Any thoughts in ICE amps?

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.

Chad,

An amp/speaker system is in fact a single, closed system since there is bi-directional interaction, and speakers are voiced with particular amplifiers or amplifier topologies. Thus, speakers voiced with, say, SET, or even many SS amps are not going to sound right with an ICE or other switching amp. This, of course, is not the fault of the amp. I think this explains a good deal of the negative reaction to switching amps.

Hi Paulfolbrecht,
you are right of course, and this is why there are so many manufacturers all believing they make the best set of compromise in their design. It makes it very confusing for people searching for the best hifi combination and probably fun too.

I have heard people say the switching amps strip timbre information when compared to their amp. Something which I have never found. In fact I would say the opposite especially with the Bel canto e1.

In fact in my system I cant fault it at all.

Right on Chadeffect. If more people would just listen for themselves, things would be simpler.

BTW, great system(s), old and new.

Dave