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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
lemonhaze
415 posts
 
Hi WC,I notice your aversion to subwoofers, your understandable thinking being if you pay big bucks for a speaker it should do it all without needing separate bass augmentation.Consideration needs to be given to the fact that where you position your speakers for the best sense of space, soundstage, depth etc. will not be the best position to provide bass. If you were to position the speakers where bass sounded best would probably not image well, especially if one speaker was in a corner and the other in the middle of the opposite wall.
Separating these two duties has great benefits. A relatively modest looking bookshelf speaker with good subs can sound astonishing.But they must be the right subs. Servo driven open baffle subs have been mentioned and I endorse that. Simply the finest bass reproduction I have heard.There is more to it than just added bass. It is uncanny how the midrange and even the treble improves!Also OB bass correctly positioned will not overload even a small room.Brian Ding at Rythmic does servo bass. Very clean, very detailed and informative sound. I will never use anything else. Its exciting to listen to.
If you use multiple subs and a moderate amount of bass traps and first reflection point absorbers (perhaps in your new listening room) you will not need to resort to EQ.This sounds like one of those adds, yes there is still more. If you high pass your main speakers say around 60 to 80 Hz sound improves further because vibration of the main speakers is reduced and less power is required from the power amp/s. This is particularly noticeable with tubes where you are removing 20Hz and lower from saturating the output transformers.In addition to servo OB, introducing an extra sealed box servo sub can provide slam. Just experiment and flavour to taste.The Magico's would respond well to this treatment and I would love to witness and take pics of your expressions before and after and post them here for all to see  :)

1markr
594 posts
 
@charles1dad +1!! 

My Coincident Frank mkII 300b monoblocks have been rock solid as well, and they are easy on tubes. Great amps!
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,443 posts
 
I agree Lemonhaze....big Vandersteen's sound so good because of the seperate/amped sub.
viber6
2,444 posts
 
WC, I agree with your post last night for its honesty and truthfulness.  You seem to presently prefer a revealing sound that may be slightly on the sweet side, like a slight dose of hazelnut creamer and whipped cream in your coffee.  In that case, the Lux or any Constellation with their somewhat sweet midrange would give you just about everything you want.  This is my guess based on reviews and the comments of yourself and techno_dude on the Lux.  On the other hand, the fact that you have been enjoying the Magico for a longer time than other speakers suggests that you value the idea of a window into the music.  You described the Magico as a neutral, accurate conduit/window into the music, despite more prominence of the highs than what you were previously used to.  The increased highs make it possible to hear all the overtones of all instruments, as I shared with Guidocorona the other day.  For the most accurate/revealing neutral window, you might also consider the Soulution 711, which is available on A-gon for $34K or so asking price.  For many years when I was horrified at the tonally distorted sound of early SS, I took refuge in lots of tube equipment.  Then I got the best tubes from Roger Modjeski, and later got the excellent Grant Lumley tube amps.  All of these had less sweet personalities with more accuracy, until I got an early Spectral preamp and amp and realized that by this time SS was maturing and giving just about everything important.  I began demanding more and more accuracy and information retrieval, which can only occur with neutrality.  Don't spend a lot of money on stuff with a residual coat of sweetness.  That's why I believe the cheaper Constellation or the Lux M900u represent great value at this point.  Spend serious money on the Soulution 711 or the coming Merrill Element 118 whose qualities still are not known for sure.

On further thought in response to 4425, as much as you would like to listen to everything for yourself, the constraints of money and time make this task just about impossible.  So if you trust the ears and the honesty of that guy who said the Constellation beats the Dag in the ways you mentioned, that narrows the field for you to consider seriously.  From my experience with a few Krell amps from Dag's former company and knowing him, and trusting the ears of a well respected dealer for Dag, Spectral, Parasound, Lamm who said Dag has a more rolled off sound than several of the other units he sells, I'd say you can pass on the Dags unless you can get a fire sale deal on a Dag which you can listen to and then sell quickly without losing any money.
techno_dude
382 posts
 
Judicious advice from Viber6. Could save you $ WC.

The choice of amp depends a lot of how much tube sweetness the REF10 brings to the table, the synergy with the Magicos , and the tastes of the op. If enough for him, he can go SS amp...powerful, fast, resolute. If not enough, he can go tube. Yes the Lux brings a nice dense and juicy midrange, but my guess is a full tube amplifier can go further if someone crave for that famous magic of tubes.

I ´m a SS guy, but I must admit that WC’s experience with the Mac 2301s opens a door in my mind about a future tube amp to replace my Lux.

I wonder if a powerful Spectral amp would be to WC’s taste to go with his REF10. They say Spectal is powerful, fast, resolute...an iron grip like no others... It could make the Magico wake up their FULL dynamics . Opinions about Spectral amps ?
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