Oops! Since the period of time in which I can edit has expired, I will post to correct a typo referring to another amp that I had planned to replace with the Baron as the Cary SLP70 when I should have referred to it as the SLA70.
Mesa Engineering Baron vacuum tube power amplifier
Does anyone still own a Mesa Engineering Baron vacuum tube power amplifier from the 1990’s? It was Randall Smith’s (of Mesa Boogie fame) first, and penultimate, foray into the audiophile realm.
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A dealer in my area actually had one back in nineteen ninety something and I had read the review in Stereophile (I still have that issue of Stereophile) and was so intrigued I took the dealer’s Baron home for a weekend audition. If I decided to buy ity he said he would take my Cary SLP70 in trade. It certainly was a looker--dual monoblocks in one chassis, rack handles, a dozen output tubes, switches, knobs, meters. . . . One of the features that intrigued me was that it could be switched in increments from full triode to 1/3 triode, 2/3 pentode to 2/3 pentode, 1/3 triode to full pentode. The dealer advised me that most people seemed to like 1/3 triode 2/3 pentode so that is how I conducted most of my weekend audition. I do not remember how I set the adjustable feedback. Anyway: my first impression was, "Wow--this is neat!!" What I noted was that the soundstage filled the room and was right up front in my face (which I liked). Leonard Cohen’s voice sounded close and menacing. Margo Timmins’ (Cowboy Junkies) vocals sounded a bit husky (which is not my usual perception of her voice) but at the time that did not bother me. Overall, my perception of the sound was that it had a musky quality to it . . . the best way I think to describe it it was like being in a smoky room. Which I realize does not make sense, but that’s the way it struck me. But it was new to me and I liked it at the moment and I had made up my mind to trade my SLP70 in. The Sunday night before I had to bring it back, the last thing I did was listen to (with the Baron) (again) The Cowboy Junkies/Sweet Jane off either Trinity or their at the time only live CD. Then I hooked my little SLP70 back up. The difference was a "wow" moment. The sound stage shrunk back to around the speakers (B&W 805s Matrix series) but it was then that I understood the meaning of a black background. The Cary produced a black background with shimmer of cymbals hanging in the atmosphere and the Mesa baron produced a sound that was, in contrast, rather muddy sounding. It pained me to do so, but I returned the Baron that next Monday morning. I described the experience of putting the SLP70 back in the systwem after listening to the Baron all weekend. The dealer made some comment about "not wanting to get rid of old shoes because one was used to them." Which was not accurate. I truly wanted new shoes, but in certain aspects the quality of my old shoes was way better than the new shoes Mark let me try on. Anyhow, there were aspects of the Baron that I really enjoyed and I wound up buying a pair of ARC VTM 120s secondhand from the classified section in back of Stereophile that they ran used to run at that time. REALLY nice clean full sounding dynamic amps, but they did not fill the room with sound like the Baron did. (But they didn’t sound "smoky" either.) They also blew grid resistors on startup whenevewr they felt like it. I went to a Cary V12 because it was switchable in thirds like the Baron was . . .I still listen to that amp (as a matter of fact I still own the SLP70 I was going to trade for the Baron) but like the ARCs, it never filled the room like the Baron did, no matter what I did with the pentode/triode switches. But the V12 is clean and dynamic and full sounding without being "smoky" sounding and although I now don’t know if it is quite as dynamic as the ARCs were, it does not arbitrarily blow grid resistors on start up, and when I finally paired it with a Cary SLP05, it did bring out more "holographic" features of a soundstage, although still not to the extent that the Baron did. Oh well . . . Ramble On. . . .
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A direct report employee of mine, at an audio manufacturing company we were both working for, called Mesa Engineering around the time the Baron Amp was introduced and was able to speak with Randall Smith. After the conversation, Randall sent him one to try. It ended up at my house for a couple of months, hated to see it go. Very holographic and versatile using the output mode selection. Awesome product. |
The Tigris was an integrated and a great one at that. I compared it to the CJ CAV-45 at the time and it smoked the CJ. I couldn't afford either and bought a BEAT 100 from Audio Outlet in Mt, Kisco, NY
The Baron was a stereo amp that had two separate power supplies and two power cords. https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650007817-mesa-baron-tube-amp/ |
jasonbourne71: You should see the review the long departed and deeply missed Audio magazine gave to it in their December 1996 issue. I saved that issue for some reason… cleeds: Their second effort was an amp called the Tigris. It was based on multiple EL84 output tubes using their “Tandem-State Imaging” system. The Baron used six 5881 outputs per channel. Both amps used this system that offered both triode and pentode operation plus two intermediate modes. |
I was not aware that the Baron was Mesa’s penultimate amplifier, @porchlight1. What amplifier did they manufacture after the Baron? |