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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
jays_audio_lab's avatar
jays_audio_lab OP
5,381 posts
 
I gave those brand names thinking about the brand holistically speaking. You are primarily focusing on one power amp which i wasn't doing. 
I think the momentum with matching preamp (which i owned later if you recall) is much better than any pass labs amp with a xp30 or 32.
The xs300 is the only amp from pass i would own if i had to own one. It’s still excellent but it requires too much to deliver.
I’ll show you all something new in due time. Just be patient
thezaks
712 posts
 
If it's about one brand amp/preamp vs another brand amp/preamp, that is a different thing than just comparing one amp to another with the same preamp.   No worries.   Looking forward to what's to come.
Dave
kren0006
1,859 posts
 
I'm a little behind here......are we still waiting a month later to find out what the fourth preamp and the monos are?  Or did some of them get sold before they ever saw the light of camera (day)?

Sorry if I missed it, been a little checked out......
ricevs
1,543 posts
 
All these expensive amps will soon be boat anchors.  Check out the $7.5K AGD Audion....check out the $3K LSA Voyager (just released and I will be modding them soon), check out the new Mytek $6K Manhattan and $20K Empire amps (coming soon).  This new generation of Class D using GaN fets is just the beginning.  More and more high end companies will be releasing class D amps.....Imagine a class D output stage with Gryphon or Boulder discrete front ends driving them...WOW!.  Class D output stages are tiny and super efficient....so no heatsinks and banks of output transistors.  So, a Boulder or Gryphon class D amp would be way less heavy, be smaller and cost less.  They might be working on a GaN class D amp right now!!!!  If not, they are stuck in the past.  If you stay with the expensive heavy boxes you are going to lose a lot of money and have a hard time selling them in a few years as class D takes over.

Same with preamps.....check out the $2000 Denafrips Athena preamp and also the $3100 Holo Audio Serene preamp.......some serious technology in these things and getting rave reviews......and dirt cheap compared to $40K preamps.

Speakers.....well, one can make speakers for very little that compete and beat the big boys.....has been known for years.  My friend has the 98 db modified Lii Audio full range 10 inch driver on a 4 foot by 2 foot open baffle with 4 foot by one foot wings going straight back and is getting flat to 40 hz in his pretty good sized room.  He added an ESS dipole AMT tweeter on top using a copper foil cap to make it even better....total cost with wood and drivers is a little over $2K.  HE IS GOBSMACKED!  He goes to shows and his system right now is way out there.  He is going to add 2 15 inch woofs on the bottom on each channel so he can blow the walls down.....4 woofs plus solid state amp plus xover is another $3K.  Should blow most $100K+ speakers away.

This thread does nothing for the average audiophile.  They cannot afford any of the components discussed here.  This is why so little traffic, discussions and so few people subscribing to Jay's channel.  You basically have the same thing happening over and over and discussed by the same people over and over.......saying the same things over and over.  It is entertaining......but look at Supercar Blonde......she is entertaining and has over 6.5 million subscribers.  If you played the same game but at the level that most people are at then you would have thousands and thousands more people involved.  As it is.....it is a small club....for the wealthy and conservative non tweakers......a very small amount of people.

There is nothing wrong with this thread.....Jay and others are nice people.....it just does not serve very many people.....nor does it display a wide variety of music or opinions or the REAL possibilities of audio taken to the nth degree (at whatever price point). 

I know that many enjoy this thread and are grateful for Jay for doing what he does.  This is all good.  But.....there is more......much more......it is infinite.  May all be blessed with infinite joy and love.  Peace.
jays_audio_lab's avatar
jays_audio_lab OP
5,381 posts
 
I refuse to change my journey and begin to review "normal" gear - for lack of better word.
I will occasionally bring components that are more affordable - as I’ve done before but that’s not my primary focus.
Why would I review the same that everyone else does?. You’re essentially asking me to regurgitate what has been said with that level of gear.
The day SOMEONE - A manufacturer or end user can put a product at my door that blows the doors off what I’ve had in here (or what i have here right now), i give you MY WORD, I’ll sell all my sH!t and buy these new affordable units. Why wouldn’t i want to have more money in the bank and less invested on equipment?
What I’m NOT going to do is buy this affordable stuff with my own money because if it sinks and doesn’t swim, i will be the one having to sell it.
I am a believer that there is a desire from some people which is that want me to buy these other components so they can hear what i have to say.
I’m not going to take advantage of the free trial period either. If these brands that claim to kill the ultra high end REALLY believed it, they would have used MY CHANNEL as means to get exposure. How much money would it cost them to send me something to try? Not much. They could easily see opportunity with me. The reality is that deep down they know they don’t have what it takes or else they would have come out with guns blazing and showed what they are capable of.
I’m here saying it: SEND ME THIS NEW AFFORDABLE PRODUCT and i will sell my Sh!t if it beats it. I will be front and center on my channel disclosing what transpired.
The thing is there’s no politics on my channel. If their product sucks, do they want me to say that? Nah..and this is no different than what other reviewers do. They also don’t speak up when something they reviewed sucks. This is A FACT by the way.
I don't want this to be a back and forth fyi. I spoke my peace and i will leave it at that. I think i left it quite clear where i stand with these "scenarios" of affordable "ultra high end" components. 






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