Mr Fenchfries,
I think once you have experienced a lot of equipment (like some reviewers) and lived with it, your taste starts to get extreme and changes until it finally settles.
I remember the Halcro at the time on my Magnepans plus active subs. The combination was mind bending. So much speed, dynamics, sweet detail and an utter lack of grain.
I doubt anyone could have really criticised it especially at the time. I heard comments about the Halcro being cold etc. but to me it was silky smooth and glorious. Even warm!
The next time I had the halcro in my system was with the AG Trio. After living with SETs and Class D amps for years I'd become used to other aspects of amp performance. While there are many variables that one could start pointing at, my taste had shifted. Even though the Halcro was an amazing amp, when I compared it to a simple 45 SET amp (with great tubes), the 45 won hands down!
These speakers are very high sensitivity so power was irrelevant, but there was an overall involvement from the SET that the wonderful Halcro couldn't even get close to.
While the class D had much in common with the Halcro like the amazing noise floor and extension, both were rendered monochrome by the 45. The Halcro had timbre, unlike the more grey sounding class D, but neither, for all their other wonderful attributes, sounded alive. This maybe what MF is referring to with his review of the ML53. This is where words like "dry" come in I suspect.
So the "best" amplifier in the world was toppled by a 2nd world war amp design in my set up. But I still remember the uber sound of the halcro with various speakers over the years. It was truely amazing, I had just moved on.
So we are talking taste. But I would also say if something in the back of your mind is nagging you like his comment, something probably isn't right, because when its right you are not listening to any part of your hifi. You listen to music.
I had that sound where each recording was rendered so perfectly that you had to pick and choose by recording quality. Those systems don't last and the upgrade path inevitably drags on...
You need the balance between detail rendering and soul IMHO. Somewhere in there lays the magic!
I think once you have experienced a lot of equipment (like some reviewers) and lived with it, your taste starts to get extreme and changes until it finally settles.
I remember the Halcro at the time on my Magnepans plus active subs. The combination was mind bending. So much speed, dynamics, sweet detail and an utter lack of grain.
I doubt anyone could have really criticised it especially at the time. I heard comments about the Halcro being cold etc. but to me it was silky smooth and glorious. Even warm!
The next time I had the halcro in my system was with the AG Trio. After living with SETs and Class D amps for years I'd become used to other aspects of amp performance. While there are many variables that one could start pointing at, my taste had shifted. Even though the Halcro was an amazing amp, when I compared it to a simple 45 SET amp (with great tubes), the 45 won hands down!
These speakers are very high sensitivity so power was irrelevant, but there was an overall involvement from the SET that the wonderful Halcro couldn't even get close to.
While the class D had much in common with the Halcro like the amazing noise floor and extension, both were rendered monochrome by the 45. The Halcro had timbre, unlike the more grey sounding class D, but neither, for all their other wonderful attributes, sounded alive. This maybe what MF is referring to with his review of the ML53. This is where words like "dry" come in I suspect.
So the "best" amplifier in the world was toppled by a 2nd world war amp design in my set up. But I still remember the uber sound of the halcro with various speakers over the years. It was truely amazing, I had just moved on.
So we are talking taste. But I would also say if something in the back of your mind is nagging you like his comment, something probably isn't right, because when its right you are not listening to any part of your hifi. You listen to music.
I had that sound where each recording was rendered so perfectly that you had to pick and choose by recording quality. Those systems don't last and the upgrade path inevitably drags on...
You need the balance between detail rendering and soul IMHO. Somewhere in there lays the magic!