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  3. 1110915137

McCormack Silver vs. Gold revision for DNA-125?

Has anyone heard the DNA-125 with the Silver revision as opposed to the Gold revision? If so, what is the improvement? How about the silver revision over the stock unit? My DNA-125 (stock) is quite nice, but a little grainy and grunty, not exactly liquid. I am considering the Silver revision (at a cost of $800), hoping that this will clean things up. How much of a difference will this make, and how much better is the Gold revision? It is 2x the price: is it 2x the sound?

Basically, if I get the silver revision, I will be into my DNA-125 for about $1550 (I purchased the stock one used).
dawgcatching
stehno
1,453 posts
 
Not sure about the silver or gold, but I replaced my DNA-2 LAE (limited anniversary edition) amp with DNA-2 Revision A (one step behind the gold).

The DNA-2 Rev. A amp is easily the finest I've heard. I've owned it for almost 2.5 years now and after previously owning about 6 other amps, I still have no desire to upgrade this amp. Unless perhaps it were to a Gold or Platinum version.

-IMO
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
I don't have any revisions (yet... :-) on my DNA-125, but if you hear much graininess (not sure what 'grunty' means as a complaint), I would ask if you're leaving yours permanently powered-on. Not turning mine off seems to eliminate just about all significant hints of grain by day 2.

BTW, on a tangent, I've recently played around with auditioning my 125 hooked up to only one speaker, to make the comparison with my tube monoblocks more fair in terms of power supply demand vs. capacity. The results hint tantilizingly at what may be expected from an SMC power supply upgrade (only Platinum upgrades the power transformer), not to mention monoblock conversion.
4yanx
1,576 posts
 
After hearing my Platinum upgraded 225, I'd kill to hear a monoblock pair. Oh, I'm saving. :-)
dawgcatching OP
139 posts
 
HI. I left mine on for a couple of days, and most of the grain is gone! It is also much smoother-the low end "grunt" with the bass is mostly gone. Unfortunately, leaving it on uses lots of power, which is expensive and in short supply, so it really isn't an option.

It still isn't quite as grain-free as the HCA-2 I was comparing it to, but much closer in performance. I think I will keep the DNA-125 and just get it upgraded-it should be a killer amp!

stevemcx
166 posts
 
Hi Dawgcatching -

I'm pleased to hear that you are enjoying your DNA-125. I just want to mention that it does not consume very much power at idle, at least relatively speaking. At something like 80 Watts, it uses less juice than many other high performance amps. You may still prefer to economize on electricity, which is admirable. A good compromise is to turn it on early in the day, and off again at night. This will give you most of the advantages of leaving it on and still save a considerable amount of power.

Best regards,

Steve McCormack
www.SMcAudio.com
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