Dacs that I've tried:
PS audio directstream
Chord Dave
Lampizator pacific
Lumin s1
Esoteric k1
Belcanto black
All are good dacs but system synergy is key. There's no right or wrong. |
I understand the reasoning behind your statement. However, boulder preamps hardly ever come around so I had an opportunity to get one and see how it performs. I read tbe review of the 2110 preamp whuxhy they used successfully with different amps. On paper this preamp should be superior to the ref6 , Merrill Christine and McIntosh c2600 which are the only preamps I've used with my pass labs xs300s.
Personally, I didn't enjoy the boulder 2060 but this doesn't mean their preamp will be the same. |
Yes it was garbage for me. That connection on constellation gear was stupid. Look around and you'll find reviews by magazines that are in alignment with me. |
Interesting. I might use the mx160 with the pass xs300 for fun and see.
Has anyone here heard the boulder 3060 stereo amp ? It's starting to make some noise in my head .... |
Gryphon easily kills Momentum s250 on the Maggies.... it’s actually the largest gap in performance I’ve heard between the two when using these speakers. With the Wilson it is much less of a gap but not with Maggie’s.
Will the Merrill 118s have something to say about it ? Will Merrill audio element 118s best the stereo gryphon on the Maggie’s ?? That is one interesting showdown.. I can’t even pick one right now...
One last thing, I am going to continue to post links here to my new videos through the end of July. After that, you all have to subscribe in order to get notifications. I can’t keep spoon feeding links here because people don’t subscribe.
Fyi: youtube tells me where most of my views are coming from and the amount of people not subscribed. I have to do this in order to get people to subscribe so I will keep posting links here through July 31st and after that you will need to subscribe to watch what I am doing because I won’t keep adding links here.
Tonight’s video is my take and ratings on the luxman 900u. I changed a few categories so it will be more interesting than before.
The video drops at 9pm EST
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Gryphon Essence has been the star of 2021. I never saw that coming. I have been vocal with those who own it. There is no better amp under 25k (that I’ve owned) that beats it.
You’d have to spend 40k+ MSRP to top it.
Some of the people who I’ve helped through my consultation service have been looking for one on the used market and can’t find one. Another great amp is the simaudio 860v2. It would probably be the best amp under 20k if I had not owned the essence. Don’t disregard the 860v2 because it is quite awesome too. It throws a huge sound and awesome bass control.
Word on the street is that Gryphon is getting to release a new quarter million dollar statement amp to come after that tier group of amps (relentless, boulder 3050, ch 10 series, etc)
Over 350 lbs per mono... I’d do just about anything to get my hands on one of those. Nothing excites me more than Sherman tanks that walk through concrete walls like if they were made from cardboard. We always hear class d, class d, class d, etc and then gryphon does this 250k amp and silence enters the room because there is no answer for something like it. It’s as if it slams the door in the faces of those who believe class d has everything needed to kill cost no object class a amps. We all know that isn’t true (not yet anyway).
I wonder if someone will ever build a cost no object class d amp that doesn't have the excuses of " oh it didn't best that class a amp because it is far more money, but it got close enough almost to the point of defeating it"
My answer is: "it don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile... Winning is winning"
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Chord Dave was awesome and it was not bad at all as a preamp. I think it's system dependent to be honest so I can't really say one is superior to the other. However, the chord Dave by itself is not superior to the k1 esoteric. It's only when you add the CD player on the chord Dave that it actually challenges the esoteric. |
I am sitting here listening to these amps after not hearing them in over a week since i have been very busy with my family. I let roon just choose a random song and it chose "it smells like a teen spirit" by Nirvana and although this song is a classic and it might be a tad too "aggressive" for my taste, it totally just makes you go "wow, holy sh!t". The drums just make your heart pound, the sense of space and attack just take your breath away.
i keep thinking of new adjectives to describe these amps and man oh man all i can say is that they are so impactful, dense, scary, blissful and earth-shattering in terms of their presentation. i can’t think of ONE THING that i wish they did better, but rather i WISH the rest of my front end was up to par. i can sit here until 3am listening to music and find myself NOT ANALYZING a thing about the sound and i still have yet to elevate my preampfification which should improve things even more.
I have the following amps in mind:
Dag M400s
Boulder 3060
what is stopping me from getting either one is the fact that i am not willing to sell my xs300s in order to purchase either one of those amps. What if i don’t like them as much as these amps? i will never be able to buy another xs300 used since they don’t ever show up on the used market. At this point, yep i see myself not moving out of these amps UNLESS one of those amps above can come in this room and annihilate these pass amps.
If you ever have the opportunity to hear these amps at one of your local dealers, please go listen to them. I don’t think you will be disappointed.
One interesting thing about them is that even though they do have their own sound, they are still able to pass through everything your front end is feeding them. They also are so incredible at letting you hear the different sizes of the soundstage for each song you play. Think of it as a projector that throws a huge image when it is recorded in a 235:1 screen ratio, but when it is recorded in a 4:3 ratio then the projector will put black bars on the sides of the image while projecting on a smaller area. This is exactly what these amps do quite easily and it is very cool to know that when the sound isn’t massive that it is just the song you are playing and the amp is letting you know that.
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The eq argument is certainly an interesting one. i don't quite believe in it for 2 channel UNLESS your room and speakers are in an awful situation that something needs to be done. i know some people have terrible rooms with furniture, high couches, and lots of obstacles, etc and i could say to that "hell yea lets use an eq" because the room is not going to change. That said, those of us who have the blessing to have dedicated rooms have much more flexibility to dial in the sound to our liking. I personally don't like to use tone controls, but there is some gear out there that sounds lifeless so i could see someone wanting to add little more sparkle or bass, etc. There is nothing wrong with that, but at the level that i am and where some of you are, i don't think it is adequate to introduce an eq in the mix. |
I have received many messages from people wanting for me to release the video above. I have moved up the time to 11AM E.T. time today. I hope you all enjoy this Part 1 of 3. I urge you to relax, watch it in its entirety and hear from one of the most well-known reviewers today. This is NOT the video for you to skip through to locate answers. He took the time to open up and I believe It is important that we all listen to what he has to say. Again, this is part 1 of 3 so it should be clear that he won't be answering all questions on this particular video.
Enjoy !
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We didn't really talk about it to be honest. He had them in his home and sold them right after. He loves those m400s though. Maybe one day I'll be able to have a real shootout between those and my xs300s but who knows when because that is a boat load of money to have strapped on both amps. |
Will try that song. I have actually been using the Dynaudio c4 platinums and I'm quite impressed how they sound with the xs300s. |
The xs150s are great amps but the xs300s are outstanding. One would say the xs300s are just like the xs150 but with twice the power but that's far from the truth. I was given feedback from someone who heard both side by side and he said the 300s sound nothing like the 150s. They are on a whole other level and sound like a totally different amp. |
hmm, best used amp under $5k? that is an easy one; Plinius SA103 hands down. You simply can not get a better amp for under $5k and i dont care where you look. i have turned every stone looking for one and that amp STILL impresses me today.
i plan to do another "best amp under $" post before the end of the year taking into consideration the amps i have gone through this year.
Just keep in mind that this is subjective and not written in stone. however, for the most part i find that my recommendations to many of you have been pleasant. |
@bigddesign3:
you are right, i did mess up selling the neoliths, but i had to sacrifice something to offset the cost of the new room and i also just didn’t feel like the neoliths would have breathed enough in the new space.
That said, i have another speaker on my radar which could potentially land at my door before the end of the year, but right now it is tough because i don’t have the space for more since i currently have the dynaudio c4 platinums and focal scala evo in here.
The speaker i am contemplating is one of the top models from Magico.
i am not 100% yet that i will end up doing it because i need to free up some cash so until that happens then i can’t quite sit down and begin the negotiation process.
One last thing, my room just can’t accommodate big wide speakers. They become a pain because i’d have to move them out the way every time i want to watch a movie.
@mrdecibel
i understand if you feel the way you do about me. That said, i really enjoy the xs300s and have zero plans of selling them and this will prevent me from buying the boulder or Dag amp. I would LITERALLY have to have a shootout in my home between those amps and my xs300s and be blown away in order for me to sell my amps.
As a matter of fact, last night i decided to watch a movie and i could not believe how "not so good" it sounded in comparison to the clarity, imaging, and grace of my xs300s (yes i know it is not a fair comparison ),but the point i am trying to make is that the 2 channel experience was elevated tremendously and i dont even find myself blasting things because it is quite enjoyable even at low volume levels.
Do you all notice how sometimes when you turn down the volume of your music the magic falls apart, (less oomph, less bass, less of everything) and then you need to crank things up again in order to recuperate what you’ve lost? THIS IS EXACTLY what these amps DO NOT DO. They have an insane amount of everything regardless of the volume level.
Good luck with your audio journey mrdecibel |
Glad you found it cool... I'll be able to talk more about the 3.7i vs 20.7
The biggest reveal will be done once it gets here and nobody will know. I will need to sell a lot of my components but I am ok with that.
I will do the full Merill vs Momentum on the Maggie's and possibly the Wilson Daw in order to show the differences with both speakers. |
I will keep my next move buried... If it happens then it will just show up one day without any warning. So many amps...speakers...etc... Relentless Wilson is married to Stella but alexx is the younger sibling of Alexandria.. |
You know I'm quite excited to try gt audio speakers at some point in the near future. I'm going through other options available to me locally before I try gt audio. I think of it like this:
You drive a Toyota , then Lexus , then Mercedes and then Porsche and hopefully end up in a Ferrari. I find the journey exciting in many ways.
Remember I did hear gt audio and I liked them more than some of the stupid crazy expensive stuff shown at axpona.
Last night I heard the Wilson wamm with their subs. For amps they used the 160m and a mark levison 532h for the subs.
Let me tell you that set up had potential but lacked the wow factor in terms of sound. My friends and I all agreed it wasn't worth the 1.2 million dollars but also because it lacked serious artillery for amplification. I was told that the reason why they used those amps is to prove how efficient the speakers are. 700k speakers, 100k transparent speaker cables , 30k interconnects and a 30k pair of monos with a 10k mark Levinson amp ? The speaker had huge sound and dynamics but they didn't floor me and I know it was the amps they were using. Mind you they had arc 750se in the room and chose NOT to use them.
Last point I want to make is the music selection. They used some obscure music that makes you scratch your head and think WHAT THE HELL AM I LISTENING TO ?
GTAUDIO, keep doing what you're doing by playing music that people can relate to when displaying your speakers. This is exactly what will give you an edge as well because most people already know that some manufacturers only play certain type of music because their speakers fall apart with other music. |
Awesome Greg. I look forward to your impressions. I owned the 160.8s and although they are good, they missed the huge overhead and voltage the xs150s brought to the table. They had the sweetness but lacked the muscle and "steroid like " control of big swings of the xs. That extra chassis of the xs is certainly doing far more than just adding heat. One interesting comment I have is that I felt like the xs150 ran hotter than the xs300s. I don't know why that is to be honest but my logical explanation is that I drove the 150s harder than I drive the 300s.
If you guys could get hands on the xs300s, I don't think anyone would leave the room.. |
This is something that I can't understand about boulder. I mean close to 90 % of people that have heard it haven't been impressed by the sound but rather just the construction. I can't understand why would boulder build stuff that has zero appeal to most people ? Somebody told me that boulder is like eating a meal without salt. Just too plain and tasteless. |
Update:
The xs300 is the type of amp that needs a solid 8-10 hours of play time to really come fully alive. I am listening right now and they are just crazy 3 dimensional, but this was not the same effect i heard this morning when i turned them on at around 9am. The shifts between the speakers are bigger, the detail comes out to touch you, the depth is as if you were in a cave listening to music. Pretty astonishing to say the least, but i will say this could be a problem for some of you (not an issue for me). You can’t judge these amps from a cold start. They sound good from a dead cold start, but they sound INSANE after 8-10 hours of being on.
i need to have a talk with Nelson because he seems to be against a "green" environment lol :) |
Let us know once you compare to your Wilsons. |
The xs series has the holy sh!t factor. The 200.5 also carry a wow factor so I'm assuming the 200.8 do too. |
10 ft away. they are about 7feet apart measuring from the inner panels.
I went to bed at 230am this morning listening to them and it is NOW clear to me when it comes to amplifiers and Maggies:
THEY LOVE CLASS A MORE THAN CLASS AB
I also confirmed this with Steve from GT Audio because i have noticed he uses mainly pass labs class a amps for his speakers. I am glad my ears are leading me and although these speakers dont have all the bass i am used to, i truthfully don’t really miss it because i am getting so much more in other areas. I really can not believe how good this speaker is. I am willing to say that i regret not buying this speaker years ago because the level of clarity, depth, height, and INSANE IMAGING is on another level.
I am going to make a bold, VERY BOLD STATEMENT here by saying that i suspect the 20.7 Maggies kill ANY martin logan speaker currently in production with the exception being the Neoliths. This speaker does things that Logans DO NOT do. i will need to put pen on paper to jot down my thoughts on both speakers. |
Tonality is exactly one of the attributes that these amps have that the regular pass amps don’t. They just inject you with a huge amount of Information and energy that you can’t put it into words.
I haven’t been as impressed with other pass labs amps becuase the luxman 900u pretty much annihilated them in many ways. Word on the street is that luxman is building a pair of their new reference amps which will be 60-70k and well that will certainly be something I’ll be all over.
My personal opinion is that you need to be in the 200.5, 200.8, xs 150, xs300 to be in the very best from pass labs and be in heaven in terms of sound. Everything below those models is good but not something you couldn’t live without because there are a lot of brands out there that can easily compete or even best them. That said, if you hate heat or if your room has terrible ventilation then skip pass labs. |
Who knows.. what I can say is that you can't quite compare both Speakers. I mean, there are things the Daw doesn't do that the magnepan does:
-It doesn't scale as big as the 3.7i
-I think the imaging on the Maggie is perhaps more forceful which gives you the wow factor
-the 3.7 is faster sounding than the Wilson Daw
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Simaudio is a better amp than bryston in my opinion. Brystons are workhoses that don't quit but so is a bulldozer which I'm not sure I want to drive down the interstate.
Simaudio always did more for me than bryston. I still love simaudio but guess what ? It doesn't get a lot of love on the used market because it's Canadian and some say it's too expensive. The messed up part is that these are the people that really don't know much about simaudio or never owned it.
There's no amp company that rules on all different tier groups. It's impossible to be the jack of all trades. You must decide on which is the demographic you're targeting and shoot for it.
I've owned many good amplifiers that most of you would find enjoyable, but I've only found a handful of outstanding amps.
It is all relevant and although I want to say " yes a power amp worth 10k brings 90% of what one that costs $90k has, that is never the case. Yes amplifiers go through an evolution too and get better and better. I could see a case where an amp that was $50k 10 years ago gets beat by an amp that costs $25k today. For instance , look at the old luxman 60k monos which get destroyed by a pair of luxman 900u. |
techno_dude or someone pretending to be techno dude since this person only has one post lol... do you think we are stupid that we only see you with a single post and the first thing you do is to post in my thread to start sh!t ?
I can already hear RIAA beginning to type something exclusively for you Techno (if this is indeed techno which i sincerely doubt).
Anyhow, for those who actually follow my thread and have positive things to say, i am hopefully picking up the very first real preamp for my xs300s tomorrow: Boulder 2010.
@bill_k
yep, it appears that someone already decided that the simaudio 870 and 860 are the winners in every single category.
That said, has anyone here heard the Dag progression vs momentums? because someone here is implying that there would not be a single difference between both amps in a blindfold test... however, what he forgot to mention is that in this blindfold test the only person who is sitting there listening is him and nobody else. People who ACTUALLY have experience with gear of this caliber can hear the difference.
As the old saying goes: "you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink it"
Lastly, you can’t expect every set of ears to hear the differences hence the reason why all sorts of cheaper items are available. Remember, these would the be same people who probably would tell you that a Ferrari drives the same as a Lambo if you close your eyes while you are driving, but what this person forgot to mention is that all he’s driven is the new Honda Civic Type R which entitles them to having a ton of credibility. |
Pictures of the boulder 2010 have been posted. It took a big effort to find it in black color. Only a few of these were ever built. |
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I just picked up the boulder 2010 preamp. I will give my initial impressions later on tonight ! |
Boulder 2010: (Zero warm up time )
-imaging intensity as no other component
- mids are dead center with clarity and articulation
- "zero filters " applied by this beast
- soundstage not as wide as ref6
- no harshness of any kind ( ref6 added some brightness )
- digs deep in the recordings trying to uncover everything hidden
- clarity and a feeling of "cleanliness" not heard by me from by tube preamp
-speed & dynamics in spades.
Lastly , aint no way in hell a dac can do a REAL preamp's job.
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Christine vs boulder 2010 impressions will be coming soon ... The one thing I can say in advance is that they both sound clean and clear like water. |
The clarity on the Maggie's is incredible ONLY if matched with the right gear. How do I know this ? I've swapped out cables and powercords over the past few days and it affects the hell out of the presentation. I promise you if you were here to hear what they are doing with my Gryphon, nordost Odin cables and dcs dac, I don't see WHERE you would need more clarity. Most magnepan set ups I have seen online are with bryston, sander amps, parasound, etc which is fine but this is a ribbon and needs the right current to wake up. Last but not least , they NEED TO BE BROKEN IN. I went to hear my friends 20.7 over the weekend and they sounded incredible with boulder and dcs. I believe I can get my set up to sound even better once I take the time to break it in. |
BOULDER PLUS FOCAL = EXCELLENT SYNERGY. |
Ok folks,
Let's open up a discussion here about the first video. What are your early thoughts about the points he made?
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My 2010 is a few years old so it's been broken in. I am impressed by it in many ways but I need to put it through the motions with other amps etc.
The boulder 2060 was sterile and cold but the preamp is like a wire with gain. It doesn't inflate the sound and although I do like the big sound of the ref10 and ref6, I could see myself begining to shift my mind into more accuracy and with "just the facts" from a preamp.
I heard the boulder 3060 with this preamp and Wilson audio Alexia 2 and it was an incredible amount of bottom end control with good detail but I didn't really fall in love with it and I don't know if this because the Wilson sound isn't winning me or if it's that I just prefer the beryllium tweeter of the focals. A friend of mine says I am a beryllium lover. |
Boulder 2010 does not like the shunyata Denali at all. It sounds better with the nordost odin and plugged straight into the wall. It feels bigger sounding with more imaging and more relaxed sounding when plugged into the wall. This is getting very interesting. I didn't expect this at all! |
Could be. Maybe this preamp will stabilize over the next few days. One thing to note is that this preamp runs warm to the touch. It's the first solid state preamp that runs this hot which is surprising, but I guess it is due to the "class a" design. It actually runs as warm as the boulder 2060.
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Last night I brought the focals in a little closer to each other and the sound improvement was beyond belief. I am about 10ft away from them and they are about 7.5-8ft apart as opposed to 9ft. They are 5 feet away from the front wall and about 4 ft from the side walls.
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Negative. Not all preamps have this design. Typically this is stated on the manual or somewhere.
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Did i Blow Up My $80,000 Speaker?
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Update :
Just moved the power supplies of the amps closer to the outlets in order to use my 1.25m nordost odin powercords on them and use the cardas xl powercords on the dac and preamp and here's what I found:
Lost bottom end oomph
Gained air and an organic feel
I can conclude that the cardas xl powercords have an insane amount of bottom end with great noise filtering so if you need more oomph with less noise in your system then give them a try. I personally might keep using them on my sources because my focals already have tremendous bottom end so they don't need more bass.
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So yesterday i spent the entire day moving my power cords around to see where they would sound best and the results were extremely good.
Today i am borrowing a Shunyata Sigma NR which i will use on my preamp or dac to see if it will outperform the cardas xl that i own. Anyhow, although i did improve things a bit with this exercise, i decided to just move the speakers about 1 foot closer to my listening spot which leaves them about 6.1ft from the back wall ,10 feet away from my chair and approximately 4-5 ft from the side walls. Let me tell you, moving the speakers one foot closer was a revelation. It feels as if i just changed my entire list of components with something else. The soundstage is now bigger, deeper, better imaging, more air and it feels as if i upgraded to the bigger maestro or stella focal. What is interesting about this is that the speakers (without me knowing at all) ended up being almost at exactly 1/3 of the length of the room. i wasn’t aiming to be at 1/3 of the room by the way, but after moving them around they just ended up there. This particular set up would present issues for those of you without a dedicated room because having a speaker 6ft off the wall is not practical in most living rooms, but i want to urge you all to try this:
Divide the length of your room by 3 and then place the back of your speakers at exactly that spot and let me know what you all hear. If possible, your seating distance should be 1.5 times the distance from the back wall so let’s say you end up with the speakers at 5 feet from the back wall then do 5 x 1.5 and the result should be your distance from the speakers. Give it a try and report back if this is working as good as it has for me. |
Merrill audio element 118s are scheduled to be here Friday. I am still playing around with the 3.7i and they are sounding better and better. I still think they have more to go so I might not try the Merrill just yet. I might do a full Merrill amp and Preamp on the Sasha Daw though... |
No I haven’t. No idea between 900u in mono and gryphon. |
Anybody here ever compare the Wilson alexx against the Alexia 2???
I’m extremely curious about the alexx. Some say it is the best price / performance speaker Wilson makes today. I’ve been told it is even better than the xlf. Wilson owners please chime in or anyone with "seat time" with both speakers. I’m starting to seriously contemplate the Wilson alexx. |
