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

@carey1110 would a few thousand dollar DAC and equalized quality headphones be acceptable? That is what I did. Sorry, but there is nothing that can be gleamed in those videos that can be attributed to the AC source (or really anything for that matter). Just someone changing their position in the room will have more effect and I don't perceive a lot of controls in these videos. In some there is someone walking right in front of the speaker (which curiously does not change the recording at all).

 

@theaudioamp we’ll I think all you need is an iPhone or iPad with headset. Surely you can hear differences in things he’s done in the past, I know I can. Now granted it not even close to like being there but there are differences. Which is better is always questionable and debatable and things like imaging,  instrument placement and such is not too good but things like detail, warmth, dynamics are noticeable  and  differences can be heard don’t you think? Maybe it’s possible you Dac is part of the problem. Try without and see.

Jays_audio_lab

Jay isn’t the type to lay down and take a beating by the internet trolls that come in and out of this thread ... most who come in and out of this thread to attack me only see this stuff on magazines

What's your complaint, that people comment in your thread, and some dare to disagree or question you?

Don’t be mad at the dude (the messenger) who lives with this ... I don’t want to hear it. Stop shooting the messenger. Instead of hating on me, why not figure out a way to earn more income so you can better your system?

I don't think anyone here hates you, Jay, so you don't have to play a victim.

This is MY JOURNEY - NOT YOURS. However, somehow that gets overlooked?

You're not posting to a private Dear Diary and everyone here is on a journey. Perhaps that is what you overlooked. And if you choose to use this thread to promote a $16,000 battery, it seems fair to me that others be allowed to comment and even offer alternatives. That doesn't mean anyone hates you.

theaudioamp,

Look on page 402 of this thread. The 1st video on 7/30 at 12:50 PM is the S1000. Listen at 0:00. The 2nd video on the same page on 7/31 at 3:15 PM is the S2500. Listen to the same song at 3:00. I find it helpful to listen for short periods to the same material. The instrumental introduction goes on for 40 sec. Then the voice comes in. So go back and forth for the 40 sec instrumental, then with the voice for about 20 seconds back and forth. See if you can hear the ambient space on the instrumentals, how it is much larger on the S2500. Listen to the increased detail and resolution of the instruments on the S2500. Perception of increased space is a measure of low level detail.

If you honestly don’t hear ANY differences after several attempts, you cannot be blamed for having a hearing problem, so you should go to any audiologist or ENT specialist. Maybe it is as simple as getting ear wax cleaned out. If you do hear differences, but judge them to be very small, that is a value judgment which is fine, but at least you will have learned something and admitted to yourself that you are incorrect to claim that there are NO audible differences.

However, it is more likely that your technical emphasis serves as a bias that you emotionally block out any perceptions that refute your claims that there are no significant differences. I have observed this phenomenon of denial of truths if they conflict with entrenched belief systems and agendas, as with politicians who consistently lie. In medicine, I have met professors of medicine who make incorrect clinical assessments of patients based on objective data. For example, a patient may have abdominal and brain symptoms that are actually due to gluten sensitivities. The GI MD does endoscopic biopsies looking for gluten damage. The biopsies are normal, and the MD tells the patient it is OK to continue to eat gluten foods like bread, pasta. But I have helped many such patients by asking them to do a 1 month trial of avoidance of these foods. If I am wrong, the trial makes no difference and another diagnosis must be sought. There are comprehensive celiac antibody panels to do, but they may be normal and don’t tell the story as well as a clinical trial of gluten avoidance.

Another example is assessment of fatigue due to testosterone and other hormone deficiencies. It is easy to do blood tests for hormones, which don’t always correlate with symptoms. But hormone receptor sensitivity is not able to be objectively tested, so a clinical assessment is required. Analysis of symptoms PLUS objective lab measurements used together make a better assessment.

Clinical assessment, as applied to audio, means LISTENING. No better way. Listening integrates the subjective skills with objective measurements to obtain the truth of how an electronic component behaves in an audio system in a particular room.

Without careful listening, any of your supposed expert technical pronouncements are in themselves WORD SALAD, or irrelevant to what most people are here for. We are mostly not interested in professional AES papers and studies. If some author attempts to integrate objective data with what he hears, that is of interest. Many technical people distrust listening assessments, so they exclusively use technical criteria. Their standing with colleagues is based on technical competence. But it is useful to ask an intelligent child to listen. He/she doesn’t have enough technical background, but they have the best hearing to make a proper assessment.

Jay is an excellent audio clinician. He is not a technical expert, but his extensive listening experience is why his thread is most sought for guidance.

Got it. Not an actual M.D.   You know you stepped over a legal line when you said Integrative medical doctor. You are not a medical doctor. That is misrepresentation and the licensing bodies for medical doctors don't take kindly to that.

 

Oh, the S1000 video was content normalized to a level 1db lower than the S2500 video. Youtube did that automatically. If the songs were recorded at the same volume, the higher volume on the S2500 will make it sound "bigger". Even 1db is enough to do that when you compare .... but you knew that, technical expert and all.

 

Listening only compliments objective tests when the listening is also objective. I will leave it up to you to figure out what that means. Technical people only distrust flawed listening reports ..... you didn't know the 2 videos are at a different volume level by the way .... I did. You know, the technical guy. That rendered your listening report invalid.