Best Digital Amps

For what it's worth, I love my Acoustic Reality eAR Two. I don’t claim that it’s the absolute “best” because that’s an impossible claim. I don’t pretend to have heard every digital amp on the planet, although I did hear the EVO 200.2 and liked it, though not enough to put my money on it. However, the eAR is IMO a truly outstanding amp. Having said that, I had a very long correspondence about a year ago with an owner of an Odyssey Stratos dual-mono who was doing an in-home audition of the eAR Two. He and I swapped much information about our impressions of the amp, but in the end he decided to keep his Stratos because although he thought the eAR was better in some ways, in his mind the improvement wasn’t enough to justify giving up the Stratos. I was happy for the guy that he made the best choice *for himself*. I didn’t froth at the mouth and insist that he was crazy for “dissing” my amp of choice. In the end, we’re just voicing our own opinions on these forums, nothing more. There’s no need to get defensive just because someone doesn’t share your opinion.

Re. Modifying amps.

Given the talk about making modifications to existing amplifiers, this brings up an important point. It’s not intended as a knock against the HCA-2 specifically, but it’s just a fact about the difference between traditional manufacturers versus manufacturers that sell factory-direct. For any given price point, the “bill of materials” or parts cost will almost certainly be greater for a factory-direct component because, unlike the traditional manufacturer, they don’t need to worry about dealer markups. The dealer markup is significant, and can easily double the cost of a component, if not more. Consequently, the factory-direct manufacturer can either charge less or re-invest the savings into design improvements, including (but not limited to) better parts. That’s why manufacturers like Acoustic Reality (and others like VMPS, BPT, Bent Audio, Don Morrison Audio, etc.) have an advantage -- their cost structure allows them to compromise less on basic things like component quality so consequently they can get away with using superior parts while keeping prices reasonable. Finally, since they don’t scrimp on parts quality, you won’t see aftermarket modders fiddling with their innards.

Fiddler,

I see your point, but I think you've missed mine. I don't doubt that there will be design improvements in the future for even the most accomplished of components. After all, the "best" never sit on their laurels. And I'm also aware of the eAR upgrade too. What I was trying to say in my earlier post is:

1. For a given price point, factory-direct offerings tend to have higher value for the dollar, because money that's saved by avoiding dealer markups can be put into higher quality parts.

2. Straight-forward parts swapping may yield benefits when the quality of the parts were compromised in order to meet a price point. However, this wouldn't be necessary (and may even have negative results) if the parts quality wasn't compromised to begin with.

As a consequence of these two beliefs, I've tended to seek out factory-direct alternatives to the usual gear found in brick-and-mortar shops. I'm not advocating it for everyone. It's certainly safer to take the road that's more travelled, but it's my choice and it has served me well.

PS: My service experience with Acoustic Reality so far has been exemplary. I had my eAR upgraded from MKI to MKII specs last year (the change allowed me to use conventionally terminated speaker cables rather than SPEAKON plugs), and the amp was turned around without a hitch.