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!


jays_audio_lab
Viber I’m going to have to disagree to some extent about eq. I for one do not understand the negative perception in our hobby that many people seem to have about eq and believe it can indeed be a very useful tool, rather than play around with hardware components to change or fix a certain issue of sound. To some extent we are using hardware changes or tweaks for some, in order to eq the sound. Having said that there is a difference between eq and changing the tone or fundamental sound we hear. A proper eq cannot change this, but can can only increase or decrease what is already there. Expecting a very lush sounding amp for example to become a much more detailed one isn’t truly realistic unless it is so recessed at certain levels by another component that you compensate for it with eq to some extent, though there will still be an underlying loss due to that component still being in the chain. You can indeed make a detailed amp sound more muffled by recessing certain frequencies. Maybe to some that may make it sound softer and less sibilant if they perceived it as such, but at a loss of detail and texture just because the surrounding frequencies are masking what is there because of the reduced levels at those frequencies. Eq is best used in modicum for smaller changes, larger ones will make the result sound artificial due to what you lose by something being masked too greatly. If there is a need for that much eq, there is a greater problem that should be addressed by whatever is creating the underlying reason for needing to add so much eq. I have seen eq used in the professional recording industry in this way and the engineer involved not recognize the problems they’ve introduced and why the results end up being unsatisfactory to listen to. Much of this is why we say there are “good” and “ bad” recordings. If that much eq is needed in the first place, something else was done wrong in the chain that should be addressed to alleviate the need to try to compensate with eq. It can suck the life, or soul out of the music if done poorly. The Harmon curve is generally used to achieve what humans here as a good sound, with minor variations acceptable based on personal preferences. Deviate far from that, or have to use too much eq to achieve the curve, and the result will likely be unsatisfactory. I currently have a system in my car that I spent a decent amount on that the company that did the work really has no understanding of these ideas. Adding eq to increase a frequency that inherently has issues due to hardware or design isssues will not solve the problem, and they cannot seem to grasp this. Maybe the problem is that the  car audio audience isn’t really an audiophile one. I haven’t been involved enough in that side of things to know if that is the case or not, but at least the company I’m dealing with is most definitely not one filled with audiophiles or even the concept of what good sound is or how to achieve it. Seems strange because their bays are filled with some very expensive cars, maybe those customers just equate expensive with good and that’s enough to make them happy, lol, 
speedbump6,
I actually agree with nearly all you just said.  It is true that the EQ drastically changes the tone, which is determined largely by the freq balance.  However, I know what the live, natural tone is, through my 65 years of listening since I was a baby.  The problem is that all speakers are veiled compared to live music, and recordings are either dull or doctored up with the choices of mastering engineers that I might not like.  As a serious audiophile, I enjoyed my systems from 1978 to 1995 without EQ.  In 1995, I began recording my orchestra in a small medical school lecture hall that wasn't designed for concerts.  The 40 year old conductor (leader of the orchestra) who was not an audiophile, complained that my recordings were dead with excessive bass.  And that was with the most detailed Neumann KM 184 mike, Bryston mike preamp which I personally auditioned from my own violin playing.  I compared the Neumann mike to other professional top mikes from B&K, Schoeps, AKG, Shure.  The Bryston mike preamp was more detailed than industry top rated Millennia and John Hardy preamps.  But the conductor was correct.  EQ to the rescue.  I now made the best recordings in that hall, which in many ways were superior to big name recording companies' recordings of the same music.  I continued use of the EQ in other halls with other ensembles.  In my audio system, I introduced the EQ with what I learned from recording, and then asked myself where I had been all those years without EQ.

Mrdecibel is right that I tailor my sound with EQ, which is exactly what we all do with electronics, cables, speakers, which all alter the tonal quality according to the designers.  EQ effects can be even greater than speaker variations, and 1000 times greater than variations in cables.  Still, EQ can't do everything, which is why I choose other components carefully.

Jay and others continue to misinterpret my recommendations, claiming that it's my way or the highway.  Every listener would use the EQ differently, according to his sonic preferences and hearing.  Even those with perfect hearing would find uses of EQ that would enhance their own unique enjoyment of their music.  Their adjustments would be milder than mine.  Even small adjustments have much greater effects than cables.

Professional mastering engineers use EQ of much higher quality than my Rane ME 60.  And the Rane is analog, which is inferior to digital EQ.  I found happiness with it, and stuck with it.

Skepticism is fine initially, but continued bashing and sarcasm over my recommendations is inappropriate.  Some people will remain close minded and enjoy bashing rather than opening their minds and listening for themselves.
@viber6
Skepticism is fine initially, but continued bashing and sarcasm over my recommendations is inappropriate. Some people will remain close minded and enjoy bashing rather than opening their minds and listening for themselves.
No, I believe you are the one who doesn’t get it. We started with open minds to your opinions. Now that you have repeated the same two or three simple concepts over pages and pages seemingly a thousand times it is simply boring to tears to read one more time.  As well as implicitly it displays your disrespect of our comprehension skills.

But you will be repeating them again, you just haven’t any fresh ideas to offer.
Wondering why viber doesn't start s thread about rane eq and lamp chords? I mean, wouldn't that really REALLY let him know how much interest there is on his advice? Why not do it so he can test the waters? 
I encourage all here to tune into the livestream tonight. The last impromptu one was quite entertaining. I just happened to be glancing at my phone last time when the notification popped up, dumb luck.

If you are wondering which one is WC on the livestream, he’s the one who looks like a slightly scaled down version of The Rock.

I tried to log in but Google logins and I don’t get along too well it seems, so I just followed and watch the others ask the questions.

WC, one tip, and you did a pretty good job of this last time, but before you answer a question please repeat what the question was, because that way it isn’t as confusing and sometimes the questions flash across 30 seconds before you get to them and there are another 2-3 in between so not always clear if you don’t repeat question, thx.

Well 2020 has been a f’d up year for everyone and here I am defending Viber (imagine that!). To all who get annoyed with his repetitive shtick, i’d give the same advice others gave me when I used to fly off handle at his wild contentions -- just take it with a major grain of salt, or skip over it if it bothers you. And Viber, don’t be so pushy with your opinions - you’ve gotten much better in that regard. For me when he talked about losing his father (something I’ll probably also be dealing with in the next 10 years and will be very hard) it made me see a different side of him and now I try to not get so worked up when he goes off the deep end like saying Rane and Tekton is better than Alexx - damn, 2020 is f’d up!!!