This has turned out to be a very favorite out of nearly anything before it. I speak of the whole set working together. No prior Sony, not the Stax, not almost anything with only the Onkyo 510 and the outgoing Titan amps being able to about match. It’s an impressive use engineering talent.
I am a big fan of the E1, N1 pre and amp set. The topology may be a little less esoteric but the design does make for some fine hi fidelity sound. I heard them at J&R here in the city when they came out. They also don’t run so dang hot and I must let the cat out of the bag that the nr1 and er1 are very pedestrian sounding for all of the hullabaloo and silly price run ups of late. I much prefer this latest Sony 1 amp and my Accu 280V and its predecessor, the eXclusive C7 for preamps.
The system is a top Sony product so it must sound good. Those speakers are the stars of the show. I wonder how they would sound with a modern Class D GaN amp like the Merrill Element(s)
Same as above, The N1 is a top shelve Sony product so it is no doubt about sounding good. But it is fundamentally a very beefy class AB Mosfet amp..
But I think that’s part of why I like it. Good old fashioned bruiser. Nice grade of parts used too. You know me and Sony tho, mostly I’m a fanboy.
This amp uses a really good version of the S-Master pro, a 32 bit engine into a hi speed MOSFET final. It’s a more typical power supply around a HE toroid. 90% efficient too, I like that idea, it makes for a killer summer amp. Cool running.
True, it seems the Sony response to the 1-bit wave. That said, when it comes to anything switch mode, GaN is on a different dimension. Not everyone has managed to implement GaN well for audio uses yet, but few did...my ears tell me that Merrill did. He has other issues but the SQ is superb.
Same here...I like big iron amps. The more over-kill the better. I do however favor designs with little or no global feedback.