Re: P20 / A20 starter pre and power amplifier loan
Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2017 8:48 pm
Email from Chris Hemingway
Hi Richard,
Review as promised (I haven’t posted to forum but will if you ant me to) feel free to correct any grammar foibles.
P20 / A20 Starter pre/ power amplifier loan.
So where does one begin with a review? The beginning? Well my taste buds for trying NVA were whetted at a recent ‘bake off’ at ‘savvypauls' (who is a genuinely nice guy) up in deepest darkest Durham. I’m ‘up North’, he’s ‘up North North’ We had a ‘Speaker listen off’ with Pauls system both vinyl & digital as the base source(s). Part of said system was NVA amplification, what can I say through the day I was wowed at how dynamic and open the system sounded with timing and rhythm to die for.
Onwards a month or so and I see our Doc is offering a ‘Load Unit’ (again) …. Many buttons pressed and postage money sent and behold I have a box of goodies on its way to me.
Fast forward again and I’m opening the box which is very well packed and has the pre and power boxes (lush shiny black) along with lengths of speaker cable and interconnect. What more could a man want. Everything turned off and old kit, amp unplugged and I slotted the P20/A20 into position and wired up to my existing kit.
So, early listening sessions were encouraging but also tinged with those early ‘warmin up’ trade-offs, timings were off and the overall sound was lacking in authority (I am talking the first hour or so of listening here) Piano notes appear a little too light when once I remember them being played with greater authority. Bass was ok, but this time not so much light as lacking in texture….. drum skins were giving me nothing back just a thwack of sound.
Later that evening I’m glad to hear things were coming together much better, I have to say it took less time than I imagined for the amps to start to shine through. Back to some tracks I knew well and wow this little fella is really punching above its weight (it is only 25 watts I keep telling myself) cymbals are appearing in a different place to normal, far off the usual narrow soundstage of my old amp. More than that actually, when I swap over to Vinyl as source and play a few more albums I’m astonished that I can hear more soundstage. Not left to right, that’s about as good as my Roksan, this is depth of soundstage had been previously something I rarely heard and now the drum kit is well behind the singer and the guitar is slightly to the left and somewhere in between!! This in particular was the biggest ‘find’ for me, yes I was swooned with a good amount of dynamics and the openness and clarity was what I remember from Paul's system (Don’t get me wrong not in any way as great but a sibling sound signature none the less) Three or four days in and the smile is still there, texture is well and truly perceivable in the lower end and piano note decay is a joy to listen to.
Another surprise that keeps me scratching my head is how much headroom this little two box wonder has? I honestly cannot believe how well it drives my Russell K Red 100 speakers with ‘only 25 watts’ (medium to large stand mount 2-way speaker) I know what working up the NVA ladder towards that I heard in said bake off will bring ……. More of everything basically, it could be an interesting journey.
Cheers
Chris (hemmo)
Hi Richard,
Review as promised (I haven’t posted to forum but will if you ant me to) feel free to correct any grammar foibles.
P20 / A20 Starter pre/ power amplifier loan.
So where does one begin with a review? The beginning? Well my taste buds for trying NVA were whetted at a recent ‘bake off’ at ‘savvypauls' (who is a genuinely nice guy) up in deepest darkest Durham. I’m ‘up North’, he’s ‘up North North’ We had a ‘Speaker listen off’ with Pauls system both vinyl & digital as the base source(s). Part of said system was NVA amplification, what can I say through the day I was wowed at how dynamic and open the system sounded with timing and rhythm to die for.
Onwards a month or so and I see our Doc is offering a ‘Load Unit’ (again) …. Many buttons pressed and postage money sent and behold I have a box of goodies on its way to me.
Fast forward again and I’m opening the box which is very well packed and has the pre and power boxes (lush shiny black) along with lengths of speaker cable and interconnect. What more could a man want. Everything turned off and old kit, amp unplugged and I slotted the P20/A20 into position and wired up to my existing kit.
So, early listening sessions were encouraging but also tinged with those early ‘warmin up’ trade-offs, timings were off and the overall sound was lacking in authority (I am talking the first hour or so of listening here) Piano notes appear a little too light when once I remember them being played with greater authority. Bass was ok, but this time not so much light as lacking in texture….. drum skins were giving me nothing back just a thwack of sound.
Later that evening I’m glad to hear things were coming together much better, I have to say it took less time than I imagined for the amps to start to shine through. Back to some tracks I knew well and wow this little fella is really punching above its weight (it is only 25 watts I keep telling myself) cymbals are appearing in a different place to normal, far off the usual narrow soundstage of my old amp. More than that actually, when I swap over to Vinyl as source and play a few more albums I’m astonished that I can hear more soundstage. Not left to right, that’s about as good as my Roksan, this is depth of soundstage had been previously something I rarely heard and now the drum kit is well behind the singer and the guitar is slightly to the left and somewhere in between!! This in particular was the biggest ‘find’ for me, yes I was swooned with a good amount of dynamics and the openness and clarity was what I remember from Paul's system (Don’t get me wrong not in any way as great but a sibling sound signature none the less) Three or four days in and the smile is still there, texture is well and truly perceivable in the lower end and piano note decay is a joy to listen to.
Another surprise that keeps me scratching my head is how much headroom this little two box wonder has? I honestly cannot believe how well it drives my Russell K Red 100 speakers with ‘only 25 watts’ (medium to large stand mount 2-way speaker) I know what working up the NVA ladder towards that I heard in said bake off will bring ……. More of everything basically, it could be an interesting journey.
Cheers
Chris (hemmo)
