Lamm M 1.2 against Tenor 300 and Boulder 2060

I have to disagree with the comments about Boulder equipment being too neutral or analytical. I have the Boulder 2000 series preamp, DAC, and power amp and have never experienced the irrepressible musicality, beauty of sound, and dimensionality this equipment offers. Yes, they are both neutral and detailed, but in the same way live music is. They are totally musical and coupled with the right speakers and interconnects, offer an overwhelmingly beautiful musical experience. I have owned many of the great names in audio, and this stuff is simply in a league of its own. After more years as an audiophile than I care to think about - my advice is this: the Boulder equipment is hideously expensive but may be cheaper in the long run than buying other (expensive) brands and then selling them at a big loss because you are longing for something more. Find a good Boulder dealer and buy a piece at a time and enjoy the remarkable change you hear. By the way, I have found the Tara Labs interconnects to be highly synergistic with Boulder electronics.

They are all fine amplifiers. I brought a pair of the Tenor 300 Hybrid monoblocks to a customer's house in Colorado. He owned the Boulder 2060 Stereo amplifier and Kharma Midi Grand Ceramique speakers. It took him all of 15 seconds to decide that the Tenor was much more natural and the biggest suprise was the bass response was better as well. His username is Fbhifi and he would welcome any questions.

As far as the LAMM equipment, the only amplifier that is in a close class to the Tenor would be the LAMM ML2, but unless you have a very high sensitivity speaker, they will sound dark and closed in.

Hello Jonathan,

I was just wondering if you also brought the Tenor OTL along with you when you sold Fbhifi the hybrid?

More so than any other amp I've heard the Tenor OTL has a quality that eludes the hybrid. The Tenor OTL has a density of texture that increases as volume increases. When there are dynamic shifts in volume the texture, timbre, and harmonics increase in density or richness if you will.

This attribute gives the images their life and energetic vitality making the presentation of music that much more natural and "real" sounding. What makes the Tenor OTL so special for me I found to be lacking in the Tenor Hybrid.

I guess we all hear it different and that explains in part why some of the people who owned the Tenor OTL switched to the Tenor Hybrid.

All the best,

Tom

Hi Tom, interesting, I just had a teacher and two students from Concordia College in my shop this afternoon and their comments mirrored yours except they were referring to the 150 hybrid. I have found powercord and cable matching is very important to keep that tenor midrange that I loved with my OTL's. I find when I change any major component in my system that I usally change something else before I settle in. Example:
OTL- Elrod powercords
Hybrid- Shunyata anacondas
The 150's took at least 3 months of usage of 8hrs a day, 7 days a week before they filled in. Michael (Panorama) heard a well broken in 150 vs a new out of the box 150 and the difference is major. He owned the 300's and now like myself is very happy with the 150's. I had the 150 on for 6 months and couldn't be happier.

Tom: I know the amps you listened to and I assure you they were not the same sounding as what everyone else is hearing. Those amplifiers needed to go back to the factory and the dealer kept putting it off for months. Even after my continued insistance, he kept letting people audition the amplifiers knowing there was something wrong.

When the amplifiers arrived at the factory, they were severely under biased and sounded very lean and underpowered.

Regarding the OTL's going to Fbhifi, he had heard them for quite some time and greatly preferred the Hybrids.

All of the people that have heard them outside of where you did your auditioning, greatly preferred them to the OTL's. They agreed that they sounded identical in the harmonic structure and texture, but the Hybrids exceeded the OTL's in terms of clarity, dynamics and control.

Even the person who let you audition them, agreed that the Hybrids were superior. I assure you you did not hear a proper setup.