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ICE Amps for classical music?

I listen to classical orchestral music at heavy volume. I detest reproduced music for always sounding more or less electronic and not acoustic. Real music is beautiful in a way reproduced music--so far at least-- never is. I have become curious about Wyred4sound amps because of low price and high watts. I am wondering if any of you "mostly classical" listeners have heard these amps and feel they do no more damage to music than amps which are NOT ICE amps. I am using a Plinius SA100 now and have used a VAC 100/100,
a Bedini Classic 100/100, a Music Reference RM-9, and other tube and solid state amps. They all had their pluses and minuses, of course, but for least electronic, clearly the Bedini was the winner. So what about ICE amps?
rpfef
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
Hi Dob, You are absolutely right. There is a difference between the on board ICE module power supply and a good add on. H Ho will make either type, digital power supply, or his own analog power supply as ordered. The one I am using has four huge caps that store a lot of ready power. The big caps also serve as a deep lake to quell any ripple. There is also a bank of fast firing caps for quick transients, and smacking power for rim hits and other sharp noises.

It is important to note, all the music I hear is the result of my DAC. The preamp and amp only pass it on to the speakers in a way to optimize the speaker's capability.
weseixas
519 posts
 


I must invite henry over ...... lol...
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Dob - AFAIK none of Icepower modules can drive below 2ohm and none of the H2O product either. They might be able to drive 1 ohm but are specified at 2ohm min. At 2 ohm min strongest Icepower module 1000ASP used in highly regarded Bel Canto REF1000 mkII can drive 2ohm with 40A peak delivering 3200W. In addition supply voltage doesn't drop since it is regulated (SMPS).

In reality, if you think how linear power supply operates - it is SMPS operating at 120Hz that requires huge transformer because of low frequency. Toroidal transformer at 100kHz that carries the same power can be 10x smaller.
SMPS high frequency, is easy to filter while 120Hz is not. For this reason Jeff Rowland uses SMPS in Capri preamp.
dob
577 posts
 
Hello Muralman1,

What model of Henry Ho amplifiers you use to drive your 1 Ohm speakers?

Caps provide store energy only. Incidently, intial Spectron Musician III also has two or four huge caps. In next geberation they changed it to 100 smaller caps (10-12 times reducing ESR) and difference in sound was more then drramatic.

Ar any rate, I am interested if your amp has switching power supplies or it was based on traditional transformers. Also, switching power supplies are not digital. First Spectron class D amplifier in 1974 also was based on switching power supplies but they do notn use it in their audiophile products.

I visited Mr. Ho web site and he has there two type of power supplies driving the ICE output stage:

#1 M500 - Power Supply: Integrated Switching Mode; $3,000.00 USD a pair

#2 M250 - Power Supply: Integrated Switching Mode; $2.500.00 USD a pair

#3 S250 - Power Supply: Traditional Toroidal Transformer; $3,200.00 USD ea.

#4 M250SA - Power Supply: Traditional Toroidal Transformer;$6,000.00 USD a pair.

#5 S100 - Power Supply: Traditional Toroidal Transformer; $6,000.00 USD ea.

Thank you,

Simon
I would bet a treasure that it was the pair of MA250SA...
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
Kijanki, please, you should not make those statements unless you have witnessed the actual application of the 500A module loaded working on 1 ohm. Here is another eye wakener, the H2O can not only do 1 ohm, it is stable on a third of an ohm as well. That has been proven multiple times. H Ho has the 1000ASP module, and since, like me, he has the 1 ohm Scintilla, he knows which is better.
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