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ICE Amps for classical music?

I listen to classical orchestral music at heavy volume. I detest reproduced music for always sounding more or less electronic and not acoustic. Real music is beautiful in a way reproduced music--so far at least-- never is. I have become curious about Wyred4sound amps because of low price and high watts. I am wondering if any of you "mostly classical" listeners have heard these amps and feel they do no more damage to music than amps which are NOT ICE amps. I am using a Plinius SA100 now and have used a VAC 100/100,
a Bedini Classic 100/100, a Music Reference RM-9, and other tube and solid state amps. They all had their pluses and minuses, of course, but for least electronic, clearly the Bedini was the winner. So what about ICE amps?
rpfef
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
An ICE amp has to mount a great speaker to convey reality.

I have been working to harness the ICE amp wild pony for years. Now we are riding over hill and dale. The question is not only which ICE amp to buy, it is what you have to do to make them sound the way you want to too.

I love full orchestra. An ICE amp will morph into any different markings depending what you coral it with. If you desire just the clear sounds of players, then you need to whittle down the electronics and wires, so they don't spook the amp.
ait
480 posts
 
Interesting metaphor, Muralman,

I have the Gilmore Raptor ICE-based monoblocks, and I have found that what they sound like depends on what you feed them and what your speakers are. I find that a good tube preamp between the source and amp will make them sound more tube-like, while a direct connection from source to amp will make them sound more analytical, or "icy". My Zu Druids are VERY revealing and detailed with these amps, while my Kef 104aB speakers sound much more mellow and smooth. In my opinion, they are much more the "straight wire with gain" amplifier than any sort of sound-shaper.
rleff
1,065 posts
 
Curriemt11- were you able to tame the speakers with the brillance control?
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
Ait - Yippy yi aye!

"""""In my opinion, they are much more the "straight wire with gain" amplifier than any sort of sound-shaper."""""

You couldn't be more right. Yours post is a great example why there are so many opinions of class D amps.

I too use tubes. They are in my non oversampling DAC. Never would I care to run my ICE amps direct. I prefer the romance of tubes, and the frankness of NOS.
curriemt11
220 posts
 
Rleff,

Only to a degree. If I turned the control down far enough to get rid of the brightness, it clearly depressed the upper mids to an unacceptable degree.

I've had quite a number of amps on these speakers, and none have exhibited this behavior to this extent. It may be a matter of semantics, but in my opinion it's the amp that needs 'taming', not the speakers.

I don't want to make too much of this. The problem area is where the load is dropping into the 2-4 ohm range. Speakers with a more reasonable impedance curve might well fare much better, so my experience in this regard must be taken with a very large grain of salt.
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