Very surprised to not really like the Brio-R

Cronus Magnum II is in the house!

First question: does it really take that long to power up all the time?

Second: is the hum that it gives off normal??

 

Yes, it takes that long and IME, the hum is at least common among these amps if not typical.

 

congrats!
the power on has a 30 second mute function. i do hear a slight hum standing over the amp but nothing a few feet away. always make sure speakers are connected when the amp is powered on.
are you still runing the R700's ? should be an excellent match because they have excellent imaging and your sound stage should be huge.

 

Thanks guys. I was aware of that start up delay. But after the light turned blue I had to wait like 2 minutes before I got any sound. Could that be because it hasn’t been used for a while?

Also the tubes aren’t glowing at the rate/intensity. Is that normal?

I could hear the hum from my seat, in between songs.

The dealer said they’ve had it for two years but it has low hours. Not sure that makes me feel any better!

Anyhow I was hearing some glorious sounds. Is it possible that it’s TOO detailed?? I haven’t had a lot of time with it yet but I’m optimistic.

Sorry for all the questions. I’m a total tube newb

 

Also, when the tubes are warming up I can hear little tinkling sounds, like the metal inside is expanding or something?

 

Should be emitting sound immediately after the warm up cycle.

My CMII also produced audible hum from the listening position. It came from the transformer and through the speakers. Mark of Rogue claimed that hum through the speakers is normal if they're of high sensitivity. My speakers are only 87db sensitive and I could hear the hum 9' away, however, my room does have an extremely low noise floor. He also stated the transformer hum is normal and just a normal trait of large transformers.

One of the four power tubes in my amp was much less bright - not uncommon in quads of modern tubes - the inconsistency of modern tube manufacture.

Too detailed? No, there is more detail to be experienced from a hi-fi system than what I was able to coax out of the CMII. Still, poor recordings are poor recordings and increases in detail retrieval can make that all more apparent.

Normal.

 

This thread has little to do with the Rega anymore.

 

I would steer clear of Naim. Price to performance ratio not good. Don't even like the looks. However it appears the current designs are rather an improvement over the old Naits. For that money I suggest try a Musical Fidelity M6i.

 

Have you heard a Musical Fidelity M6500i? In theory a dual mono integrated should be as good as monoblocks of similar cost. Swapped monoblocks for super integrated with more power and has made an improvement in control and detail resolution. Also you remove the lottery of pre amp matching and an additional cable run.

 

I have not heard that particular model.
I have heard other expensive and powerful integrateds and IME, they are not as impressive as monoblocks which, in theory, provide the best preamp/amp noise isolation and channel separation.
I haven't heard every super integrated out there but the few that I have do not match the sound quality I'm getting with "mid-fi" separates.

Now the supers ($6k plus) I've heard were in different systems and rooms than my own, so of course, those could be the mitigating factors. However, those systems seemed thoughtfully setup with ancillaries comparable or arguably superior to my system.

My experience is that long interconnect runs are not really an audible detriment unless its phono cables. Odd as it may be, I do hear an obvious detriment with long runs of speaker cables (like 25' vs 10'). I would've assumed it'd be the other way around.

 

Point taken. New thread on CMII here: Thoughts about tubes and the Cronus Magnum II

 

i have read about people who swear by the improvement in sound witn mono amps and really short speaker cables (makes it cheaper to try some higher end cables too FWIW). a good quality interconnect between preamps and amp should not degrade sound quality at all, especially if you have a balanced connection. the rca cables in my car are 16 feet long to reach the amps in my cargo area and sound clear and noise free. they sound great in my home system too and are shielded for mobile use (JL Audio).
mono amps are excellent for dynamics and brute force because each amp has its own power supply and cap bank and can outshine a stereo amp of similar power. but dont short change the contribution of a quality preamp though. transparency and dynamics jump noticeably when you find a good one and your ava unit is a quite good.

 

Did those amps have their own power supply and capacitors for each channel? A lot of expensive integrateds don't. I'm thinking designs that are two monoblocks in the same case. No different from placing two mono amps side by side on the same rack. How many people have more than 10' cable runs per side?

 

They may be the same in the sense of power but I'm not so sure about crosstalk and distortion levels. It seems the integrateds I've owned/heard with the best instrument and channel separation happen to be those that place greater physical distance between the L/R amp sections. This also appears evident in measurements of separates vs integrateds. It's not often that you'll see an integrated capable of >85db channel separation for full bandwidth, or even 1kHz for that matter. I can't think of any off the top of my head.

 

The problem is quoted specs are a minefield and different manufacturers figures cannot be reliably compared. The MF is quoted as >100db 'A' weighted signal to noise ratio.

 

i was referring to measurements conducted by the likes of Stereophile, HiFiNews, and AVHub.

I do recall the A-S3000 measuring similar to separates in one report. That model's preamp section has its own case within the case.