Dear headfriends,
> that sounds even more promising to me.
Yep, it does sound good!
> Also could you comment on some people saying that opamps are inferior to conventional discrete amp designs.
In the early days of opamps these were made to provide a cheap and easy solution for relatively "crude" applications. At those times discrete designs may well have had their advantages.
Since then, opamps have developed into very precise "instruments" and have a very high performance level. I've never made a personal comparison between discrete designs and opamps designs but I've found opamps to perform quite well. And the big advantage is, that sound signature can be optimized to personal taste by exchange of the opamp.
Did you know that the opamps in the CLASSIC and in the DACCORD are socketed?!!
> For me as the end customer it is always hard to discriminate between right and wrong regarding such fundamental technologies.
It's not about right or wrong. It's about personal taste.
> An assault on IMD sounds very exciting. It is too often forgotten (or harder to measure, perhaps?).
IMD by nature is way more obtrusive than harmonic distortion because the frequencies involved are non-harmonic to the musical contents. And normally the total amount of IMD is larger than harmonic distortion too!!
There are some "simple" measurements of IMD but they do require high-precision measurement equipment. That currently is my problem. The IMD of my measurement equipment is higher than that of my amp/DAC after modification.!
> But why would the HD 800 get more expensive inside the EU, when it is made in Wedemark, Gemany.
Raw materials may be produced outside Europe.
> I owned Quickstep, very nice amp IMO, but the battery usage is high for a portable system, playing time is too low. Have you a plan for that problem.
The high supply voltages of the QUICKSTEP (+/- 9V) do provide high driving capacities and help to improve sound quality. However, they also increase powerconsumption. It's the price that is to be paid.
However, inside the amp there is a shunt that can be repositioned. The supply voltages inside then are reduced to +/- 4.5V and battery life time is nearly doubled. It is described in the user-manual.
Cheers
Jan