece by piece (women tend not to notice to much that way)
So I am happy with my amp, cans and Ipod ,...But do I buy a DAC next or do I hold fire on the DAC and spend £300 to £400 on a cd player then worry about a DAC at a later date.

ufo


Well, I would say cheapo CD player + DAC = sound quality corresponding to DAC quality.

So keep your cheap CD player if it works and looks nice, and splash out on a DAC.
 
Nov 14, 2008 at 6:53 PM Post #81 of 91
Quote:

Originally Posted by tommy_uk77 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
hows the sound with Denon D2000 and Edition 9 ?


I thought the NOVO did very well with both of those headphones, and except for the more compressed soundstage of the NOVO when compared to my Woo Audio WA6 maxed with PDPSU and Sophia Princess, the NOVO seemed to have a little more power on tap with slightly better bass control on these low impedance phones. To me soundstage is very important, and while the NOVO's was pretty good when paired with my 24v Sigma 11 PSU, the step up to the WA6 larger soundstage (or to my Single Power Square Wave XL) was like moving my HD600 from single ended to balanced mode. For that reason alone I would chose my Woo WA6 first, but the Novo was not bad at all.

Also, while the NOVO was smoother in the upper mids and highs and therefore less fatiguing than my Apogee mini-DAC headphone out, moving up to the Woo WA6 or my Single Power Square Wave XL was a similar step up above the NOVO in refinement. Just remember both of those amps with the options that I have installed puts them at about $1250 each. If I hadn't heard better, I probably would have been perfectly happy with just the NOVO and my collection of dynamic headphones for quite a while.
 
Nov 16, 2008 at 1:01 AM Post #82 of 91
Well I still haven't received any text from Nuwidol. Should I send this unit to MrJoshua where its supposed to end this programme. I need a reply or message. I'll be waiting.
 
Jan 27, 2009 at 8:21 PM Post #85 of 91
Quote:

Originally Posted by MrJoshua /img/forum/go_quote.gif
(To the EU people... I'll ask Graham what he proposes to do for you guys - Maybe you can get this one after the first 10 UK people.)



How's the program going and did anything ever come from the above ?
 
Jan 28, 2009 at 4:05 PM Post #88 of 91
MrJoshua was organising the UK Novo loaner program. He would know what is going on.
 
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