ICE Amps for classical music?

Weseixas,

Many variables are in play.

I'll just note that I do not hear those things in my setup which is different and leave it at that.

I am wondering, tonality aside, how was the sound stage and imaging with the BC in the setup you heard?

If that was big yet still focused, then it was as should be.

If not, then I would say all bets are off in regards to overall sound quality, including tonality.

Also piano would sound different on Maggies than on anything in my system even under ideal circumstances, so I would not attempt to draw any conclusions based on that alone.

Weseixas,

All joking aside, if the Bel Canto can handle 1 ohm, then by all means, drop by with it someday. As an aside, you can make it a marvelous vacation. Visit the lovely abundance of wineries, check out the still largely wild north coast, visit John Kenneth Galbraith's favorite city, San Francisco.

Weseixas,

Can you confirm the damping factor spec of the Threshold amp?

As I mentioned prior, I'm suspicious of the high damping factor (>1000) of the Bel Canto perhaps not being a good match for Maggies, but that is just my technical intuition talking.

I'm wondering if anybody else has any observations regarding amp damping factor and how to match that to the Maggies?

Muralman,

I was suggesting for you to host the next shootout , threshold vs the H2O. 2 members of our group lives in NC..

If not, i understand and can just Listen -)

Mapman,

I'm still not sure what you are suggesting . what does the maggies and piano have to do with my statement.

My statement is of such :

"Pianos sounded better on the threshold , especially the tonal balance vs the BC."

This was the consensus of all present not just mine including the owner of the system, it's his " maggies" and BC.

Nothing like A/B testing to put things back in perspective
of course and not noted, none of this was optimized for the Threshold, we used what he had optimized for his BC
setup , speaker leads, interconnects and his ARC -pre ( SS)

I would have liked to have tried his BC in my system , but BC advised against it and the threshold barely got warm on his , I let them rest on mine after 40 mins.

This comparison came about because my friend was very impressed with my sound with the Thresholds and was thinking of upgrading his maggies for the 1.7 .

So we did the amp thing as i wanted to know if CLass-d was the way to go and he did say the BC destroyed his Krell, so we were all curious.

I left him with the threshold , the saga continues ...this is all fun , if you open the mind and enjoy..

"Pianos sounded better on the threshold , especially the tonal balance vs the BC."

I was just relating that having never heard either amp with Maggies, which have atotally different sound from anything I am running currently with the Ref10000mkii, I have no basis to assess what it would sound like other than what you relate.

Also, having never heard a BC with Maggies, I am not certain going in that Class D amps would be my first choice with those either, but would be curious to hear the combo and know for sure.