Hawkeye83's systems

[Audio Fan]

Don't lie to yourself, you will ALWAYS be rotating gear because the grass is always greener!

The guy tried to sell me back the Bevs, but I could just never make it up there (14 hrs) to get them. He really held them for a long time, but eventually found another buyer and I told him to please go ahead as it was not right to keep waiting on me. Not the end of the world, I still have the Model 3's and LOTS of others.

 

[Hawkeye83]

Don't lie to yourself, you will ALWAYS be rotating gear because the grass is always greener!

Nope, done now! LOL. I've been saying that since 2014 but I THINK I really mean it this time.
Trying to dedicate more energy back to PLAYING music and also other hobbies, maybe get outside every now and then LOL.

I'm actually really happy with my KEF 107's for the main system, and KEF LS50's for the desktop system.
For the living room, an Alexa Studio HD does just fine for casual listening.
All streaming via Spotify or local files, no physical media.
It's quite the change from what I had 6 months ago but I'm sticking with it!

Now if we move into a big house and I come upon a ton of money, all bets are off, I'm going hog-wild LOL.

 

[Audio Fan]

OK, so I guess we can ask the moderator to lock this thread, no more updates from Hawkeye83!!

Tick... tick....tick.....tick......tick......tick.......

 

[Danddd]

@Hawkeye83 Do you still have the McCormack 0.5? I jumped ahead in the thread. I have this amp and feel it's a keeper still.

 

[Hawkeye83]

@Hawkeye83 Do you still have the McCormack 0.5? I jumped ahead in the thread. I have this amp and feel it's a keeper still.

I sold it a few years ago but no fault of the amp, sonically! I think it may be the best-sounding SS amp I've yet owned.
I sold it for a few reasons:

1) I had it in a cabinet and it does put off some heat, which I didn't like. I know I could've arranged a cooling fan, and it probably just would have been okay anyway.
2) Was never a huge fan of the looks. Pretty plain-looking thing, but built really well!
3) Mine had this issue when you turned it on, it made this "ray-gun" sound. I talked to the manufacturer and they said they could fix it. Just was never sure if it was a real problem or not. Like, could it damage my speakers if not fixed? It played fine, just made a really weird sound on start-up.
4) I was moving towards integrated amps w/DAC's at the time...and still am I guess. Just trying to go with less boxes, away from separates.

All that said I'd gladly take one again, under the right circumstances!
I think the DNA 0.5 runs in Class A for a bit, right?
It seems all my favorite-sounding SS amps run in Class A at least up to a point. Monarchy SM-70, Pass Labs 1.6, and McCormack amps. Oh I also had an old Legacy Audio amp but that showed up with a problem so sent it back. But all of these ran in Class A and sounded awesome!

If I ever go back to solid state separates, I really want one of the Pass Labs amps with the big blue meters. Not sure yet if I'd want the lower-watt Class A models or the higher-watt Class A/B. I just think they look awesome, and probably sound great too.