2. amps-preamps
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Subtlety ? do any American amps do it?

Not heard that many but it strikes me that everything from the colonies sounds a bit stark and bleached. Spent a year trying to come to terms with a Pass Labs which is vastly overated ( and I mean vastly), listened a lot
to Mark Levinson and thought Thank God I did not spend a fortune on that - clean, clear, hifi and so bereft of soul that it was like a visit to the Dentist !
I'm not that biased, it's taken Naim years to make something resembling music - PRAT ? until recently bunch of narrow minded PRATS.I know lots of Naim fans and their mindset belongs to the third reich !
UK companies like Meridian and Musical Fidelity have managed to do the bizz for at least 30 years that I've known/used and they still manage to make a noise that at least resembles real music. MF get tarred with a do it cheap brush but anyone who has heard their gear and says it's crap is probably a dealer who wants to sell you something at 3/4x the price.
The Brazilians do it a treat - Heard Audiopax 88s at the last Edinburgh show and if anyone there had ears, they should have packed up and went home - different league does not describe it.
Realise this is antagonistic but want some input.
Even the UK press seems blinkered to the crap - Pass, Krell
- whoah, nice hifi, shame there's nothing remotely musical involved, apart from the laughter as they take our hard earned money !

I have a Quicksilver phonostage - lovely and a great customer focused company, had a Lancelot Camelot, super and amazingly friendly & helpful people but go to the Big boys and it's just a money grabbing frenzy ?
I dreamed of a Pass Labs for years and ? my next amp will be coming from somewhere in Europe !

Si
simon74
reubent
7,044 posts
 
I've owned one Musical Fidelity product and relative to everything else I've owned in its category, it was crap. Vastly over-rated at its original retail price and still over-rated when I bought it on closeout out at less than 1/2 of original retail.

Maybe it was the one bad MF product over the years, but it sounded horrible. Truely anemic vs. its competition. BTW, it was replaced with QUAD. Now there's a good value piece!

Enjoy,

TIC
estrong
57 posts
 
I love my Conrad-Johnson amp. I find it to be very smooth and musical.
budrew
467 posts
 
You refer to only a few brands. And all the amps you refer to are SS. There are many US brands and they are all different. To my ears the Mcintosh tube amps could express subtlety very well. My deHavilland SET amp can be subtle and no subtle, it depends on the music. I don't think there is any one country you can look to for a particular sound. In the UK how about Naim; subtle? Hardly!
audiofankj
373 posts
 
Have owned both the Quicksilver Linestage and their V4 monoblocks. While both are good, the preamp is easily bested by the First Sound Presence Deluxe Mk II, American as well. The V4 amps are bested by the H2o Signature Monoblocks by Henry Ho - also American. If you are looking for preamp or amp, that gets out of the way and allows the music to flow, not impede or put it's own character on it, I urge you to look into either the First Sound preamp, and/or even more emphatically the H2o Signature monoblocks.

Good luck on your search. I can agree with you on Pass, Krell, and disagree with you on Musical Fidelity- as with every audition I walk away unimpressed, just as with in home trials in the past. Everyone has their sonic "flavor"...
travis's avatar
travis
239 posts
 
Sounds like you're baiting us Yanks and that's........O.K.

I recently heard the Audio Mirror tube pre-amp, ridiculously cheap and sounded great with McCormack and Parasound SS amps.

I bought the Audio Mirror SS DAC which blew the socks off the dAck!, both being non-oversampling with no brick wall filtering, but the dAck! is battery powered.

This same Audio Mirror also makes tube amps. Vladimir is a transplanted Bulgarian living in Houston, Tx. I count myself lucky to know him.

But, from the tone of your post, I suspect you would prefer spending much more money. Good luck on you.

http//www.audiomirror.com
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