Again the topic of weight of amps


I see this has been covered but not recently.
I have had a few amps in the 100+ pound range.
I liked them enormously but I am in a small space and am tired of dealing with these behemoths when I need to move them around and the real estate they take up. They were all wonderful in their way and I would like to have kept them but for their immobility. But can one find true love after such heavy weights with a feather weight 55 pounder?
Have technological advances in 2019 made such a thing possible? I had a pass 350.8 which I loved but you can't keep a Stonehenge rock in an apartment living room.

roxy1927

Showing 3 responses by atmasphere

Do you think I'm correct in assuming the high powered 1,200 watt class D monos with damping factors >1,000, that power my Magnepan 2.7QR main speakers, could be beneficial on the leading edges of bass notes and, combined with the more natural bass note decays reproduced by the Swarm/class AB amp, provide the best of both worlds with a more balanced and natural overall bass presentation?
    I guess since it sounds like that to me, that's what's important and I answered my own question. But I just wanted to know if this makes sense to you or if I'm just fooling myself.
@noble100  If you wanted to point to a weakness of class D amps- this is very likely it. To get better specs, class D amps benefit from faster switching output transistors. But these output devices have a much lower ON resistance (GaNs are typically 60milliohms or less) resulting in an insanely low output impedance- and so higher and higher damping factors as the technology evolves. I'm very unconvinced that ultra high damping factors are good for any loudspeaker. I'm sure that using the Swarm does help you though- as getting bass off of the Maggies will reduce Doppler Effect distortion.


I remember enjoying the tight bass but have to now agree it sounded a bit tauter than natural bass heard live.
^^ This. Overdamped speakers have been a common problem in high end audio for some decades now as most solid state amps overdamp the speakers for which they are intended. No speaker made needs more than 20:1; when damping factors are excessively higher the bass is 'tighter' than real life. To me tight bass is a coloration of sorts; when there is tight bass, bass definition suffers and so does the wallop.
On account of the fact that our amps don't have output transformers, they tend to be lighter than other tube amps that make the same power. For example our 140 watt amp weighs 36 pounds.
It’s no secret that big honking transformers produce toxic magnetic fields that distort the sound and that transformers produce mechanical vibration that affects everything in the chassis, especially given that transformers are bolted down to the chassis.
If they do the transformer was poorly spec'ed!