Any thoughts in ICE amps?

I'd take a look at the Spectron Premier. It 'breaks the mold' on the limitations of what most people associate with Class D amps.

It sort of combines the best of tube and good SS amps without any veil to the music. The frequency range is very flat, the highs are extended without being bright or harsh, the midrange is very liquid and the bass is very tight and rich.

You can view the professional and user reviews on their website.

As a matter of disclosure, I am an authorized dealer for Spectron and became one becasue these amps are phenominal.

I have a new multi-channel Wyred4Sound ICE amp and it is, frankly, astoundingly good.

And, in fact, I'm going to take this opportunity to apologize to Mr. Bob Reynolds for previous comments. I indicated he was crazy if he could not tell the difference between a SET amp and a class AB solid-state amp in his system. Well, would you believe that this ICE amp sounds so close to my 300B set that differences are a matter of subtleties? I can now readily tell them apart, but at first they appeared nearly identical!

Before anybody thinks the system is unresolving or I can't hear, I'll add that switching between two world-class linestages, both tube, in this system, produces sonic differences to the extent that I can almost literally tell them apart from the first note. They're both great - but very different.

The funny thing to me is that I paid $800 for WE 300B output tubes to get that articulation and linear sound. If I were using cheaper 300Bs that invariably sound a little rounder, the differences would certainly be less subtle.

Please don't gloat too much, Bob, because most SETs still sound quite different from most AB transistor amps. Heck, most SETs sound quite different from *each other*, with each output tube have a distinctive set of characteristics.

H2O amps drive 1-ohm Apogee Scintillas!

I had a D-sonic with 525 watts per channel on my Vandys for a couple of days. While the sound was nice with good detail and transparency, it did not seem to image well and the soundstage was rather linear exposing the speakers. I mean that the sound appreared to come from the speakers themselves. With good imaging and soundstaging, the speakers tend to disappear which it did with my TAD-60 and does even better with my TAD-125 monos.

The Bel canto e1 is one of the best amps I have heard. They will drive any speaker, they are small, powerful and utterly transparent.

I had the Jeff Rowland Ice power monos too, but felt the Bel canto was a wider, fuller/richer sounding amp.

These ICE power amps make a fool out of many expensive amps that need huge transformers and heat sinks which all add to the cost of the amp. They leave many amps sounding veiled and slow.

Many on the gon dislike these amps. I have a feeling it is not the amp they dislike but other parts of their system that is being revealed. They have no sound really. Simply stunning amps.