Non NVA Equipment Used By Members.

[Lindsayt]

It's natural that this forum has a large proportion of members with NVA equipment.

However, it has never been an NVA forum. It's a general hi-fi forum that just happens to have a large amount of NVA content and an NVA trade section.

I was a member of this forum for years without owning a single piece of NVA equipment. I only bought an NVA P50SA (used off ebay) - about 3 years ago now when my Lightspeed LDR drifted too far out of original spec to be useable. And then I couldn't resist buying an NVA A20 when it was at an absolute bargain price in the highly generous sale earlier this year.

The rest of my kit is largely professional / pro-sumer gear from the 1960's to the 1980's, plus a couple of 21 century valve power amps, one of which has valves from the 1940's in it. Plus some bits left over from my Linn years. And I've also got a couple of 1990's Philips CD players.

For me, NVA gear is great for what it is, plus there's loads and loads of other interesting and worthy equipment from the 2nd hand and DIY route.

[Berty bass]

I've been a bit of a Rega fan boy for years so that accounts for much of my gear - Rega P6 tt with Goldring Excel GS cart; Rega Apollo CDP; Rega Elicit R amp and RX5 speakers, with NVA Phono 2 preamp (duel power supplies) and NVA speaker cable (but can't remember which). Due to the need to get the Phono PSU's as far away from the head unit as possible I had an interconnect extension cable made to increase the length of the captive one on the tt, with Sommer Spirit LLX cable, which does a really good job. I'd look to replace the Elicit with something NVA if such a thing as an integrated with remote volume was ever offered.

[Daniel Quinn]

I joined this forum because of Richard in 2009. I didn't own any nva equipment until 2015, when I was paid for legal work with nva amplification.

[Latteman]

All Nva amps
Denon, musical fidelity cdp & Lenco as source
Nva drive units in diy cabs

Musical fidelity E600 was a £30 spares repair; new laser & several transistors it will be £55. Lot of cdp for the money

[Vinyl-ant]

The only bit of NVA anything I have is a set of cables. And they aren't even mine.
Everything I have is either built or modified by me (I made all the cables too) apart from the cartridges, the phono stage and the step up that nick lent me. Oh and the f5, nick built that and it isn't exactly standard being dual mono. Even the seldom used Squeezebox has been altered.
I suppose the nearest thing to a standard component I have is the jvc turntable, as I haven't buggered about with the innards, but it was cosmetically restored because it was in a state when I got it, and could be doing with revamping again.
By conventional wisdom it's a wonder that it sounds any good at all.
I found I had similar ideas to Richard, perhaps that's why he tolerated me....

[Theo]

I had a whole second system with NVA amplification at one time (P50, 2 x A80 Mk.1, Phono 1). They did a pretty good job in making a pair of Linn Isobariks sound good. I sold it all because I just wasn't using it enough.

Now I just have a P90 pre in a second system with active speakers, fed by the NVA TFS (some of you will remember 'the Future Statement'). The TFS is still going strong (though it is a frustrating beast).

The main system has no NVA in it: a Trio L-07D t/t, Esoteric CDP, Exposure amplification and Jamo R909 dipole speakers. I definitely preferred my Exposure amp set up to the NVA system, but I'm sure that I could happily live with either: they both do the 'communication' thing so well.

[Daniel Quinn]

I had a exposure power amp a month or so back. It didn't work with a passive.

[Theo]

That's my experience too: I tried my P90 with the Exposure XVI power amps (just one pair), and even though it 'worked' (there was music), it sounded anaemic in comparison to my MCX pre. just a mismatch I suppose.

[keepitsimplestupid]

My system is entirely none NBA, mostly because it's all home built or based on available boards from third parties.

Speakers, ns1000m. With RAAL ribbons replacing the yamaha tweeters.
Deck, kuzma stabi with 12" S arm. Lp12 bearing, platter and subplatter, Mober DC controller with optical tacho.

Cart, benz lp, the prior range topper to the lp-s. Gyger tip, boron canto, ruby coil former and ebony body.

Phonostage, Paradise, home built, obs. Big two box, dual mono, class A shunt regulated psu, all discrete, zero feedback, transconductance input stage.

Pre, bruno putzeys balanced pre, essentially a balanced fully differential buffer stage.

Powers, a bridged pair of neurochrome mod86p composite chip amps.

Dac, ian canada rpi, fifopi, dual mono ess 9038qm and lundahl transformer output stage.

[Daniel Quinn]

So it seems the only way to beat nva, is to build your own and then our view is coloured by the look what I made perspective.

Well maybe Mr incapie is the exception, but he ain't saying