Since my last post here, 8 years ago on 12-16-09, I traded up from the very good sounding Clayton M200 monos to their big brothers, the M300s. The list below picks things up from there.
Clayton M300: 300/600 wpc into 8/4 ohms, fully in Class A. There are so many things these amplifiers do well that I really need to cover them in a review. The main thing with Clayton amps is that they sound outstandingly real so you think less about electronics and more about the beauty and power of the music. Clayton amps provide much more power into Class A than the competition, and particularly at their price points. The M300s are about $17K.
Acoustic Imagery Atsah: 400 wpc. I replaced the Clayton M300s with these in a quest to have it all. The variety of NC1200 amps (i.e., Acoustic Imagery, Merrill, Mola-Mola, etc.) all offer a quiet, powerful, rich sound in a small, cool-running, package. They offered everything I wanted, except ultimately the sound. IMO, their sonic deficiency has to do with what I perceive as an absence of ambient information. I do not know how that could actually be, but the sound reminds me of musicians individually playing in a studio rather than performers on a stage together. This is an inadequate explanation so, for those interested in understanding more completely what I ultimately could not live with, I recommend reading the review of the Mola-Mola Kaluga amps in Mono and Stereo linked below;
http://www.monoandstereo.com/2015/08/mola-mola-makua-and-kaluga-review.html
McCormack DNA-2 LAE with SMc Audio Platinum Upgrades: Steve did pretty much everything he could to upgrade this powerful (300/600 wpc into 8/4 ohms) stereo amplifier and it sounds very good indeed. It is clear, powerful and quiet, with a very nice tone. When I decided I couldn’t live with the Ncore sound, I took an opportunity on the somewhat rare LAE version of this amplifier and did not regret the result. I have owned several McCormack amps including a standard DNA-2 and the DNA-500. Of the four amplifiers listed in this update post, this is one of the two I still own.
Lamm M1.2 Reference: The biggest 110 wpc (into 8 or 4 ohms) I have ever heard. I previously owned the M1.1 and except for a somewhat dark sound, I completely enjoyed my time with them. These 1.2 Reference monos fixed the dark sound and kept all the other things I liked about the Lamm hybrid amps. The sound was full and tonally rich but with my speakers I ultimately found they did not offer quite the “slam” I was looking for and had a point where 110 wpc into 4 ohms was just not enough.
Clayton M300: 300/600 wpc into 8/4 ohms, fully in Class A. Hey wait, did I not mention these at the top of this post? Sure did. After going through the three very good amps that replaced my previous M300s, I first tried to buy the original pair back and found that my buyer would not part with them. We still stay in touch to occasionally discuss things that work well with our Claytons. I finally purchased another pair used and sent them to Wilson Shen who fully upgraded them, as he did with my previous factory-purchased pair, and the result is spectacular. The somewhat large size and hot-running temperatures are small trade-offs for the outstanding sound I have achieved using these Class A amplifiers. Wilson did not hold my temporary absence from Clayton ownership against me and in addition to being a wonderful manufacturer to work with, he is also a good friend.