Has anyone heard the Gamut CD-1?

Sorry for further hijacking this thread.

Avguygeorge, I have a Gamut D200 amp. Actually I have the exact one that the TAS used in their review. You can look at my system here at Audiogon.

Anyway, the Gamut D200 is an extraordinary amplifier. Maybe I will do a review of it here one day, but I will give you a hint of what the amp is like.

Before I heard the D200, I had heard all the hype. But as with anything, I remained skeptical. Because some products are just that: HYPE. Anyway, I got the Gamut D200 amp to demo for two weeks to decide if I liked it. I did not care either way to like it or not, I just wanted an amp that worked better in my system. The sound of the D200 is unlike any amp I have heard. From the top to the bottom, this amp has very little weaknesses. It excels at just about everything. Extreme bottom end control is the amps only slight weakness. You have to work a bit to get the best bottom end sound out of it (the right AC cord and AC conditioning REALLY helps, feed it a PS600 or PS1200 and you will be in heaven). Other than that, this amp is amazing. It would be nice if Stereophile would review it just to see what they have to say. I do know that one reviewers of Stereophile (the one who has Maggie 3.6's), lists a Gamut D200 as one of the amps he has now.

Gamut D200 Summary:

Low End: A little to be desired. Does not have low end control like Krell or Plinius; but, still the D200 does not do a bad job. It does a good job, just not a world clas one.

Midrange: The midrane is wonderful. It is as transparrent as I have heard on ANY amp.

Highs: Very nice and exteneded highs.

Soundstage: AMAZING. This amp throws a soundstage like no amp I have ever heard, PERIOD. It has to be heard to be beleived.

Low Level Detail: This amp is very neutral and transparent. You feed it crap, snd it will sound like crap. This amp seems like it reproduces ever sound it is given with extreme accuracy. I do not have the feel that it is the weakest link in my system. I tend to feel that my CD player (Cary 306/200) may be a (relatively) weaker link.

Power: This amp is designed to shut down if it sees 1.5 ohm or less. I would not drive speakers that are difficult with this amp (certainly NOT Maggie 3.6's). However this amp does put out a lot of power at 200wpc into 8 ohms and 400wpc into 4 ohms.

Well, I am sorry for further Hijacking this thread.

KF

I would have to concur with KF's remarks regarding the D-200 in certain respects. It always floored me with imaging, particularly lateral imaging. And yes it has a very nice tube-like transparency in the mids and highs. I think the lean character in the bass is both somewhat intentional from conception, and also partially the result of the amplifier's inability to drive lower impedance loads. Many speakers yield low impedance in the lower frequencies and an amplifier which cannot handle these loads is not going to drive the speaker to its full potential in the bass region. Thus part of the problem I suspect is that many folks are matching GamuT's with the wrong speakers. The amp will, as KF points out, shut down if you run it into a speaker with a consistently low impedance.

I do feel that the GamuT "sound" is lean in the bass because the CD player also sounds somewhat anemic in the bass and this has nothing to do with amplifier/loudspeaker interaction in terms of impedance, etc. The bass was one complaint I had about the player, but there were others. The review (I believe it was TAS) pointed out that the user interface is quirky in terms of the button positioning, and frankly while I don't particularly care one way or the other, many customers found the thing to be dog ugly. It was a hard sell in all respects, and we found ourselves selling other players at the same price point in far greater numbers.

Further Hijacking of the thread...

To get the best sound out of a D200 amp power cords and power conditioning make all the difference in the world. I use a Nordost El Dorado and it makes all the difference in the world. I also have it hooked up to a PS Audio 20 amp UO. this combo works wonders with the bass and general dynamics and transparency. Also a solid state preamp (Ayre K-3x) really help the bass vs. say a tube preamp (I had a SF3SE preamp).

KF