Class A integrated

LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
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Hi, I guess the running in phase must have passed by pretty quickly as I have been enjoying the amp without thinking about it. All those tubes arrived but I haven’t tried any of them, just kept running with the Amperex. i‘ll have a play with the SR Purple fuses next month when they reach the market.

Impressive...wait for 45 seconds into the video...
 

Sablon Audio

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LL21

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It’s a nice amp Lloyd!
Yes, it looks it. Personally, my sense is there are few amps in the world that enter that rarified world of all-out purity of sound, dynamics, range, power. From everything I have read and heard...these are one of that rarified few.
 
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Sablon Audio

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Time will tell. I just made some speaker cables earlier for an Ongaku owner, now that certainly belongs in the amplifier hall of fame. My next challenge though is to find a dac of a similarly exalted ranking to sit between Extreme and Riviera...
 

matakana

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Time will tell. I just made some speaker cables earlier for an Ongaku owner, now that certainly belongs in the amplifier hall of fame. My next challenge though is to find a dac of a similarly exalted ranking to sit between Extreme and Riviera...
What did the Levante replace?
 

LL21

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There wasn’t a direct replacement as such, just fancied a change from monoblocks and headamp to an integrated. Tidy up the box count as I was running out of space on my rack.
Ah...and NOW the question: How does the Riviera compare to the big Bernings or the Woo 33? Both of those are extremely well regarded. Did the Riviera replace them both in terms of quality of sound as well?
 
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LL21

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Time will tell. I just made some speaker cables earlier for an Ongaku owner, now that certainly belongs in the amplifier hall of fame. My next challenge though is to find a dac of a similarly exalted ranking to sit between Extreme and Riviera...
I have never heard the Ongaku, only read about it over the years...in fact when Alan Sircom reviewed the Robert Koda K15EX preamp in June, he said “I’ve not heard anything that gets this close to the real deal since I spent some time with the Audio Note Ongaku back in 1991”). Given your statement, I take that as serious praise from Alan Sircom!
 

Sablon Audio

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Ah...and NOW the question: How does the Riviera compare to the big Bernings or the Woo 33? Both of those are extremely well regarded. Did the Riviera replace them both in terms of quality of sound as well?
It doesn’t surpass either Lloyd, yet remains satisfying.
 

Sablon Audio

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May 22, 2015
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I have never heard the Ongaku, only read about it over the years...in fact when Alan Sircom reviewed the Robert Koda K15EX preamp in June, he said “I’ve not heard anything that gets this close to the real deal since I spent some time with the Audio Note Ongaku back in 1991”). Given your statement, I take that as serious praise from Alan Sircom!
You (and your wallet…) can sleep soundly with that conclusion!
 

LL21

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LL21

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It doesn’t surpass either Lloyd, yet remains satisfying.
Very, very good to know...actually while I may not be surprised about the Bernings, I am very intrigued to hear about the Woo. As you can see below, I went for an EAR Yoshino HP4 (which I found 2nd hand in Singapore) and had brought fully back to par by EAR here. I elected to go for something 'great at a great price' rather than go for 'the best' after inordinate auditions. That said, did a LOT of reading about Woo, and surely that was in the pantheon of headphone amps.
 

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