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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
viber6
2,448 posts
 
psnyder149,
I thought you were developing respect for me.  Classic top audio priorities are speaker and room with everything else less important.  It makes no sense to spend many tens of thousands of bucks for cables with relatively mediocre HT speakers.  Most music lovers on finite small or even large budgets know classic audio priorities, so this is not my unique pronouncement. Lhasaguy said it correctly above, and I gave him credit for that.

I have never personally insulted you or anyone else here, but I do defend against outrageous accusations hurled at me.  Why don't you just sit back and think about what I say, or just ignore it if it is not relevant to you.
grey9hound
1,112 posts
 
Viber6.
The problem is that you come of as "all knowing"
A perfect example is that you said
" lhasaguy said it correctly above, and I gave him credit for that."

This makes it sound as if you are the only one who knows what is right or wrong . You are acting like you are the Expert on everything. An example of this is that you told WCSS to listen to one Odin one the left speaker and one Audioquest on the right speaker and that because YOU did that , it is the way to do it . I quote
My methodology of listening in mono as stated has been extensively tested by my experience.
You have made yourself the authority on all things ......especially Audio.
You go on to talk about which cable is better and you haven’t listened to either one. It is very tiring to hear the same type of talk and attitude
psnyder149's avatar
psnyder149
160 posts
 
Viber6,
@gray9hound captured the point quite perfectly. You may not realize it, but your words are often insulting. I don’t believe that it is intentional. As I have stated, I believe you are a nice guy. But the same messages are being repeated to you over and over again and you refuse to accept them until people berate you. You were doing much better. As you no doubt realized, I and others reinforced a number of things you said. But over the past couple weeks it has degenerated completely.

When you tell people what to do--like you have all the answers--it is rude. When you criticize relative costs and individuals buying decisions, it is rude. When you tell people how they should evaluate things (different than explaining how you evaluate things), it is condescending. You have a perspective and that is reasonable. How you communicate it and state it as if your way is the only way is the problem. When you say "Odin is way overpriced compared to AQ with inferior performance... Go AQ!", you are being rude. Especially, when you have never evaluated Odin or Odin2.

I know for a fact that many of the people that participate on this thread have many tens of thousands of dollars invested in Nordost for example. I have over $15,000 retail in Nordost. Over the past 2 years, I converted from an all MIT cable system, and my system is an order of magnitude better than before.

We are not stupid. We made intelligent, well researched decisions. And contrary to what you may believe, many of our systems are amazing sounding. They may not be to your taste, but they are to ours. You like the third row, main floor. I like 1st row, 2nd balcony. Neither is right or wrong. I am happy to continue this privately, but will not take up any more of WC’s space.
jays_audio_lab's avatar
jays_audio_lab OP
5,381 posts
 
Viber,
To summarize things here, I think what everyone is trying to say to you here is that you tend to “push” your own opinion on gear you’ve never owned or much less seen in person. This is what enrages many people here and why you get punished for it. I don’t like to push anything on anyone including things I’ve personally owned. Yes, if you ask me for an opinion about a certain component that I’ve owned then I’m going to give you my own without holding back. I also don’t want to break hearts when I give my raw, unemotional opinion about certain brands which is why I’ve ceased from posting harsh opinions about brands as of late.
That said, everyone here works HARD AS HELL to be able to put a system together, but if you are going to come and talk bad about certain components, make sure you can back it up with facts rather than preconceived opinions or be ready to pay the consequences...
Reading magazines educates you (somewhat) but NOTHING beats real world experience.
viber6
2,448 posts
 
WC,
It should be understand that several knowledgeable and experienced people like me, mrdecibel are not shoving our ideas down anyone's throat.  However, strongly held views about what is practical and cost effective from a total system perspective can be useful to many people here, unlike biased wishy washy poetry coming from magazines.  The strongly held views do not rise to the level of "my way or the highway."  Although I have not personally heard an A/B between AQ and Odin power cords, my comments often rely on your reports of your observations, which I know are as careful as if I were there with you, and are therefore informative enough for me to comment on.  Of course, my better comments are about things I have personally heard at home.

I hope you excuse my sounding off on uber expensive items, but this relates to several bad experiences I had when I was your age and didn't have much money to spend.  In particular, the Mark Levinson ML6a was perhaps the most expensive preamp of the early 1980's at $6500, highly touted of course.  I listened at a seller's home and thought I got a steal at half price, $3200.  At home, it was a DOG, the worst syrupy thick molasses dull sound I ever heard.  No, not a system mismatch or anything like that, just a hyped up piece of garbage.  That's where I am coming from, to try to help you avoid financial catastrophe and offer heartfelt advice.  You can ignore advice from me or anyone else.  Sure it is your money so you're the boss, but in return for your freely given advice to others, I think you can welcome advice to you.  None of it is commandments to do this or that.  
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