My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!
Bryston ST, SST, SST2 series
NAD M25
PARASOUND HALO
PARASOUND CLASSIC
KRELL TAS
KRELL KAV 500
KRELL CHORUS
ROTEL RMB 1095
CLASSE CT 5300
CLASSE CA 2200
CLASSE CA 5200
MCINTOSH MC 205
CARY AUDIO CINEMA 7
OUTLAW AUDIO 755
LEXICON RX7
PASS LABS XA 30.8
BUTLER AUDIO 5150
ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005
With all that said, the amplifiers I mentioned above are the ones that in my opinion are worth mentioning. To make a long story short, there is NO 5 CHANNEL POWER AMP that sounds as good as a 3ch and 2ch amplifier combination. i have done both experiments and the truth is that YOU DO lose details and more channel separation,etc when you select a 5 channel power amplifier of any manufacturer.
My recollection of what each amp sounded like is as follows:
ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005 (great power and amazing soundstage. Very low noise floor, BUT this amplifiers NEEDS TO BE cranked up in order to fully enjoy it. If you like listening at low volume levels or somewhat moderate, you are wasting your time here. This amp won’t sound any different than many other brands out there at this volume. The bass is great, good highs although they are a bit bright for my taste)
NAD M25 (very smooth, powerful, but somewhat thin sounding as far as bass goes)
Bryston sst2(detailed, good soundstage, good power, but can be a little forward with certain speakers which could make them ear fatiguing at loud volumes)
Krell (fast sounding, nice bass attack, nice highs, but some detail does get lost with certain speakers)
rotel (good amp for the money, but too bright in my opinion)
cary audio (good sound overall, very musical, but it didn’t have enough oomph)
parasound halo (good detail, great bass, but it still holds back some background detail that i can hear in others)
lexicon (very laid back and smooth. huge power, but if you like more detail or crisper highs, this amp will disappoint you)
McIntosh mc205 (probably the worst multichannel amp given its price point. it was too thin sounding, had detail but lacked bass.
butler audio (good amplifier. very warm and smooth sweet sounding. i think for the money, this is a better amp than the parasound a51)
pass labs (very VERY musical with excellent bass control. You can listen to this for hours and hours without getting ear fatigue. however, it DOES NOT do well in home theater applications if all you have is a 2 channel set up for movies. The midrange gets somewhat "muddy" or very weak sounding that you find yourself trying to turn it up.
classe audio (best amplifier for multi channel applications. i simply COULDNT FIND a better multi channel amplifier PERIOD. IT has amazing smoothness, amazing power and good bass control although i would say krell has much better bass control)
Update: The reviews above were done in January 2015. Below is my newest update as of October 2016:
PS AUDIO BHK 300 MONOBLOCKS: Amazing amps. Tons of detail and really amazing midrange. the bass is amazing too, but the one thing i will say is that those of you with speakers efficiency of 87db and below you will not have all the "loudness" that you may want from time to time. These amps go into protection mode when using a speaker such as the Salon, but only at very loud levels. Maybe 97db and above. If you don’t listen to extreme crazy levels, these amps will please you in every way.
Plinius Odeon 7 channel amp: This is THE BEST multichannel amp i have ever owned. Far , but FAR SUPERIOR to any other multichannel amp i have owned. In my opinion it destroyed all of the multichannel amps i mentioned above and below. The Odeon is an amp that is in a different tier group and it is in a league of its own. Amazing bass, treble and it made my center channel sound more articulate than ever before. The voices where never scrambled with the action scenes. It just separated everything very nicely.
Theta Dreadnaught D: Good detailed amp. Looks very elegant, has a pleasant sound, but i found it a tad too bright for my taste. I thought it was also somewhat "thin" sounding lacking body to the music. could be that it is because it is class d?
Krell Duo 300: Good amp. Nice and detailed with enough power to handle most speakers out there. I found that it does have a very nice "3d" sound through my electrostatics. Nothing to fault here on this amp.
Mark Levinson 532H: Great 2 channel amp. Lots of detail, amazing midrange which is what Mark Levinson is known for. It sounds very holographic and will please those of you looking for more detail and a better midrange. As far as bass, it is there, but it is not going to give you the slam of a pass labs 350.5 or JC1s for example. It is great for those that appreciate classical music, instrumental, etc, but not those of you who love tons of deep bass.
It is articulate sounding too
Krell 7200: Plenty of detail and enough power for most people. i found that my rear speakers contained more information after installed this amp. One thing that i hated is that you must use xlr cables with this amp or else you lose most of its sound performance when using RCA’s.
Krell 402e: Great amp. Very powerful and will handle any speaker you wish. Power is incredible and with great detail. That said, i didn’t get all the bass that most reviewers mentioned. I thought it was "ok" in regards to bass. It was there, but it didn’t slam me to my listening chair.
Bryston 4B3: Good amp with a complete sound. I think this amp is more laid back than the SST2 version. I think those of you who found the SST2 version of this amp a little too forward with your speakers will definitely benefit from this amp’s warmth. Bryston has gone towards the "warm" side in my opinion with their new SST3 series. As always, they are built like tanks. I wouldn’t call this amp tube-like, but rather closer to what the classe audio delta 2 series sound like which is on the warm side of things.
Parasound JC1s: Good powerful amps. Amazing low end punch (far superior bass than the 402e). This amp is the amp that i consider complete from top to bottom in regards to sound. Nothing is lacking other than perhaps a nicer chassis. Parasound needs to rework their external appearance when they introduce new amps. This amp would sell much more if it had a revised external appearance because the sound is a great bang for the money. It made my 800 Nautilus scream and slam. Again, amazing low end punch.
Simaudio W7: Good detailed amp. This amp reminds me a lot of the Mark Levinson 532h. Great detail and very articulate. I think this amp will go well with bookshelves that are ported in order to compensate for what it lacks when it comes to the bass. That doesn’t mean it has no bass, but when it is no Parasound JC1 either.
Pass labs 350.5: Wow, where do i begin? maybe my first time around with the xa30.8 wasn’t as special as it was with this monster 350.5. It is just SPECTACULAR sounding with my electrostatics. The bass was THE BEST BASS i have ever heard from ANY amp period. The only amp that comes close would be the jC1s. It made me check my settings to make sure the bass was not boosted and kept making my jaw drop each time i heard it. It totally destroyed the krell 402e in every regard. The krell sounded too "flat" when compared to this amp. This amp had amazing mirange with great detail up top. In my opinion, this amp is the best bang for the money. i loved this amp so much that i ended up buying the amp that follows below.
Pass labs 250.8: What can i say here. This is THE BEST STEREO AMP i have ever heard. This amp destroys all the amps i have listed above today to include the pass labs 350.5. It is a refined 350.5 amp. It has more 3d sound which is something the 350.5 lacked. It has a level of detail that i really have never experienced before and the bass was amazing as well. I really thought it was the most complete power amplifier i have ever heard HANDS DOWN. To me, this is a benchmark of an amplifier. This is the amp that others should be judged by. NOTHING is lacking and right now it is the #1 amplifier that i have ever owned.
My current amps are Mcintosh MC601s: i decided to give these 601s a try and they don’t disappoint. They have great detail, HUGE soundstage, MASSIVE power and great midrange/highs. The bass is great, but it is no pass labs 250.8 or 350.5. As far as looks, these are the best looking amps i have ever owned. No contest there. i gotta be honest with you all, i never bought mcintosh monos before because i wasn’t really "wowed" by the mc452, but it could have been also because at that time i was using a processor as a preamp which i no longer do. Today, i own the Mcintosh C1100 2 chassis tube preamp which sounds unbelievable. All the amps i just described above have been amps that i auditioned with the C1100 as a preamp. The MC601s sound great without a doubt, but i will say that if you are looking for THE BEST sound for the money, these would not be it. However, Mcintosh remains UNMATCHED when it comes to looks and also resale value. Every other amp above depreciates much faster than Mcintosh.
That said, my future purchase (when i can find a steal of a deal) will be the Pass labs 350.8. I am tempted to make a preliminary statement which is that i feel this amp could be THE BEST stereo amp under 30k dollars. Again, i will be able to say more and confirm once i own it. I hope this update can help you all in your buying decisions!
Showing 50 responses by jays_audio_lab
Mephisto PLUS Artesania stand is just Woww..... Jeez...the 3d imaging is up, the bass is tighter and deeper and the smoothness is freaky... You are about to hear a new Mephisto soon... I'll go on the record here, critical mass stand under Mephisto is not a match. Bad pairing. More thoughts to come soon ! |
The ARC won't be at the level of the mephisto. Sure we can improve its sound my adding fuses, footers etc but it won't be able to "drive " the mephisto to its full potential. I am trying to reach the highest performance possible from the mephisto and I don't believe audio research will do this. I believe a solid state Preamp will take it where it needs but finding that is what will be Russian roulette. For now, I have just purchased the next preamplification for it. I will disclose what it is on a future Video. I will be uploading another video of the mephisto but now with the Merrill Christine Preamp. Once again, you'll be able to hear how EASY it is to hear the change in sound with the Alexia 2 and mephisto. I think deaf people can hear it using their iPads. |
Folks, Should I work on the $229k mágico q7 mk2 to make myself more qualified? Let me know, I can close this deal this month.
|
A blown driver can happen under many circumstances and not just due to age as mentioned above. I blew both tweeters on my Alexia mk1 by not paying attention to what I was doing. We can’t amortize drivers over the amount of years we used them without any issues. It doesn’t work that way. Nobody talks about the points I presented in my last video. How many of you knew it costs that much to fix a blown driver on a magico m series speakers? Not many people I bet.. I’m simply shinning a light where others aren’t. I report my own findings and share with you all. |
I believe some people CAN afford a certain product but they don’t want to pay high cost of ownership even though they have the money to pay it. Just because you have the money to buy something doesn’t mean you want to pay for the high costs of ownership. Think like this:Toyota land cruiser is like what, $80-100k? Why do you think people buy it with their eyes closed not caring to pay the price? Because cost of ownership is low....it’s bullet proof...it doesn’t break. It doesn’t need special expensive oils. It doesn’t need special tires and doesn’t need all the craziness that others such as land Rover need. The land cruiser can easily demolish any other suv known to man and even with high mileage they aren’t cheap. They are also not expensive to repair (if they ever need repairs) . Yes I get the argument above, but trust me I speak to a lot of people through my consultation service and some of these people DO NOT want to deal with certain scenarios.
|
Some audiophiles REFUSE to buy European products because of how much money it costs to ship back to Europe. I know of someone who had soulution 701s and he sold them after he spent $9,500 to have them shipped to Switzerland for service and yes this person has money to ship them but he said that he doesn't want to be hustled. |
Just don't do what I do and spend top money on Ethernet cables... I'm not saying buy 99 cent Ethernet cables but don't spend $2500 like i did... In my $500,000 system i have to close my eyes and focus to see if i can hear a difference and yes it's there but folks most of your systems aren't at the level of mine. Buy some footers, spikes or acoustic panels for your room. I'm not saying Ethernet cables are snake oil, but $2500 for a 1 meter Ethernet cable is STUPID AS HELL. (YES I WAS STUPID). Of course, these are my findings in my system and i cant speak about everyone else's systems. If you consider my system a top system then take my advice. |
Part 1: Which one is the better amp? Essence or Pass Labs x350.8? Here is my take from inside the room: https://youtu.be/8zqYMvdKNak |
Odin 1 xlr is better then ansuz c2 xlr. I have owned both. I like playing with my Wilson speakers out from the wall. Shows don't have the space in their rooms to do what I do because they need to accommodate a bunch of chairs. Having enough space behind the speaker allows for more depth and feeling that there is no wall behind. |
Same cables and amps...only difference was that I did what people requested. Many people said " oh don’t use a tube amp that isn’t even broken in blah blah blah " so please use the momentum HD preamp. Well...that is what I just did and now people are seeing how IMPORTANT system matching is. This exercise has nothing to do with anything else other than system matching and synergy. It seems clear that the magnepan seem to like a tube linestage. I hope that is something that a few have quickly learned ? |