Are you sure you weren't reviewing the speaker/room/dac instead? Are you sure you were reviewing this power amp sourced from Chi..err umm the Orchard indeed..(I mean)
The circuit boards for these are made in Canada and the final amps are hand-assembled and tested in the US.
I have a passive preamp, Luminous Audio Technology, Axiom II and prior to them building it for me they asked all kinds of technical questions so it matched the CD player and amplifiers I would be using it with. Volume control on it came out perfect. Point, depends on the manufacturer of the passive pre and their willingness to build the unit to match your components, then I am sure this type of passive will work perfectly with this amp.
Point taken, Luminous builds nice stuff. But for those of us who like passive preamps and phono, the power amp's gain has to be taken into consideration. My current phono units put out 45dB & 48dB of gain, that's pretty high for MM, and that's why I chose them. That still means that I'm sending only .62 or .88 volts to my preamp though. My current power amp has 27dB of gain, I regularly run my volume control between 1:30 to 2:30 for moderate volume.
HF, Not sure if your question is just a joke or insinuating something else, but I'll entertain further clarification! The DAC is a 34 year old CD player and my dedicated music room/monitors/components have been setup for 10 years. Thus, I've been intimately aware of the system/room/synergistic sonic signatures for a very long time! As per my review, the only change I made was to substitute the new Starkrimson Class-D GaNFET amp for the prior Class-A/B amp! My comments are the differences "I Heard" as per comparison when my A/B amp is in the line up! IMHO, those affirmative differences are what the Orchard Audio Starkrimson Stereo Ultra Amp brings to the table!! Of course as always, YMMV! Ted
I’m waffling between an all in one integrated like the Marantz 40n or a Freya+ and the Orchard monoblocks. My Snell J’s are on Skylan stands intended for Harbeth Super HL5’s, which are a deeper speaker, so I think I could “mount” the monoblocks on on the extra space on the speaker stand. Would be pretty cool. I’ve never run interconnects that long though. Balanced XLR is good for long runs, isn’t it?
Hi, the monoblocks are intended to be used exactly this way, very short speaker cable and longer interconnect. XLR works much better for long runs than RCA.
I agree the overall gain structure of your system is very important when playing vinyl in a passive preamp setup. I tend to run my phono section fairly hot by most standards, but it works for me using my Khozmo passive. I’ve also got a few different resistors I keep on hand for the series resistor spot in the Khozmo so I can make sure and match my components accordingly. I’ll definitely be trying the Orchard with my Khozmo as well as my Marantz 7 when my turn comes around.
Totally understand and agree with your points. I was trying to respond to a person who had concern about using the amplifier with a passive pre and I thought my experience would help him.
Some of the line items you touched on are perceived with a speaker change, dac change etc. I wouldn't really attribute that to a power amp change. I would assume that this Orchard amp is better at "getting out of the way" to give you the changes you perceived. In general, every emotiva amp I've trialed in the past has sucked A. The Orchard amp does seem like an upgrade. I was just teasin kinda/sorta earlier
HF, We're all good! Yep, It Is a Big Upgrade, especially for Me coming from a mid-fi $500 power amp. This purchase will be the single largest investment in my home 2-channel audio music system in the past...45 years!?! However, believe the sonic prowess of Leo's Starkrimson Amp design (compared to high end/high powered/astronomical cost Tubes and Class A, A/B amplifiers), will prove to be a Great Value to Audiophiles who want the truth in fidelity reproduction, while still achieving the Best Sound to $$$$ Ratio in their systems performance!!! Ted
Heres my review of the Starkrimson amp. Firstly I’d like to thank Leo for the opportunity to try his amp. Not often do you get the chance to try something new in your own system so this was very exciting for me as I already own a Class D amp. I’ll tell you something about my amp to get the ball rolling. The Primare A34.2 is a 2 x 150 watt stereo power amplifier utilizing proprietary UFPD technology. It is designed to provide high power output with very low distortion for Primare’s PRE32 audiophile preamplifier. This amp retailed for $3000 some years ago and is no slouch. I’ve built a playlist I use to set up and analyze changes I make to my system and I’m very familiar with them all. They have characteristics to test bass, vocals, acoustics, live, etc. The first thing I noticed while listening to ‘Bird on a Wire’ by Jennifer Warnes was how each instrument and vocals occupied a space all of their own. The depth and separation, pushing the soundstage wider was immediately apparent. The film score of the ‘Pink Panther Theme’ is a favorite of mine thanks to the fond memories I have as a kid watching the movies with the great Peter Sellers. To say this amp is fast would be an understatement. The attack and decay of the horns was jarring in the best way possible, making you sit up and take notice. One of my favorite tracks for bass is “Hey Now’ by London Grammar. If you’ve never heard this before let me warn you to secure anything that might fall if your system has the ability to produce deep bass. I had my REL T5i hooked up and the synergy between it and the amp was excellent (no adjustments needed). The speed and control over bass was formidable. The highs of vocals were clear and far reaching. This track sounded amazing filling the whole room. Los Angeles Guitar Quartet’s ‘Lotus Eaters’ sounded very natural. The guitar work is excellent and each musician had his own place right in front of me. Going through my playlist I was very happy with what I heard, my foot tapping along to the music the whole time and really that’s the most important aspect of this hobby, the enjoyment of the music. The Starkrimson just like my Primare is very neutral and really just puts through the sound without adding anything. Compared to my amp I would say this sounded lighter but with great clarity. Poor recordings are going to sound just that, poor. If this will be your first outing with a class D amp this maybe something to remember. A pre amp maybe the way to get the sound you want. The GaNFET is definitely a game changer in Class D. The best way for me to explain this is its like going from a 45 inch 1080p TV to a 65 inch 4k TV. You notice the image, colors and blacks spaces immediately. As time wears on this technology is only going to get better. For me as of right now I’m not looking to upgrade (I’ve already spent a small fortune on my current system) but if i were this would be on my list (probably the mono blocks) of amps to buy.
I should have posted this earlier for those who use Qobuz and Tidal. I have some demo playlists set up. Open Qobuz https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/620f8350-67a5-4f89-9a48-bef0617fe320 I will go through the demo music the tour participants have posted and potentially add some of it to the playlists.
FWIW, My top 10% musical genre reference material for evaluation and testing system performance can be found HERE! Ted
How much IS that, participants so far? What is the packaged weight? I'd be SO curious to do this, though I really don't have time to do any listening justice at the moment...
Boxed weight was 18 lbs. USPS Priority/Insured shipping to next "tour reviewer" cross country was under $60! Ted
Hot off the press from Tom Martin at The Absolute Sound: What he says jives with what the first three tour participants have said in their write-ups. "It is very very close to a straight wire with gain." and "It is an exceptionally clear amplifier"
I like to use Pirateship. It compares all 3 carriers and typically has the lowest rates. Super easy to use.
Aren't we always? I'm still wanting to try this when we get some time (current main amp is ATI 525NC but we'd just play stereo)...the "Tour Edition" has XLR in?
