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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
 
Audiolabyrinth: it was recapped in 2015. 
Mike: I get your point and I was there until I realized how mid fi minctosh truly is. They compete with the Brystons, parasounds, Nad, rotel, anthem. They don’t compete with the audio research, luxman, Jeff Rowland’s, simaudio, esoteric, accuphase etc. But yet they are charging top dollar? Why ? Well their name has carried them this far. You have any idea how many dealers have offered me the 1.25kw? The 611s? Customers are trading them in due to their disappointment. 
That said, it’s your $ but I’ve been where you are. There’s a whooole Lot of stuff out there that will best those 601s and possibly for less. People fall in love with the lights and the cool look. That’s pretty much one of the biggest reasons why McIntosh exists. 
mikepaul's avatar
mikepaul
223 posts
 
Whitecamaross...in your opinion ,is my krell duo 300 in the midfi category also or somewhere in between?

Thanks,your opinion is greatly appreciated!

Mike
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,994 posts
 
whitecamaross,
Interesting as well as enlightening for me to read your last post to miketuason. The comments that you made regarding various brands being mid-fi as opposed to high end really woke me up in a way.
You (seem) to view brands as a vertical continuum, bad at the bottom, mediocre in the middle and excellent at the top. There is certainly some element of truth in that. Those brands (or individual models from a brand) may exhibit noise, audible distortion or truncated high or low frequencies. Those things are measurable and obviously undesirable. 
As time has gone by though, I think that I have come to view it in a more horizontal way; that is, separate but equal. You mention the inferiority of McIntosh to several other brands for instance, but inferior (my word) in what way? For you, it may be a perceived lack of resolution let's say, but that slight lack of resolution may be exactly what makes it easier to listen to for another person. 
I think that particular post finally made me consciously aware that every component, but let's say amplifiers in this case, has a blend of audible characteristics that may appeal to an individual, and there is really no way to say which is "better", only which you think is better, which of course listeners of similar taste may agree with.
Finally, I should disclose first that I am a McIntosh amp user; (among others) but having said that, I think that it is a narrow view to believe that Mac users purchase them solely for the meters or appearance. I think that most of us enjoy the appearance of our gear, but I don't believe that many of us buy gear based solely on its appearance. 
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o_holter
975 posts
 
roxy54 - agree - amps certainly can be "separate but equal" and system matching is a main issue - including the room - in my experience.

In my case, I went up the Krell line in three stages some years ago - KAV 100, 250, and then to the flagship at the time, the FPB600 . The 600 made a big difference, compared to the KAV amps. It performed excellent, provided the conditions were right. I had flagship but heavy-driven Dynaudio Consequence speakers that could have used two 600s, but amp bridging was not possible, so I sold the whole system. Instead I invested in OTL tube amps, the Atma-Sphere MA-1. With the big Krell, I had to turn the volume too far up, to get the best (full class A) performance from the amp. With the OTL amps, the volume can be more moderate, and still catch most of the action. The Krell was more about "pushing" the music, while OTL is best at "pulling" you into the music.

I find that the MA-1s do exactly what I want, reproduce music in a true way, with full tonal colors, ambience, drive and speed, etc. Even if sometimes I miss the push of the Krell, e g in rock music, I don't think the MA-1s lose out on transients, speed and rythm - maybe the contrary, this is faster. An upgrade some years ago (for reasonable cost) helped with speed and bass.

There is something "star-lighted" and clear with OTL sound - at its best - in my experience. I bought the MA-1s without having the possibility to hear them, based on listening to a little OTL headphone amp, Audiotailor Jade. It was David against Goliath. Why did this little amp, in some important respects, perform better, clearer, more musical -. than the flagship Krell and Dynaudio main system?

The MA-1 amps create a huge, deep and well differentated musical landscape. Provided the source is reasonable good - and even a mobile phone mp3 does some of the trick - there is no doubt that the musicians creating the music are brought forth, more than usual, in hifi. Bad-sounding records don’t fare any better here, but the amps are not "analytic", most of recordings, bad and (especially) medium and good, sound better with the MA-1s than the former amps I have used. Beyond the Krell amps mentioned, this list includes a large Yamaha amp, and a 1970s Revox amp, plus various tube and solid state amps on loan.
Easy-driven speakers are a must, for going the OTL and tube amp way. I use Audiokinesis speakers, tuned to the amps. The system "grips" the room in a better way than the Krell / Dynaudio system managed. There, I used a Velodyne DD18 sub, but I could sell it, with the new system.
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o_holter
975 posts
 
Just an add-on, further illustrating my point of amp and speaker matching. After giving up on improving the Krell / Dynaudio system, I sold the Dynaudio’s, and used the Krell for a period with easier-driven speakers, before I sold it. The speakers included the Aurum Cantus 3. I found that the sound was surprisingly good. It might seem that the "steel within a glove" philosophy of the 600 came more to its right than with the over-controlled Dynaudio Consequence speakers - developed using a 2 x 1200 watt amp. Thinking about this, I miss the Krell amp,  but I had to sell it to be able to buy a new system.
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