Hello @Viber6, glad you liked the lovely Mola Mola Kaluga, so did I, when I heard it extensively at RMAF, listening to much the same repertoire as you would. I also agree that at $16K for the mono pair, Kaluga might be a relatively stiff proposition for many audiophiles, even though it is worth every penny of its retail price.
If you enjoyed Kaluga, you may love the new Rowland M535 bridgeable that I am evaluating, and for which I am preparing a detailed scribbling that I will post on Audiogon… Below are some preliminary thoughts.
Over the years, I have found few amps that not only deliver the main content of the music with authority, resolution and precision, but have enough subtlety to let me experience the thought and emotion of the composer and the performing artist.... And even fewer that let me glimpse into the hesitations and misgivings that the performer might be having about the music.
Funny thing is that this rare magic can happen with amps of any class and topology.... Be they tubed, such as the AudioResearch Reference series amps, SS like the Soulution amps, or certain class D amps like the Mola Mola, Merrill Element 118, the Rowland M535 bridgeable and the M925 monos. Soulution, ARC, and Mola Mola amps I have very much enjoyed during long listening sessions at RMAF. Rowland M925 I have owned and very much loved for several years. While Merrill Model 118 was a promising early prototype when I had it in my system for far too brief a time last spring…
Coming to M535, as I mentioned previously on this thread, I have inserted a pair of Rowland M535 bridgeable amplifiers in my system. With over 700 hours on them, the devices seem by now to be fully broken in. I am absolutely stunned by the coherence of their presentation, the musicality of the tembre, the vastness of the stage, the concreteness of images,
the complexity of the harmonic exposure, the abscence of distortive artifacts in complex and simple passiages alike, the living silence between the notes, the majesty of their authority, the tunefulness of the entire audible spectrum from deep bass to high treble, the elegant luminosity of the overall presentation, their mesmerizing toe-tapping drive, and last but not leas the sheer emotionality and immersiveness of what I hear.
There certainly is a family resemblance with my Rowland M925 monos, of which M535 achieves a significant fraction of the performance level for most parameters. Yet, for certin details, such as openness and resolution of the treble, I venture to say that M535 may even graze a smidgeon above my M925. If M535 listed at $46K for the pair I would merely call them splendid.... Yet, M535 lists at a smidgeon below $6K per each 22Lbs chassis.... I scratch my head trying to find the right word to define what I am experiencing.
It is clear to me that in 2018 class D amplification has reached an audible level of maturity, for which we can find fabulous and not so fabulous examples, with the same frequency distribution of any other classes of amplification, and that can deliver at least the same level of musical beauty.
What I find even more interesting is that some class D amplifiers seem to rise well above the performance level that I would expect for devices of the same price range. Thus in my system, M535 is not simply being "Good for a class D amplifier", nor is it just a good amplifier in its own right..... Rather, for me it is an astonishing instrument for making music in absolute terms, regardless of its class of operation. Ah yes, in case you wondered why M535 has no cooling side fins…. It runs as cool as a proverbial cuke, as it appears to be approximately 97% efficient.
As my L-shaped listening area is relatively large, consisting of about 19ft x 24 for the main area, with an additional a 10x10 extension on the rear short side, and the Vienna Die Muzik speakers are not particularly efficient, with an impedance curve somewhat less than linear, I am running the bridged pair delivering 700W per side… I will try a single M535 chassis in stereo mode in a few days… I am thinking though that if your speakers were gentler to the amps than mine, a single M535 should fit you Viber quite nicely, with 250W/8, 500W/4, and 30A peak current.
Here is the M535 home page:
https://www.jeffrowlandgroup.com/model-535/
Saluti, Guido