Yes, particularly with MapleShade or other high-end recordings, I hear the same thing - that it sounds live. I even had someone say once that 'it sounded better than live' and at first I was offended in an odd way - it made me think that person didn't understand anything about audio, because 'live' is the ultimate. Eventually, I think I figured out what he meant - had to do with the room. If those 5 musicians were in my living room it would have sounded much worse as we would have been sitting 2 inches from their noses, I was replicating to some extent the space they recorded in, much larger than my puny room, so the room sounded larger and more natural than my actual room.
Its actually funny - the reviews mentioned above sound exactly like what I hear... Perhaps it is similar, but 'more so' for the extra 12 - 15k. Any of you with this pre-amp in California, or northern California? It would be interesting to listen, and I would invite anyone over as well. Send me a message through Audiogon if interested...
Oh - and agreed with the pre vs non-pre. I ran without a pre for years before the Supratek. Its more than acting like an equalizer, they handle voltage increases better than the small pre that comes in CD players. Remember, everthing has some sort of pre, as what 'pre' really means is increasing voltage to some level, even if that level is 2 or 2.14 or 2.4 volts. Except of course passive pre's, which only reduce voltage. So, with an active pre, during loud passages they are better at getting increases in voltage quickly than their small equivalents in source equipment. There are other things that improve with a pre and I don't know why all of them work, but dynamics are improved along the above comments.
iSanches - same speakers, we could have a great comparo but probably you live on East Coast or something :)...
Oh - and my sub gets less and less use as well. Those 3.6s go really really deep after a long break-in period... |
It would also be interesting to see what our systems compare like in terms of amps. I am running the 3.6s with 60 watts. You are using something like 800 or 1600 depending on how we count monoblocks. The thing is, I have 60 (well, okay, 90 at 4 ohms) watts from Nelson Pass, and his watts are different than everyone else's watts. I don't feel any lack of slam! On Shostakovitch's 8th on the quick blasts I can easily get to 110/115 db (read from meter, not estimated) without distortion I can tell/hear. (Like I said Nelson watts aren't normal. Try that with a 90 watt Sony or even NAD amplifier!) But it would be fun to hear your system and see what 800 watts sounds like :)...
But I digress - this is a pre-amp thread. |
Hello Lightminer,
Two points.
1 - The perceived loudness or even measured peak sound pressure does not depend on nominal power you quoted but only on the headroom which is peak power over the duration amplifier power supplies can hold it. If you measured, say 115 dB then knowing the distance from the speaker to the place of the measurement as well as sensitivity of your speakers (at this frequency) is very easy to calculate the power your amplifier generated during this measurement. There is no magic here whatsoever.
2 "without distortion I can tell/hear" - distortion which you can clearly tell or clearly hear is of HUGE magnitude (at very best more then 1%). Much more dangerous are distortions which only your inner old so called "reptilian" brain detect and it gives some signals to your cortex that "something wrong here. Don;'t know what, don;t care but something is not right". Cortex perceived it as slight or substantial discomfort and its called listener fatigue.
A few months ago, I published an article in EnjoyTheMusic describing challenges of faithful music peak reproduction and if you wish I can send it to you.
What iSancez and other owners of LA-300ME are saying, as I understand, is that Joule-Electra LA-300ME preamp re-creates musical crescendo without (or minimum) of subtle distortions leading to much more realistic experience of listening to "preprocessed, recorded" music.
Thank you
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Hello iSanchez,
In your review of LA-300ME you wrote that you need upgrade your power supplies for full spec. I wonder if you did it and if it was sufficiently long enough for burn-in to take place and if so - did you hear improvments?
I am asking because as increadibly good LA-300ME was sound when I auditioned it first time - the sounds is much better now. I hear more details, more "there" - actually much more "there" etc etc
All The Best
Rafael |
Hello Rafael,
I had the LA-300ME to full spec now. I only have about 20 hours on it, but from the first moment the improvements were quite obvious. The bass is deeper and tighter, the highs are silkier and more "luxurious" if you will. More detail surfaces from the music overall. There is even more effortlessness from the sound, which IMO is quite an achievement since this characteristic was already one of the strongest points of this preamp.
What really impressed me the most is the mid-range. Voices are rendered with such a level of realism that even I find it eerie now. There is simply more "life" in the voices and much more air. Voices are one of the sounds we're most familiar with and when they sound so real from reproduced music, it is one of the most surreal experiences one can go through as an audiophile.
I'll post a follow up once I get more time with the LA-300ME.
Best,
iSanchez
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"I'll post a follow up once I get more time with the LA-300ME"
Thank you - may be its better to start separate thread. Voices are good if you know them in life...methink. I use cello, therefore since I "know" it - or I want to believe so...
All The Best
Rafael |
Hello iSanchez,
Did you posted in separate or not your impressions of your LA-300ME?
Thanks
Rafael |
Hello Rafael,
I haven't gotten to it yet due to time constraints during the last few weeks. I hope to post it in a couple of weeks.
Best,
iSanchez
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After two weeks with new LA-300ME I decided it was time to put my 2 cents in here. I am thrilled with its performance and the improvements it has brought to enjoyment of my music collection. My system was not anywhere near this level with my previous preamp (Arcam FMJ C31) but I've been upgrading, starting with speakers and moving up the chain. The impact of the Joule-Electra preamp on the system is tremendous. Overall impression is - as has been stated by others here - of musicality. Just sit back, listen and smile, it is all there from top to bottom with slam or delicacy as appropriate, with a sense of reality that gets right to the point of why we spend our hard earned dollars on this hobby. FYI, the system has Revel Ultima Studio2 with NuForce Ref 9 SE V2 & Marantz Universal player |
Hello Nrubado,
Congrats on your new 300ME. You should expect the 300ME to get even better with time. It'll become more dynamic, more transparent and it'll play music as if it has an unlimited energy reserve.
Best, |
Has anyone heard the LA150MKII Signature Edition which is suppose to incorporate some of the changes in the 300 at a lower price point? |
Hello Pubul67,
Read: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1203302256&openflup&32&4#32
I also have auditioned LA-150ME, replaced by LA-300, and I believe its very similar to LA-150SE you are asking.
At any rate - what I auditioned - to put it simply, was so good that one audition made me wanting this preamp and when, very soon, LA-300 ME became available _ I got it and I enjoy it immsensely as no other preamp I ever owned or auditioned.
All The Best
Rafael |
Spectron - to your post of 03-05-09, yeah I'm familiar with how distortion works ergo my use of the phrase I used to distinguish it from the other forms.
The 'magic' in Pass Labs amplification I am referring to, since you are questioning the sorcery, is indeed there. I am familiar with the formulas via sensitivity, 3db and watts doubling and all that, etc. The 'magic' is that companies can rate their systems at 'n' distortion level, there is no universal standard. One company says their amp is 100 watts, but at what level of thd and at what frequency and for what duration? So the Pass stuff is rated quite conservatively as these things go, and thus deliver far beyond what is on the spec sheet for any of their amps. Same goes for a several other top-end companies. The second part of the magic is the continuing doubling down with ohms, I don't have it in front of me, but the Pass stuff doubles down real well (well, in their recent Class A offerings, only in the 0.5 models). The third part that can contribute to the magic is the short term max output, which is wayyyyy higher than rms. The ratio is muuucchhh higher than most amps, so for short periods it can slam with the best of them. (Note, not compared to Spectron amps! those seem to be in their own league in this respect)
So, for 90 watts at 4 ohms, I would indeed consider it magical compared to what else is out there at 90 watts/4 ohms.
What are you using, isn't it like 7000 watts or something peak? Quite a different beast. Anyway, I didn't write this earlier because this is a preamp thread and didn't want to hijack it, but now that the thread has died down a bit thougth I'd chime in with a bit of this off-topic info.
Happy listening! |
I've ordered the LA-150 Signature Edition. Will post when I've had some time with it. |
Is their web site down? http://www.joule-electra.com/ I've been trying to get on for a few days. Is that the wrong place? |
That is the right place. Might be down. |
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