Is D for Dry? Class D...

To address the direct comment and its implications, yes, I am a fan and long term customer of Legacy Audio however I have also owned as well as heard and praised many other brands.

Brand affinity does not however mean that my ears don’t work well and I don’t know what I am hearing in the context of the system as a whole, cables utilized, etc after 12 months of nearly 100% daily listening.

Sorry Zephyr, my comments were not meant as an insult or disrespect, and if you took it that way, I apologize.

I’m biased towards Wilson Audio speakers, and my feelings are the same as yours in regards to other manufactures. However, bias does play a big part in anyone’s purchasing decision.

Everything makes a difference.  Most here are ignorant of that fact. Most people just buy stuff and listen.  They have no idea what things do inside the box.  Hardly anyone knows that every single thing you do changes the sound.  If you have 5 manufacturers using the stock IceEdge module, you will have 5 different sounds.  And 2 of the 5 would be wildly different.  Even the AC inlet makes a serious difference.......the AC wire inside, the power switch, the chassis vibrations, the hook up wire, grounding, jacks, brands of solder, etc to infinity.  Give me that exact Mivera amp in the review and one hour later with my tweaks you will have a noticeably better sounding amp without even touching the module.  Many of the mods I do to the module make it more open, dynamic and extended.  The soundstage gets larger and not in some kind of exaggerated way.  Some stock components will shrink the soundstage.....some will artificially expand it.  Some components will sound very detailed but still dry up the 3D live sound.  A large bodied guitar should should sound like a large bodied guitar.....this is how it sounds live.  It should not be a pin pointed super small cardboard cutout.  If you have a perfect recording and played back through perfect gear then you should get the exact live concert.  There is no perfect recording, there are no perfect playback components.  The fact that our stereos sound great is a miracle.....plain and simple. 

Audio is not simple.  There is no end to this game.  There are no measurements that tell you which brand of solder sounds best.  You have to listen.  Drag racing is simple......you have 5 factors.....power, weight, drag, traction and gearing.....and it is all measurable by the clock.  There is no clock in audio....there is just our ears.  Since everything makes a difference in the sound and it cannot be measured.....well.....Pandora's box times infinity.  Enjoy the ride.  If you think you "know something"......well, it is just your ego wanting to be in control.  What you know.....is what you experience.  Everything else is just guesses.  When you know yourself as essence, you will know everyone as essence.  We are all beautiful and worthy....everyone.

Ricevs,
Thanks for your insights.  Francesco at Rouge Audio says that their amps benefit from 500 hours of break in.  PS Audio says 300.  Have you taken a broken in stock Rouge Studio N-10DM and compared it to broken in stock PS Audio M1200 ?  After your mods, what are the tonal differences between your modded amps to the stock versions, after break in?

zephyr24069,
Reading the Legacy Audio site, it appears that the IV1 monos, IV2 dual monos, and IV4 ultra all use probably the 1200 AS1 module for each channel.  They are all in the Master Series.  The regular IV4 and IV7 are in the lower Performance Series, and probably use the 1200 AS2 which is a compromise in stereo and multichannel, since available power with all channels driven is reduced due to shared power supplies.  So I suppose that the performance of the IV1, IV2 and IV4 ultra are nearly identical in each channel.  Am I correct?  Did you compare IV2 to IV4 ultra?  It seems you have two Valor speakers, so I wonder why you got the IV4 ultra instead of IV2.

You might want to get the stock Rouge Studio N-10DM for $1550 delivered, which seems to be comparable to the Legacy IV2.  See for yourself as you A/B with your IV4 ultra.  I think I will get the Rouge, and then later consider ricevs' mods.