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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
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
eagle
154 posts
 
Dawg, My advice would be to get as much done as possible with one trip back to SMc Audio. The minimum upgrade I would consider is the Gold. If you get the Silver, you will always wonder....
"How much difference will it make?" and "is it worth it?" are two great questions, but your opinion is really the only one that matters.
It seems like a gamble to lay down your hard earned cash to get the answers, but in this case it isn't. If SMc offers an upgrade, it's worth it.
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