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

I see what you mean @cleeds .

 

I didn't go looking for YouTube videos. A member here, on a discussion forum, encouraged me to listen to them. I found his conclusion flawed. I wrote about those flaws.  That is what you do in a discussion forum. You discuss.

 

I have no responsibility to search out other YouTube videos or interest to do so. Due to the commercial nature I feel the op does have a responsibility to comment on why the sound did not change at all when someone walked right in front of a speaker during recording .

Are you Jay or someone writing for Jay? Now I am confused.

 

Jay isn’t the type to lay down and take a beating by the internet trolls that come in and out of this thread. Jay is a dealer for 3 lines and these lines don’t put Ferrari keys in my hands.

@ricevs after I didn’t see it on the first 3 or 4 I looked at including the one you were referencing(2200) I stopped looking for FCC. Given the lack of proper marking even when stated it makes me suspect though I expect they had a specific customer with a requirement for the 5K model.

theaudioamp,

What you don't know is that I am a top class amateur violinist well respected by some esteemed professionals.  I had a good grounding in math and physics before I decided to become an integrative medical doctor.  I have expertise in listening as well as some technical aspects.  You have shown no ability to listen critically to sound as well as respond to my technical insights.  The 2 videos are there at the timings I indicated.  Even though the recordings are still processed, they are good enough to easily demonstrate the sonic differences.  BTW, Paul McGowan included  modified sine waves as alternative options for those people who wanted to color their sound.  But why does the premier manufacturer, Stromtank generate pure sine waves?   

Clear out the insults, and just answer my question about why you think pure sine waves are irrelevant.  When my uneducated patients ask me basic questions, I know how to simplify the technical language and explain the concepts to them, something they are entitled to, out of respect.

@viber6 ,

 

Respond to your technical insights? Those were not technical insights, they were word salad tossed with sine wave dressing. It spoke nothing to the suitability of a pure sine wave (in this case low impedance) as an AC source for audio equipment. You seem to know just enough to think you know a lot more than you really do.  IMHO, posting what you did was an insult to all the audiophiles who are reading this thread.

 

You are listening to a Youtube video, of someone else's system, playing back on your system ... and you claim you are hearing subtle changes caused by an AC source connected to what looks like close to a 1/4 Mill of electronics, and, from what I can tell, you are not even using the same song for comparison.  If I had that level of creativity I would be writing books, not in medicine.

 

Voltage changes can only induce noise in that they can induce currents. It is ultimately changes in current that one wishes to reduce to reduce noise. Every audio power supply has in the power path a diode (or equivalent) to rectify the incoming AC. The current only conducts for a short period of the sine wave, so the actual currents end up being harmonics of the line frequency as well as high frequency ringing due to component parasitics and inductance in the AC line and transformer.  For the line frequency harmonics, the shorter the conduction angle for a give power draw, the higher the level of the harmonics. It is not unusual for tube amplifiers to have line noise harmonics show up in the output.

PS Audio's power plants have the option to output a modified sine wave (not pure), that has the benefit of extending the conduction angle with typical audio equipment power supplies. That will reduce the harmonics on the DC side of the supply, which can translate into reduces line harmonics reaching the output, and will generally allow components in the end equipment power supply to run cooler.  It is absolutely NOT to color the sound. It is to remove color from the sound.  Stromtank is not the premier manufacturer. You are Jay are claiming that. Show me some measurements that prove that. They don't have a modified sine wave, and their THD is about 10 times higher than the PS Audio units. You also have absolutely no idea what the output noise spectrum is of these units. @ricevs and his friend are convinced his Giandel inverters are better. Enjoy the Music proclaimed that the low cost Yeti 400, for powering front end equipment, was every bit as good as the Stromtank (and a small fraction of the price).

 

Your personal evidence?  A recording, made of someone else's stereo, played back on your stereo, with that recording being done in 192kbps AAC at best. That is like diagnosing someone's cancer by looking at a picture of his cousin taken with a Kodak Brownie. Comparing to the playing the songs directly, there is high levels of noise pumping (AGC on the recording?), some added distortion, and as noted, fairly high levels of reverb at upper mid/high frequencies. If you think you are picking up what are likely to be differences not revealable by measurements in that total signal chain I am not sure what the point of this discussion is.

 

p.s. Jay appears to have 5 or so Stromtank videos. None that I viewed had the exact same song at the 0:00 mark and 3:00 mark. If they exist, feel free to repost links.