LAMM M1.2 - Feedback - Advice - Please - anyone heard these?

Yes those ARC REF series mono’s are great amps but much higher price then the amps I was considering and pure tube amps, even the big boys don’t seem to get me where I’m trying to go. 
That real grippy, tight controlled bottom and upper bottom with speed and Uber precision with that dead balls on pointness that really good SS does in its sleep I think we take for granted until we listen to a pure tube amp that is. Even the great tube amps that come close are still are missing part of that. 
Everything is bigger and wide and rounder and fatter and a bit more diffuse even with the excellent all tube amps. 
I guess I’m a hybrid guy because I need both and just won’t give that part up but also must have at least some / enough of what only tubes can provide. I started with SS and then when went over to tubes. I could not believe how I ever lived without tubes then moved up to really really good SS and just could not believe how I could love tubes and then well... Ended up wanting more then even great SS and spent some time with Ypsilon Hybrid and realized that’s it. It’s a tube lovers solid state amp or a solid state lovers tube amp or better yet it’s nails everything I need about SS while providing enough tubes to satisfy that need and all while being the best sounding amp I’ve ever heard. That is why I’m scowling the planet for one.  
The Mac’s? I’ve not heard those Macs you named. Not those particular amps but the ones I have heard just didn’t really seem to be something I wanted. 

@ fsmithjack,

I first heard Ypsilonn components at the 2011 CES and was immediately impressed and found them to be special. I’ve heard them a few times since then and my opinion hasn’t changed. For what they do and what you’re seeking I doubt that you’ll find complete satisfaction with the other well meaning recommendations posted here. Very fine amplifiers in their own right but not the Ypsilon gestalt you have had first hand exposure with.
Charles

Some really like Ypsilon/Lansche match. Stage III cabling. Different sound. Different from, say, Lamm/Kharma with Purist cabling or from D'Adostino/Wilson with Transparent cabling.

I’ve never heard a Lansche speaker - those have those unique plasma tweeters right? I don’t even know what that is? Lol.


The others I know and have great respect for. I used the Ypsilon with my Magico S5 MKII and at that time I had a full loom of Stage III cables - on loan - not mine. Kraken PC, Gryphon IC and Magnus SC. It was awesome. Now at this time there was a window where I had other amps I was selling but still had and went back a and forth with. Pass Labs XA160.8 and Soulution 530 and the Phaethon. 

Now with the Magico’s overall I preferred the Phaethon but the 530 grabbed those drivers in way only Soulution can and I think overall was a better amp for those speakers. Those Magico’s were big and stupid heavy and gangly and sounded best pulled out way further into my room then my wife was real happy with. But mostly over time I started to find them a bit polite and just sort of got bored of them.


Then I heard the smaller, cheaper, much brighter, more raw and quicker Focal’s. The 3’s were more like the Magico’s. Great floor standers but the 2’s were more like little rocket ship monitors with bass. I always loved and overall prefer the monitor sound and or that of 2 ways. I think that quickness and precision to the image but really it’s the overall coherence / honesty of the image and its presentation I buy into more. That feel of unity in the form of point source.
Well that’s why I bought the 2’s vs the 3’s. The 2’s are these bright, powerful monitors on Steroids. Not as sophisticated and overall dynamic or does it grab all the inner details like a better and more expensive Magico, Wilson, Rockport or the like but dam these little bright buggers are quick as hell. They stop, start and turn around and upside down quicker then any of them. The problem is they are bright as hell. You need to tame them. You need a musical source and warmish amplification but if tamed well they are right in my wheel house.


I’ve learned what I like through so much trial and error. No longer looking for the best sound but the best sound for me. What I want. Take what I want most in a sound and give up what I must to get there. Others may not be willing to give for what I want. They may need what I’m willing to give.



I think what has colored this perspective more then most was years back when I went in a hole hog total other SQ direction and switched to high efficiency full range single driver speaker and SET tube amps.
These blue my image. There is magic there. Pure Magico there and I was smitten for some time for sure. That Magic is just hard to describe but it was there and I learned what is important to me. Their transparency and image precision and tube Magic was amazing.



I also learned over time that the SET / FRD approach just gave up overall more then I was willing to give but I leaned. I recommend everyone try it at one point. I had some pretty good gear too. Rethm Saadhana V3 speakers were no joke. Audionote SETs. Creamy stuff.
So now it’s like I need part of that sound into what I want.


So for me a cheaper, quicker floor stander with a brighter tweeter that is hot but with super transparency with huge extension that acts more like a monitor with bass is much more to my liking then a much expensive traditional floor stander.
I guess I’m lucky to have dug out what I like but now need to get it all together in my home and in my room with the right amp.

Checkout CAT JL7 or JL5.   They can easily drive your speakers with tube goodness triode power.