Bel Canto EVO 200.2

i highly agree, this has got to be one of the best amps out there. because of its new tech and design approach many are skeptical about it however i honestly believe that if this amp were made without a price point (e.g. no op amps, and maybe better certain parts) it could possibly be the world beater. however i am perfectly happy with it just the way it is, i couldn't see myself with any other amp. i also plan on monoblocking and because of this am selling my power plant p300 and upgrading to a p600, which if you don't have one yet jamie you really need to get one. i was having a problem with my frequency sweeping with my low frequency response being very thin and shallow. i attributed it to my passive preamp (evs attenuators) which i'm sure played a part in it, but once i hooked it up to a power plant and switched to placette preamp i was stunned at how awesome this thing is. anyways, definitely give a power plant a listen in your system if you don't have one already. the evo sounds good without it, but with it is like angels singing.

the tripath unit itself is low cost yes, but it is only a "stock" version. bel canto has modified it (read: voiced) to their own specs. also the difference in sound between the audiosource and the evo are night and day. the audiosource is no slouch for its price range but in no way competes with the evo regardless of similar parts. as most know, parts are only a part of the package, its the package as a whole that comes with the price. and you will see that the evos price isn't that far off the mark for a retail company (overhead, R&D, advertising, etc.) btw, the tripath chip itself runs about $100 so if you believe that audiosource could sell something for $3-400 you better check what else is running underneath the hood or else they are making zero profit or running at a loss and that is what put them under

sws, i agree with your statement that the midrange may be a bit dry, but the reason for that is its inherent low noise floor that we are not accustomed to, it gives the illusion of a dryness in the midband. although the evo may be system specific i have a very lush midrange and do not experience the dryness that you speak of. the funny thing is that many people compare the sound of evo to tube amps in which tubes=lush midrange. as for the congestion part, well that i'm going to have to disagree with completely, in fact the congestion argument in general i think is flawed. most amps, unless they are clipping, will not have any problem with complex passages. the main problem that hinders "complexity" in systems is the recording. you have to figure that not every instrument has its own microphone and therefore some instruments may smear with others in the area especially in loud passages where many varying instruments are competing for the same airspace at the same time. not saying that the marsh isn't better in your system or in all systems, i was just replying to your comments with my personal experience with the evo.

sws2 piqued my interest in the marsh line of amps and it just so happened that a friend/dealer had his line in. so i asked to demo one and i got to take home the a200s. while the marsh was very nice in some ways, it was terribly harsh sounding. i had another fellow audiophile over and we listened to both switching them in and out after listening time and time again to certain tracks. the conclusion we came to was that although the marsh had 95% of the low level detail of the evo, its ambience and soundstage just wasn't quite there. also, as noted before, there was very noticeable sibilance and the midrange seemed real edgy. depending on the system used, this may be a desired trait. in my system, the harshness of the top end and the edgy midrange didn't bring the best out of my ribbon driver. i would imagine in a system in which the speakers were very inefficient and in which the top end seems darker and or more lush then accurate and real detailed. not to say the marsh won't perform well in any other system, but in my experience with it i wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for most of the positive aspects of the evo. i would also like to agree with morasp above, if this technology and the effort to build them is so cheap and i quote from a poster on another forum "simple for any DIY'er" why hasn't any other company jumped on the bandwagon seeing the potential for sales with its demand, after all there is a 3 week back order on the evo.