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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
 
Transparent said no more than 200 hours..
kren0006
1,859 posts
 
WC,
You’ve mused recently about feeling unsure about which direction to go with the channel as you’ve said you are having a hard time finding amplifiers that are interesting to you moving up higher from current position.

Well, here is an idea that will cause your # of subscribers to explode (I predict to over 15k or 20k, from the current less than 4k, and will also cause huge new views of old videos and set you up to really take off.

Why do I say that? Well the three things that will really drive subscriptions and active following are: 1) reviewing things that are interesting to people not just for theoretical reasons, but which are actually within the realistic wheelhouse of many more than that of current crop of gear reviewed on channel; 2) creating a competition; and 3) inviting active participation. This will do all of that.

Ok, great, that gets people interested, but why would it be interesting to you? Well, this idea will give you a solid 3 months worth of content possibilities, as I will lay out. Also, it will allow easy parrallels to be drawn by you to past videos and invite people to go listen to them (driving viewership), and it will relate to the reference equipment you currently have (Boulder, Alexx, etc.). And it will be something that nobody has ever done before, not at this level (I’m assuming - not a YT audio expert so I could be wrong).

You can thank me by sending me the crappiest loom of cables you have in the corner that you don’t want any more. Haha, jk.

So what is it? First, all you will need to do to free up the funds to do this is sell Gryphon Mephisto and Pandora, as their combined msrp should exceed the msrp of everything I mention (assuming you can get used versions of everything so that the costs will roughly balance, give or take a rounding error which in your world is low five figures, probably, ha, meant as a compliment).

Okay, what I’m envisioning is something that pits top integrated amps from many of the same companies that serve as gateways to the hi-end separates that are your passion. You’ve had some of these previously (providing opportunities to link to old videos), and some will be new but you have had their pricier bretheren (again, opportunity to link to old videos).

So, announcing: WC’s 7-way "Survivor" style integrated amplifier shootout, where WC will get 50% say of who stays and who goes, and the YT subscribers (via polls on YT channel - again, opportunity for growth) vote to decide based on head to head competitions who stays and who goes, until the list narrows down to the winner.  That 50% number picked arbitrarily so that you retain a big say in outcome (as you are only one in room), yet give subscribers a huge say as well.  Alter according to preference if appropriate.

The contenders:

Boulder 866
Luxman L590AXii
Constellation Inspirion 1.0
Gryphon Diablo 120
Esoteric F-03A
Luxman L509X
Pass Labs INT250

Basically a shootout of top integrated amps in the $9-15k price range, which are much more realistic to acquire for many audiophiles as compared to your reference gear, but will serve as gateways to eventually acquiring gear like you have now.

This is still different than anything anyone has done before, so you will still be breaking new ground. But you’ll be doing it in a way that will attract more people and if you execute it well they will stay with you and grow into all the old videos (growth opportunity for views) and anticipate when you get back to reference quality reviews.

You could pit the speakers head-to-head one on one, or play all 7 and ask to vote off the weakest. Lots of ways it could be handled. But each round could play out over a week or so, maybe two weeks.

So what speakers to use? Well, Alexx is probably not the best choice, but good to have also to try them with, to see which can handle the difficult load. But the obvious choice to use as the workhorse speakers with these integrateds willl be the Sasha DAW. Why? Well you already know the least expensive L590AXii drives that speaker well (you told us), so the others should be able to as well. And, it will open up comparison possibilities with Alexx (that’s a whole string of content), and open up look-back opportunities for all the old DAW videos (again, pushing up views). I think you could get the DAW and all 7 integrateds for close to what Mephisto and Pandora would net, again, give or take.

There are just so many possibilities that you could do with all of this. If you wanted to make it 10 integrateds for round numbers, maybe add D’Ag integrated, Diablo 300 (though both more expensive than the $15k cutoff), or Simaudio or Rowland or Hegel 590 or .....

Admittedly, this would be driven not necessarily by what is most interesting to you (I’m sure this isn’t as high on your list as 2160 vs Mephisto), but it would have explosive interest among audiophiles who already subscribe and many more who haven’t yet. It would be for brand and channel building, primarily.

Anyway, give it some thought...... Conceived of it driving in to work today. No worries if it is too big an undertaking for you to go down, as it for sure would be a lot to tackle
thezaks
712 posts
 
WC,
You could also do the absolutely ridiculous and give the Emotiva XPA-DR1 monos (650W into 8ohms, 1000 into 4ohms) a try with the Wisons - can you imagine that? An under $2400 pair of monos with an over $100K speaker.
Or, maybe it’s not too ridiculous, considering that you had the lower priced Tektons with your higher priced electronics.

I think there’s a lot of Emotiva followers, so you might gain a whole crowd with that kind of video.

Anyway, just fun things to think about. Ultimately, you always bring the fun WC.
Dave
ron17
607 posts
 
Hey.....while we're spending your money, how about room treatments? There's Synergistic Research, ASC, GIK Acoustics, Vicoustic, Auralex, Stillpoints Aperture etc....Man you could do shootouts for months.
jays_audio_lab's avatar
jays_audio_lab OP
5,381 posts
 
I'm down to spend all the money. Now, who is down to buy all of this stuff when we are done with shootouts?
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