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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
ricevs
1,543 posts
 

Information for more clarity:

All inverters put out noise and distortion.....that is why they will all sound different from each other and will benefit from further (pure filtering) . The Stromtank and the Exeltech inverters are rated at less than 2% distortion....most of the others like the Giandel are rated at less than 3% distortion. This is not .0001 percent distortion like a Benchmark amp or Purifi amp measures. Distortion.....means noise.....I would think a larger inverter would sound better......probably lower output impedance and bigger power supply. My friend with the Apogee speaker system first used a 3000 watt Goal Zero to good effect......then the 3600 watt Ecoflow sounded better and then the Giandel 5000 watt inverter stomped the Ecoflow to the underground.......I doubt it was all wattage capability.......but I certainly am recommending getting the big Giandel as that is the only Giandel that has actulally been tested in a serious system. However, the 2000 watter might sound as good or even better.......And how does using less battery than the 2 200 amp hour batteries he uses sound? He does not care.....he wanted a big inverter system so he did that. Personally, I would just copy what he did....since his sound is off the charts.

When OCD guy first discovered the Puritian filter he did it while filming a Youtube video....check it out......you can clearly hear the difference/benefit in sound in that clip. He then used a noise meter to test the unit. His non dedictated line measured something like 158. His dedicated line measured 19.9........then he plugged the Puritan into the dedicated line and the Puritian had such low noise that the meter would not register. There are a couple of Youtube videos where the guy that owns Puritian is at some audio shows in the UK and shows the noise of a normal line and then he plugs the Puritan into that line and shows the noise level again....both on a super scope.......the noise with the Puritan can hardly be seen. The Puritan can handle 3000 watts......you can plug power amps directly into it.

The Boulder 3060 is another story....it requires 240V split phase.....hardly any amp on the planet has that requirement.

According to my friend with the Parasound Mono blocks and using power hungry Apogee speakers.....there is no loss of bass or dynamics from either the Puritan or high powered inverters.....Just the opposite....you get better bass and dynamics using the two in series than running directly from a super dedicated line. He has no neighbors so he has his OWN transformer on a pole right outside his house and is located one quarter mile from the transfer station (you drive right by it on the way to his house).....so his dedicated line is super duper.....better than almost anyone.......but it sucks big time.

LifeP04 batteries do not have hazards.......of course any electrcity must be carefully delt with. 12V batteries.....no matter how much current they have.....cannot give you a shock. LifePo4 batteries are rated for at least 4000 cycles.....that would be 10 years of constant cycling.......so, maybe in 15 years you would replace the batteries. If you put 30 cents in a jar everyday then you would have enough money saved after 15 years to buy new batteries......

If you already have expensive dedicated lines and expensive power conditioning then it makes sense that you would find Inverter power something to resist. Especially, if you have spent a ton of money very recently. However, there is always more......life gives us the next opening when we are ready for it. Are you ready for It?

 

jays_audio_lab's avatar
jays_audio_lab OP
5,381 posts
 

Bottom line is most dedicated lines only provide a direct path of electricity to your gear from the breaker box. They don't really do sh!t else folks. Let's keep it real. 

You still need money for great power conditioners and the hustle of top end Powercords. I'm determined to eventually not rely on expensive crazy powercords. This doesn't mean I'll be using crappy PCs on power amps but I'm done spending 30gs on PCs. The stromtank, for me, leaves me happy and not changing stupid powercord. Yes i still have powercords laying around and collecting dust but I'm gonna list a lot of them soon. 

 

theaudioamp
221 posts
 

All inverters put out noise and distortion.....that is why they will all sound different from each other and will benefit from further (pure filtering) . The Stromtank and the Exeltech inverters are rated at less than 2% distortion....most of the others like the Giandel are rated at less than 3% distortion. This is not .0001 percent distortion like a Benchmark amp or Purifi amp measures. Distortion.....means noise.....I would think a larger inverter would sound better......probably lower output impedance and bigger power supply.

 

No, distortion means voltage frequencies other than 60Hz. It does not mean noise. You are already starting from the assumption that supplying only 60Hz is a good thing and there is nothing technically accurate about that. A lot of our equipment would be a lot happier with 120Hz or 400Hz.

 

High frequency noise on the AC lines can be bad as it can bypass poorly designed power supplies. Good supplies, like I would expect in expensive equipment will filter high frequencies out relatively easily. For AC low frequency voltage harmonic distortion is relatively benign. In fact, it can be beneficial. It is why PS Audio implements it. The picture below is the current waveform of a typical audio amplifier. Not that it does not look anything like a sine wave. Very high sharp peaks with lots of harmonics. That is with a nice 60Hz voltage input. Those high currents mean higher radiated EMI, more potential for noise to couple to ground, etc. By allowing benign AC Voltage harmonics, the PS Audio units can reduce the size of those current peaks and reduce the higher frequency current harmonics which are in most cases more damaging than any Voltage harmonics. I have no skin in the game. Companies will tell you what they want you to know. I am telling you what you need to know.

 

@ricevs , with regards to a post filter, something like the Giandel, even though it has a necessary filter to eliminate the PWM, may still pass some high frequency noise. Your post filter could get rid of that. At the price of the Stromtank, I would hope sufficient filtering is built it.

 

 

Here is the full link: https://audioxpress.com/article/r-d-stories-future-shock-powersoft-audio-s-amplifier-technologies Look at the section on Power Factor correction. Outside Audio, most switching power supplies now incorporate power factor correction if they are above about 25W. In some product categories, all power supplies at almost any power will. All desktop computers supplies will, but laptop "chargers" still lag. I expect some consumer level audio equipment has power factor corrected power supplies. I have not seen it in high end, hence the high current harmonics.

theaudioamp
221 posts
 

Bottom line is most dedicated lines only provide a direct path of electricity to your gear from the breaker box. They don't really do sh!t else folks. Let's keep it real. 

You still need money for great power conditioners and the hustle of top end Powercords. I'm determined to eventually not rely on expensive crazy powercords. This doesn't mean I'll be using crappy PCs on power amps but I'm done spending 30gs on PCs. The stromtank, for me, leaves me happy and not changing stupid powercord. Yes i still have powercords laying around and collecting dust but I'm gonna list a lot of them soon. 

 

I don't think it would be a big secret that I am not a big believer in expensive power cords. Well designed equipment should not need them.

 

However, putting on my "Expensive power cord" hat, and using the arguments that suppliers of power cords use, the Stromtank will not provide any of the benefit of what a power cord is supposed to do. In theory, or at least in marketing speak, an expensive power cord will shield EMI from being emitted or received from the cords (note my comments about PW audio above), and they will provide a low impedance ground connection between different pieces of equipment (the smart ones at least claim the latter). The Stromtank does nothing to help with either of those advertised benefits. 

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cleeds
5,946 posts
 

 

jays_audio_lab

most dedicated lines only provide a direct path of electricity to your gear from the breaker box. They don’t really do sh!t else folks.

 
That is completely false. In addition to minimizing voltage drop - which is especially helpful if you’re using large amplifiers - dedicated lines can also help provide cleaner, low impedance grounds.
 
 
You still need money for great power conditioners ...
That was surely the case in my system, but I think power quality varies a lot between locations. There are so many variables, which may also explain why Stromtank may be the perfect solution for you.I get it that you’re trying to sell a $16,000 battery system, Jay, but we’re dealing with simple facts here.

 

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