My wife bought me my dream amp for my birthday. She's a beauty! and the wife's not too bad either :tongue:
Plugged her in - my CD interconnects were too short so I just connected the Mede8er to the AV input and waited about 3 minutes for it to warm up but just couldn't wait any longer and fed some tunes through the Mede8er. Woah! Very loud...volume control doesn't do anything, little bit of panic in the ranks. Guess we need to pack her up and send back to Oom Schalk?
Anyway, it turns out the AV input is designed to not be affected by the volume control, so reconnected to different inputs and settled down for some listening. This isn't really a review, just me giving some impressions and thoughts about the amp. I'm sure this has all been said before but please allow me some enthusiastic raving for this world-class piece of workmanship.
Firstly some background: I've owned a couple of decent, powerful Rotel power amps, A Linn CD Majik CD player and an Electrocompaniet ECI 300, but not much else to speak of as far as mid or high-end goes. I still have a pair of Elac speakers, but they're not hooked up as my room is only about 3 x 2 metres. So the Exclame is simply wired to a bottom of the range Mede8er and my old Tannoy 607s. Not an exotic source at all, but I love the Tannoys, they sound much better than they should. The Exclame sounds wonderful straight out of the box, I'm hoping it will open up and improve some more after a while, but if it doesn't I'm still really happy. The best term I can come up with to describe the sound is balanced. Seems like the in-word nowadays is neutral, but that word doesn't describe it for me. My impression is that the VA digs into the material, extracts the gold and presents it in a powerful, natural and balanced way. The dirt that sometimes comes with the gold isn't hidden or discarded, but the gold is what grabs the attention and the VA allows you to enjoy it without fretting about the dirt that may be there as well.
In comparison (from memory and with different equipment) the Rotels come up way short of this in terms of detail, space and life, and the Electrocompaniet is just out-muscled. The Electro was a beautiful amp, with a wonderful warm, liquid sound, but it never gave me the impression of life and power that the VA just effortlessly provides. To say I love this stunning amp already would be an understatement, it is without a doubt the finest piece of hifi I've ever owned and I'm the happiest man on the planet. :dance: I would love to hear this with better equipment, that will come in the future.
A huge thanks to Oom Schalk for gifting my wife and I this thing of beauty. We appreciate your generosity more than I can put into words. Also a note of love to my amazing wife, I don't know what I've done to deserve this, but I'm not complaining. :groovy:
Plugged her in - my CD interconnects were too short so I just connected the Mede8er to the AV input and waited about 3 minutes for it to warm up but just couldn't wait any longer and fed some tunes through the Mede8er. Woah! Very loud...volume control doesn't do anything, little bit of panic in the ranks. Guess we need to pack her up and send back to Oom Schalk?
Anyway, it turns out the AV input is designed to not be affected by the volume control, so reconnected to different inputs and settled down for some listening. This isn't really a review, just me giving some impressions and thoughts about the amp. I'm sure this has all been said before but please allow me some enthusiastic raving for this world-class piece of workmanship.
Firstly some background: I've owned a couple of decent, powerful Rotel power amps, A Linn CD Majik CD player and an Electrocompaniet ECI 300, but not much else to speak of as far as mid or high-end goes. I still have a pair of Elac speakers, but they're not hooked up as my room is only about 3 x 2 metres. So the Exclame is simply wired to a bottom of the range Mede8er and my old Tannoy 607s. Not an exotic source at all, but I love the Tannoys, they sound much better than they should. The Exclame sounds wonderful straight out of the box, I'm hoping it will open up and improve some more after a while, but if it doesn't I'm still really happy. The best term I can come up with to describe the sound is balanced. Seems like the in-word nowadays is neutral, but that word doesn't describe it for me. My impression is that the VA digs into the material, extracts the gold and presents it in a powerful, natural and balanced way. The dirt that sometimes comes with the gold isn't hidden or discarded, but the gold is what grabs the attention and the VA allows you to enjoy it without fretting about the dirt that may be there as well.
In comparison (from memory and with different equipment) the Rotels come up way short of this in terms of detail, space and life, and the Electrocompaniet is just out-muscled. The Electro was a beautiful amp, with a wonderful warm, liquid sound, but it never gave me the impression of life and power that the VA just effortlessly provides. To say I love this stunning amp already would be an understatement, it is without a doubt the finest piece of hifi I've ever owned and I'm the happiest man on the planet. :dance: I would love to hear this with better equipment, that will come in the future.
A huge thanks to Oom Schalk for gifting my wife and I this thing of beauty. We appreciate your generosity more than I can put into words. Also a note of love to my amazing wife, I don't know what I've done to deserve this, but I'm not complaining. :groovy:
