Title should read: Another Which Amp Thread. |
@ Scott_w How kind of you to point out that it was a "sloppy mistake." Thanks. Actually, the title got butchered because it had quotes in it. Everything after the first quote got tossed.
@ Guidocorona Good questions. As for my current amp, it has been a bit problematic and I'm tired of dealing with it. My ideal amp would have great detail, but no glare or etching. I don't want it overly smoothed out, though, and have left tubes in my past. What's a budget? And... blues, classical, folk, live performance, etc., etc. A pretty wide range.
All others... thanks for the suggestions. I'm building a list of things to try. |
Guido --
I quite wish I didn't feel compelled to move along, but, I do.
I've been quoted between $9-13K for some solutions. That would hurt a bit, and probably represents my absolute upper range. |
Thanks, Stickman. It's great to know what *won't* work, as well as to know what will. |
Thanks for the recommendation for Reno. And Guido, your posts are most helpful.
As for power (please help me understand), we don't play at very high volumes, and nothing to heavy, raucous, or driving. Well... Bonamassa might be an exception. Is that "moderate rise in power" at 4 really much of an issue? How would the effects manifest, and what differences could I expect going with an alternate amp?
As I've said, I'd really prefer not to buy a new amp, but this one is back for repair... Again. I also fear for the future of the company, as things have changed radically there. |
Why? See my response to Guido above dated 6/28. |
@Zd542 Great idea, but to be honest, I have zero experience with other amps,
so I can't provide a linkage. I know of no other audiophiles nearby, and the
closest dealer is a 5-hour r/t away. (Actually, I have briefly heard a Bryston
behind Maggies at the dealer, and an ARC setup that sounded less than
impressive to me, so I have a bit of experience, but nothing that amounts to
much.)
@Guido Power output is 600 into 8; 800 into 4; 1,400 into 2. Perhaps we could
have a game of "Guess That Amp", but clearly I've been steering away from
naming names so far.
Looks like the Pass might be something to seriously consider. Now, I wonder
where I can get an audition or demo unit? I'm in eastern NC... At the Pass site, it
appears that I have to give up a lot of personal information just to find out where
a dealer is. |
@ Guido -- That's insightful.
So, please recall that I'm using Vandersteen 2wq subwoofers. That should take a lot of the bass load off the amp, as these are powered subwoofers. Could that still be making the amp work too hard? I had always been under the impression that this was a powerful amp with plenty of headroom.
I'll check the PM thing. |
Re: PM. I have a PM in my inbox from another Agon user, so I don't think that it's anything on my side. I could be wrong. |
Folks, this really isn't as much about the sound as it is the reliability. I need to move on because of continuing reliability issues with several amps from the same manufacturer. |
I'm now seriously looking at the Merrill VERITAS monoblocks; I have a demo pair coming in soon.
The original post mentioned the ARC 150, which Stickman suggested would not get the job done. While I haven't yet heard the Brystons, they purportedly have a "house sound", which suggests that there is coloration of one sort or another. As for the Levinson 532H... I have seen so much negative or less-than-complimentary press on it that it certainly gives me pause.
I've had tube preamps before. In some cases, it was a good thing, but over time I've come to appreciate neutrality and detail. I don't want the amp or the pre- to get in the way of what's on the recording, or to alter what I hear too much. I've even had a highly-regarded ARC Ref5 pre on my system, and it was like throwing a wet blanket over the speakers. Go figure. And I know it would be a shock to some people, but I just don't like buying and fussing with tubes. Either they are too fickle, or I am.
Assuming that I like the VERITAS sound -- or non-sound -- the next step would be not to cry over the $12K price. That's a big bite for me. One of the big advantages seems to be that the ncore1200 modules could be replaced by any number of places were something to happen to Merrill Audio... it's not as proprietary of an amp module as what I currently have, which is one of my greatest concerns with my current amp.
I'll continue to chase down opportunities. Thanks for all the suggestions. |
Ricred1 -- Congrats!
I'm still waiting for the Merrill's to come in, hopefully soon. Your post suggests that I may also want to hear the Rowland, so I'm chasing that down.
May I ask you, or anyone else, "What does switching sound like?" Perhaps if I knew what to keep my ear out for, I'd hear it. |
Does anyone know of someone who could provide a in-home demo of the Rowland Continuum S2? |
Mr D,
I did not mention the manufacturer because I did not want to disparage them. While they make a good product that many enjoy, I have not had the luck of the draw in terms of reliability.
Nor have some others. I am curious about, and under informed about, any voltage or impedance mismatches that might be occurring here, but I will say that my issues have been reported by others who own the same amp, so perhaps my problems are not that unique, nor related to my setup.
Magnepan does not know of this issue.
I would truly love it if someone could look at the specs of my system and say, "There! no wonder!", but no one has pointed to anything obvious.
Can you?
It could just be that this amp is prone to failures. I'm certainly not the only one to experience exactly the same issues.
As for true solutions, I'm all ears, and willing to be educated about it.
Thanks. I hope you can provide some insights. |
Wow, Guido... wanna be my mouthpiece? Great bit of writing, especially "Kryptobrand."
I appreciate the ongoing conversation about this. Thanks to all.
I agree that the room is one of the most critical components, and I have done as much as I can to address that part. Thing is, we don't have a separate, dedicated listening room, though to look at our living room, you'd see that it's pretty much devoted to this sport. My gratitude goes to my wife, who allows it to be like this... overrun with large speakers, equipment rack, and room treatments all over the place. Gads... I love that woman!
It is a challenging room, to be sure. One huge opening in the back wall to a dinette/kitchen, a smaller one to a dining room. Opening on the front left to a back hallway. Certainly less than optimal. We've worked with treatments to the extent possible, and it does make a difference.
Now, an update -- We installed and listened to a demo pair of the Merrill VERITAS mono blocks last night. First impression: Wow! What an improvement over Kryptobrand.
Smoother than ever. Spacious. Holographic (most of the time.) Non-fatiguing. No etch or glare that I sometimes got from Krypto. Power to spare, and then some. Effortless. I observed last night that some of what I might have heard in Krypto indeed *was* switching. Interesting...
Truth be known, after an extensive cut-by-cut session last night, I must have put on Mickey Hart's "At the Edge", which pretty much knocked us into oblivion. We woke up at about 2:30AM and went to bed. Engaging? Yup.
As Guido said -- in a wonderfully loquacious way -- Kryptobrand has been a lemon for me. Luck of the draw, as I said, in that some others do not share my experiences. When it works, it works rather well, but I'm tired of dealing with its issues. And this is across three iterations of the product. My patience with it is worn down to the nub. |
Analogluvr -- ASL Hurricanes?
A quick look at pictures online, and all I saw was a sea of glass fire tubes.
No thanks.
Yes, perhaps I'd be missing something by not trying them... like a whole new sport of tube rolling; testers; expense; failure points; heat in the already scorching environment of North Carolina; etc. etc.
I appreciate the reference, but will pass those by due to my aversion to tubes. |
Mr D -- Why that kind of response?
I appreciate your input, and as mentioned above, have done everything reasonably possible to tame the room.
Once again, I didn't name the manufacturer because I do not want to disparage them. Some people love their product. That's just not my experience. The company is going through some tough times, and I do not want to add to their difficulties.
By the way, I created the original post on 6/27, and highlighted the problematic nature of my situation in a reply on 6/28. You did not reply to this thread until 7/11. So, I'm not sure why you're saying, "If Rhanson, in his original post, indicated that the amp was failing, and unreliable, as he did not, I would never had put my 2 cents in..."
Did you not read the thread before putting your 2 cents in? If not, then there's really no good reason to mute yourself because of some perceived transgression on my part. |
Mr D,
I did not mention the manufacturer because I did not want to disparage them. While they make a good product that many enjoy, I have not had the luck of the draw in terms of reliability.
Nor have some others. I am curious about, and under informed about, any voltage or impedance mismatches that might be occurring here, but I will say that my issues have been reported by others who own the same amp, so perhaps my problems are not that unique, nor related to my setup.
Magnepan does not know of this issue.
I would truly love it if someone could look at the specs of my system and say, "There! no wonder!", but no one has pointed to anything obvious.
Can you?
It could just be that this amp is prone to failures. I'm certainly not the only one to experience exactly the same issues.
As for true solutions, I'm all ears, and willing to be educated about it.
Thanks. I hope you can provide some insights. |
Mr. D:
Sure, I could have, but I didn't. Get over it, or "move on", because it's no big deal in the overall scheme of things. Your complaint seems to continually stray from the point of the thread.
(I also don't know why my post from 7/10 was duplicated on 7/12. I think Agon burped.) |
@Infection --
Actually, I was on the list to receive one of the first run of the PS Audio BHK. Sadly, I had to back off because of a temporary financial issue, but in retrospect, I'm glad that I did. Considering the troubles I've had with the current amp, it is probably best for me not to be one of the early adopters. The BHK was, of course, an unknown beast at the time.
I hear some people love it. I wish PS Audio all the success... they're a pretty remarkable company. |
~
Update:
Based on various recommendations in this thread, I've been demoing a pair of Merrill VERITAS mono blocks for about a week. They sound quite good, and are definitely a contender for my new amp.
Later today, I'll be receiving a Sanders Audio Magtech (stereo) to try for a while.
Kryptobrand has returned home and has been tested out.
This should be an interesting weekend... |
It has been a couple of weeks since this whole process started, so I thought I'd give an update. Thanks to everyone here for the suggestions, and special thanks to my new friend, Guido. Guido has been an enormous help both in terms of information, and an inherent willingness to vicariously spend my money. :)
- The Merrill Veritas monoblocks turned out to be the ones to beat, and they are still here.
- Sanders Magtech went down pretty quickly. I believe in amp break-in. Roger Sanders does not. He submits that his amp at one hour of warmup will sound as it ever will. After a couple of days, I decided that I didn't like it, and he graciously took the return.
- Bel Canto REF600M monos came in, and I had a chance to give them a thorough listen, thanks to Taylor at Goldprint Audio. Taylor was very responsive to all of my questions, and provided the amps shockingly quickly. They only had about 300 hours on them, so I'm not sure if they were really broken in, but in head-to-head with the VERITAS, they didn't make the cut. Mind you, the REF600 is no slouch at all, and I could have happily lived with them, but we moved on.
- Currently, I have the VERITAS going up against the Rowland Continuum S2. The CS2 has only about 300 hours on it, so I'm not sure how well broken in it is. And I must say, although the two amps sound rather different -- at least at this stage of the game -- it will be a tough decision. The VERITAS is fully broken in, the Rowland is not, and I have a limited amount of time to make the decision.
Rob |
Ricred1,
I'll be posting a comparison here before too long. |
Tbg,
Thanks for the input. If that's the same X10 I'm looking at online, then I don't believe 100W RMS is going to cut it when driving the Maggies. They are thirsty speakers. |
The Maggie's are 86db and tend to 4 ohms.
No matter. A decision has been made. It does not involve the H-cat, for any of a number of reasons. |
~
Well, the next of kin have been notified...
The winner is: Rowland Continuum S2 integrated.
The Merrill VERITAS held off all comers up to the last. They were the amps to beat.
Favoring the Rowland is a one-box solution, input versatility, company reputation, build quality, and, of course, sound over everything. The notes come from Mordor, a place of utter blackness. Considering my rather highly-resolving system, it was nice to hear a balanced, rounded, darker, almost tube-like sound versus the extreme, seizure inducing detail I've become accustomed to. Soundstage is immense. Bass is like I've never heard in my room before. As I've heard said lately, "It's easier to listen to without listening."
The Veritas' were certainly no slouch. Merrill himself is great to work with, and he has some high-performing amps to offer. I've always sorta wanted monoblocks, and they look great in the room, offering up fine sound against a noiseless background. Matt from the 'Absolute Top-Tiered DAC' thread said that he had to buy hyper-expensive Burmester amps to better the Veritas, and I don't doubt that at all. I would certainly recommend Veritas quite highly.
And Guido... Guido is a gift to the audiophile community. He helped me to navigate strange waters to lead me to the best solution. Thanks so much, Guido! |
Guido,
Let's not forget kryptobrand. Keeping it was also an option. Not a great option, considering where class-d has evolved to, but a worthy option nonetheless. |
Tbg --
"Rhanson739, You are making a mistake,..."
Oh, that's just such a special, adorable way of putting it. To complete that sentence with the patronizing and condescending addition of "...we only learn through our mistakes" just polishes it up to a real shine.
I'd prefer to think of this as a process of reading, learning, asking hundreds of questions, querying others for their opinions, spending cash, arranging shipments, hours and hours of warmup, hours and hours of critical listening and adjusting, and more than a few hours of trepidation while trying to weigh each decision.
Besides, if you've been following the thread, you might recall my post of 7-1-15 where I said, "I also fear for the future of the company, as things have changed radically there." Such things are a big factor when weighing my choices. Maybe not so much for you, I guess.
Mistake? Nope. I'm perfectly happy with my choice, thanks. The CS2 is a great sounding amp. |
