Power Forum: HCA-2 taken to a new level. by Fiddler

Aloha Paul,

After reading Audio Pharoah's post about changing the Monster Cable inside the HCA-2, I decided to investigate. I popped the lid on my unit and I saw one of the big caps (far left on the front of the board viewed from the front of the unit) was leaking badly. I called Jonathon and he sent me a new cap. (I explained to him I had just built an Audio Note DAC and he said I could replace the cap if I was comfortable with doing it rather than having to ship the unit back to him. It was extremely easy.)

While I was relacing the cap, I decided to replace the Monster wiring with 12 ga. solid-core pure silver wire (annealed extra dead-soft) in teflon tubing. Paul, I know you said you don't like silver, but if you tried annealed (dead-soft) you might change your mind. I used it in my AN DAC, my speaker crossover upgrade, and I have silver speaker cables. It is not the least bit bright, certainly detailed, but not bright.

Anyway, I know you may not want to hear that I changed the wiring and I may have lost my warranty, but I doubt Jonathon could have done it any neater.....BUT OH THE SOUND!

As much as I loved the HCA-2 before, this amp took a big leap by getting rid of the standed PVC Monster wire. The Monster cable in there was the equivalent of a pair of inferior interconnects between the output of the board and the speaker cables at the binding posts. I know some will disagree about my Monster remarks, and I only offer the following for comparison sake, but my interconnects are HMS Gran Finale Top Match (retail $1200 per pair and worth every penny) and I couldn't see having the Monster cable on the end of the chain just before everything exited my amp.

After an initial break-in period (everything sounded lean and restricted for the first hour) and then things began to open up. Better depth and width of the soundstage, better focus, dynamics were improved (and they were good before), bass slam is now incredibly fast. And.....a big benefit...the piano had always had a funny tone in both octaves on either side of middle-C. Now everything sounds realistic in that area (BTW, I have a grand piano in my business and I get to hear it six nights per week). No doubt in my mind it was the sound of the PVC that was coloring the tonality. Plus the harmonics are much more detailed and sustained now on the piano.

I only have about three hours total on my HCA-2 since the changes, so I expect things to improve even more. I would assume the cap isn't near being fully formed yet and the new wire and teflon dielectric hasn't completely broken in either. I won't finalize my impressions for at least 100 hours.

But if nothing more improved, this upgrade was a no-brainer. This amp is simply a different beast already. And it only costs me about $15 for a few feet of solid-core pure silver wire and the teflon tubing.

I realize that you built this amp to a price point and every penny matters, but it would be interesting to hear your feedback on this upgrade if you have the time to try it. Maybe the few extra dollars for better wiring may not be worth it to you in the long run, but IMHO, the Monster stuff is not complimenting the sound of this great amp.

Aloha,

Warren