Ladies & Gentlemen,
i have been listening to the ref10 with hegel h30s in mono mode for the last 5 hours. i was working away on my laptop and let the music play and play and then finally closed the laptop and began to listen critically. i heard at approximately 87-92db depending on the song. I heard music non stop and had zero fatigue. Soundstage was large and in charge with plenty of detail, mids, highs, bass, EVERYTHING. I wanted to just saturate my hearing with music through the ref10/hegels so that i can then switch to the black system and so when i did switch... The soundstage sounds smaller, less massive wall to wall sound and this is just simply heartbreaking because i have been praising this set up for a long time now. I love it top to bottom, but i can’t deny the ridiculous current and HUGE power on tap from the hegels. Today is a sad day for me because my ears allowed me to just hear the change in sound without me trying to. It felt as if i instantly heard my walls close in when i went to play the black system.
This has been an interesting lesson for me. My gut feeling was that i needed more horsepower to produce the huge voltage that these class d amps were putting out. The reason why the Wilsons were sounding huge and big was because the black system’s monos have massive current/voltage and it took more than 1,000 watts per channel from a solid state amp to give me all the current and voltage to best the black system's huge soundstage. What an interesting finding huh?
But do you see WHY we are all in love with this hobby? WHY we go through countless hours of lifting back-breaking amplifiers?
i had pass labs 350.8, simaudio 860a, hegel h30 in stereo mode and they all lost against the black system. None of them could put up the huge soundstage of the black system. They all got their a$$ handed to them.
That said, the hegel h30s are INSANE with insane drive, dynamics, slam and they don't even run hot at all. I also find them more transparent than many amps i have owned in the past which includes pass labs. Remember, pass labs is tuned to sound more or less like tubes so it will impose its sound everywhere. That is not the case with Hegel.
In the end, i can honestly say i have truly enjoyed every single minute of the black system’s transparency and detail with all its glory and incredible presentation. I expect class D to eventually surpass solid state pieces because let me tell you that the gap is narrower than ever. I am predicting that class d will eventually close the gap and surpass good old class ab components. It is nature, it is part of the evolution of technology. We have to learn to embrace new things as long as they are indeed better than what is already in place.
For now, my reference 2 channel becomes the follow:
ARC REF10
HEGEL H30/MONOBLOCKS
PS: Total price is $70k retail to best the $55k Black System. That is a huge praise to that class d system :)
If you have $55k to spend on a front end, don’t even try to find something else better than the black system. It does not exist.
i have been listening to the ref10 with hegel h30s in mono mode for the last 5 hours. i was working away on my laptop and let the music play and play and then finally closed the laptop and began to listen critically. i heard at approximately 87-92db depending on the song. I heard music non stop and had zero fatigue. Soundstage was large and in charge with plenty of detail, mids, highs, bass, EVERYTHING. I wanted to just saturate my hearing with music through the ref10/hegels so that i can then switch to the black system and so when i did switch... The soundstage sounds smaller, less massive wall to wall sound and this is just simply heartbreaking because i have been praising this set up for a long time now. I love it top to bottom, but i can’t deny the ridiculous current and HUGE power on tap from the hegels. Today is a sad day for me because my ears allowed me to just hear the change in sound without me trying to. It felt as if i instantly heard my walls close in when i went to play the black system.
This has been an interesting lesson for me. My gut feeling was that i needed more horsepower to produce the huge voltage that these class d amps were putting out. The reason why the Wilsons were sounding huge and big was because the black system’s monos have massive current/voltage and it took more than 1,000 watts per channel from a solid state amp to give me all the current and voltage to best the black system's huge soundstage. What an interesting finding huh?
But do you see WHY we are all in love with this hobby? WHY we go through countless hours of lifting back-breaking amplifiers?
i had pass labs 350.8, simaudio 860a, hegel h30 in stereo mode and they all lost against the black system. None of them could put up the huge soundstage of the black system. They all got their a$$ handed to them.
That said, the hegel h30s are INSANE with insane drive, dynamics, slam and they don't even run hot at all. I also find them more transparent than many amps i have owned in the past which includes pass labs. Remember, pass labs is tuned to sound more or less like tubes so it will impose its sound everywhere. That is not the case with Hegel.
In the end, i can honestly say i have truly enjoyed every single minute of the black system’s transparency and detail with all its glory and incredible presentation. I expect class D to eventually surpass solid state pieces because let me tell you that the gap is narrower than ever. I am predicting that class d will eventually close the gap and surpass good old class ab components. It is nature, it is part of the evolution of technology. We have to learn to embrace new things as long as they are indeed better than what is already in place.
For now, my reference 2 channel becomes the follow:
ARC REF10
HEGEL H30/MONOBLOCKS
PS: Total price is $70k retail to best the $55k Black System. That is a huge praise to that class d system :)
If you have $55k to spend on a front end, don’t even try to find something else better than the black system. It does not exist.