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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
2,444 posts
 
Jay,
Another issue to discuss which you mentioned is fatigue.  I see your point that a less revealing component lets you listen longer without fatigue.  But in my case, if I hear dull/veiled sound, I don't want to listen for any time at all.  If my power quality is poor, the sound is so veiled that I turn the system off after a few seconds, and just go on to non audio activities.  But when the system is exciting with great detail and revelation of the music, I am happy with just 20 min of listening.  Also, I have observed that extended listening gets you used to the sound, so exciting things initially have less excitement later.  This is true of live music as well.  Even with everyday experiences, when you first open the door and go outside, the first breath of fresh air and sunlight create the most impact.
jays_audio_lab's avatar
jays_audio_lab OP
5,381 posts
 
When it comes to the Antileon Evo, you will get a ton more fullness and bottom end but remember the antileon is a darker sound. This is what made the antileon one of the most sought out power amps: it is more forgiving than other Gryphon amps. Do we want forgiving?
Some say the Antileon Evo might be the best amp that Gryphon has ever made but that is for each person to decide.
Currently, I’m listening to the constellation centaur monos with great results but they don’t slam or hit the bottom octaves like Gryphon. Actually, no amp that i have owned has deeper bass than Gryphon - period.
Constellation has this way of gluing you to the chair but if you value massive dynamics then it’s not for you.
I also can not try the Antileon Evo with my system because i don’t have two dragon powercords for it and i don’t think it’s fair to use hurricane powercords on it because they are not at the level of the dragon which is what I’m using with the Essence (antileon needs two 15a and essence needs one 20a)
In short, if i wanted to do the same exercise with the antileon, I’d need to buy two dragon powercords with Msrp of $9800 each. Pretty crazy eh?

I can tell you that the entire point of this shootout is to see what each DAC does with constant variables.
Imagine if i had to buy MORE powercords or line conditioners just to make one dac get close to the other one? I mean, WHAT do we say to the person that is saving their money to buy the msb or DCs? Do we tell them that their DAC sounds just ok because they are using stock powercords?
I’m not exactly content if i buy a component that costs a lot of money and then i also need to spend tons of money on cables or else it sounds like garbage?
That’s unacceptable in my book.
Let's say i bought the 100k msb select dac  and i took it home and then i find out that the msb reference beats it because I'm using 2 ultra high end PCs on the msb reference? I'd be pretty damn pissed off. You mean to tell me now i gotta spend $20k on top of the $100k just to best the cheaper reference with upgraded powercords?
That SHOULD NEVER BE THE CASE!
That said, I've seen it and heard it in my room how some cheaper models outperform the more expensive siblings by adding upgraded powercords. 

kren0006
1,859 posts
 
Well I agree that video 2 is more difficult to differentiate between the presentations than was video 1, but I still prefer demo #2 on video 2 as being better than demo #1, but by a much smaller margin than I did with video 1.
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,857 posts
 
@jays_audio_lab   Jay, remember that in this hobby a large increase in amount spent does not equate to an equal ratio of SQ return. Therefore, if one has to add a power cord to a piece and said power cord is about a third or more of the price of the electronics, that will in no way guarantee that the electronics will increase in SQ by over 30%! In most cases (maybe all) a increase in cost by as much as 90+% will buy one an increase in SQ by maybe 10-15%! Seems like this ratio holds throughout the pricing structure of this hobby..for whatever reason? 
I do realize that folks aren't necessarily willing to accept that fact! But there you have it.
viber6
2,444 posts
 
Jay,
I defer to your experience that Antileon has a darker bassier sound than Essence.  My only basis for comparison was your casual video of the Antileon with the phone mike.  I couldn't evaluate the bass, but did hear more focus in midrange/HF with the Antileon.

Right now with these A/B's, demo 1 and 2 are so close that with cable swapping, preferences could change. 

The stereo Mephisto was the best Gryphon amp you had.  It was nice that it only needed one power cord.  Try the stereo Boulder 1161 against the stereo Essence at similar modest prices.  The 1161 offers a decent amount of power and might be best bang for the buck.
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