An Update on the Reali T Please

smargo · « **on:** 3 May 2005, 12:23 am »

Dmason:

You have had the reali t for about 3 weeks now - can you give us a laymans description of the sound your hearing - pro and con - difference between the stock and reali t and any new insights about the clari and speaker synergy and cables etc.

In other words can you sell me on why i should upgrade

Thanks,
smargo

Dmason · « **Reply #1 on:** 3 May 2005, 07:49 pm »

"In other words, can you sell me on why I should upgrade?"

I'm not sure of the import of this question, so I will be brief, in response to your query...I have no intention of attempting to sell you anything.

First, I am a believer in non upsampled DAC's, they are clearly more musical, less digital. Most users will agree. I find that subtracting interconnection of components makes a rather large difference in the overall presentation, and I find that the Monica 2 DAC board exhibits uncommon synergy with this amplifier. It all represents a sort of optimal situation, where you take great components, great parts, and throw them all together into one environment. Less=More, and it proves itself once again, with this further minimalization of my stereo.

The Monica exhibits NO digital artifacts to my ears at all. I prefer it to my much loved-and-not-lost Nixon battery DAC. Owners are beginning to report back that this thing is truly a stormer of a source board. I agree. In fact, as far as I am concerned, it is destination audio, and it ain't goin' anywhere.

The ClariT amp with upgraded wiring, attenuator, and especially, the powerful Black Gate power supply capacitors makes this thing jump. It has tons of slam, even better speaker control, if that is possible, and overall a far more coherent presentation. The more sensitive your speakers, the better the results will be. People who wish to get the very best out of these amps need to consider true high sensitivity drivers in their speakers. Having said that, it seems the compatibility issue with the ClariT is less than we all thought. It will drive just about anything, including the notorious Dynaudios...

This last weekend I auditioned the RealiTAmp with the Edgarhorn Titans, which are 104db/8Ohm speakers, using TAD woofer, and JBL everywhere else, TRULY compatible with Vinnie's amp, and Dr. Edgar's invention was happy to make its acquaintance........along with cryo'd Electraprint magnet wire which I brought. In other words, we had the very best parts into the system that money could buy. The net result was that everyone, -mostly senior audiophools who love $$$$ tube equipment, were amazed at the increased resolution, bass that they thought was unavailable, overall coherency, serious slam, phatness, big wide, warm and delicious, creamy and smooth, and just more FUN, you name it. I personally preferred the Reali-T to an extremely expensive 300B amp that was on hand, and ownership does not bias my impressions in the least; in fact, I LOVE good tube amps. I am amazed that the Reali-T kicked that stuff to the curb, as far as my ears are concerned.

Walls that no man thought would fall
The altars of the just, crushed. Dust in the wind.

So there isn't any "tube sparkle," ...look at all this other stuff there is....like bass reach we didn't think there was in the Titans, detail hitherto unknown, was the sort of vibe and commentary the audition left in the minds of the others. To sum, Vinnie's amp made itself known in the very lap of the Arch-Lords of the American Hornspeaker this weekend, and THEY loved it. They were astonished, and they were sure this new stuff was going to catch fire.

If I had a 10K budget for audio, and wanted to hear my RealiT under optimal conditions, I would recommend the Edgarhorn Titan, a Reali-T and be done, as in for good. The better your speakers, the better it sounds. As always, YMMV...it's horses for courses. Every man for himself.

smargo · « **Reply #2 on:** 4 May 2005, 02:56 am »

You had me at hello.

Sounds like something I would like. Thanks for the honest critque so far and it sounds like it's only getting better. I will talk to vinni to see what he can do for me in terms of the reali t and monica combo.

Please keep us informed say in 3 weeks and so on to continue to get a flavor for what seems like a really special amplifier and speaker synergy

Thanks,
smargo

Dmason · « **Reply #3 on:** 4 May 2005, 03:21 am »

Yes, one important thing I forgot to mention is that this RealiT amp is peppered with Black Gate capacitance, ergo, it is NO WHERE NEAR broken in. I will withold judgment for at least another six months.

NB> It all sounded so good, I am now seriously considering moving to a larger place so I can listen to larger sound. It was transformative, to say the least. What I heard, I think I need to have.

miklorsmith · « **Reply #4 on:** 4 May 2005, 02:27 pm »

(sniff) It makes a man's heart warm to hear lodging decisions being made around stereo gear. My dual-mono is almost done! Thanks Vinnie!!

maxwalrath · « **Reply #5 on:** 4 May 2005, 04:32 pm »

duplicate post...

maxwalrath · « **Reply #6 on:** 4 May 2005, 04:32 pm »

Thanks DMason for the update.

I've been emailing Vinnie about the Reali-T, but I would have to fund the purchase by selling my current set up due to a lack of funds. The hard part is I won't be able to do an A/B comparison.

I now have a stock Clari-T and a Modwright modified cd player. I won an ebay auction and got a Sony 7700 for a good price, with the plan being to run the transport section into a Reali-T. I won't be able to mod the 7700 for some time, and the Modwright just crushes the 7700 as a stand alone CDP...enough so to have me rethink the 7700 + Reali-T plan.

I am curious about the Monica DAC, but I now think I might sell the 7700 and the Clari-T and get a dual-mono like miklorsmith. What to do, what to do....damn addictive battery power.

miklorsmith · « **Reply #7 on:** 4 May 2005, 04:47 pm »

My next step after the dual mono is to pick up the Monica and try that through the Modwright as transport. It has an LC Audio clock in it, and should be a good transport. If this is better, I'll probably pick up a cheaper transport as Dmason is doing with his, and relegate the Modwright to active duty in the critical second system.

I shopped my Modwright CDP on Audiogon and decided to keep it. My opinion is you should not sell it. It is worth WAY more than what someone else will pay you for it. My $.02.

Jon L · « **Reply #8 on:** 4 May 2005, 06:26 pm »

"The net result was that everyone, -mostly senior audiophools who love $$$$ tube equipment, were amazed at the increased resolution, bass that they thought was unavailable"

Did the Edgarhorn system NOT have the hornsub(powered by its own SS active x-over/amp)? I'm confused about the bass comment b/c the Titan itself without hornsub only goes down to 70Hz or so..

Dmason · « **Reply #9 on:** 4 May 2005, 08:48 pm »

Jon,

Bass enhancement was provided by a Bill Fitzmaurice Tuba horn sub. First we listened without any added bass. The apparent bass, or reach, made available through increased level of speaker control is evident with T amps, and digital amps in general, over tube amps. This is one of their strongest points. Several of the listeners had not heard a digital amp before, and so were very able to draw comparisons.

gary · « **Reply #10 on:** 5 May 2005, 10:37 pm »

I just got my own pseudo version of the Reali-T back from Vinnie today. It's not in a single-box but my amp & nixon dac have been upgraded with Black Gates, the amp now has a stepped attenuator, and my digital connectors are true 75Ohm. Out of the box, with no break-in to speak of, it sounds amazing and seems to do everything better than the previous iteration. In fact, my system - the above driving Bastanis Prometheus speakers - is sounding so good that I hesitate to write up a review as just about noone out there would believe me.

Gary

miklorsmith · « **Reply #11 on:** 5 May 2005, 10:45 pm »

I WOULD

GHM · « **Reply #12 on:** 6 May 2005, 12:50 am »

Reading you guys posts are making me anxious ! Even though I have decided to go a different route with the ClariT. It has inspired me to have the envelope pushed with this little guy. I just sent my new chassis off to be fitted with two 2024 boards(one used to be in my ClariT).These boards will be modified by Doug Jesse. It also will now have 10 SLA 12 volt batteries in the chassis. There will be 4 chargers for different sections of the amplifier. One for each pair of batteries powering the Tripaths, one for the 4 batteries powering the active buffers , one for the 2 batteries powering the Superclock 3 mounted in my Toshiba. There's plenty more..but I will wait till I get it back. Hopefully in a week or two it will be back home. This will be a one of a kind amplifier...but who knows it maybe just the first.

doug s. · « **Reply #13 on:** 6 May 2005, 08:02 pm »

Quote from: Dmason

...First, I am a believer in non upsampled DAC's, they are clearly more musical, less digital. Most users will agree...

dmason, i have always enjoyed your posts, & have respected your opinion, but ya lost me on this one. non-os dacs are *not* clearly more musical, less digital. and most users will *not* agree that they are. while i dunno the ratio of os vs non-os believers, i would suspect it is in favor of the os believers, but not by a huge margin. i prefer to look at it like someone else once said, re: opinions about audio equipment:

"As always, YMMV...it's horses for courses. Every man for himself."

regards,

doug s., prefers analog to digital & os dacs to non-os dacs...

Dmason · « **Reply #14 on:** 7 May 2005, 12:39 am »

"Most users [of non-OS DAC's] will agree." Sorry for not qualifying that remark.

My opinion stands. However I should add that I do not prefer NON-OS types for all music. I think some orchestral, and most progressive rock sounds better on conventional DACs.