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

The Class D vs A / AB argument is becoming less and less than useful.

Today, there are really great amps, and less than great amps alike, in every class of operation. This means that what the consumer should consider is the tonal and performance character of each individual amp, and how it is suited for the type of music and tone concept of the particular audiophile. However, its class of operation is no longer a tterribly useful, and even less so overarching,  criterion for selecting an amplifier.

Case in point are WC's top choices, where you can see a mix of classes of operation, out of which two amps (Rowland M925 and Merrill Elenent 118) operate in class D.

Note also how WC's observations on M925 and Element 118 suggest that the two devices are substantially different in tonal quality... Thus showing how there may be today little tonal commonality amongst higher end class D amplifiers.

I am looking forward to reading more observations from WC about these two amps.... I will post my own findings on 118 once I receive a pair to evaluate.

Regards G.

Regards, G.

@whitecamaross said on 08/19/2019 at 2:43 PM:

“I know Jeff is currently cooking up a new top end up which should be out by the time Axpona 2020 comes around. oops...you did not hear this from me...
:)”

All, the hush-hush high-end Jeff Rowland amplifier project that WC is rumoring is real… It is most likely the follow-on product for the M725 S2 class A/B
mono amplifier.

Little is known about it, but I heard from prime sources that eventually this will be the new flagship of Rowland’s class A/B amps. It should provide substantial
sonic performance and some cosmetic enhancements over the now withdrawn M725 S2… This would be consistent with Jeff’s practice of replacing a product only when he has something technically significant up his sleeve to push forward the state of the art in music reproduction.

Saluti, G.

Thank you Mrdecibel, you and I seem very much on the same wavelength:

"What I do is, I listen for the " musicianship ", the " playing ", and the " artistry ", of the musicians and performers."

Yes, this is exactly what I do as well, and I seek brands and equipment which let me reach deeply into the heart of the music performance. Doubtless, there is a good amount of hyperreality in all music reproduction systems... But there is also a matter of congruence and incongruence, and one off that additive intermodulative distortion which can mask as phenomenal "speed" or "pace", or treble brilliance when it actually is intermodulation of transients and non-triadic treble, which in turn generate jarring enharmonics.

Such additive effects might be undeniably fun and exciting on inherently pre-processed music, where distortions are already deliberate/intentional part of the source material, but tend to cause musical reproduction to fall apart on more acoustic genres, where any harmonic complexity would be turned into harshness by equipment intermodulation, and most invariably, degrades the soul of the music and fogs the heart of the performer. .

Thus I am looking forward to eventually listening to a production level pair of Element 118 in my own system, and report on this great thread by @WhiteCamaross the degree of its applicability to my much beloved domain of "wierd" and "boring" music, and to my own tone concept.

 G.

When I receive an eval pair of Element 118, I will power each amp ffrom its own dedicated 20A outlet with an Cardas Clear Beyond XL power cord.

I do not use a linestage: the amps will be fed a line level signal from the Rowland Aeris DAC via Cardas Clear Reflection, and in turn will feed my Vienna Die Muzik speakers via Clear Reflection speaker wires.

This is the identical connection environment that I use ffor the Rowland M925 monos.

Saluti, G.

Hello @WhiteCamaross, I am very much looking forward to discovering that the rather obvious shortcomings of the Merrill Element 118 prototype are no longer a factor in the production level device. It would be nice to discover that Rowland and Soulutions are not the only solid-state high end brands of amps that can serve my tone concept and the purely acoustic classical music that I love.

G.

Hi WC, very interested in your upcoming observations on the Cardas XL PCs.

They seem to take a bitt over 300 hours to fully bloom.... In my system, XL cords are the most synergistic PCs I have experienced this far for my tone concept when I apply them to power the M925 amps and the Rowland Aeris+PSU combo. Conversely, XL seem not as applicable to the Esoteric X-01 CDp... For X-01, Cardas XL has a slightly dampening effect for very fine detail/microdynamics.... I much prefer the original Cardas Clear on the CDp.

From where/whom have you heard that XL may not be ideal for Element 118? And what undesirable symptoms might they be causing when used on the Merrils?

     Saluti, G.

Hi WC, from a historical point of view, you are correct. Older Cardas wires, such as the old Golden Reference series, could have been said to be somewhat romantic, or "slow".

Not so by any stretch of the imagination are Cardas Clear Beyond XL PCs. I would rather consider them to be at an ideal upper limit of response/speed realism... Perfect for  acoustic music, or at least perfect for my own tone concept. They definitely do not impart any transient/attack sluggishness to any instrument/voice that I have listened to, while delivering bass galore and reproducing the tembre, attacks, and decay of  instruments and voices with an almost magical sense of realism.

On the other hand, XL PCs do not add artificial transient sharpness to acoustic sources.

Admittedly, if over-the-top caffeinated zippiness is sought instead, some other brands of PCs might be preferable.

Question.... Have you WC cancelled your order for the XL PCs?

Saluti, Guido

Hello Whitecamaross, what persuaded you to sell your wonderful MLs? Did you try them in your new listening room?

Regards, G.

Hi @whitecamaross, I just sent you a couple of PMs.

BTW, my apologies for typos, amongst other things, my keyboard as acquired the bad habit of dropping characters *Rolls Eyes!*

G.

"I was told by a dealer that I need about 1,000 hours to really hear what they are capable of."

I am delighted that you are talking to a dealer who is telling you the straight unvarnished story about equipment break-in... As I mentioned several times, patience is golden in our hobby.

G.

I do not own a Lamborghini, but in very olden days,  I "enjoyed" 18 gage zip cord as speaker wires for several years, until I could afford wire that was easily superior.... Amazingly, the 18 gager did "spin" vinyl and CDs as "fast" as upscale wires... A 58 minutes CD completed playback in exactly...  58 minutes... Not a second more *Grins!*

And the above is just about the best thing zip cord did.... For the rest it felt constricted, hazy, dusty, boring, lacked detail, did not know the meaning of stage, promoted distortion, and was comfortably bested by every other cord I compared it to and eventually adopted... And was... utterly atrocious. The only wire I found worse than zip was some obscure speakerwire made by Zu... Never figured out how Zu achieved their spectacular perfformance flop.

Saluti, G.

Hello  @Whitecamaross... Just a couple of caveats about the Boulder 3060 amp that you are planning to source.

The device can't be connected to a regular 120AC line. It requires a 220V-240V 32A AC line, and The amp must be plugged into a 32A wall socket. Finally, your AC panel and in-wall wiring might need to be modified, because the critter appears to be capable of drawing some 6000 (6K) Watts at max power.

You will be able to dredge up this info, in one form or another, starting at:

http://boulderamp.com/products/3060-stereo-power-amplifier/   

Saluti, G.

PS. I heard the device a few years ago at Soundings in Denver, during RMAF.... Regretably, I was not overwhelmed by its musical prowess.

Hi @Whitecamaross, while Boulder amplifiers have underwhelmed me so far, I found their 2000-series preamplifier to be a worthy music maker... Looking forward to your findings on it.

G.

Hello WC, 2010 staging width/depth are bound to increase with warm up and re-break in... Yet, so many good things from dead start are promising all by themselves... Any idea how much music playing has your 2010 unit had since it left the factory?

G.

Thank you Viber for info on newest Boulder Pre... If WC's unit is used, and has been previously broken in well, it should take only some 10 days of grinding a signal to bring it back to its full performance level. I am looking forward to reading WC's periodic updates on his 2010.

G.

Hello @Whitecamaross, as you know, I have been singing the virtues of Cardas Clear Beyond XL power cords for quite a spell... In my system, they are the most balanced, quiet, awe-striking, and in general musically satisfying power cords for most of my components. Only on my Esoteric X-01 I prefer the Cardas standard Clear PC over the XL, as the standard Clear yields to the CDP some greater agility.

Regards, G.

Hey WC, ’tis amazing that all ’em self-appointed FBAI (Federal Bureau of Audiophilic Ideology) investigators have not yet added "gross spousal exploitation and cruelty" to the long list of your ideological "sins *grins!*

G.

Fascinating test, WC!

Have you gaged also the combined effect of DCS upsampler+clock?

BTW, does the upsampler let you select upsampling ffactor, such as 2X, 4X, 8X, etc...

What about filter selections?

G.

Thank you WC, will you have the opportunity of exercising various filters and upsampling levels?

Few years ago, when I had the opportunity of having tEsoteric K-01 in my system for a substantial spell, I found that upsampling rates and various filter settings made a remarkable difference in the outcome.

Saluti, G.

Hello Geofff, doing directionality tests on speaker wires is often feasible, but directionality tests on XLR signal wires and PCs may involve major conversion plugs acrobatics, which all by themselves would invalidate any results.

G.

Hello WC, as I have mentioned a couple of times, I have been a am a total fan of Cardas wiring for a while.... My current loom, Cardas Clear Beyond XL PCs on Rowland M925 amps and Rowland PSU, Clear (original) PC on Esoteric X-01 player, Clear digital coax, as well as Clear Reflection XLR ICS and speaker wires, are easily the most musically complete and satisfying set of wires that have ever graced my system, even though the Clear Reflection line is at least a couple of levels below your new Clear Beyond... All I can say is that my loom is extraordinary. I can just imagine how replacing the Reflection signal wires wih Clear Beyond would enhance my own musical experience even further.

G.

@whitecamaross, that was a more than excellent review... You really captured the differential character of the two devices...

The two of us may not listen to the same music genres, yet more and more we seem to feel/grok alike when it comes to tonal character.

Saluti, Guido

I played-back the Pass/Dag clip on my system... HP Zbook 15 G1 on batteries feeding Rowland Aeris DAC + PSU via USB, DAC into Rowland M925 monos, and these into Vienna Die Muzik speakers. PCS are Cardas Clear Beyond XL, speaker wires Cardas Clear Reflection. USB cable was unfortunately generic.

Differences between the two tested amps seemed apparent....

Pass seemed to be outwardly the punchier of the two, with greater emphasis of the player's hand-thumps onto the body of the guitar.

On the other hand, Dag seemed to yield greater overall clarity and midrang/treble resolution without ever becoming shouty or brazen.

I felt more upper extension and overall low level information in the Dag. Transient were crisper yet sweet, without suffering of artificial excesses or obvious traces of screechy intermodulative artifacts.

The voice of the soloist was clearer and lyrics easier to follow than on the Pass. I heard a more distinct feel of the audience and venue.

I did also prefer the more "measured" impact of the bass on Dag.

For my musical and tonal preferences, I would give the nod to the Dag, but I recognize that mine is purely preference, and not any statement of "betterness".

Regards, Guido

Hmmm... Scientific shootout?! ... As in ensuring that Geoff's Clever Little Clocks, Brilliant Pebbles, and third-party cute little pyramids infused by quantum-dots are "scientifically" placed in the music room? *Grins!*

G.

More seriously, WC.A blind cable shootout seems an excellent idea to me... I have no idea if I will be able to tell the difference between cables, given all the encoding/decoding and inevitable degradation along the various transforms and transmission. But, if you do not try, all I will be left with are my own pre-conceived conjectures.

Saluti, G.

I concur with Pokey77 and others.... I recommend you optimize the power going into your amps, lest the amps will give you much less than what they are capable of during the test, thus largely limiting the validity of any comparison between ICs.

 Cardas Clear Beyond XL would be my PC choice.

G.

I had no problem discriminating between the two recordings played back on the single speaker of my old/trusty iPhone 6S. Tentatively, I heard more "air" and low level information from the AudioMica...

Having said the above, this afternoon I will play back the clip on my system.... Will post my updated impressions in the evening.

G.

Hi @whitecamaross, yes... I have listened to the Fink video, as well as to the previous clip -- The one with heavy processing and reverb... Listened to both of them from the little speakers of my HPZbook computer, as well as from the big rig, driven from my Zbook via USB.

Saluti,.

Hello WC, I have listened to both videos of the AudioMica / Odin comparison on my main rig. With the premise that it is a little difficult to gage equipment on tracks that feature relatively narrow ranfges of audio frequencies, here are my quick observations...

The Audiomica appears to have a pronounced hump in the upper bass and lower midrange... Thaat in itself may account for the overall warmth of the presentation, but also in the king of "pillowness" in the first heavily processed comparison. On the other hand, AudioMica seems to yield restricted low level detal, and less information in the upper and lower regions. I noted that in AudioMica there is also less ambient information than in Odin (e.g. crowd noise", and the soloist in the second piece seems to have less larigularization or "voice-frie" than on Odin.

Playing back the recordings on my rig, Odin shows greater extension and information at both end of the spectrum, much more even linearity -- as in no hump in lower midrange and upper bass, greater low level detail, and... more of the natural "voice-frie" of the male soloist... Ah yes... Much greaater presence o exposed harmonics in the guitar.

It would be interesting if you could in future find some purely acoust tracks with broader frequency distribution, tonal colors, and greater dynamic swings.

Saluti, G.

Hello all, just a minor administrative point....

A post on 0928-2020 by friend Viber has been misinterpreted by an old friend of mine as I being "deceased".... As in

* Having popped;

* Passed on;

* Crossed the Great Divide;

* Be pushing daiseies;

* Croaked;

* Died.

I am happy to announce that his news is premature. Last time I checked, I was still alive and kicking.

Best regards, Guido