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The Best Tube Amplifiers vs Spectron ?

Before I bought Spectron stereo amp for my Watt/Puppy 8 I used McIntosh 2202, excellent tube amp and one of the best I ever owned. However, Spectron was better or even much better in all respects, most interesting - harmonic richness of midrange closely approximated the real music. The key is that this amp need very long time to fully break-in.

Today, I have read the latest Spectron's review (see http://spectronaudio.com/reviews.htm) where reviewer preferred Spectrons over state-of-the-art $50k VTL Siegfrieds!!! Amazingly, he wrote "The Musician III Mk II monoblocks have a crystalline purity in the reproduction of every voice and instrument that sounds more to me like the essence of live, unamplified music -- which I attend, on average, more than once a week year-round -- than any other amplifiers -- at any cost, based on any technology-- that I have ever heard."

I must agree with him (plus with Spectron you have no output tube maintenance, no heat, no huge weight) and I wonder if others have similar experience.

Mike.
michael_moskowich
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
i made a suggestion for comparing amplifiers, namely making a recording of a live performance and then comparing the live performance to that which is genenerated by a stereo system,. this is a three part experimenet. live, stereo system with spectron amp and stereo system with some other amp. it would seem that this empirical approach makes more sense than the pronouncement of experts. i still maintain that the multi-dimensional nature of live music makes it difficult to compare live vs a reproduced music.

but i agree that one can select a favorite amplifier and enjoy the music regradless of the inaccuracies.
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
If your going to this years Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, VMPS is going to be doing a lot of live music in a big room using the RM-60 speakers, several vmps subs, and Atmasphere amps and preamp.

Good chance to do the live vs recorded ear test.

Dave
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,783 posts
 
MrT, that is what we did in the old days to develop our reference system- so we could know what the heck we were up to!
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Nothing compares with the H2O. Ask Muralman1 :-)
zybar's avatar
zybar
104 posts
 
Eldartford,

That was too funny! :-)

As for the discussion topic...I was lucky enough to get an extended audition of a stock (no upgrades) Spectron Musician 3 MK II SE and compare it to my reference amps (Atma-Sphere MA-1's) on two different sets of speakers:

Vandersteen 5A's

Emerald Physics CS2's

While the Spectron clearly is more green and friendly towards more electricity bill, doesn't have tubes to replace, and can be left on and forgotten, it just didn't click with me in the same way the MA-1's do.

While the Spectron was a very nice amp, I didn't find the top end to be as clean and pure as others have stated. I am not saying that the others are wrong, just that I hear a top end that still is a little grainy and hazzy when compared to the MA-1's.

I agree with what Teejay said...there is no "BEST" amp and I am definitely not replacing my Class A tube mono blocks.

George
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