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If you feel the need to 'defend', you must feel attacked.
I, for one, would to see a Mint with a built-in Dac Dac. Get rid of the IC coloration.
Now we swapped the nCores for the Maraschinos and started the with/without procedure all over again. Playing the same 24/176.4 tracks at the same SPL, there was a bigger difference. It did appear that the Maraschinos offered the super tweeters more material to process. The resultant sound was more fluid and resolved. More analog perhaps? For some reason, the >50kHz frequency response of the Hypex nCore 1200 amps was challenged by the >85kHz reach of the Maraschinos. Either is relatively low compared to the animal kingdom where dogs hear up to 60kHz, mice to about 70kHz and bats beat them all at 200kHz. Just so, there apparently was extra signal sent to the super tweeters by the American mini amps.With the yes/no phase behind us, we could get on with undisturbed listening. We played a wide variety of music and tried to put our fingers on the pulse behind the phenomenon of the more analog open presentation. After many discs and still more discs, we concluded that on purist recordings with a minimum of studio processing, extended frequency response offers more of what the Germans call Stoßwelle or shockwave. That is the impulse which leads any sound, its first attack. In live music, that attack makes the music come alive. Its absence betrays the fact that we deal with a recording. In many recordings however, that undulled attack is still part of the signal and not eroded by manipulation. It is then only a matter of retrieving said impulse. To us it appeared that wider frequency response—and perhaps 85kHz is just the beginning—enables superior retrieval of the attack information. [Goldmund for example talk of HF phase shift and that to avoid it requires bandwidth at least x 10 in excess of human bandwidth, i.e. 200kHz at minimum but many of their amps reach into the MHz band, a feat well beyond current class D. That argument isn't about hearing more information per se but more accurate reproduction of what occurs inside the ears' limited bandwidth - Ed.]
-> http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/dac2/4.htmlClass D with 85 kHz at -3dB: Maraschino and the very expensive Devialet (D200: 87kHz).NCore, Nuforce and Nuprime: 50 kHzPascal: 60 kHzICE Power ASX series: 100, 120 and 130 kHzVery new ICE Power IceEdge ???
If you feel the need to 'defend', you must feel attacked. Our two Maraschino reviews (first mine, now M&H's), aren't attacks. We enjoyed the sound. And, we each had the same lonely issue. Just because others didn't have it doesn't mean we made it up or imagined it! This is the kind of overly sensitive response that acknowledge certain observations as constructive criticism and instead views them as personal attacks on one's 'baby'. And, they're 'explained' away as user error or implied to not exist because no other reviewers had the same issue. What's more, if you see the need to 'beat' the competition and are happy only with a review that ends in one amp down and bloodied... well, then things get a bit silly. Except that's exactly what you seem to be after. "Overall, if you read between the lines... you will see that the Maraschinos beat the competition... which is what matters."Damn, I didn't realize we were playing adolescents arguing whether Batman was badder than Superman.
Why can't vendors take a little criticism without reacting badly? It's supposed to be a review not an arm of the vendor's marketing strategy. Reviews should tell it like it is otherwise they'll lose their credibility with their audience. Should defects in products be pointed out in an objective review? Of course. The manufacturer should use this criticism to improve his product. Its not the reviewers job to be a fanboy for any particular product or to be fishing for advertising money.
