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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
jays_audio_lab's avatar
jays_audio_lab OP
5,381 posts
 
Ok so a couple of you guys asked me to post a combination of components that I felt were magical so here is a system that I had and I felt was amazing to say the least:

revel salon 2
simaudio 860a
lumin s1
audio research ref10
wireworld silver 7 cables throughout

the combo above was INCREDIBLE. I am willing to bet that 90% of you would agree if you heard it. You wouldn’t even have to worry about mix and matching as I’ve done that for you.
there is a huge soundstage, detail, bass, imaging and smoothness with those components. If anyone wants a system that sounds kick ass and doesn’t want to go through what I do, put together the above and you will be blown away.
Another reason why my combination above works is because I have owned the revel salon 2 twice and they never had bass that satisfied me until I introduced the ref10 in the mix and that was game changer. The simaudio has high gain which allows for the power hungry salon 2s to not fall apart when playing at low volumes. The lumin s1 is a good budget dac for the money and there’s nothing wrong with it. Wireworld Silver 7 cables add the extra “air” to the high frequencies that make the salon speakers sound even better without any fatigue. Proven combo above. You should be able to buy all of the above for about $40k on the used market. Keep in mind, that is LESS MONEY than I have in my Martin Logan Neoliths so yes that is a great combo for the money. 
p59teitel
312 posts
 
I’ve had Salon 2s for over 7 years in a very "live" sunroom that doesn’t make for great bass (have been told by several that electrostatics would be good in here, but don’t want something with both a tall and wide profile blocking my view). Powered them first with Plinius pre and power amp, a brand known for good bass, and wanted more. Switched to Symphonic Line tube pre and monos that are known for prodigious bass, and even then I was contemplating adding a sub or two. I wasn’t unhappy with the system per se, but there was a sound in my head that I wanted the system to achieve and I wasn’t quite there.

What finally did the trick was using Star Sound Audio Points and then upgrading to their Apprentice XL platforms a few months later. Voila, now THAT’S the bass I was looking for. They provided better soundstaging too, along with more dynamics both macro and micro. I have no idea how or why they improved the sound, nor do I have much interest in scientific explanations, but I have been extremely happy with the system ever since, with zero desire to upgrade.

A somewhat different path than yours with the Ref10 and Simaudio, but a similar result. Fortunately I am not afflicted with your level of curiosity and can stop right here, LOL.
fsamb
5 posts
 
@whitecameross, make sure you stop by the JTR demo room in Nirvana C at AXPONA while you’re there. JTR will also be the ones providing the speakers for the live music concerts at the event. I think that you will be impressed. Unfortunately, work will keep me from attending.
mrdecibel
3,063 posts
 
viber, too much detail ( pun intended ) about all of the modifications I do. Liked the Lascala better, because the mid horn has a longer throat ( Khorn and Lascala use the same mid horn, Belle, a shorter horn ). One of the many reasons production of the Belle came to a halt. WC.....I just spent time looking over the exhibitor list for the Axpona show. A large turn out, with many interesting and promising speakers and designers. There are even some non horn speakers that caught my eye, as I think you will be quite busy. Saturday evening a live concert by Shelby Lynn, and so much more. I used to love being at shows, both as an exhibitor, and as a patron. As far as JTR speakers, I do not think they will be your cup of tea, partly because your room will not allow proper distance between you and them, and they are not a full range horn ( they are a hybrid ), as the Vittora. Just my opinion. Always exciting. Enjoy ! MrD.
dep14
336 posts
 
Closest to live sound, and I do love rock concerts.

Horns - will give you the impact, snap, and feeling of being in the front few rows most times.  I've owned several horn speakers from Klipsch and JBL, and I've demo'd the JTR's several times (they are nice).  I've heard the Volti's also and they are a lot of fun.  Downside to many horn speakers is the bottom end doesn't always have Impact (the JBL M2 was an exception).  So, integration of a sub is important and I've never found I can get it just perfect.

Semi-Omni Polar - Ohm Walsh (not the originals, but the newer ones that use a tweeter for the uppermost regions) - Give more of the spaciousness and soundstage of a live show, the bigger ones have tons of low end.  But they don't have quite that snap that a top notch horn has, the flipside is the bass is better and typically you can listen louder as they are not a bright speaker.  Also, don't have to be right in the sweet-spot to have a nice image.  While I don't go to many classical shows, man the Ohm's do it right.  I feel like I'm a little further back in the crowd.  Currently I'm using Ohm Walsh 5000's.  

Omni-Polar - (MBL) - in the right room and set-up can be awesome, but I've heard incredible demo's and mediocre demo's.  I've never owned.

Otherwise, a good bi-polar design or open back design (like Jim Salk has options for) can do a nice job adding some spaciousness.

I know many say " a good speaker should do everything right " which is somewhat true, but a studio monitor and a good concert speaker IMO are two different things.  

Right now, I'm digging the OHM's, they are a happy medium and they are far from perfect but they do a lot right for the money.

But, gun to my head and I had to pick a speaker that could replicate a rock concert the best... JBL M2's with the EQ set-up properly.  Ironically some do use the M2's for studio work.  They are a hell of a speaker, but they are designed around pro amps and DSP.  The nice thing is with the DSP you could play with the curves.

Where I think the OHM's beat a good horn - bass and that HUGE feeling that a concert can give you when synth's, guitars, drum's, everything is just sounding huge to where you feel it in your chest and pant legs.

Where the JBL's and other horns might win out - that ultimate "snap" of a snare drum, vocals way out front and piercing at times, and that last bit of crunch from a Les Paul through a Marshall Stack.  Downside is they can get bright at concert levels after a while.

Note - If I was someone who wanted every last little precise detail (say Viber) not sure I would look at either speaker, or an electrostat either.  I might actually look at the Persona's (which I respect but don't care for as a speaker).

The JBL M2 might be the one exception.  Amazing speaker, but with a lot of caveats.





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