Hi WC, thank you for your notes on the Rowland M535 in
stereo mode. I am not surprised that a single M535 chassis with its 250W per
side might not be a best match for your demanding Martin Logan Neoliths… Similarly,
a single M535 falls a little short of ideal for my Vienna Die Muzik… A sheer
matter of power, regardless of the extensive break-in that I afforded the amp.
As I may have mentioned, and also you observed, a single M535 does a good job
at yielding a stage that spans the virtual space between the speakers (about
9.5 feet apart in my case), however the stage does not exceed the outer
boundaries of our demanding speaker pairs, and image sizes seemed to me a
little shy of ideal. Furthermore, while the stereo unit never struggles, its
authority seems to approach its upper limit on Die Muzik… Different story with
a bridged pair, where in my case the stage appears to exceed the 19.5 with of
my listening space, and the virtual image of a grand piano has a size congruent
with a living instrument. On the other end, the patient break-in of your single
unit would at least reveal the kind of organic glow that the amp is able to
generate… No, not three years…. But extending break-in for a few weeks would show
you what the stereo amp amp is capable of exposing of the intimate structure of
the music… Dry is hardly an attribute that I would ever associate with this
device.
Yet, the stereo unit will always fall far short of the sheer
magic of a bridged pair. As KLH has pointed out, my own assessment of M535 as a
reference piece is not of a single stereo unit, but concerns a bridged pair
enhanced by the slip-on caps, where 900W per side and a 30A power supply in
each chassis make all limitations outline above disappear, and the performance does
graze M925 territory. By contrast, a single M535 does not approach the
performance of M925 monos, as much as some participant of this thread ardently
hopes for. Thus I hope that you will be eventually
able to reinsert M535 into your system, and obtain a second unit for bridged
operations, and bring the pair to full bloom.
I confess that I have had in my system but a risible fraction
of the number of amps that you have experimented with. On the other hand, my
tonal reference might be slightly different from yours, in that it is not based
on a particular class of operation, nor a particular brand or amplifier model. Rather,
my reference is the sound of live unamplified instruments, the perception of
the intentionality of the performers, their deliberate interpretation as well
as their unintended flaws, not to ignore those residual extra-musical cues
which hopefully a top system may allow to emerge. Besides the living
performances I have attended on both sides of the Pond, my live models are those
instruments which I have dabbled with at one time or another, or I am still
fiddling with, such as piano, harpsichord, pipe organ, baroque recorders (piccolo,
soprano, alto, and tenor), flute, Bb trumpet, short Bb cornet, Eb cornet,
flugelhorn, and euphonium… Cello instead I do not play, just coached for some
12 years. So, my perspective, right or wrong that it might be, may be a little different from yours.
IMO, seeking a literal reproduction of live acoustic music may
be a fruitless endeavor… What might be realistic instead is to achieve a form
of augmented reality whose perspective is somehow congruent with the live experience,
and yet different from it… No, I won’t expand further on this subject in this thread…
This is WC’s sandbox after all.
I should point out though, that rather than “getting used”
to certain amps, I have found that a very small number of amps, such as the
Rowland M925 monos and the bridged M535, yield what I am looking for.
This does not imply that there are no other amps or brands
which fit my model. Over the years, I have auditioned a handful of brands of
amps at home or at RMAF which, using a variety of technologies, also yield
exactly or almost exactly what I aim to... I never had to "get used" to them... It has always been love at first sight... Or, I should say, "first sound!"
The one which as delighted me most at RMAF, and which in
fact has taken my breath away, is Soulution… They
generate a musical environment that matches my tone concept 100%. I should add
DartZeel and Luxman as reference-level SS brands which I have found almost as enchanting.
Other SS amps, well… not so much.
Moving to tubes, every time I listened to ARC reference
series tube amplifiers I also felt that they were matching closely my musical ideas,
if perhaps a smidgeon less than Soulution… And equally delightful were the VTL
Siegfried and 450 monos.
In the current class D domain, the Merrill Element 118 are
IMO amps to watch closely… I had the honor of having a yet incomplete prototype
pair in my own system – sadly only for a few days last year… Except for some
slight excesses in the treble which were likely an artifact of incomplete
break-in, they did create an incredible immersive experience, which was, like
the examples cited above, an immersive hyperreality consistent with unamplified
live music. Do not think for a moment that if you are familiar with the lovely
Veritas you already have a significant idea of Element 118… The latter is a
very different and much superior beast.
Regards, Guido
PS. Apologies for the long post.