Nordost QKore grounding unit

[atmasphere]

Thanks atmasphere,

I can't argue with what you're saying about the speaker sensitivity vs amps Unfortunately I cannot change gain of the poweramp. Or, can I? I can change the bias current from low to medium and high, which sets the amount of Class A power, according to Gryphon. But that doesn't affect level of hiss.

It's just that I've never heard this amount of hiss from such high-end equipment before. Some hiss from a tweeter with your ear right next to the tweeter, yes, but at 1m and even from the midrange, I don't expect.
Moreover, other pre and poweramps I've tried, give the same hiss.
Note that it’s also the same for left and right and independent of volume setting.

I then wonder what one refers to when manufacturers or reviewers say that an amp has an extremely low noise floor, black backgrounds, dark space etc. I'd expect that means very little to no hiss at all.

Yet, I am starting to (have to ) believe what you're saying.

Cheers

I took a look at Gryphon's website and I agree- there's nothing to allow you to change the gain of the amp. Its also has 31 dB which is quite a lot of gain. I suspect that is the problem. Is there anything you can do to reduce the gain of the preamp? With this much gain you may not need any line level gain at all.

 

[Bones13]

I use in line attenuation between my Pre and Amps for my 95db speakers. It’s still a bit hard to think of my 100 watt amps as “too powerful”. Attenuation gets me 9 to 11 on the Pre volume dial.

If I end up keeping my Pre in the new iteration (I will know in 6-9 months) the factory can lower the pre gain with a resistor swap, and I can ditch the attenuation.

 

[atmasphere]

I use in line attenuation between my Pre and Amps for my 95db speakers. It’s still a bit hard to think of my 100 watt amps as “too powerful”. Attenuation gets me 9 to 11 on the Pre volume dial.

If I end up keeping my Pre in the new iteration (I will know in 6-9 months) the factory can lower the pre gain with a resistor swap, and I can ditch the attenuation.

Power and gain are two different things. I think 100 Watts can be quite alright with 95dB speakers in most rooms.

 

[Bones13]

Oh, I’m not going to get rid of the “Class D” monoblocks! And not planning on swapping speakers anytime soon. If I end up keeping my Pre-Amp, I’ll send it in for lowering its gain, and ditch the attenuation.