Dan D'Agostino Pendulum Intergrated review
I had the privilege of being the first audiophile in Arizona to audition the anticipated Dan D’Agostino Pendulum integrated amplifier at LMC Audio in Scottsdale yesterday. Troy, at LMC provided an informative and thorough audition of the unit. I kid friends and Dan himself, that if my faith allowed for gods on earth, he would be my audio god. I have been a fan of Dan’s designs going back to his days at the President of Krell and my purchase of the KSA-250 stereo amp in 1990. I owned and enjoyed several of the models he designed at Krell.
Personally, Dan saved his best work for the company bearing his name. The resolution, musicality and vise grip bass response are improved in spades. The Pendulum is just as I thought it would be. The design, the fit and finish and most of all, the sound; all top notch. The features included are outstanding and can be found on the D’Agostino website. The Pendulum was driving the Wilson Sasha V and signal sent via Transparent Audio Ultra speaker cable, generation six. For digital playback we used the internal DAC, and it was superb. Troy played The Wellerman, Hoist the Color. Great low-end control, texture and detail exhibited on this track. I had Troy stream Branford Marsalis’s, Trio Jeepy, one of my favorite demonstration discs due to the great recording, the music and soundstage. Nothing but accolades for the reproduction of this recording. The Saxophone was so real sounding with excellent resolution I expected from this design. Next, I had Troy stream Edward Egar’s Enigma Variations. I like the music due to the changes from soft to loud and the great string work performed. Again, the piece was reproduced effortlessly with musicality and delicacy. For LP playback on the Clearaudio Master Innovation TT with an Acoustical System, Ayron MC cartridge we listened to Sara Bareilles live recording of Otis Redding’s, Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. Wow, what a great live recording! It was dynamic, alive and with a great audience response that made me feel like I was there. We then listened to Bill Evan’s Waltz for Debbie LP. The plucking bass of Scott Lafaro was presented perfectly and Evan’s touch on the keyboard gorgeous and inviting. Wow. The last cut was Chris Issak’s Wicked Game off his Heart Shaped World LP. The richness in Issak’s voice was hard to ignore. Another home run in the midrange for this integrated. I could go on and on, but will say, I was extremely impressed with the performance of this new model. Dan has succeeded in offering a product worthy of the D’Agostino line quality at a real-world price. I am now trying to figure out what to sell to add this benchmark integrated to my system. I hope other fans of Dan will audition the Pendulum soon.
The Pendulum Integrated Amplifier looks interesting. As posted above by @megabyte, I was also surprised about their spec saying the “amp has nearly 25,000 μF capacitor bank”. I would have expected this number to be higher. The amp is “Driven by a custom toroidal transformer rated at 750VA”. Any thoughts on this? There was no mention about what DAC chip the unit has. Does anyone know? |
Question. Just looked it up. I know specs aren’t everything. But they do matter on an amp. If I’m reading it right, the power supply is a relatively low 25,000 uf. It’s not weak, but it sure isn’t a lot for an amp touted as powerful. For comparison, a Hegel H590 integrated has 120,000uf. And are available preowned mint for 5k. And sound amazing. No, specs and sheer power aren’t everything. But for an amp, they really do matter. |
@hifimaniac thanks for sharing. Where does Pendalum sit in the D’AGOSTINO hierarchy and any mention of what’s coming next in the Pendalum line? |
