| Who sells the Ion. My friend with the obelisk got it from West Midlands
Audio (a bit far away from me!), although he is an excellent dealer (I
bought my REGA from him 5 years ago)
I like the idea of the ONIX, it seems to be similar to the ION.
Can anyone remember the old price of the ONIX OA21S? Is the dealer
fiddling me? I'm sure that the old one was ~ #240, so surely an ex dem
version should be less, not more.
Mark Jeffery
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| Hi,
Well, I did eventually buy the ONIX OA21S ex demo system from Reading HiFi.
My first demo was at the Basingstoke store, where they used a Linn Basik, K9
(I didn't bring my REGA in), and my Diamonds hooked up to the following:
Yamaha A-320 - My old amp for reference.
ARCAM Delta 60 - �300
Mission Cyrus II - �350
Musical Fidelity A1 - �300
I first tried the Yamaha, and thought it sounded OK, then I tried the Cyrus II
which was a major improvement (I'd have been worried if it wasn't!), and then
the ARCAM which was better than the Cyrus (Easier to listen to, but less
initially �impressive�)
I have a theory, for these amps which goes like this - There seemed to be some
high frequency crap masquerading as music with a lot of these amps. It was
noticeable by its absence with the preferred amp. I don't know what generates
this, but I assume that it is a lack of control of the signal on the amplifiers
part.
So for instance, the Arcam sounded better than the Cyrus in this respect.
The Musical fidelity A1 sounded extremely impressive. I was under the impression
at first that the High frequencies were rolled off, but it still managed to
sound good. It sounded very very relaxing in a quite stressfull environment (well
at least I find it stressfull). However, given its high heat output, and the fact
that it needs warming up, I thought it would be a little impractical.
So, having chosen the Delta, I made my excuses and left, going to Reading HiFi.
There I compared the Delta to the ex demo OA21S. The OA21S easily sounded better
than the Delta, so I chose that. Reading HiFi had a nasty trick up their sleeves
though. They played me the Linn Intek at �400 "just in case I was interested".
The Linn Intek sounded heaps better, but was just a little too expensive for me.
It was interesting to see that the construction of the amplifier was definitely
"complicated" (There seemed to be a lot of components in the standard amp size
box.), but still very well made.
So, it was the ONIX for me. For those unfamiliar, the ONIX is a well made black
box, half the width of normal amplifiers, but a bit deeper than most. It has just
3 knobs. The one on the left chooses between CD-Phono-Tuner-Tape-Video, but is
unmarked! I'll get used to it soon I'm sure. The power knob, which I'll try to keep
switched on, and the Volume knob. The sound quality is much better than my Yamaha.
The sound is good when the music is complicated, it seems less "blurred", and in
general sounds "very nice"
Mark.
|
|
> There I compared the Delta to the ex demo OA21S. The OA21S easily sounded better
> than the Delta, so I chose that. Reading HiFi had a nasty trick up their sleeves
> though. They played me the Linn Intek at �400 "just in case I was interested".
I think some other contributor to this conference also had this done to
them.
I was in there last year sometime, and they had just sold a pair of
LS3/5a speakers (�350) to someone who had come in asking for a pair of
Celestion 3s (�1?0). I happened to overhear the assistants talking
about the great "sell-up" they'd just acheived.
I'm not really sure whether I think this is a bad thing or not. It's
your choice whether you can afford the better component or not, and I
don't think they employ any hard sell tactics. You may end up happier
in the long run (but somewhat poorer) with the more expensive one.
Trevor
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