[Rclark]

oK Jason, I'll hit you up soon, it will be nice to hear the maximum capability of this setup.

 Man, it's 1:32 am, there are girls over (and I'm doing my best to insert my fiance into every other sentence) and the only thing on my mind is hearing the Virtue tommorrow night on real power.

[ltr317]

oK Jason, I'll hit you up soon, it will be nice to hear the maximum capability of this setup.

 Man, it's 1:32 am, there are girls over (and I'm doing my best to insert my fiance into every other sentence) and the only thing on my mind is hearing the Virtue tommorrow night on real power.

Then why are you on AC?  I would much prefer speaking to the opposite sex than typing on my computer. 

[Rclark]

 we had fun 

I'm up taking care of business for the day and preparing to camp out on my couch to wait for the UPS man/woman.

[Rclark]

The beast is plugged in and creating music and if my head wasn't shaved my hair would be completely blown back.

 Wow. It's just like everyone said!

 More later. Meanwhile, no manual. How do I dial the voltage to 30? I see a "thing" on the back, but no numbers, no guide, etc.
 
 I could live with it just like this though. Wow wow wow. Oh my god! Nice amp Seth 

[virtue]

Thanks Reezie.  It's sort of a party trick to externalize the PSU.  But I think it's more fun that way anyway.  Different strokes for different folks.

[Rclark]

 BTW you guys must have upgraded the stock supplies because mine is a 30volt 3amp unit.

 To its credit, the stock supply, at least then the one that I have, which is more powerful than the usual stock supply (right?) of about 24 volt, 2.4 amp, sounds very good.

 But when I switched on the Astron and let it rip there was a large improvement.

 I didn't notice any difference in the precision or accuracy of the sound, the cleanness, (audio noobs like myself use that term a lot "man, that sounds really clean!", and that's about the first thing we recognize), that's the same. The liveness, the dimensionality of the sound, the crispness and zip and seperation are the same as with the admittedly very good stock unit. At least on my system.

 But everything else is better: much larger, fuller, rounder, more complete. Bass that didn't exist before. Fatter, but a very athletic kind of fat. No, more like Sasquatch, all muscle.

 I have efficient 8ohm speakers, apparently, according to what I've read from people here, you get a lot more performance and grunt from this amp with 4ohm speakers, and that effects of running the large Astron supply are even more apparent with 4ohm, but I still get rock em' sock em' power, and what I'm getting here at this level is still an incredible improvement.

 First of all the headroom is raised. The speakers, which the Two.2 drove to loud levels before, can now play at ear bleeding levels. I can't imagine needing more power than this. And at those levels there is no loss of control, no degradation in the sound, it sounds like vivid, textured, Two.2 ear candy, but it's just super loud, and will cause your eviction notice to fall from its attachment to the front door, rather than remain in place.

 Again, the sound is fuller, much more present, bigger, more controlled (or laid back if you prefer). It does sound smoother as well. It just does more with less effort, this setup. I liken it (at least the amp/PS, the rest of my gear is rather pedestrian at the moment) to going from Corvette (Two.2/stock supply) to Corvette ZR1.

[virtue]

It is unfortunate that neither attractive nor small are two of its redeeming qualities.  Also, I've heard its not a sipper.  But us audiophiles have suffered greater humiliations. 

[Rclark]

 I think it's a handsome unit. It looks like it comes right off the Death Star, the 70's version. And I think it provides a neat ironic contrast to the amp. Normally the amp is huge and the PS is small.

 I think I would enjoy its looks even in a kilo-dollar system because its a sleeper. Might not have the WAF for certain people, but my fiance thinks it's neat (god bless her, I told her the XDA-1 is getting replaced and she just shrugged, even though it was a recent purchase. She lets me have my hobby).

[srb]

I think the Astron supply looks nice and clean and it has a soft red light.  The Virtue's blue light looks incredibly bright in the picture, even brighter than the Emotiva.  I had the XDA-1, and even on the dimmest setting it was too bright (the manual says it can be turned off, but apparently that wasn't implemented).  I was looking into fabricating a dark plexiglass front panel overlay, but in the end I ended up returning the DAC for other reasons.
 
Steve

[Rclark]

It does sound very very good (the XDA-1), and I really can't imagine what it would be like to sound even better than this, but apparently it can, and I want to maximize my system's potential per dollar, and I bet the Virtue DAC will just slay.

 They are bright. Dimming them makes it ok, it doesn't bother me, and my fiance enjoys the blue glow at night.

 The ERC-2 stays, however. That thing RULES.

 BTW I just got around to filling my stands with sand last night and it's just like people said, bass is a bit more defined.... Listening to the system right now, just has tons of potential. The TWO.2 really is the heart of the system though. Things are coming together but I cannot wait to finish my subs and the N3's.


 (The speakers are pretty new too, and apparently carbon fiber cones take up to 200 hours to break in, Ive got them on the floor, facing each other, with a thick blanket thrown over the top, and with the Astron they are for the first time causing the walls to rattle with bass. The cones are jumping around for the first time. This amp/PS setup is serious, scary amounts of power. real power, tons of current.)

[virtue]

If you think the light is bright NOW....

They apparently can't see in Taiwan.

We'll get this right next time. 

The nice thing about PSUs is they can go on the floor.

What speakers are your running Reezie?

[Rclark]

oh and fyi the Astron is very cool to the touch. Even now breaking in my drivers it runs very cool. So apparently it's been refined some.

 I decided I wanted to enjoy the progression up the chain. I was running multimedia speakers and didn't want to jump right from there into N3 territory.

 I saw Danny Richie has a kit for the BB Insignia, a highly regarded budget speaker. He shows you how to reinforce the cabinet (which I've done) and he has an upgraded crossover and tweaks for not much money.

 I wanted to know what it's like to have a "Good" speaker before I go right to N3. Does that make sense? I want to enjoy the progression.

 That and I was thinking they'd make great surrounds should I go that route or just as backups. But I wanted to have something better than Altec Lansing multimedia speakers to compare the N3's to.

 That said... even at this stage I like them quite a bit. The cabinets aren't perfect but as Danny says, "decent driver" (which is high praise from him, he's very understated.).

 Meanwhile, I've put several coats of semi-gloss on my N3 cabinets and they are just waiting to be filled. I'm going to move laterally and finish out the system, subs, etc, and then finish the N3's as the icing on the cake.

 That said the Insignias have something of a cult following and I can understand why. Even stock they sound mighty mighty fine. I hear the flaws Danny was speaking of, but they can be fixed with his kit, and the driver is fantastic.

[Rclark]

I've already recieved pm's on where is the best place to order an Astron LS-10a. I am a fine spokesperson, I might say.

[virtue]

Yip, it's a fine product available at commodity prices.  Let us know if you need power cords.  The basic ones are built and free from us.  Email Cami.

[Rclark]

So I'm up last night playing with a new subwoofer and some test tones with my phone's SPL meter app (very cool) and the Astron stops working.

 I'm like WTF, but I'm taking this in stride as new audiophile travails. I open up the fuse holder which states most prominently on it "5amp, use ONLY 250 volt fuse", and pull out a blown 125 volt unit.

 WTF? They shipped their own unit with an improper fuse?

 I think it's blown. It looks like their is black soot etched inside the walls of the glass, along with a metallic sheen in the center and the wire appears to be seperated (hard to tell behind the soot and the irregular metallic sheen).  My guess is it didn't just blow, but blew big time.

 So new, 250 volt fuse ought to rectify, no?

 Ugh. (pulls out stock PS).

 Hoping the unit works with a new fuse. I wonder, will it sound BETTER with the originally intended size fuse?

 

[srb]

The most important spec was that it was a 5A fuse which will blow if that amount of current is exceeded.  250V rated fuses are usually specified for 125V circuits, but the 250V rating is a safety rating to prevent possible arcing across a blown fuse if extremely high input voltages are encountered on a 125V circuit.
 
The supply may also be internally (or externally through a rear panel switch) configurable for 220V - 240V use, in which case the 250V fuse would be mandatory.
 
It is doubtful that the 125V rating of the fuse caused it to blow, as there is a certain amount of over-voltage safety capacity built into that rating, but a 250V fuse should have been supplied in any case.

A ohmmeter or continuity tester will verify that the fuse is blown, but it certainly sounds like it from your visual description, and the power supply isn't working.  When you locate some replacement fuses, you will probably be hard pressed to find 125V rated fuses, as most are 250V.
 
Steve

[Rclark]

To be fair I was for the past week switching it on and off constantly and repeatedly as I tested my new speaker build. I switched it off to protect the Two like the big sticker on top says.

Lets see what my new fuses do.


 EDIT: fixed.