NVA Reviews (THIS THREAD IS ONLY FOR STASHING REVIEWS)

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Okay I have now had some extended listening to diminutive P20 and A20 pre amp and power amp.

Albums listended to on Saturday
Prefab sprout steve mcqueen
Genesis abacab
Danny Wilson this is danny Wilson
Hall and oates bigger than the both of us
Steve windwood back in the high life
Moody blues – melancholy man
Phil Collins – In the air tonight

It was an enjoyable listen , not once did I wish I had my old amps back . There was no loss of music. They played my records in a very enjoyable musical way and for £300 they are an absolute bargain .

My old metal cased amps were made in 1983 and from memory I would say the new amps are better in some ways . They have a better sound stage . Most of my albums are multi-tracked rock albums and they are recorded to give the impression of instruments specifically placed .

Thus on moody blues album the differentiation and placement of multiple guitars was better and easier to differentiate . winwood's my love is leaving as electronic drum pattern repeated throughout the song which is placed to the left , it seem to be further left and further back .

I like my soundstage to be sound as I am about 10 rows back and I therefore do not like the voices to project to far in front of the speakers and I like to good depth . On in the air 2 nite the drums sounded spatially further back.

All in all I would say the instruments were better defined in space .

I would also say the upper frequencies are better and a tad clearer . These are impressions , they are not nite and day differences. There were no revelations or "fuck me that is how that is supposed to sound" but I wouldn't expect them to be as I already consider my hifi to be very good and they were replacing NVA amps in any event.


There is one issue and that is the music as lost a little control and edge of the seat dynamism. A lot of rock music is about the interplay between various instruments and dynamic attack . The moody blues album is as some awesome songs on it with tremendous foot tapping interplay between the musicians. i gained the impression there was an element of realism that I am used to missing .
I am speculating but I put this down to the fact the smaller power supply compared to my Mono amps . Terrybooth always says what you get as you go up the range of NVA is the same but a little bit more , I now think I now what he means .

I think that little bit more power , control and realism is acquired with increased power supply.

I am going to solve this problem by returning the on A20 , keeping the pre amp and buying some A40’S , in my medium size room with efficient speakers that should do for now .

So to sum up , this pre and power amp is a hifi bargain . I have looked at both new and old amps on the tinternet and I cannot for £300 find anything I would rather purchase. Also as I way of getting on the NVA ladder it is the perfect solution cause you can keep the pre amp till you get the top of the powers amps and then go on the stepped attenuator ladder .

DQ

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

From John at TAS - TSCS speaker cable.

I do not have exotic cables I use the Belken Cables that have performed pretty well in my system for many years. To be honest I do not enjoy swapping cables on first listen I was not impressed whilst it had a bit more treble detail the sound initially was a bit closed in I gave them a few more listens and the cables started to show me why many rate them so high.

A comparison between the Belkin and the NVA TSCS cable is not a fair battle considering the price difference. I expect a good difference and yes the cables certainly lives up to this. Everything sounds more natural and real, its a bigger step up in sound quality in my system than using Balanced Mains. drums are fuller and punch more. High hats have a naturalness. I played a variety of music and the result was similar throughout.

Listening

Derek Trucks On the first track Voluntary Slavery it gives new insight into the song, drums are more real and the music just has a better sense of flow
Pink Panther Horns are more natural, the music has a great sense of swing
Dream Theater The Dance of Eternity More insight again kick drums have improved

The jump between the Belken and NVA cables is not subtle and in terms of this context I would say you get what you pay for. I need to hear the cables with the new drivers I will be putting next weekend as the drivers make a huge difference in terms of transient attack and soundstage that I currently cannot reach. So I will update after that

Read more: http://theaudiostandard.net/thread/2185 ... z47J6Te300

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

BY email from Richard Evans

LS6

I really don’t understand those people who rant about speaker cables all sounding the same, that the sonic differences are a figment of the listeners imagination. Who are these people? What is their agenda? Presumably, their assumption is that If science is incapable of measuring the audible differences between two different audio cables then they must be all same? richard Feynman would never of said that. What miserable lives these people must lead. Put the oscilloscopes away, pour yourself a beer and listen. And if you still can’t discern a clear audible difference either bin your current music replay system or visit your local GP ...


I can qualify this rather passionate monologue because I’ve just auditioned the LS6 speaker cable. The difference between this and my previous cable is simply vast – about the size of Hampshire! The emotional benefits are epic. Musical. Swapping in these cables reminds me of the time I ditched my massively overrated American power amp for the Alecto monos. Music, music, music. I don’t think I have particularly sensitive hearing and I don’t know a great deal about ‘hIfi’ but I do appreciate the emotional tug that great musicians can bring. I enjoy most genres and I’m privileged enough to be able to see a live band in London virtually every week so I think I know what great music should sound like … It sounds a bit like music played through the LS6. It really does. Well done NVA.

[Quarknosis]

I've been using an SC for the last month or so as I had one cable spare (the other one and a half pairs that I own must be somewhere in the house I just can't find them).

The SC as a digital cable so positively trounced a Mark Grant one that I only had to switch the MG back in briefly to know that I was going to stick with the SC until I can go higher up the NVA range for a digital cable.

It's been a little while since I had the MG digital cable in between my CD player and Beresford DAC but the improved clarity of the SC was immediately obvious. I was too busy enjoying the improvement at the time to take note of the reasons why the SC is better than the Mark Grant, for me it just is. It's hard to believe that such an inexpensive cable does such a good job.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Hi Doc,
Just to confirm cube 3's delivered yesterday. For now placed on the top of my Sideboard and initial impression very good, great imaging, something that has not been top of my agenda in the past. Today I have received some speaker stands so looking forward to the cubes on these. Will give a report within the next couple of days. Thanks for the loan.
Dave

Follow up

Received a pair of Cube 3's on loan from the Doc since I was keen as mustard to hear a set of NVA speakers having read all the positive results on HFS. Well started off placing them on top of my sideboard to get a feel for them since I did not have any stands. The stands arrived the next day and I must say they made quite a good difference. Started by placing the Cube's close to the back wall, 2" - 3" with a slight toe in. Moved them out until I felt 10" to optimum in my room which gave the bass more 'air' I then moved on to toe in finally settling for the speaker facing directly towards my listening position, this giving the best soundstage. Listening for the first 5 - 10 mins I felt the sound was very good and then it suddenly occurred to me just how bloody good. Great detail, the bass tight and tuneful, the word addictive came to mind, they make you want to hear more and more music. My brother came round the next day and had exactly the same experience, listening to the music for 5 mins and then the 'wow' moment. These really are very musical and involving speakers, I have heard many, and must say these are close to the top of the pile, and for the money won't be beaten. They are also great for tv audio which has got be a plus. For those that are interested equipment used:- Project cd transport, Calyx 192 dac, Sony 770ES, Artisan silver interconnects and Van Damme blue speaker cable. Thanks again for the loan of these great speakers Doc.

[George Hincapie]

NVA P90SA Passive Pre-Amp Review

Introduction & Background
I have been fortunate to have the loan of a P90SA for the last week. I wanted to trial one for several reasons; firstly, I wanted to have a solid and reliable 'base' for my system. Something that brings all of the other components together beautifully. Secondly, I am intending to upgrade my mono amps in the near future, but also wish to bi-amp, so it is necessary to have hardware that will allow this. Thirdly, I wanted to improve upon the pre-amp I was previously using in my Beresford Caiman MKII DAC. Finally, and far less importantly, I have experienced an annoying 'ground loop' buzz and wanted to remove that. So, a number of valid reasons.

You can see my system below, decent by any measure, but with plenty of room to grow. During the trial I listened to various artists and genres from my Tidal HIFI and SoundCloud subscriptions, as well as my standard 'comparison' CDs, being 'Every Kingdom' by Ben Howard, 'Sigh No More' by Mumford & Sons & 'The Lumineers' by The Lumineers. Funnily enough

The P90SA itself arrived well packed as always. Standard NVA construction that we are all familiar with and little to comment upon, other than it was clean, all panels aligned and no glue or other contaminants found on the surface. Very well provided for at the rear with inputs; as everything is routed through my DAC, I slipped it into 'Fixed' output and connected it to the 'Direct' input. I thought it would be a PITA having to adjust two volume dials, but actually it isn't irritating at all. The stepped attenuators give a very pleasant feedback feel in use.

So, on to the listening. I struggle to articulate what I hear, so I hope you all understand my poor attempts to translate that experience to text...

General impressions
The extra 'depth' to all recordings was immediately apparent. I don't mean this in a 'side to side' sense that people often refer to when discussing the soundstage, but in an actual 'front to back' sense. I close my eyes and feel it - quite astonishing.

Silence. When nothing is happening either before a track plays or during a track, there is just blackness. Utterly silent. No ground loop buzz.

Separation. The instruments and musicians are more defined. More distinct. I can sense the space between them.

Clarity. I have always had this experience with NVA. It was my No.1 goal in HiFi. The P90SA delivers it to an even greater extent. It genuinely feels as though the artists are right there in front of me, the timbre, the tone and projection are all perfect.

Conclusion
The P90SA has been no disappointment. It has proved to be everything I hoped and a little more; it is a solid base from which to build a truly competent system. Which causes me a problem, because I don't want to give it back...

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Another Phono 1 review

Post by Quarknosis » Mon Jun 20, 2016 11:30 pm
I received a MM Phono 1 a weeks ago. After a couple of emails with Doc suggesting that I run an earth lead from the Phono 1 to my mains earth I was still having hum from my Rega turntable. I decided to try my Lenco/Jelco combination with a Nagaoka MP 110 (and also for a short time with a Denon DL-110) and have now got a vinyl playing system with extremely low levels of noise.

One of the first things I noticed was how much cleaner sibilants are compared with anything I have heard before. The main reason I was listening to less and less vinyl was that I was finding sibilants harsh and really annoying. This vinyl set up is much much better at handling the sssss sounds. I can’t say if this is totally down to the Phono 1 as there have been so many changes to my system recently. I am using all NVA between the phono sockets attached to the tonearm, right through to the speakers and I was already finding sibilants much smoother before listening to the Phono 1, but on vinyl the improvement has been huge. I listen to lot of late 70s and early 80s Dub and with the phono 1 in place the cymbals have don’t have the splashy sound that I usually experience.

Another benefit has been that the soundstage has a stronger central location, most other phono stages that I have used previously seemed to pull the image to one side. I have just set bias by ear at the moment and it is sounding far better than it ever did when trying to set bias by using a test record or ungrooved record in the past. Images have also improved, Dave Brubeck’s Piano doesn’t stretch from in front of the drums to outside the right speaker any more on the Time Out LP, it’s width seems more realistic.

The Phono 1plays music extremely well. As I said earlier I was listening to vinyl less and less and I was really starting to wonder why I often read comments about vinyl being better than CD. Now I understand. Considering Dub again and the bass comes across with great variation between recordings. I’m now experiencing it bouncing along or relaxed, complicated or simple rather than just happening. Onto some Brazilian fusion and Super Strut by Deodato, with a lot going on in the track, it felt like every instrument was easily identifiable with nothing being drowned out by anything else.

I don’t listen to Classical very often but I decided to give some a try and was pleased to hear a very enjoyable performance and was impressed by the building crescendo on a performance of some Holst, I’ve never experienced an effect like that before on any system that I have heard.
I’ve also been really enjoying listening to singers a lot more as well, I usually have a preference for instrumental music but the Phono 1 has a lovely way with vocals that I found myself picking out records to listen to voices more than usual.

This is probably the best phono stage that I have heard so far. Having said that most of those that I have owned have been in cheap integrated amps, low cost separate phono stages or DIY attempts. I have heard the Firebottle MM/MC amp but the system I had at the time was nowhere near as revealing as the one I have now. I think I am enjoying the NVA more than the Firebottle but it is about a year ago since I heard the latter so I can’t say for sure, but it does seem that with the Firebottle I was putting records on to hear what the phono stage sounded like whereas I am spinning records to listen to music with the NVA. I have also heard the phono stage of the Rega Elex – R which I thought was horrible so the NVA would be a clear winner in that case for me.

So the Phono 1 will be staying with me. It was supposed to be my final phono stage but after listening to it I’m now wondering what the Phono 2 sounds like if I can ever afford it (who said that the NVA sound was addictive?). But I’m going to enjoy the Phono 1 for now as I feel that there are higher priorities for my system (better NVA speaker cables, doc mod drivers and an improved Lenco build) which need to be improved before the Phono 1 does.

Quarknosis

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

From DQ

A40 power amps

For the past 2 months I have been enjoying a loan of the diminutive A20, HIFI Bargain of the year and enjoying it very much. I was well impressed with it, the only issue was possibly what I wrote above. I was enjoying the A20 whilst I manage to stem the flow of my money to my children sufficiently to save up for some A40’s.

So they arrived Tuesday. First thing to say is they are little black acrylic beauties, you cannot appreciate the beauty of these things until you see them, I adore the integrated recessed heatsink which forms part of the structure of the amp rather than metal fins tacked on as an after thought. NVA is a small British hifi company and the design of the mk2 amps is a masterclass in functional simple and beautiful aesthetics that would not look out of place in a design museum or Bauhaus institute. Richard, IMO the MKII amps are a hifi design genius that is sadly underappreciated.

So they look good, but I wasn’t expecting too much of the sound, after all I had my loan A20 and I had been using the mk1 A50’s. It was immediately obvious that the power and control I thought I was missing had returned, but it had returned bigger and better. The amps were better in every way.

Joy divisions atmosphere, the repetitive drum pattern was lower with more scale, the contrast between loud and soft was greater and the drums were easier to pick out in the mix.

Hall and Oates “shes gone”, is a joyous song of loss that is so well constructed it is a work of genius, the voices were awesome, but the way it portrayed the mix of electronic sounds and guitars that all build up to final chorus crescendo was so good, I played it 3 times.

The scale, realism and impact has returned to the music and curiously this is the case even at lowish volumes. I have had them 3 days and they are awesome. Above all what they do is play music, so you can just sit back and listen to it. My record collection is full of musicians whose life work was to create some of the most awesome rock music, and nva amps let you listen to the music and emotion of what they intended. You don't need to worry about all the hifi bollocks, you just listen and smile.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

CUBETTES

Arrived yesterday. Little, black precious!
I'm really impressed by sound. Compare to my Minstrels, base is much deeper and natural.
Stage much wider, more natural soft sound. Dave Brubeck live at Carnegie Hall vinyl give me a lot of so realistic sound and drum was perfect!
Dire Straits /Dire Straits sound amazing as well.

Great thanks.
Wojtek.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

NVA Phono2 Paul.Callaghan » Sun Jul 24, 2016 9:12 pm

I am very new to writing on any forum, I don't even do Facebook, my kids find it hilarious,so I will keep it short and to the point.

I have been using CDs since early eighties. My vinyl got ditched for the new kid on the block.The vinyl got put into the loft and that's where it stayed for the next twenty eight years.

As soon as I started working, moved in with a mate who was already into HiFi,I found I enjoyed listening to decent sound. I started of with a Toshiba Aurex system and then changed to Arcam and Cyrus separates which I collected for many years and built up to fourteen boxes sitting on two hark racks, my pride and joy, after my family of course, at great expense.

In February 2014 after talking with my Wife, I walked into my local HiFi dealer and after a few visits and weeks of listening I decided to trade all my gear in including my 5.1 system and buy a Pioneer sc-lx57, CD50 player and a 5.1 Monitor Audio Silver speaker array. What an idiot some will say and I don't blame you. I then added a Bdp-lx58 Blu ray player as we all enjoy watching movies in good quality.I listen to music and watch movies in the same room so I have to try and get the balance right for me and my family.

This is where I saw many turntables on display and I just knew I had to get one. In April this year I gave in and bought an Audio-Technica lp5, got my vinyl out of the loft, purchased a few new pressings and bought some older titles off EBAY and since then have just really enjoyed listening. I have been using the built in phono stage for a few months and found it ok but I knew things could improve with an after market phono stage. My local dealer was very helpful and I know sound is the most important aspect but for me the look of equipment must be right as well, especially when spending a lot of money on it, and nothing I had seen in my price range caught my eye, although sounded good.

I came across NVA whilst doing a search on EBAY for phono stages. It appealed to me straight away as it looked good. I did a bit of reading up, visited the website and had a good look through the products available. My budget was around £300 so the phono 1 was the obvious choice but I decided to wait and save up for for the Phono 2 as it had 2 shiny black boxes and would look even better on the rack. I have been using the phono 2 for a week now and it looks very good sitting underneath my turntable, so big tick in the Ist box. The first noticeable difference was the volume of the amp I had to turn it down to the level that I listen to CDs at so this was a big change from using the built in Phono.Unsure what else to expect I just listened and carried on listening, the separation of the instruments and singers voices was amazing, the clarity was also very good everything just sounded crystal clear. The music was from Dire Straits, Jackson Browne, The Smiths, Mary Black, ACDC, Cat Stevens and Sade to mention but a few.

I actually found myself not wanting to turn the music off, as I carried on listening it got better and better. I am no expert on reviewing but all I can say is for me it was worth spending £500 because I enjoy music and it's even better when you are listening on the best equipment that you can afford. I am now saving for the 2nd power supply, will it be worth it? Who knows.Am I mad paying £700, double the price of my turntable with a cheap MM cartridge, yes I probably am but it's my money and my ears and that's all I can say apart from to recommend the Phono 2, give it a go I wasn't disappointed, don't think you will be