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
I have a different perspective, it's not to say my perspective is "the right one" though I will say it's the right one for me.
I strive to assemble a system that reproduces the recorded performance and venue as it was performed, as accurately as possible - as if I / we were listening to the live performance being performed in our listening room. I strive for and admire a component that is ruthlessly revealing. Most live performances I've not listened to, but there are a minority of live performances I have listened to, and our moderately high end system reproduces them pretty darn well.
I strive for components that are ruthlessly revealing because I have found these components to bring the most lifelike reproduction of the music as it was recorded. Bad recording sound bad - make no mistake, and at this level of equipment performance - the quality of the recording is critical. Exposing myself, when wanting to "take in" a great performance, I've become extremely critical of software. But, with great recordings - the enjoyment of listening to a lifelike reproduction of a great performance is the reason I've invested  in our audiophile system. It's for the enjoyment of (the illusion of) live music; great live music stirs our senses and moves our souls!
In addition to the quality of the recording, I've found with our system the venue of the recording is also another critical issue. Because our speakers and room aren't grand (we have Sasha I's in a 16' wide by 23' long room with the speakers across the 16' wide front wall), our system reproduces smaller acoustical performances convincingly and conversely doesn't do nearly as well with large orchestra performances (which I'm fortunate to enjoy live).
In the past when evaluating a component that "homogenized" sounds - that is, made recordings sound more similar (which helped poor recording sound better) - I noticed specific sounds of fantastic recordings weren't nearly as distinguished. I believe we can all agree that at this level of equipment performance, small performance differences (in addition to being very expensive) can be the compelling difference of reproduced music being involving as opposed to being enjoyable (all else being equal).
Without making specific references to equipment, an example of what I'm trying to convey; we were listening to a very well recorded acoustic performance, performed in a relatively small venue - which was great, like really great. Listening through my system - I mean we all really enjoyed that playback. It was a night I'll always remember. Then, I switched to the new component (which I previously experienced but didn't say anything about) and we heard a new, better defined recorded performance. Images were not only better defined and more 3D like, their separation and position, not only being able to identify what / where they were but what they were doing was dramatically improved. My guests just turned to me (after the performance was over) and smiled as if I did a bate and switch on them - all 3 of them! Even the applause after the performance was better defined and much more clearly distinguished as being in front of the performance instead of being integrated within the performance. We could even easily identify where the microphones were placed. Going back to my system before introducing the new component just wasn't an option. I relate this to when whitecamaross shared with us that he heard new things on the Neo's from a familiar recording - a performer walking across the stage which wasn't clearly defined / distinguishable with previous speakers (which I meant to ask if he felt the performance of previous speaker systems could have been improved with tweaking their set up?).
I still am very aware when I listen to really great systems because when I go back to my own system, I become very critical and - in some cases the past, I didn't enjoy my own system as much as before hearing an outrageous system.
So in conclusion for this comparison (for me and without listening to the both components), the Esoteric seems to be the component I would prefer over the Luxman.
We're all entitled to our own preferences, so long as we recognize and respect each others choices.
thezaks,
You are right in theory about a certain lack of objectivity due to the sounds of different violins.  However, the variability in the sounds of violins is less than the variability of the sound of amps, and of course, speakers.  Most violinists will perform on different violins with the same optimum amount of rosin to get the right tone for each instrument.  There have been demonstrations of the sound of different violins played by the same violinist.  Educated listeners from a distance had trouble reliably discerning which violin was being played.  One particular concert where I was sitting 30 feet away, I was fooled into thinking a certain modern instrument sounded like a 250 year old famous Italian one.  But when I visited the maker of this modern violin and played his violins, it was much easier to tell the differences between his similar violins (yes, there is a house sound of a particular maker, although individual violins are subtly different) and my 1890 violin or other older ones.  This is why I have said that individual details of a performance are much more obvious when sitting close.  But even under my ear, there is a big universe of differences between all of these violins and any complete audio system.  One famous recording was done in the 1960's by the great violinist Ruggiero Ricci, called THE GLORY OF CREMONA.  He played a dozen old famous violins in different pieces, which is a bit of an apples/oranges comparison, but he also played the very short introduction to the Max Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, on different violins.  The differences can be heard, but they are relatively subtle compared to if you played a single cut on different amps and of course different speakers.  For example, the very mellow Gaspar da Salo violin played through a Boulder amp would sound more sterile than a more brilliant Strad violin played through a Conrad Johnson tube amp.
viber6,
Thanks for the compliment - which I'll happily accept from a well respected source.
Your post is very insightful - I learned quite a bit in addition to being humbled!
@tjassoc

You bet - lots of folks will feel the way you do. Your subjective preferences for the type of sound you like become the objective sound you want to get out of your system.

I can see both sides. My dealer years ago had YBA CD players, as well as Cary, Oracle, and others. Some of those players were more neutral and transparent. The YBA CD1 dual chassis had the emotional connection for me and was the one I ended up with. I had that player for years. Now that I am away from 2 channel, I strive for a sound that gives me both sides of the equation. If I have to lean to one side just slightly, it will be the emotional side. That’s my preference, and I know many would prefer otherwise.

Dave