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Lets Talk Metal
Feb 19, 2015 at 10:39 PM Post #17,746 of 29,653
Feb 20, 2015 at 12:05 AM Post #17,748 of 29,653
Damn sexy!
 
Quote:
markm1 said:
  So here are a couple of pics of my new gear.
 
Biggest improvement is my electronics. Here are the small but dynamic duo-Clones 25 P power amp and Nuprime DAC 10H which is a DAC, preamp and headphone amplifier. The synergy is really nice.
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 

 
 
Here we have (the clue ) from Sjöfn HiFi-unique desgign-benign looking but have a tremendous impact, imaging, dynamic range relative to their size like a subwoofer was in the room. Really designed to use the walls in a small room to amplify the bass.
 
 

 
$4,000 poorer, but I finally like what I'm hearing! Listening to The Ocean Pelagial right now.
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Feb 20, 2015 at 12:14 AM Post #17,749 of 29,653
ferday said:
Gotta admit markm1....I'm jealous! I'm looking for a place to demo those speakers, I'd never heard of them before but the reviews are awesome

I'd love to replace the TV sound bar with some real speakers...but the better half already made me ditch a stereo once cause of the space requirements LOL.

How do they sound with really dense (black, death) metal?
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Thanks brother. This was a long time coming. Like I said, I'm pushing 50! I wish I could have done this 20 years ago.
 
I made a choice, and it may not be the right one. I decided to do my business with this one guy as he was selling me a lot of his gear he recently used for Demo at a big discount. I feel confident I would have to spend closer to 6K otherwise. I bought his demo Clues for about the same price as my Monitor Audio book shelfs and I could probably sell them and not lose too much.
 
So, the amp and DAC. The Nuprime stuff has a real clarity and neutrality. The IDA-16 DAC/integrated digital amp is nice. The marketing describes it as vast soundstage, lightning fast dynamics, ultra low background allowing your music to emerge from a jet black background. And, that's about right. But, I waned the HP amp so I went with the Nuprime DAC/preamp combo and a separate amp. If I had gone with the Nuprime amp and DAC as separates, the two would have set me back some $3300 and that would have consumed a lot of my budget. It would also make more sense for a bigger more power hungry space.
 
I really like the Clones sound with the Clue at a show and it sounded good in my home, but it is a warmer sound. The synergy is killer for your typical audiophile standards-and the key to this little system is it's a nice system competitive w/ the big boys for about $4-6K. Clones is an interesting story. Young Chinese guy decides to try to build an amp for his audiophile blues guitar playing dad and has a real gift-quit his day job, first child and now in his early 3o's is on the map with his products all hand made-one man operation-very affordable built like a tank. Great reviews-pure, honest, musical sound:
 CLONES audio is a one-person manufacturer. My goal is producing affordable audio components that will make it easy to enjoy music.  This project (the 25i amplifier) began at my father’s request. He wanted to have a simple yet great sounding audio system. He used to be an audiophile but got sidetracked for few years. One day he visited me to listen to my 47labs system. He thought it sounded great and was simple at the same time. He really wanted to have a similar system. Something small and simple yet offering great performance.
That was when I decided to build my own gainclone for him. I put much effort into chassis design to improve and tune up performance. The unit was supposed to be tiny and minimalistic.
Once completed, I gave it to my father and he thought it was great and said it would be good to share it with others. I decided to make a few further units and sell them. Each amplifier is hand made by me to maintain the highest possible quality. I would like to sell it at affordable price to help people make the first step on their journey to the audio world in a good style.
I started CLONES audio on 121212 (December 12th, 2012) and my son was born 5 days later. It is my dream to have my own product and to show my son that it’s possible for dreams to come true. In order to concentrate on the development and management of CLONES, I quit my full time job (I was a Graphic Designer) and since July has fully devoted to this business.
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But, the Clones 25 is a bit warm and certainly musical. Not quite like tubes but a step in that direction. This set up sounds really good for just about anything, but maybe not as ideal for extreme technical metal. I've listened to some doom, sludge and that all sounds good. Triptycon and Lord Mantis (held at gunpoint I would say are my favorite 14 releases) sound good. Melodeth, classic Maiden-good. The Ocean-I know you know them-extreme prog? That sounded great. Really anything well produced...which of course excludes a lot of the music we like! I listened to like literally 2 minutes of Panopticon and I didn't think it sounded so great. OTH, Opeth and Agallcoh  were awesome.
 
But, something like Revocation loses a little of that edge you might want. The speed of DM it seems suffers just a little. It feels slightly soft around the edges. But, my guess is the amp.
 
So, I went for an across the board genre sound that will be less fatiguing and really beautiful smooth transparent sound but may lack some of that diamond hard as nails sound you guys might like. I may upgrade for a few 100 from the Clones 25 power amp to the monoblock with separate power supply. If I do that I might see if my guy will bring a Clones 50 which has a bit more power at the sacrifice for some subtlety. The Clones 25 actually power wise for a room as small as mine is fine. But I wouldn't mind just a little more muscle. He knew what I want and we ended up witching cables from Supra to Luminous which lessened the warmth a little-the Luminous felt a bit more neutral. So at the end of the day-I think the Clones just gives it a hint of warmth and I can live with that.
.
My cop out was the HP piece which will be Nuprime-I may end up picking up some nice HPs and doing more metal tha way.
 
But as far as what I'm hearing, anything that has a-for lack of a better work-analog kind of vibe-old Sabbath, Zeppeling-classic rock really is so nice. Electronic, Pop, hip hop-all great.
 
of course I could have just kept the clues and the DAC and gone elsewhere for the amp, but I made my choice/
 
So my long answer is I would think with the right amp and I think their are innumerable combos that would work-it would be fine.
 
What I will tell you is overall impact, soundstage, imaging and tone blow me away. And, bass is off the hook. Up against the wall almost too much depending what I'm listening too.  But, I think I have a good room for these speakers. Really small, carpet...just not very far for the sound to go to. Then, I can slide these acoustic panels behind the Clues and it controls the base, defines the sound but loses a little soundstage. Pretty wild how I can manipulate their sound.
 
Some of it may be the amp/DAC too, but with live acoustic music for instance, like our Grados I almost feel like I'm at the concert-listening to a little Dylan earlier-an emotional impact to the music-where I don't get the sense of speakers-more 3-D.
 
OK, it's getting late! I better get outta here.
 
Feb 20, 2015 at 12:18 AM Post #17,750 of 29,653
Feb 20, 2015 at 12:28 AM Post #17,751 of 29,653
ferday said:
This is head-fi....
very_evil_smiley.gif
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I keep saying I'm close to be done. It's like the Greek myth of the dude pushing the boulder up the hill that keeps rolling back down for all eternity. Wife just rolls her eyes. IT WILL NEVER END.AGHHHHH!!!!
 
Feb 20, 2015 at 8:06 PM Post #17,753 of 29,653
Does Nuclear Blast ever do this? I don't ever remember?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SlJxwlk4vhA
 
Feb 20, 2015 at 8:15 PM Post #17,754 of 29,653
Melechesh - Streaming Entire New Album

Good news for Melechesh enthusiasts today because you get to listen to their entire new album Enki online. As of now, you can enjoy their new opus in its entirety, which is available for your listening pleasure (or displeasure) through YouTube. So, make the best of it while you can. Clocking at a little over one hour, the opus follows The Epigenesis.
 
Feb 20, 2015 at 9:40 PM Post #17,755 of 29,653
I didn't see whether anyone had posted this here yet or not, but Carach Angren has a new album coming out soon.  In my opinion it's either their best or second only to Death Came Through a Phantom Ship.  You can stream This is No Fairytale here: http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/streaming-carach-angren-this-is-no-fairy-tale/  
 
Feb 21, 2015 at 6:50 AM Post #17,756 of 29,653
Since getting my LCD-2s I've been really digging Immortal's Pure Holocaust. I've always loved At the Heart of Winter and Sons of Northern Darkness (though I get tired of SoND if I listen to it too much) but Pure Holocaust, heard through my new cans, is just on a different level IMO. I could see it easily becoming a personal top 3 metal albums ever for me.
 
On a totally different tangent -- are there any bands with a similar style to Dissection? 
 
Feb 21, 2015 at 7:18 AM Post #17,757 of 29,653
noxnoctum said:
  On a totally different tangent -- are there any bands with a similar style to Dissection? 
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Thulcandra is basically a Dissection cover band.


 
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