My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!


So I have been in a long journey looking to find the best amplifiers for my martin logan montis. As you know, the match between an amplifier and speakers has to be a good "marriage" and needs to be blend exquisitely. Right now, I think I might have found the best sounding amplifier for martin logan. I have gone through approximately 34-36 amplifiers in the past 12 months. Some of these are:

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!


jays_audio_lab

Showing 50 responses by pokey77

@whitecamaross 

When you say "ansuz signalz c2 xlr" I don't recall if this is a pair of interconnects or a single 110 ohm digital AES interconnect.
@whitecamaross 

X2 on the Guttenberg video. I bet the two main offenders didn't even bother to watch the video since they keep right on with their strong opinions that often do not have "fact based experience". As WC mentioned, "please watch". And let's get this thread back on track.
@viber6

Just wanted to say thank you again for all the recommendations. I sure appreciate your thoughtfulness and knowledge on the topic. Taking notes here.

BTW, if you put an "@" in front of my user name, I'll receive a notification from 'Agon that you've responded to me. So, @pokey77 will do that. Thx 
@psnyder149 

Thanks for your detailed writeup of your night of fun. I've heard many of the pieces you mentioned and agree with many of your observations. Would really enjoy hearing the Nordost presentation; I'm hoping to someday. I can tell you from just working with Blue Heaven and Heimdall 2 Power Cords, the difference is easy to hear. I've heard Valhalla 2 many times and Odin 2 a few, but never heard them compared to any of the other Nordost product. I hope to do that someday as well. Your observations on Dealers bringing significant system setup and optimization skills is why we have them; I know my Dealer, Mike Rose of Excel Audio brings significant experience and expertise to the table. I'd bet WC could further benefit from that type of input as well.
@jg2077

Hi Jose, I've been to many shows here in SoCal. They all have entry fees. So I'm not sure of your logic or reasoning for asking about an additional fee to enter rooms of interest.
@mr_bill 

fyi, back on 2/26, WC said he would be away this weekend so there would no updates from him.
Concerning the Odin 1 vs Alpha NR, meant 10X, not 15X. Not really sure on the full retail on that cord but the Odin 2 is around $15k.
@whitecamaross

Very interested to see how this goes. I've heard Nordost many times and do like their house sound. Mostly Frey2, Tyr 2, Valhalla 2. Have heard Odin 2 once or twice.

I have a new system and will be working on power cords next along with power conditioning. And I've been looking at Shunyata Research and their NR line of cables along with Nordost and will probably look at least at a few other brands and then try to demo a few and make a choice like you are doing. It will be very interesting how the 15X Odin 1 fairs against the Alpha NR. I'm not sure that that will be a fair gun fight (only based on price delta)  but wouldn't it be amazing if you find you like the SR stuff better?! Do you have any power conditioning?

So I guess you have had the Nordost stuff on the Vidar? I need to talk to my dealer about that.
@whitecamaross 

Wireworld Platinum 8 xlr - refresh our memory. Starlight or Eclipse?
@whitecamaross 

I hope you are OK with me asking again.

You mention you have Wireworld Platinum 8 xlr - refresh our memory. Is it Starlight or Eclipse? Will be good info for all to know.

Glad the Odin 1 is showing itself in your system.
@whitecamaross 

OK

@eziggy

Thanks, that makes sense. I didn't pay close enough attention to the Google search and the fact the names pertain to the different cables in the Platinum line. So the XLR cable is the Platinum Eclipse.
@whitecamaross 

Wow, things are really getting interesting now! Glad to see this thread back on track and folks contributing their experiences. It was the constant commenting by several that was really dragging down this most popular thread on the 'Gon. Glad for it to be reigned in. Most of all, no disrespect to anyone and thank you WC for continuing to share your journey.

WC, can't wait to read about the synergy created by your new components and wire. I hope all your hunches are found to be superb.
@mrdecibel 

Is that Flim & the BBs?

If so, that was my first CD! Tunnel is another great record by them.
@whitecamaross 

Meant to mention that Carey Bell - "It's so easy to love you" is a spectacular recording.
Wow, just typed a list and lost it! Arggghhh

@mrdecibel 

Not a big SRV fan, but wow, that Tin Pan Alley track is very well recorded. Thanks for the rec.

@whitecamaross 

I've notice that you enjoy a lot of genre's, so I hope you enjoy some of my recs.

Uncle Tupelo - Sandusky
Dido - Give you up
Chemical Brothers - We've got to try
Carey Bell - It's so easy to love you
American Football LP3 (whole album)
Cibela - The shine of electric dried leaves - Phoenix, Flying High

@grey9hound 

On the subject of War, check out Low Rider. Really great recording.
@whitecamaross 

You are sitting in the sweet spot now!

@gtaphile

Back at cha!
@whitecamaross 

Excellent, concise review. So much appreciated. I really like the big Luxman myself. I get to hear it with the matching preamp at least once a month. Very good sound quality, build, and appearance. It is just a beautiful combo to listen to and to behold.
@viber6 

With all due respect, and others have said it better than I have or can, your input is dominating and disrupting to this thread. It is disrespectful to the OP, who has spent inordinate time and $$ to provide the community with amazing and concise feedback. Instead of telling us about the live experience, clarity, whatever YOU think is most important, etc., restrain yourself a bit and add when you have something of merit to share. Your constant posting surely has worn out its welcome. There are a number of posts on Page 136 and 137 that share similar views, so please try to see if from the other side instead of just defending yourself.  

Respectfully, pokey77

@ricred1 
@psnyder149
Couldn't find Johnny A on Tidal.

@mrdecibel 

Eric Johnson is certainly one of the finest. Chet Atkins called him the best guitar player in the world (back in the 90s). Ah Via Musicom is a real treat for those who love a player who can do BOTH notes and rhythm/melody. for me, EJ puts all the note-masters to shame. Again, IMO of course.
@whitecamaross 

Well, I've heard the Ref160Ms many times. Never heard the other two, but with ML I'd assume both to be much better. Now if you were using the Ref750SEs, then maybe it'd be a different story. I've heard the 750SEs (many times) and then switched to the D'Agostino Progression Mono's/preamp (one time) and it was a tough choice there. This was with either the TAD R1 or Wilson Alexx speakers, I forget. Hard to pick a winner, but I may lean to the SS side of things. I'd really like to do that comparison again to better understand my preference. My guess is you will like the big SS power better. Have fun!
@whitecamaross 

Having heard the ARC 160Ms a number of times, I would agree with your assessment and that's why I thought you'd like the two SS options you have better. I think even with the much more powerful ARC Ref750SEs you'd still like Block, Constellation, and Rowland better. And I've never heard them. Going from the ARC Ref750SEs to D'Agostino Progression Mono's brought a bigger soundstage and much more slam/impact, which I think is what you really enjoy.

Where's the door going to be to access your room? This may dictate where the gear goes? Can't overstress that if you don't have enough depth, you'll end up with bass that is less than desirable. Putting gear on the long wall is not always the best choice.
@guidocorona 

Component synergy is VERY important. The M925s may prefer a Rowland preamp as well. Remind us what you are using Guido? And maybe what other preamps you've tried with the M925s.
@vinny55 

@tecknik is right, the thread is very informative and though long, to find the nuggets, you will be required to peruse the thread at your own convenience. I'm sure WC doesn't know where all the items you are asking for are located, though he was pretty kind answering a number or your questions. Hope you enjoy the read, cheers.
@guidocorona 

Guido, thanks for the detailed description. I had forgotten you were direct to amps. And nice to hear that the PSU was a significant elevation for the Aeris.

If I remember correctly, you sold your Criterion Preamp to the doctor. I see he has posted a few times on his thread, it was one of my favorite threads here on the gon', along with WCs thread of course.

@whitecamaross 

Hope the construction of your room and choosing of HT gear is going smoothly.
@whitecamaross 

Another great post. Hoping the thread clutterers are paying attention.
The Viber7 post got removed. Glad I had time to read it before it got removed. Nothing offensive in that post. Sad.
@jafox 

You said "Which is "right"?  Who cares, if we prefer it." Bingo. There is no right or wrong. But when you hear "it" you'll know it and you'll want it.

@mrdecibel 

Along the same lines, yes. Pick your poison and enjoy it as much as you can. We each pick what we like, and within our respective budgets, we vote with our wallets. It would be nice for all contributors to this thread to understand this basic point and stop trying to tell WC what he needs or doesn't need.

@whitecamaross 

Really enjoying your comments on Constellation. I've never heard it in any meaningful way but would like to. Your comments really whet that appetite. Would really like to hear Soulution as well.

@bigddesign3

I have not heard the ML that WC has but have owned ML further down the line myself and like them allot. That being said, I've heard the MBL - Extreme system a few times and can tell you if I had the room and the $$, it'd be here right now. No knock on WCs journey and I have no idea what the Reference ML sound like, except to say it must be pretty glorious.

@whitecamaross 

I salute you and this thread. Can't wait to read more of your findings.
@viber6

I had to go back to my comments to see why you might think that I want Constellation sound but can't afford it. I was specific in saying I'd like to hear Constellation, along with Soulution, but I do not want to purchase it. I have very fine equipment but am not here to talk about it, I'm here to follow WC.
@Viber7

E
xcellent post. Thanks for sharing your significant firsthand experience with us. It is much appreciated.
@whitecamaross 

I'm supposing you mean your room will be done in 10 days?!

Would be nice to have a room the size of Costco; no more room interations.
@whitecamaross 

Staying Tuned.

I have really enjoyed your journey - can't wait to see where it will go next.
Room is looking great. I am curious as to why there is a bass trap on the right but not one on the left? GIK recommend that?