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My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!

So I have been in a long journey looking to find the best amplifiers for my martin logan montis. As you know, the match between an amplifier and speakers has to be a good "marriage" and needs to be blend exquisitely. Right now, I think I might have found the best sounding amplifier for martin logan. I have gone through approximately 34-36 amplifiers in the past 12 months. Some of these are:

Bryston ST, SST, SST2 series
NAD M25
PARASOUND HALO
PARASOUND CLASSIC
KRELL TAS
KRELL KAV 500
KRELL CHORUS
ROTEL RMB 1095
CLASSE CT 5300
CLASSE CA 2200
CLASSE CA 5200
MCINTOSH MC 205
CARY AUDIO CINEMA 7
OUTLAW AUDIO 755
LEXICON RX7
PASS LABS XA 30.8
BUTLER AUDIO 5150
ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005

With all that said, the amplifiers I mentioned above are the ones that in my opinion are worth mentioning. To make a long story short, there is NO 5 CHANNEL POWER AMP that sounds as good as a 3ch and 2ch amplifier combination. i have done both experiments and the truth is that YOU DO lose details and more channel separation,etc when you select a 5 channel power amplifier of any manufacturer.
My recollection of what each amp sounded like is as follows:

ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005 (great power and amazing soundstage. Very low noise floor, BUT this amplifiers NEEDS TO BE cranked up in order to fully enjoy it. If you like listening at low volume levels or somewhat moderate, you are wasting your time here. This amp won’t sound any different than many other brands out there at this volume. The bass is great, good highs although they are a bit bright for my taste)

NAD M25 (very smooth, powerful, but somewhat thin sounding as far as bass goes)
Bryston sst2(detailed, good soundstage, good power, but can be a little forward with certain speakers which could make them ear fatiguing at loud volumes)

Krell (fast sounding, nice bass attack, nice highs, but some detail does get lost with certain speakers)

rotel (good amp for the money, but too bright in my opinion)

cary audio (good sound overall, very musical, but it didn’t have enough oomph)

parasound halo (good detail, great bass, but it still holds back some background detail that i can hear in others)

lexicon (very laid back and smooth. huge power, but if you like more detail or crisper highs, this amp will disappoint you)

McIntosh mc205 (probably the worst multichannel amp given its price point. it was too thin sounding, had detail but lacked bass.

butler audio (good amplifier. very warm and smooth sweet sounding. i think for the money, this is a better amp than the parasound a51)

pass labs (very VERY musical with excellent bass control. You can listen to this for hours and hours without getting ear fatigue. however, it DOES NOT do well in home theater applications if all you have is a 2 channel set up for movies. The midrange gets somewhat "muddy" or very weak sounding that you find yourself trying to turn it up.

classe audio (best amplifier for multi channel applications. i simply COULDNT FIND a better multi channel amplifier PERIOD. IT has amazing smoothness, amazing power and good bass control although i would say krell has much better bass control)

Update: The reviews above were done in January 2015. Below is my newest update as of October 2016:



PS AUDIO BHK 300 MONOBLOCKS: Amazing amps. Tons of detail and really amazing midrange. the bass is amazing too, but the one thing i will say is that those of you with speakers efficiency of 87db and below you will not have all the "loudness" that you may want from time to time. These amps go into protection mode when using a speaker such as the Salon, but only at very loud levels. Maybe 97db and above. If you don’t listen to extreme crazy levels, these amps will please you in every way.

Plinius Odeon 7 channel amp: This is THE BEST multichannel amp i have ever owned. Far , but FAR SUPERIOR to any other multichannel amp i have owned. In my opinion it destroyed all of the multichannel amps i mentioned above and below. The Odeon is an amp that is in a different tier group and it is in a league of its own. Amazing bass, treble and it made my center channel sound more articulate than ever before. The voices where never scrambled with the action scenes. It just separated everything very nicely.

Theta Dreadnaught D: Good detailed amp. Looks very elegant, has a pleasant sound, but i found it a tad too bright for my taste. I thought it was also somewhat "thin" sounding lacking body to the music. could be that it is because it is class d?

Krell Duo 300: Good amp. Nice and detailed with enough power to handle most speakers out there. I found that it does have a very nice "3d" sound through my electrostatics. Nothing to fault here on this amp.
Mark Levinson 532H: Great 2 channel amp. Lots of detail, amazing midrange which is what Mark Levinson is known for. It sounds very holographic and will please those of you looking for more detail and a better midrange. As far as bass, it is there, but it is not going to give you the slam of a pass labs 350.5 or JC1s for example. It is great for those that appreciate classical music, instrumental, etc, but not those of you who love tons of deep bass.

 It is articulate sounding too
Krell 7200: Plenty of detail and enough power for most people. i found that my rear speakers contained more information after installed this amp. One thing that i hated is that you must use xlr cables with this amp or else you lose most of its sound performance when using RCA’s.

Krell 402e: Great amp. Very powerful and will handle any speaker you wish. Power is incredible and with great detail. That said, i didn’t get all the bass that most reviewers mentioned. I thought it was "ok" in regards to bass. It was there, but it didn’t slam me to my listening chair.

Bryston 4B3: Good amp with a complete sound. I think this amp is more laid back than the SST2 version. I think those of you who found the SST2 version of this amp a little too forward with your speakers will definitely benefit from this amp’s warmth. Bryston has gone towards the "warm" side in my opinion with their new SST3 series. As always, they are built like tanks. I wouldn’t call this amp tube-like, but rather closer to what the classe audio delta 2 series sound like which is on the warm side of things.

Parasound JC1s: Good powerful amps. Amazing low end punch (far superior bass than the 402e). This amp is the amp that i consider complete from top to bottom in regards to sound. Nothing is lacking other than perhaps a nicer chassis. Parasound needs to rework their external appearance when they introduce new amps. This amp would sell much more if it had a revised external appearance because the sound is a great bang for the money. It made my 800 Nautilus scream and slam. Again, amazing low end punch.

Simaudio W7: Good detailed amp. This amp reminds me a lot of the Mark Levinson 532h. Great detail and very articulate. I think this amp will go well with bookshelves that are ported in order to compensate for what it lacks when it comes to the bass. That doesn’t mean it has no bass, but when it is no Parasound JC1 either.
Pass labs 350.5: Wow, where do i begin? maybe my first time around with the xa30.8 wasn’t as special as it was with this monster 350.5. It is just SPECTACULAR sounding with my electrostatics. The bass was THE BEST BASS i have ever heard from ANY amp period. The only amp that comes close would be the jC1s. It made me check my settings to make sure the bass was not boosted and kept making my jaw drop each time i heard it. It totally destroyed the krell 402e in every regard. The krell sounded too "flat" when compared to this amp. This amp had amazing mirange with great detail up top. In my opinion, this amp is the best bang for the money. i loved this amp so much that i ended up buying the amp that follows below.

Pass labs 250.8: What can i say here. This is THE BEST STEREO AMP i have ever heard. This amp destroys all the amps i have listed above today to include the pass labs 350.5. It is a refined 350.5 amp. It has more 3d sound which is something the 350.5 lacked. It has a level of detail that i really have never experienced before and the bass was amazing as well. I really thought it was the most complete power amplifier i have ever heard HANDS DOWN. To me, this is a benchmark of an amplifier. This is the amp that others should be judged by. NOTHING is lacking and right now it is the #1 amplifier that i have ever owned.

My current amps are Mcintosh MC601s: i decided to give these 601s a try and they don’t disappoint. They have great detail, HUGE soundstage, MASSIVE power and great midrange/highs. The bass is great, but it is no pass labs 250.8 or 350.5. As far as looks, these are the best looking amps i have ever owned. No contest there. i gotta be honest with you all, i never bought mcintosh monos before because i wasn’t really "wowed" by the mc452, but it could have been also because at that time i was using a processor as a preamp which i no longer do. Today, i own the Mcintosh C1100 2 chassis tube preamp which sounds unbelievable. All the amps i just described above have been amps that i auditioned with the C1100 as a preamp. The MC601s sound great without a doubt, but i will say that if you are looking for THE BEST sound for the money, these would not be it. However, Mcintosh remains UNMATCHED when it comes to looks and also resale value. Every other amp above depreciates much faster than Mcintosh.

That said, my future purchase (when i can find a steal of a deal) will be the Pass labs 350.8. I am tempted to make a preliminary statement which is that i feel this amp could be THE BEST stereo amp under 30k dollars. Again, i will be able to say more and confirm once i own it. I hope this update can help you all in your buying decisions!


128x128jays_audio_lab
viber6
2,448 posts
 
WC,
Oops, I think I made some mistakes in my previous post about the Dag integrated.  It seems that any input goes through the entire electronics, which is the tone control circuit, preamp stage, power amp stage.  If you used your Ref 10 into the Dag, you got a 4th stage of amplification and circuitry, but at least you got the benefits of the tone control circuit.  Not having a manual or any conversation with a Dag dealer, it appears to me that you cannot bypass any stage of the Dag--you just take the integrated as a complete integrated package.  As such, if you don't want any more power, it does everything else you want superlatively.  Since tone controls are important for the Neo, an alternative is the Lux preamp with its tone controls.  I don't know of any other SOTA preamp with tone controls.  You could still use your Ref 10 to evaluate SOTA powerful amps, but to see if you can improve on the Dag integrated, you need a preamp like the Lux with tone controls.  The other way would be to get a separate EQ like the Rane or digital EQ which other people here are knowledgeable about.  That opens up a larger selection of SOTA preamps to consider, or even still use your Ref 10. But if you don't want to bother with a stand alone EQ, the Lux with its tone controls would be a great way to go.  The complete Lux package of preamp and amp would challenge the Dag integrated.  If you want more power, you could double up on the M900u monos.  However, using bridged amps means that allowable speaker loads double, so although bridged amps have more power into 8 ohms, they are more uncomfortable into 1 ohm.  Also, although bridged amps give more power into reasonable loads, the extra circuitry reduces the detail and transparency at moderate volumes.  At least a single M900u is relatively cheap, to give you an idea of the tonal qualities of the complete Lux package versus the Dag package.
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 

Hello wesc, so happy that the Masterset speaker setup process is bringing your system to new hights... Not at all surprised!


Meantime, for anyone interested... I am preparing a writeup of the new Rowland M535 bridgeable amps... I have bridged a pair delivering 700W per chassis into my relatively wilding Vienna Acoustics Die Muzik. Stunning for the musical resolution and the sheer proportions and transparency of the stage... At just below $12K for the pair they are delivering music in a way that I would have only expected from amps several times their price... Much more to come in the scribblings that I will post on Agon... But so much of M535 remind me of the M925 monos... They definitely are creations of the same mind.


Might still be a couple weeks to complete my project... I have one more week of real work to do (Sighs!) before 25 days of Christmas vacations... Will complete the scribblings during my vacations.


Saluti, G.

    

viber6
2,448 posts
 
Guido,
I look forward to your review. I also want you to address some concerns I have about bridgeable amps. First, there is double the amount of circuitry in the chain for each channel, which would decrease the transparency, detail, resolution at moderate levels. Of course, you can get 4X the power into 8 ohms, which is an advantage for some people. But subtle resolution occurs at power levels of a fraction of 1 watt for speakers of average efficiency, so I would think that for this criterion, the bridged version is at a disadvantage. Second, bridgeable amps don’t like very low impedance lows, such as from electrostatics at HF. Most companies advise not to use bridged amps into impedances of less than 4. For your Vienna dynamic speakers, this is likely not a consideration, although I read that ARC tube amps exhibit tighter sound from the 8 ohm taps than the 4 ohm taps, when driving Wilsons whose nominal impedance is 4. The ARC tube amp may not be relevant to your evaluation of the Rowland SS amp, however. So I request that you include your evaluation of the Rowland M535 in the area of resolution at moderate levels, comparing standard setup to bridged. Also, how does a single M535 compare to a 525?
[
You might have seen Merrill’s August announcement that the stereo Element 114 has similar speed/resolution as the 118/116, at a projected retail price of $9-12K. He claims that the 118/116 have somewhat better spatial qualities than the 114, but the differences are small. See his post as the first entry after searching A-gon under Merrill Element. Read his statements several replies down. Of course, the 114 will have less power--we don’t know yet how much. But the 114 looks to be an outstanding value for a SOTA contender. My guess is 150 watts into 8 ohms, which might keep doubling as impedance load is halved. This should satisfy most people who care more about quality than quantity, at an attractive price.




guidocorona
4,298 posts
 

Hello Viber, as I might have mentioned a few months ago, the only exposure I have had to the Merrill Oganessom series has been a 1188 engineering prototype for a few days during last Spring... As I did not have the time to conduct a proper break-in, I am not in a position to comment about performance of the final product. Even more so, I will not venture conjectures about Element 116 and Element 114... I try to limit comments on devices of which I have no direct experience.


Concerning Rowland M535 in bridged versus stereo mode.... I have given priority to breaking in the devices in bridged mode so to ensure that both chassis would reach optimum conditions at the same time. Once I have concluded my observations in bridged mode, I will connect one of the chassis in stereo mode. The good news is that M535 seems to be evolving and maturing quite a bit faster than most amps I have had in my system. 


In the mean time, The degree of transparent resolution, harmonic exposure, and essential lack of artifacts makes me not be terribly concerned about theoretical shortcomings of bridged operations... Yet, the proof shall be in the proverbial pudding... That is when I eventually connect a unit in stereo mode I'll have an idea of any performance difference.


Worth pointing out though that Jeff Rowland is extremely conservative... He told me that he has implemented M535 as easy bridged-ready amps because he had verified that their high prformance level in bridged mode warrants such implementation.... I am conjecturing that this might have to do with he having designed for M535 distortion minimization circuitry evolved from what he first developed for the M625 S2 stereo amp. Connection into bridge mode is as simple as connecting the mono line level source to the XLR input instead of the two stereo XLR inputs... Connecting a speaker cable to the mono output terminal instead of the two stereo terminals... And flipping a single toggle switch in the back of the amp to bridged operations.

      

By the way, M535 has been design in such a way that gain structure in bridged mode is identical to stereo mode... According to the designer, you can leave preamp volume at identical levels for stereo and bridged operations.


Regards, G.


   


       

thezaks
712 posts
 
@sqitis
I no longer have a dedicated preamp.  I'm back to just a home theater processor - currently, the Theta Casablanca IV with Xtreme 3 DACs.   Come back here and let us know if you do the upgrade for the SLP-05.
Dave

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