Neurochrome HP-1

I have boards in stock now. I have over 6 kg of them, so there should be enough to go around.

The chassis production will be done before Christmas (this year! )

Tom

 

Fantastic!

Let the builds begin!!!

 

I'm ready to go can't wait. I checked all parts received vs. the PDF schematics/BOM and labeled all the packages to their corresponding numbers on the schematics.

A little Easter egg for what's coming...

 

Nice! I'll get the goodies in the mail to you shortly.

 

The Neurochrome HP-1 wasn't particularly good. Pretty flat tonally but was too compressed with some treble glare. It reminds me of a mediocre headphone out on studio gear but still way better than the O2, RNHP, GSX MK 2, and QRV-08. The game killer is that the HP-1 doesn't really do the Haas effect that preamps give tremolo picked guitars, the same as most planar headphones.

The HP-1 did note picked -> distortion -> note and distortion end -> new note instead of the correct note -> distortion -> distortion continues even as the next note is being played and starts anew. These dimed high gain pedals do not stop until you stomp them!

The Asgard 2, Jotunheim, and Black Widow 2 are all be better solid state buys for less money. The Moon Neo stuff is better for more money. Choose wisely.

 

Yeah. If you're looking for an effects box, the HP-1 is not an amp for you. I would fully expect the note and distortion related to that note to end at the same time. Otherwise you'd have an acausal system or some serious stability issue. I aimed for a transparent amp, thus didn't include anything such as the Haas Effect you mention.

Tom

 

The Neurochrome HP-1 Amp does not add distortion, the HP-1 cuts it prematurely short due to its compressed nature. The only distortion the amp adds is typical solid state treble. The HP-1 is another mediocre solid state amp that's compressed in staging, dynamics, transients, and sustain.

 

Sorry, I don't understand your statement here??

Is cutting/reducing distortion not a good thing? I feel like your critique is that you're looking for a certain kind of distortion and you're unsatisfied because the HP-1 doesn't deliver that... or am I misunderstanding you here?

 

He's talking about distortion in the recording guys...

Does this really need to be said???

 

That still doesn't make sense. If it's in the recording, then the amp doesn't know the difference between the recorded program material and the recorded "distortion". I've gone through a lot of amps but have never heard one that was able to selectively change the timing of sustained sounds.

 

I don't mean to be an ass here, and I haven't heard this amp, but based on what you've said amps shouldn't be able to have different sound stage presentations, tonal balance or plankton levels either?

I don't really understand your objection to what he heard. You can say you disagree, but saying it isn't possible basically renders all subjective descriptions of amps invalid, no?

Either you agree that amps can change the sound of the audio that passes through them or you don't.

 

Hmm...I'm with Armaegis. It's not arguing that the amp can't alter sound, just that it seems unreasonable that it could do it so selectively....trying to marry the experience with a hypothesis.

 

You mean like an amp couldnt selectively make a recording more sibilant? or selectively make the soundstage larger? or selectively increase bass slam? or selective hide more plankton...

Im not usually this involved, but this line is reason has me seriously baffled.

 

Some of those examples are tied to specific frequencies/ranges though so that isn't really an apples to apples comparison

 

Accentuating sibilance isn't selective, it's broad. The example used is changing the timing of sustained sounds. That is a very specific/selective behavior.

 

Most people think changing the sound at all means the amp is broken...have we become hydrogen audio?????

people talk about amps changing sustain and timing all the time, but this time for some reason people are losing it.

 

This is not a selected, independent problem, this is a symptom of greater problems (compression, weird treble) that cause other symptoms across the board. The extreme metal guitar stuff is just what ticked me off the most; Tony Iommi's Gibsons did not sound right either while staging and transients were compressed too.

Depth is essentially the experienced proper interplay between delay, volume, equalization, and reverb from what I understand. If an amplifier can audibly compress those, it can affect and compress the sound given that those are intrinsic features of the recorded sound.

 

I think it does make sense as a dynamic range compression symptom. Assuming that's really what's going on here.

EDIT: Also, like @ultrabike , I'm not finding evidence that "weird treble" is coming from the HP-1 rather than being forwarded by it.

 

I believe what @Psalmanazar is trying to say is the HP1 sounds like this: