Reactions to HP's review of Antique Sound Lab amp?

Will this thing drive Magneplanar Tympanis?

My Levinson is still being serviced and I am sick of waiting!

I would say "yes", but I have had no true experience with Maggies. However, I believe that Jim Winey, when he first started to design this great speaker....used ARC "tubed" equipment.

Zaikes, I loved the "(this month)"!!

All reviewers look for that component that they can splash on everyone. Mostly, this springs from a genuine desire to share your enthusiasm. Knowing Harry, limited as I do, I would honestly expect, in this particular instance, that this is the case. The manufacturer is certainly not ARC-level and the price is not stratospheric, so there seems to be no ulterior motive that is readily apparent. In fact, just the opposite.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no Harry cheerleader (at least not anymore....), but I do respect him (even though he doesn't think so...) and you have give him his due and concede that he is stepping out on a limb here. Is that dangling modifier on the cap issue at the end of the article a case of the all too familiar built-in deniability? (hey, what happened to those Wisdom speakers anyway...?) Is the amp just a foil for him to talk about his next idea on "continuous-ness" and he got carried away on that account? Who knows, but I do know that Harry did tell us about the ARC SP-9 Mk I way back when - and I know that certainly didn't help advert dollars!

Harry likes big sound (KT 88's)and has heard alot of gear. When you hear a lot of gear sometimes a little something in a component that gets something right that you have, just at that point in your listening evolution, been looking for, makes you jump for joy. If he has jumped too high too soon, time will tell.

I'm not a high-watt-KT88-kinda-guy, but I would be very interested what others who get this amp have to say.

Asa...some very good points and I will be more then happy to report back to you all as soon as I get my units in from the dealer. I hope Judesonics also chimes in with some more of his coments soon also. Seems I have a bit to loose....I'm buying this sight-unseen or should I say unheard!

Asa, my "this month" isn't meant so much in a calculated or cynical vein (regarding Pearson's motivations, not my own), as it was wistfully, or even groping blindly. I honestly don't know if he, or others in similar positions to his, even have the time, inclination, or recognition to ever step back from the fray once in a while, and meditate on how exactly it was that they traveled the path they have, and what that might mean for their future peregrinations. It's almost as if he or they don't see it coming yet again. JGH had the right idea, and went away to contemplate what might matter more - and hasn't been done or perfected yet. Not that amps have, of course, but I don't believe (do I ever?) in the quantumn leap (sorry, I know, but it's understood...) which leaves all previous loves gagging in the dust, unless you're a relative novice (like me). At the end of the rave, I'm more inclined to think it's simply another competent amplifier, maybe a pretty good one, maybe even an outstanding one (or especially for the money), but an amplifier nonetheless. How much more special could it be than all the other erstwhile excellent, special amplifiers? How much more independent of serendipitous synergy in his particular system of the moment - or ears of the advancing years, or memories of a lifetime - could this one be as opposed to those sequentially displaced ones which came before, only to be recalled as signposts along the path which led to our present surprise, intoxication, confusion, ennui? What about having a magazine to write? This is what we do, is it not? If I'm not this, who am I? And so the uncertainty must be either shut out, or toyed with in print, at least unitl the next thing comes along, lest the whole stunning damn house of cards come sliding down around us...(but you would know much better than I, no? ;^)

(Sorry, Rwd. For a palliative while you wait, try rereading "The Emperor's New Clothes", followed close by "The Wizard Of Oz"...and remember, this could easily be the best amp you've ever owned, but if not, someone reading will buy it from you and thus help nurture the cycle, so cheer up - in Audioland there is *always* tomorrow...just ask Harry...)