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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
rh67
307 posts
 
This hobby should be fun but unlike other hobby's what one gets out of it is personal, just by it's nature not everyone is going to be in total agreement. Bottom line should be about the music and not trying to be right or convince others that you are.

Personally i have other hobby's i like cars and collect vintage race motorcycles. I have a C8 Corvette coming next month and today i just ordered a Ram TRX. For me having more than one hobby keeps me from getting obsessed in one. This could work for others.

I bring this up because i did not log on all day and when i did this evening all i read is three pages of bickering. I read this thread to hopefully learn something and to read what might be coming next from Jay, opinions are fine but it seems some are beyond that.

Lets all take a deep breath and get back to having some fun.
kren0006
1,859 posts
 
Yep Rogers was another BBC era brand I forgot to mention and of course the LS 3/5a is probably one of the more famous speaker models of all time. Still loved by many nearly 50 years on. The Brits loved and still do the mini monitors because they image so well and work great in the typically smaller listening rooms of European homes/apartments.

This is getting into the weeds but there was actually quite a rivalry in the 70s between the LS3/5a and a competing Spendor design, which was said to be a little more aggressive but probably not quite as popular overall.

My “classic” model I mentioned is the SA1, which derived from that old Spendor (same name but different dimensions, see 2008 Stereophile review for more details), and was their flagship mini monitor from 2008 until D series was released in 2015 or 16.

I enjoy mini monitors too (though I prefer full range floor standers much more when practical) but if you want music wherever you go bookshelves are great for smaller rooms. So the SA1s are in my office at work. And the D1’s, which just destroy the SA1s sonically in every way, are my bedroom speaker.


grey9hound
1,112 posts
 
@chazzzy0007 

What I mean to say by all this is just like in solid state you can build a tube setup that can sound just like how you want it to sound. Really rich and warm, to dry and airy detailed or anywhere in between. It just take lots of effort and some experimentation to find the right combinations.

What tubes do much better than even the best solid state though is project instruments and vocals in 3 dimensional space. In this regard no solid state can touch what tubes do here. It’s absolutely magical when you get everything right.
That’s what we all chase.


Amen . Agreed 100%. I have tried to say this many times but certain people , just will not believe it . 
They have a Bias against Tubes.



viber6
2,448 posts
 
Kren,
Yes, for smaller scale music, mini monitors are quite compelling.  One additional reason I just thought about is how the drivers are close together, creating better time alignment.  Perhaps Dave Wilson was inspired by mini monitors and wanted to create large speakers to utilize this concept.  With my medium height electrostatics, I place them close together to obtain tight imaging like my former Rogers mini monitor.  What do you think of ricevs' most recent video of those medium size cheap speakers a few pages ago?  I'll see if I can post the link later today.

chazzzy,
Yes, I heard all of Jay's videos using the stock iMac system exclusively.  For video 3 of MSB/DCS at work, I used my HP laptop exclusively.  That system has less bass and more HF dominance than my home iMac.  I was better able to hear the differences using the HP vs iMac.  Since I mainly listen for midrange/HF accuracy, I found the HP system to be more revealing.  No headphones in either case.  I will get out my headphones and see if I can hear the differences easier than with the stock iMac.

On violins, the pinnacle of design and results was reached by Strad.  He lived to 93 and was still making violins when he died.  He experimented with different shapes, thicknesses of the top and back.  I played an early 1690 instrument, and mostly the instruments of his golden period from 1700 to 1736.  That wonderful 1736 was made at age 92, the year before he died.  (There is hope for me as I continue to improve with age.)  It is pictured on the cover of a CD/LP from 1987, to commemorate the 250 year anniversary of Strad's death.  It is early digital and has some severe digititis in a few spots, but it is live and upfront exciting.  It is SCD13 from START (state of the art) Records, released 1988, called Gala Stradivarius Concert, from the Royal Academy of Music Foundation.  The entire string orchestra plays Strad instruments (he also made a few violas, cellos, basses).  I have both the LP and CD.

No later violin maker has figured out why Strad is still king.  I have read theories which sounded good.  One particular maker claimed he understood the great makers' tuning system of topographic thicknesses of the top and bottom.  I played his instrument and wasn't impressed, unfortunately.  So SOTA was reached 300 years ago!

Sonus Faber is an Italian speaker maker inspired by the great Cremonese violin makers.  Their models include Amati, Strad, Guarneri, the greatest families of makers of all time.  The violins of Amati appeal to dainty women who like their sweet, delicate sound.  Guarneri del Gesu was the greatest of that family, whose sound tends to be more aggressive and bold of them all.  I played a few del Gesu's, and hated most of them, although my friend said that the walls were shaking from the power of a del Gesu he tried.  The most prestigious violinists tend to fall into either the Strad or Guarneri camp.  Some own both, for different music and moods.

rh67,
Yes, it is good to have a few hobbies so you don't go overboard on any one.  The mechanical precision of motorcycles and cars can help appreciation of well designed audio gear.
viber6
2,448 posts
 
grey9hound,
Yes, I found certain tube preamps, like the original Theta, especially when Roger Majeski tubes were used, had more accuracy and detail than others of the classic tube sound.  But the Theta was still less accurate/detailed than SS, so that's when I switched to SS.
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