Integrated Amp Curiosity
This is triggered by a recent post by someone who is reportedly perpetually curious about amps, in general.
In the last several years, while shopping and auditioning integrated amps, speakers and TTs, I spent a fair amount of serious seat-time with several integrated amps in relatively well-controlled demoing conditions. There were four in the price range I was looking at that really stood out and impressed the heck out of me: Musical Fidelity M6si + McIntosh MA 5200 + Luxman (can't remember model but competitor to the MAC) + Simaudio Moon Neo 340 IX. I actually bought one of these, but I won't say which one in order to encourage honest feedback, if there is any. After that purchase, I spent a lot of serious seat time with one of these others auditioning speakers. That one keeps haunting me and making me wonder if I would have purchased it, instead, had heard it before buying the one I did. I'm sure you audiophiles out there will know exactly what I mean. So, I guess my question for the peanut gallery is this: Have any of you been able to do fair A/B comparisons of any of these amps and, if so, what did you think?
true for 3 of the last 12 amps I tried. Also, I can speak for the Simaudio and Musical Fidelity. I think the MF drives almost anything. Very robust and reliable. Simaudio is hard to match, but can be spectacular with the right components.
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@oldaudiophile I heard the 340i with 3 different speakers, with B&W, they sounded almost unbearable to my ears. With ATC, they sounded good, and with Dynaudio Contours they sounded fantastic. But it's subjective of course... |
