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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
 
Hi guys and thanks for all your input in regards to the neoliths. I want all the feedback possible.
That said, yes I agree the neoliths are physically huge and not my first choice in terms of its sheer mass but the sound I may get from them might a game changing experience. Think about it, 2 huge panels creating that kind of sound. How could you miss any sort of detail or information within your music? How could you miss any cable upgrades? I think it becomes a matter of their size at that point what impresses in terms of sound. I am a believer that when you own something so huge, for the most most part anything else will sound small and compressed in comparison.
Its kind of like my Yukon XL. You step inside of it and you feel like you’re inside the President’s ride. Big, spacious, plenty of leg room, very comfortable etc but then you get inside your friends Lexus rx350... now you don’t have all this leg room, the big ride feeling with tons of comfort all around you. You lose the massive torque and grunt of the 6.2 liter engine, towing power and so on... I feel like owning the neoliths would be exactly the same thing. Your ears will be used to that massive wall of sound that just about any other smaller speaker you hear will sound much smaller and present less. This doesn’t mean it will be worse, but you can’t really make up for sheer size. Another example would be a projector compared to a tv. Yes you can get a quality 4k 80 inch tv but it WILL NEVER give you the feeling of being there the way a 120-160 inch projector screen can. You won’t get the feeling of being at the movies when you watch a movie through a tv. It’s impossible. Trust me I tried this myself after owning projectors and now owning a 77 inch tv. Every time I watch a movie it feels as if I’m watching tv.
It is exactly this feeling what is steering me to the neoliths. Knowing that at that point and once you own something like it, anything else will seem inferior in comparison. You are pretty much at a level in terms of speakers that you really won’t question what other speaker to get. 
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,668 posts
 
dsper
Keep the Thiel speakers and purchase better electronics.
Happy Listening!
viber6
2,448 posts
 
respected_ent, Thanks for the Steinway info.  While it is thrilling to hear your 2 accomplished daughters play, and you can certainly be proud of them, I would caution that comparing piano recordings to the sound of the piano in your room is a difficult exercise.  Unless your room is the size of the recording studio or live concert hall of the recording, the tonal balance will be radically different, even if you have the perfect audio system.  The fact that you say the sound is loud suggests to me that your room is much smaller than the studio or concert hall.  In that smaller room, the piano will be bass heavy compared to the recording in the larger space.  Solo piano recordings are usually made with the microphones very close, even under the lid.  The typical concertgoer has no idea of the differences between the seat in the hall and the sound heard by the close mics.  The best you can do is to hear your daughters play on the stage at the school recital hall.  Stand on stage reasonably close to the piano at a few different distances, so you can hear the microphone sound.  The large stage will let the piano breathe, and then you can make a better evaluation of your audio system.
viber6
2,448 posts
 
WC--I do hope you learn the important lesson that bigness is not necessarily better.  Your TV analogy may not be relevant to speakers.  I related my experiences with big speakers.  When I switched to the little Rogers LS 3/5A, I was shocked that this humble dynamic speaker could be superior in clarity and tonal balance to the big Maggie with its fancy ribbon, planar technology.  That BIG Dayton Wright stat absolutely sucked!  Before you take the plunge, why don't you visit a Martin Logan dealer and A/B the CLX with the Neo?  See for yourself before getting rid of your Magico and other goodies.  I am pretty sure you will find the CLX to be superior to the Neo in many if not most ways, especially in the qualities you appreciate in the Magico, and likely better than the Magico, since the CLX is a more intelligent application of the stat technology.  But no guarantees, because the Magico may present a more focused image that you may prefer to even the CLX, let alone the Neo. You don't want that lithe 100 lb singer you like on the Magico to sound like a 400 lb female gorilla on the Neo or a 200 lb on the CLX.  The Neo just includes a big woofer system to match the big stat panel.  Trust me, "less is more" in this case.
david_ten
5,480 posts
 
So the sonore signature se did not make any difference from my laptop.

Rendu was connected via USB to my esoteric k1. I was streaming using roon from my iPad.

@whitecamaross   Asking again, how was the Rendu connected and setup? You were clear about the USB out from the Rendu to the Esoteric in the first post. I wasn't asking about that. Thanks.
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