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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
thezaks
712 posts
 

WC,

As requested by some folks here, they want to hear comparisons with the same songs, so you end up hearing those same songs over and over.  It becomes an analytical experience, which at times can be exciting for the improvements/differences, but in the end can produce the burn out. 

The direction you are taking - Magico over the Focal as just one example - is to have a system that is able to expose the flaws in the music that is played, as opposed to having most everything sound decent.  However, this might steer you away from anything but high quality music; hence, the same songs over and over.

 

carey1110's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
carey1110
566 posts
 

Jay take a break it will do you good. Don’t let this hobby become the only thing you’re interested in. There are other things in life to enjoy too. Live it!  Music is more appreciated if it taken occasionally in moderation.  I think we all wax and wain in and out of the hobby to some extent. Sometimes you have to just enjoy it instead of always trying to improve improve improve. Familiarity breeds contempt. We all enjoy want you’re doing but you may need a change in direction Maybe analog will give you that. Looking forward to it. However it’s ok to take a step back once in a while. We’ll still be here when you get back. 

viber6
2,444 posts
 

The key to avoiding musical boredom is expanding your horizons.  Slowly dip your toes into classical.  Great classical music has lasted 500 years or more.  Why?  You don't have to be a scholar to continue to appreciate and understand it, although there is a learning curve with every musical language.  People expose  younger generations to it, who recognize its power and depth.  Despite my nearly 70 years of attentive listening, I know only a minute fraction of it, so there is much to learn.

Further, I have a comparatively small number of favorite pieces, but I never get tired of hearing them.  The complexity of a classical piece means that I hear something new the next time I hear it.  There is room for many interpretations of each piece.  I have many recordings of each piece by different performers, and even by the same performer over decades of his career.  I have recordings of the same performers on different record labels, so I can hear how the different engineers recorded the sound.  The tone of the same violin is vastly different according to the recording techniques used.  The same violin used by different players shows similarities and differences.  When I hear the actual tone in concert close up, I can judge which recording is most truthful.

Equipment changes are interesting up to a point, but EVERY audiophile eventually gets tired of it all.  Seek the music.  Buy some LP's that have a physical presence, with interesting record jacket musical commentary and artwork.  Watch Mike Fremer's tour of his house LP collection where he says that digital downloads are nothing compared to his stories of what he was doing when he bought that physical LP, and how the tangible feel of it brings back his memories.

daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,857 posts
 

@jays_audio_lab   When I talk about the cost of analog, I am not just talking about the cost of the hardware, but also the cost of the software! I currently own about 15K LP's, which i have acquired over a near lifetime of collecting. ( at one time I had nearly 100K LP's, but have weeded out to what i consider the cream..although still going to be doing more of that). There is absolutely no way I could afford to acquire this collection today if I had to start over. This is the real 'hidden cost' of great analog...the LP collection that is large enough and of enough quality, plus the ability to acquire it. I have had friends who have bought large collections, only to realize that what they bought was vastly over-priced and generally of poor quality from not only a condition perspective, but more importantly from a rarity and collectibility/SQ perspective. 

IME, a great analog set up means exactly that--someone able to properly do an extremely accurate set-up and also for the user to understand what it is that they are going to be able to achieve with their particular analog hardware. 

Just plopping a good table and arm/cartridge down into one's system is just half of the battle...the synergy with the upstream gear also needs to be considered, and the flexibility of the various upstream gear as well. 

While viber6 is correct, i do believe in the Linn hierarchy of what is most important in the turntable's build, i also think that the synergy between components perhaps even trumps that. If you get your tonearm wrong for the cartridge, or your cartridge mismatched with your phono preamp, or you tonearm cable mismatched to your arm or cartridge--you will hear the detrimental results. 

Will the Kronos better the MSB DAC that is in discussion, IME it will easily better it with certain music and with the right set up...IMHO digital always has a sheen of digititis ( for want of a better word) and when you hear that go away, it is hard to not hear it again. ( and the MSB Select 2DAC is one of the best two DAC's I have ever heard), but compared to great analog ( or better still- great tape) it comes in a fairly distant second. ( or third). 

grey9hound
1,112 posts
 

Jay

Buy Mofi Vinyl . (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab)

I have a 180 Gram 45RPM Dire Straits -Dire Straits (Original Master Recording)

and 180 gram 45RPm Dire Straits -Communique (Original Master Recording)

They sound fantastic.

The One Step Ultra-Discs should be even better, but, selections are few.

BTW, there is a lot of good music on the USB drive that you got from me.

It just takes time to explore it all and find what you like.😀

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