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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
 

The time is here.. today 12 pm ET, MEET JAY’S BEST POWER AMPLIFIER EVER.

This amplifier has topped a total of 342 amps that i have personally owned. This makes it amplifier number 343! 

 

kren0006
1,859 posts
 

Well finally we get the reveal that I predicted 3-4 months ago. Even tho WC did a video that said he was completely done with Gryphon, I still knew he’d get the Solo’s and predicted back then that those were the solid state amps he had. 
 

But was it really necessary to repeat that Vibers amp completely fell apart on complex music passages?  (A point I also made before it was revealed which amp was which in the blind test). 

jays_audio_lab's avatar
jays_audio_lab OP
5,381 posts
 

It was not necessary to clarify the shortfalls i detected with Class D. I just don’t think there is a Class D amp that can bring a REAL BATTLE to the Mephisto Solos.

These amps have bested anything else i have owned, but as i mentioned on my video, these are not amps for systems that are incomplete. You dont fly one of these planes on the video below being out of shape right? It is understood that when you get behind one of these planes you are in top shape and the expectation is the same with the Mephisto and what it will ask from YOU and the rest of your system. It is a fighter jet that isn’t there for you to play with. Put your helmet and suit on, get in the cockpit and stay alert.

 

 

viber6
2,450 posts
 

Jay, 

I enjoyed your monologue.  Congrats on your G Mephisto monos which I hope are keepers for you for a long while at least.

Although I value neutrality, it is still subservient to clarity in importance.  Neutrality is the absence of favoritism for any freq, but it doesn't guarantee the highest clarity at any freq.  Although you said the the M mono has the best bass of any amp you've owned, I'll assume that it also has the similarly highest clarity in midrange and HF, although you didn't get into that in this brief intro.

Likewise, my experience with some Nordost cables is that they have the highest clarity in all freq.  Yes, most people including I find that Nordost has a brighter sound than other products, but this is a general characteristic of products that strive for accuracy/clarity.  The human ear is most sensitive at 3-4 kHz, and Nordost best reveals everything at all freq.  Most other products don't reveal HF overtones of natural instruments as well.  It is true that some designers like Pass and the other sweet camp stuff you mention, deliberately give many euphonically oriented listeners what they want.  However, Nordost's philosophy seems to be going for lowest distortion with highest accuracy.  I don't think they deliberately design for HF prominence.  It's just true that Nordost reveals everything with equal opportunity excellence in all freq.  It may take you some time to realize that Nordost is doing what you like about M monos, and that they DO work well together.  

The risk is that you continue to maintain that there is such a thing as "too much clarity."  That idea will lead you to soften the M monos with sweet stuff like tubes, rolled off HF in cables, DAC's, etc.  Yes, the M monos will expose the deficiencies of these other components, but this is a great opportunity for you to continue to build on the wonderful qualities of these amps with other similar components.  In the past, you have advocated the "synergy" approach, which really is some combination of revealing and warm components that sends your soul to heaven.  But you made the giant leap of admitting now that you are bored with that approach, and want to hear more of what your music has to offer, so the M monos is a great step, as were the other great steps you made by getting the XLF speakers and the 725 preamp.

I have known and worked with a few top elderly violinists, and have read interviews about other great legendary musicians who, despite having achieved great fame and wealth, still wanted to improve their musicianship.  Maybe at age 80, their technical facility level had declined, but their subtlety of phrasing and timing continued to improve.  They never said that there can be too much clarity or sensitivity.  They still tried to improve despite their handicaps.  I believe that's one of the factors in extending their productive life.   Classical music is much more complex than you realize, and no performer or listener has fully re-created and appreciated everything it has to offer, respectively.

 

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,108 posts
 

I respect Jay takes because no one owned 343 amplifiers.. His video will be useful, and for me interesting to watch...

His advice will be useful for many..

Criticizing him about "clarity" or " neutrality" are meaningless arguing..

Clarity is defined against a backgound not in itself... light is defined by night and vice versa..

In acoustic and psycho-acoustic experience there is no clarity or neutrality FIRST and LAST...But dynamical micro playing tonal timbre surface and volume inside of which there is an interelated play between the acoustical setting background timing onset of waves and frontwaves and reverbarations and the internal acoustic timbre content frequencies spectrum... There is no clarity by itself here or neutrality by itself, these notions are relative to too many factors to use them unilaterally as guide save in engineering where effectively clarity may be excessive from some gear in some pairing and where neutrality in the design is a must... But acoustic and psycho-acoustic experience are more complex and cannot be argued about ONLY with words and motto like "neutrality" or "clarity"....

Szigeti seems to play violin less clearly than Heifetz in Bach violin sonata but we must say instead that the two players choose different paths... Szigeti spoke where Heifetz sing...Than clarity dont play the same in this 2 different use of the violin...Spoken contrasted articulation is not singing glisando... Then clarity and neutrality analysis means not a lot here and fall short of describing phenomenal musical experience...Like they fall short to describe acoustical and psycho-acoustical experience... The vocabulary of audio engineering is not the musical vocabulary and the two are not the acoustical and psycho-acoustical vocabulary either...

 

And arguing about cables IN ITSELF out of any room, any gear connection make no sense especially with all possible cables choices...

If Jay said that Nnordost cannot be used with HIS GEAR in his room for his ears because they introduce too much clarity in some system/room/ears pairing it simply described his experience... Arguing against someone IRREPRODUCIBLE experience made no sense... On the opposite some very good cable could add too much claity in a perfect already system this is COMMON PLACE FACT...There is no ABSOLUTE in gear choice because it is always gear dependent, room dependent and ears dependent...

Am i wrong?

Perhaps i am only an average audiophile with no experience with many systems. only a great experience about how to implement successfully a chosen one, mechanically, electrically and acoustically...MINE...

But Jays experience is interesting...Honest and passionate...i can say that, even if we are at the complete opposite of the spectrum... He look for a complete audio experiences with all possible highly costly designs at the peak of engineering, WHILE i look for the way to install and embed at low cost ONLY ONE chosen system... it takes me few years of work with a selected one...I am more than happy but being curious, i listen Jays passionnate takes...

 

It will never cross my mind to criticize his choices out of his shoes about "clarity"...

or "neutrality". these words are there only to convey his impressions not to establish an axiom like: there is never too much clarity...

Timbre experience is a SUBJECTIVE perception where the OBJECTIVE spectrum of frequencies is ONLY one constutuent factor in the definition of timbre... Then arguing about clarity on all frequencies spectrum dont adress the timbre perception itself..

Thanks to Jay for  being  so dedicated...

 

 

 

 

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