That's her up and running and I'm so happy to have the WNA sound pampering my eardrums with detail and glorious sound once again
It's too early to tell but the polyprops seem to give a smoother overall presentation to the sound (compared to polyester) and this really does suit the Grado SR325i.... I'm not sure I like the extra smoothness with the HD-600 but, as I say, It's early days and the amp has only been up and running for about 3 hours.
She fired up first time no problems at all so it really does look like the MKll is pretty much bullet proof and well protected from the oscillation God unlike MKl which
could play up from time to time and was pretty sensitive to certain caps and long cable runs.
I decided to keep the internal wiring short and tidy in this amp so didn't fit an On / Off switch or a LED on the fascia..... I keep the amp switched on all the time anyway so an On / Off switch is unnecessary and a fascia mounted LED equally unnecessary. (more wire) I fitted a 5mm LED direct to the board (the LED pads) and will probably cut a hole out of the top cover of the amp and glue in a bit of perspex which will illuminate the amps innards on dark nights:
The amp looks plain ugly in the Hammond enclosure (or minimalist, whatever you want to call it) and I think a 30mm round perspex peephole in the top would give it a bit of panache.
Ugly or what?
Thing is, it sounds
awesome and that's the main thing..... it's easy to tart up the looks further down the line but the sound is the most important part and boy it's sounding good now (it's been two hours since I started this post and I've been back and forth to the toilet swilling out with ice cold water to alleviate excruciating toothache) I've just popped my 'phones on again and the amp is burning in nicely with the sound opening up and filling out.... Unfortunately the toothache is getting worse and not responding to
anything other than 30 second "swills" of ice cold water so I'll cut this thread short and save my energy for a weekend of pain management.
I'll report back on the bypass caps etc. once I can fully concentrate on the amp (once I get this pig of a tooth removed!) In the meantime... MKll seems pretty much bullet proof and plug and play and, as such, gets a big thumbs up from me...... the kit is a breeze to put together and a lot more tidy than the MKl:
MKll
MKll
My first ever WNA MKl (a true wirefest
)
Things have certainly evolved since the MKl.... let's hope Dr. White continues to hone this fantastic amp, it's a beauty.
Mike.
