Diffferences between Spectron and Ice powered amp?


I am looking for a new 5 channel amp, I am reading all the glowing reveiews of these ice powered amps, I borrowed 1 from a local dealer and found it lifeless, I tried it with my aerial speakers. I am starting to think that they are being overhyped for marketing purposes. I have also heard glowing reveiws on the spectron ams, since I can not audition 1. I am kind of wary, can anyone shed some light on the differences from the spectron to the ice powered amps, thanks
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I personally owned a Jeff Rowland Model 5 amp for what I think was maybe 13 or 14 years....loved it but at 140 lbs crated and a pretty good sized amp, I thought it was time to move on. I bought the JRDG 501 mon-blocs that are the switching mod / digital amps and owned them for almost 5 months, they have now been replaced with a JRDG Model 112....an analog / transistor amp. That should say something ....they we not for me
The problem is that not all ICEpower amps are alike. . . in fact they can sound very different from one another, even from the same manufacturer like JRDG. You can think of an ICE module as a tube like the 6550. . . different 6550 amp implementations will sound very different, depending on design goals, compromises, and designer learning curve. The JRDG 501 monos for example, are a relatively old design (in the world of digital amps) and you are likely to find the Spectron Mus 3 SE to be more subtle and nuanced. What would be more interesting though, is to conduct a comparative listening of the newest version of the Spectron Mus 3 SE with the new JRDG Continuum 500. Both of these devices contain the latest thinking of their respective designers in switching amplification. I admit that a comparison may be complicated by the fact that the Spectron is a power amp, while COntinuum 500 is an integrated. The difficulty can be at least partially addressed by using a JRDG Capri pre on the Spectron, which is the same linestage used internally on the Continuum. . . bottomline. . . there are no easy answers, and personal preference is 80% of the matter! G.