6Moons post on Sig-30

Rocket · « **Reply #20 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 01:08 pm »

Hi Srajan,

Does the amp get your foot tapping? I have had a number of amplifiers thru my system including n.e.w. 20.1, n.e.w. dc-66 (class a battery powered amp), aksa 100, odyssey khartago, ps audio hca - 2 (extreme mods performed on this unit) and spread spectrum technologies 'son of ampzilla'.

I still have the hca - 2 (currently in my system) and the SOA. Although both amps are very transparent and sound great they just don't get my foot tapping.

Sorry for rambling on but i would be interested in your comments.

Regards

Rod

Srajan Ebaen · « **Reply #21 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 01:18 pm »

I'm not sure how to answer that. As described in the review, this amp has a very natural sound, meaning nothing is hyped or skewed such as to focus on a particular aspect of the music. If the music is of the toe-tapping kind, you'll respond in kind. If it's some introspective floating stuff, you won't tap your toes. I don't really view this PRaT thing as a separate quality. To my ears, it depends on phase/time correct (or "minimum damage") speakers more than anything else. If toe-tap is important to you, you may wish to focus on exploring no or minimum xover speakers rather than concentrating on amps. For example, all the Green Mountain Audio speakers have this thing down prat - er, pat -:)

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #22 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 03:54 pm »

Hey Vinnie.....Congrats on the nice review...right on target..with the "30"...

Srajan ....Welcome to AudioCircle....thanks for posting !!!

Here's the review link on 6Moons.....

Chris

kfr01 · « **Reply #23 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 04:02 pm »

Welcome to the circles, Srajan!

You do a bang-up job over there at 6moons.

Karl

srayle · « **Reply #24 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 04:21 pm »

I recently visited Richard in California, loading up my pickup cab with gear and taking the 10 out to Ojai from Tucson. I brought my highly cherished Fi monoblocks to compare to the Sig 30, as well as Vinnie's modded Olive Musica (all the better to graze and download from Richard's fine music collection...hehehe...by the way, I buy a lot of music-cd's- and do support musicians that way...and the music I kyped from Richard was stuff that I would not likely have purchased anyway)

Even though the Sig 30 was still 'green' (as Richard put it) and not yet broken in, it sounded fantastic.
When listening to the Sig 30 on Richard's OB's one did not lack for anything. The music flowing ha a completeness to it that allowed one to relax and deeply listen...nothing digital sounding, and well yes, if the music was toe-tapping, my toes followed suit. It was a fantastic, superb sounding amplifier. On Richard's system, the addition of a Mapletree preamp was superfluous, perhaps even detracting. My Fi's, in comparison sounded different (and we decided that they sound better with Emission Labs 45 meshplates than with 2a3's). I am in love with my Fi's, so I'm biased somewhat, but I loved them too, in Richard's system. I want to own both amplifiers.

Bottom Line? I'm trying to figure out what I have to sell now to buy a Signature 30.

Srajan, welcome to the Circle...our virtual audio laboratory, where some of us hang out to experiment...and extra credit is given for audio advancements that are not expensive. You may have to check out the OB phenomenon, as I have decided to sell my Zu Druids after hearing what open Baffles are capable of...but thats another thread...

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #25 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 04:28 pm »

All,

Thank you very, very much!

Srajan,

Welcome to Audiocircle! I think you are going to like it here...
lots of friendly members who are very passionate about this
hobby, and lots of interesting discussions through this site.

Quote from: Vinnie R."

I also wish to thank all of my customers for their continued support, and I'd want to give a very special thank you to Audiocircle members Dmason and Richard (the first Signature 30 customers) , whose initial reporting grabbed your attention

I forgot to add another member to the list....ndpjr

He got me into trying those PIO caps for his custom Clari-T monoblocks (and soon for his RWA modded Teac AL700P), and he also now owns the Signature 30. I couldn't ask for a more loyal customer, and also an all-around great guy...like
Lonewolfny42, who gave me a bottle of red the first time I met him at the NY AudioRave last year:

Can't beat that!

Back to work for me.... lots of work

Best regards,

budbrew · « **Reply #26 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 04:31 pm »

I can't wait to try out my Sig 30. Should be here in a few weeks. The descriptions sound very intriguing and along the lines of my prefs. I'm trying to replace a pair of tube monoblocks with something safer and more practical - a baby necessitates some changes. So far I've tried the Channel Islands D-100s and they are great, but a bit polite sounding. Very clean sounding (too clean?). And black backgrounds; did not realize how "noisy" the tube amps have been. They are still breaking in and growing on me.

But I have higher hopes for the Sig 30

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #27 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 04:36 pm »

Thank you Vinnie...job well done !!!

psss...(you had better check out that cloning post....got a feeling your gonna be even busier than before....

)

Srajan Ebaen · « **Reply #28 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 04:53 pm »

Re: the OBs, Michael Lavorgna expressed an interest to visit with Vinnie as part of his RoadTour feature. It'll depend on schedules and such but if it comes together, we'll have an informal report of Vinnie's reference system with the open baffle Visaton speakers on 6moons - and if things really grab our man, perhaps he'll volunteer for an OB review. That'll be up to him, of course, and I don't want to commit him one way or the other. But seeing he's in the US rather than Cyprus, this would be easier to orchestrate -:)

PaulFolbrecht · « **Reply #29 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 06:01 pm »

Certainly enjoyed reading the full review. Srajan, you have such a magical way with words; your reviews eclipse those of the printed rags in essentially every way, with truth and financial sanity at the top of the list, followed by sheer enjoyment of reading.

I am even more eager now to get my hot little hands on that black baby! :-} Almost four weeks yet. Oh well. I will be listening to nothing but SET (as in "SET 1" :-}) in that interim and so should be extra-keenly aware of any deviations from that sonic standard when the time comes to plug in the Sig.

Hey, Vinny - any chance of a silver/bare Al (unpainted) option?

Dmason · « **Reply #30 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 06:02 pm »

Great, and very entertaining review, Srajan. I am reminded of Tom Robbins when reading your stuff sometimes. Very glad people such as yourself were hearing the same thing as I. It was my honest opinion that there was absolutely no disconnect in overall gestalt, let me reiterate. Even more "there," there now...

Fantastic work, Vinnie, mine is really coming along, and has this lilting, otherworldliness to the proceedings when amplifying vintage atmospheric stuff a la Eno, Eddie Jobson etc. [listen to that stuff with this stuff] and I too find that the addition of even a minimalist, and very carefully thought out custom-built octal circuit to add some gain, roundness, and peakiness, only detracts from the net result, and adds a very unnecessary more-ness to the sound. The 30 is clearly best on its own, and on its own merits it stands best. When I add a similarly battery powered, non-oversampling DAC, the result is sublime.

I cannot imagine at this point, a better sound in my home than this amplifier lighting up the B202 on OB. Sound familiar? This is soooooooo good, my interest in audio stuff is waning right now.....for now, but I think it is cool that the whole thing is built by Vinnie and the speakers, myself.

An Observation

Many 26 year olds these days, sadly, cannot find their ass with their hands, and here we have Vino Roso gaining membership to a tiny and exclusive club of imagineers whose only other current member seems to be Nelson Pass.

Another observation: The DarkStar thread just hit 60,000 hits...people are watching. Good for them!!

studley · « **Reply #31 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 09:46 pm »

Vinnie

Its fairly obvious that you are going to be pretty busy following Srajan's review. There would however be an even bigger market if you could find a way to produce a slightly more powerful version, say 50 or 60 wpc, as that would bring so many more speakers within its range. Any such plans?

PaulFolbrecht · « **Reply #32 on:** 7 Jul 2006, 09:51 pm »

Vinnie mentioned the possibility (probably more like "likelihood") of 70W monoblocks in the future.

Assuming the amp is what everybody is saying, of which I have little doubt, I'd personally be willing to pay handsomely for such a product. Wonderful for those of us who aren't into the hi-eff speakers. (Well, I have Zu Druids in my 2nd system but prefer to keep the Gallo Ref 3s in my main system as to me they are a somewhat better speaker. I believe in designing a system around the speaker.)

Vinnie R. · « **Reply #33 on:** 8 Jul 2006, 02:11 am »

Hi Guys,

Quote from: Srajan Ebaen

Re: the OBs, Michael Lavorgna expressed an interest to visit with Vinnie as part of his RoadTour feature. It'll depend on schedules and such but if it comes together, we'll have an informal report of Vinnie's reference system with the open baffle Visaton speakers on 6moons - and if things really grab our man, perhaps he'll volunteer for an OB review. That'll be up to him, of course, and I don't want to commit him one way or the other. But seeing he's in the US rather than Cyprus, this would be easier to orchestrate -:)

I was in touch with Michael today and it is very interested in visiting me to listen to the B200 OBs (the new ones that Louis of Omega just finished making and I will have next week). He is planning on visiting in a few weeks. This will be of his RoadTour feature and will make for a very good read!

As for an even more powerful amp in the future....we'll see what happens. Nothing in the works for anything sooner than the Fall 2006.

Best regards,

Vinnie

Srajan Ebaen · « **Reply #34 on:** 8 Jul 2006, 07:13 am »

Glad to hear this Road Tour installment seems to be on the books then. If Michael expresses interest in formally reviewing the OBs and Louis is interested in building him a loaner pair that's representative of what non-DIYers could purchase from him, then Michael herewith has permission to accept such an assignment. No need to run it by me first -:)

Ken Micallef on staff too has the itch right now to investigate single-driver speakers so perhaps he and Michael can both visit together. Vinnie, you can reach Ken at [email protected] if you want to put that together.

Harmon · « **Reply #35 on:** 8 Jul 2006, 11:23 pm »

Quote from: Srajan Ebaen on 7 Jul 2006, 01:18 pm

I'm not sure how to answer that. As described in the review, this amp has a very natural sound, meaning nothing is hyped or skewed such as to focus on a particular aspect of the music. If the music is of the toe-tapping kind, you'll respond in kind. If it's some introspective floating stuff, you won't tap your toes. I don't really view this PRaT thing as a separate quality. To my ears, it depends on phase/time correct (or "minimum damage") speakers more than anything else. If toe-tap is important to you, you may wish to focus on exploring no or minimum xover speakers rather than concentrating on amps. For example, all the Green Mountain Audio speakers have this thing down prat - er, pat -:)

I have a pair of Green Mountain Audio Continuum 3 speakers right now running off a unmodified Sonic Impact Amp. I should have my Signature 30 Amp in a week or so from Vinnie and give a little review including a comment on the Prat. My Congrats Vinnie and a great review from you Srajan!!

Srajan Ebaen · « **Reply #36 on:** 9 Jul 2006, 08:17 am »

I haven't heard the original T-amp (those reviews were by Jeff Day) but I would have to suspect that you'd notice a similar "next level" of performance as the 30 presents over Vinnie's Clari-T -:)

JLM · « **Reply #37 on:** 9 Jul 2006, 10:08 am »

Keeping in mind the logrthymic relationship between wattage and dB of gain (what we hear) and that dB aren't all that big to start with, the next logical jumps in power in the RWA line up would go from 6 wpc (8 dB of gain) and 30 wpc (14 dB of gain) would be 100 wpc (20 dB of gain) and 400 wpc (26 dB of gain).

Like the way an old math prof tried to define "infinitely small" the differences some try to make of a couple of dB of gain can be compared to trying to filet a baby fly's eyelash 10,000,000 times. Not infinitely small (thin), but practically speaking its pretty darn close.

Based on DMason's comments I've been thinking about adding a tubed pre-amp, but with the Sig-30 he seems to be doing an about face. As my setup keeps sounding better with addition of room treatments, wired connection vs. wireless to the RWA SB3, and continual break-in, I'm wondering if it would be worth it (or how much better it can get, how's that for blissful ignorance?). Note I replaced my modded Clari-T a few months back with Channel Island Audio VMB-1 40 watt monoblocks, which for my 89 dB/w/m speakers in a 2,200 cu. ft. room provided needed grunt and better detail/imaging. Note too that we nearly ideal power here (rural, new construction, new appliances, ground service with our own transformer, cryo'd hospital grade Hubbell receptacles to the audio system with each on a dedicated circuit, and all the circuits on an isolated ground.

Manowar · « **Reply #38 on:** 10 Jul 2006, 05:56 am »

Congratulations Vinnie!

Job well done! looking forward to hearing the Sig. 30, hopefully soon will be putting in an order.

Welcome Srajan!

Nice to see you post here, have been reading your reviews for about a year now, what a refreshing change it's been. Thanks!

Manowar

PaulFolbrecht · « **Reply #39 on:** 12 Jul 2006, 03:25 pm »

Bump - let's keep the excitement goin'! :-}

I hope the amp-building is going well, Vinnie. I have to say I can't recall anticipating a peice of audio equipment to the extent that I am right now with the Sig 30.

I expect the amp to sound incredible but I also suspect that it might not have enough power to satisfy me _completely_ with the Gallos (most of the time, yeah - no doubt). If not, I'll just hold onto it until you make your 70W monoblocks available. I have to admit that *that* thought puts me nigh to full-on salivation mode. 70W of SET-like power with essentially no distortion? For REAL? And fully off the grid to boot? Now that would be full-on serious world-changin' stuff, cause you just can't get power like that with ANY single-ended tube amp in the world. Well, that I know off. Even paralleled 845s don't reach power like that, never mind the double-digit THD. And look at what parallel 845 SETs cost anyway...

Ok, back to work for me.