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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
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,375 posts
 
“Again, what is the objective?”

The objective is to sell / move gear for a big payday. Regardless of the objective or motives, I do appreciate his efforts and time to review gear and for his YouTube videos.  
viber6
2,444 posts
 
rbach,
Yes, I haven't posted a video of my own personal system.  I am not set up with the equipment required, and the room doesn't exactly look like House Beautiful.  So what?  I have stated that my system has similar qualities to the GTA system, which anyone here can listen to.  

Jay nailed the fundamental issue of preconceived notions.  I applaud his efforts in the ways he has done.  Zip cord and Rane EQ?  The prejudice against these cheap items is unfortunate as well.  Now that Jay is urging people to have an unprejudiced open mind, hopefully he will present zip cord as "mystery" cable, or just a "different tweak" and let blinded people hear the increased clarity for themselves.  If they have good ears and are honest, they will also say that the zip is deficient in bass.  These are factual and accurate assessments which I won't dispute, but I would hate prejudice and closed minds if they say that zip is totally bad and doesn't belong in an audiophile system because it is dirt cheap and wouldn't be sold by any high end dealer.  Same for the $200 Rane.  He presented the XLF with Antileon, at first not revealing that it was done with the inferior phone mike, and the superior Orange fuses.  My comments on that video were just a description of what I heard.  Jay might even decide to make fools of all the prejudiced people by making A/B's of two identical components, but call them component X and Y. The prejudiced people will say that X is better than Y for all their imagined reasons, but I will say that I am unable to hear any differences.

You like "warm" sound, which I describe as "dull/veiled."  They are merely different ways of describing the same thing.  Maybe I am being too harsh with "dull/veiled" and should say "more rounded and less revealing." The guitar is "sharper" on the XLF than on the Magico.  But you would say that the Magico presents the guitar as more natural, which I would agree with if you heard a live guitar in a small room where it really is boomy and rounded.  But the way the guitar is recorded and presented in the outdoor concert on the "Man in the room" the XLF presents more snap/brilliance the way it really is.  Actually, we don't totally disagree, because I stated that the tweeter of the XLF may exaggerate the HF.  Since no speaker is perfect, I have made the assessment that on balance the XLF delivers the truth of the recording more accurately than Magico.  Rather than getting rid of everything I have, I use the Rane judiciously to maximize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks.  I have experimented with less aggressive settings and have gotten more rounded sound, but the relative murky qualities have interfered with getting all the musical content, so I choose the more aggressive setting which reveals much more music, at a price of slight HF aggression.  I tailor all this to the recording.  These recording engineers have made their own EQ and processing choices, which I modify according to my needs.

Rather than escalating the duel between us, it would help if you revealed your musical background, training, experience and preferred music so I could understand your perspective better.



















jays_audio_lab's avatar
jays_audio_lab OP
5,381 posts
 
@lalitk 

The objective is to sell / move gear for a big payday

What are you talking about? You really think "big pay days" are easily done with this level of gear? You really think i expect for someone FROM HERE to show up at my door to fork out money for my XLF? if it makes you feel better, the M6 DID NOT go to a buyer. They were traded in which BY THE WAY,  IN CASE YOU NEED TO KNOW, A LOT of the gear you see on my channel gets traded in for other stuff. Dealers DO NOT WANT garbage trades from me either just like you all dont want no name brands from me. I have been verbally told "Jay i will not take these brands on trade in the future anymore because they sit on my floor forever and i can't get rid of them later on "
So then what can i do when i am being told this? I have to roll with the punches and essentially make moves that are strategic if the goal is not to be panhandling in a few years under the Florida heat and humidity. 
ron17
607 posts
 
“Again, what is the objective?”

I think Jay is a gear head....absolutely no offense towards Jay. Jay loves fast cars and hi end audio gear. I believe the thrill for him is to experience as much as the industry has to offer and file it for future use to help others achieve their goals in this crazy hobby. I doubt very seriously he is making enough money to warrant all of the work and effort he goes through. We all benefit from his obsession....I know I have, as well as most of my friends. Huge props to you my friend for putting up with all the BS shoveled your way.
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,857 posts
 
@jays_audio_lab Your two posts above say it all. I have not read this ’ongoing’ thread entirely, but it would seem to me that there is a common aspect that a lot of folks in this hobby will not accept. That aspect is that there are a TON of folks who buy this gear with their eyes...and NOT their ears! This is one of the reasons that I believe that great sounding gear can sit on the dealers floor unsold while less able gear, but gear that is eye pleasing, will move!
How many folk here are really being honest with themselves and will admit that IF the gear doesn’t meet their idea of ’aesthetics’ ( IOW eye appeal) that they will NOT consider it regardless of its SQ credentials?
That is why you see folk who are so disingenuous that they will change their opinion of gear, once they know what it is and have seen the ’look’.Then we have folk who are also ’gear lovers’..and NOT music lovers, that is another issue...and lastly we have folk who are simply trying to impress their friends/family/neighbors...and how do they do that?- through price love...the higher the better! ( NOTHING to do with the gear’s ability!).
IMHO, this is all pretty pathetic...BUT it is the current norm. My 2 cents etc.,.....
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