Both have more musicality now and far less forwardness
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!
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
If you like DCS after hearing it next to the msb, you should purchase a dcs. There is no need for you to get out there and listen to others. You’re a DCS guy which pretty much makes you a Wilson guy too. If you’re going with Wilson, go for DCS. There’s no point in hearing more dacs unless you want to spend big dough then venture into MSB. |
@kren: The msb is still in my room. i just dont have the shelve space. i have been listening to the DCS Rossini lately because i used the MSB for over a month. I plan to go back to the MSB to better understand what it does after i listen to the DCS for a few weeks. I do not believe dcs would work with Magico speakers - too forward sounding or too much bite. I also plan to eventually venture into other speakers in the future and having both dacs in my hands allows me to have more flexibility. Lastly, i don't really have an itch to buy anything else right now that would force me to sell one of the DACs. I am somewhat "bored" because i have been stuck at home and i have not been at shows. I have pretty much brought some kick-ass speakers and electronics over the last 18 months so i am momentarily unmotivated to chase things that i don't care about. I also don't or better said "WILL NOT" beg any manufacturer or store to sell me or let me me audition a product. I've pretty much been through approximately 80-90% of the best gear out there and the remaining 10-20% might be unreachable for my budget. |
I actually did not use the silver with msb because of a particular reason. I simply always used silver since i had the synergistic cables. This is the entire reason why they give you options to tune things with these bullets as you move forward with other electronics. That said, the question has been hovering in my head as to HOW the M6 would have sounded with these gold bullets and with the room treated? Hard to say because that M6 is indeed amazing. The only thing that pissed me off about it is that the MPODS are not adjustable so you can’t really raise the speaker a little more if you want to and if you have thick carpet like i do, it is hard to level the speaker because you really can not adjust the height like you could with spikes. Your only option to make the M6 adjustable with regards to its height? it is as "simple" as buying the critical mass footers they make for it which cost around $8k-$10k dollars.. I BET ANYTHING that the next round of Magico M series (whenever they release) WILL have adjustable MPODS? These are the things MOST OF YOU don’t get to see or know about because it is kept under wraps. |
The XLF is another animal that has strengths and weaknesses - just like other speakers do. It is huge, heavy, difficult to move, but DO NOT get it twisted... It might be efficient, etc, etc, but it STILL requires brute power to make it open up. If you put decent power in front of it, it will play loud, BUT it won’t open up or sound large - or AS LARGE as the speaker can play. It pretty much tells you: I can play loud with anything you want me to, but i will only fill your entire room if you feed me the current, wattage and quality power that i need. This is THE TRUTH. As efficient as the XLF is, it still requires great amplification, lots of tweaking in the form of time-alignment adjustments until you get the sound you want from it plus it has its fuzziness too like the M6. Speaking of time-alignment, i just posted a picture on my youtube channel of me tweaking it yesterday and it takes about one hour just to get it time aligned. I thought it would take me about 10 minutes to do, but i was wrong. Let's say you need to adjust the lower midrange driver, guess what? you have to completely remove the tweeter and upper midrange modules first and that takes time plus you then have to put them back on. Lots of work! |
I agree. I forgot to mention that it has the synergistic research orange fuses installed. Ok so the right word/comparison just hit me with regards to what i heard with the ultra 5s under the XLF: it gave the speakers a feeling of a PA system at times with certain music. That's the best way to describe this. |
Prepare to hear a new XLF soon. I just went back to the stock spikes and removed the stillpoint ultra 5s... The speaker did a 360 in so many ways. The bass is now omg deep at any volume level. It is more musical and warmer in a good way. It sounds far less "hot" as Viber calls it. This feeling of having more "caffeine" in the presentation is now gone. I'm shocked at the change in tonality. I am starting to feel that I'm not the man that enjoys a lot of these devices that artificially enhance the sound. I will go into this in more depth on a future video. For now, just know I'm not doing ultra 5s under the speaker anymore. I'll try them under the DAC , ,preamp, etc. |
My XLF didn’t sound great with casters. They sounded like they were out of phase. The bass wasn’t as deep with casters but omg the spikes made a jaw dropping change. This is the biggest change i have ever heard from any speaker I’ve owned. No other Wilson or brand has morphed as much as this XLF did when going to spikes. I've done mpods on mágico and also spikes on other Wilsons and there was a change but nothing like what i just heard. |
This is exactly my feeling too. The speaker got "warmer" for lack of a better word - or better yet; it sounds more relaxed and engaging. The spikes almost feel as if i changed the dac for something more analog and removed all silver cabling. I never expected this drastic change because i never heard such change with all the other speakers I’ve owned. I kind knew what to expect once i changed the footers to spikes because of my previous experiences, but with this XLF? It’s a revelation. When i first played the XLF i felt that the sound wasn’t anywhere near the more analog sound of the Alexx or even the Alexia or Sasha. I was thinking to myself: maybe this is what the flagship speaker was supposed to sound like? This ultimate resolution that isnt held back or kept at bay? maybe this is Dave Wilson’s idea of flagship and his son Daryl is something different?Maybe it’s my amps ? Should i go to Lamm amps or VTL? Maybe i need to buy transparent Opus cabling? Maybe this XLF has different requirements that the smaller siblings did not? All these were questions i was cycling through while being patient because there are too many variables. Anyhow, this took me to undo a lot in order to "undress" the speaker as much as possible and step one was to use stock spikes. My next step was to remove the critical mass footers from under the music server and ultimately remove all my powecords and start from scratch. This is a PERFECT EXAMPLE for you all of what you have to do when something doesn’t seem to click. You gotta go back to basics and figure out what is adding the unwanted sonics. My biggest help was that I’ve owned many Wilson speakers so i knew what i was looking for. It should go without saying that changing speakers will often times result in you having to eliminate from your system something that did miracles with your previous speakers. Once you bring new speakers in, the rest of the supporting cast is on a 90 day probationary period. |
Here is a quick Sunday video: https://youtu.be/YkJpQFRasgE Constellation Audio Centaur monos Footers removed Notice the "attitude" of the speaker. Not as "agitated" as you heard before. Please familiarize yourself with this song beforehand so you can understand the vocals and what they sound like. If you use headphones, the bass should be quite obvious more than ever before. |
Yes you need the bullets. It’s not good to remove them but can be done. You should know that this song does have vocals that project out into the room. This is why I said for people to hear this song before they listen to the video. The song does not have the best vocals but i shot the video to let you all hear the overall feeling of what happened to the speaker. Remember one thing, excessive detail and clarity will lead to short listening sessions if played loud enough. I can’t sit in front of something that has too much of either for longer than 30-45 min. My ears begin to tap out. My ears seek resolution with some warmth in the mix. I can't even drink too much coffee or else i feel "off" all day long. |
Tomorrow’s video will be about my own trials and the steps i feel are important when it comes to building your next system. 1130 AM ET https://youtu.be/0lYJFmcRNBE |
i have received many emails throughout the year asking how they go about building their system. Many channels don't really address this so i decided to use my personal trials and experience with different components in order to go over best practices to build a system: 1130 am ET today https://youtu.be/0lYJFmcRNBE Hope you all enjoy |
Alright, Well another preamp is getting on a plane tomorrow and headed my way this week after it clears customs. This will be the most expensive linestage (Msrp that is) that I've owned. It is a current model and no i don't have the matching amps. Will this preamp sing with my constellation or gryphon amps? We will soon find out! |
I prefer three 20a. One for both monos and then that leaves you 2 more for the rest. Remember that some components don’t sound great into a power conditioner. Having spare outlets is a must. Two 20a outlets will easily be used up. Gryphon stereo amps do not sound great when plugged into 2 different outlets. The bass doesn’t sound right and there is a light that turns on that says "phase" indicating an issue with the phase. It needs to be plugged into one outlet. |
I agree but if i play different music then 5,500 people could say the opposite of what you are saying. If i embark on playing requests then: 1. I become a dj that doesn’t get paid what dj Tiesto gets paid while taking music requests from the entire world 2. People continue to forget that YouTube blocks songs that have copyrights. I’ve said this many times. You realize how many times I’ve tried to upload Fleetwood Mac? 3. Most people want the same songs so they can compare to previous versions of my system . 4. Playing new songs means people need to familiarize themselves with it or else they judge the system based on how poor or imperfect the song might sound. A perfect example would be one of the last videos i posted with constellation Audio. The mids on that song are projected and at times not the purest but then people think it's the system lol. Yet, they haven't actually heard that song before. See my point? |
Coming soon... My new linestage: Soulution 725. Will it best my Gryphon Pandora? We shall find out ! I have huge expectations for this preamp. Feedback I've received from those who have owned it: - incredible dynamics - amazing bass - 8k resolution - musical Will it best my Gryphon? Can this preamp make my Gryphon amps sound better than their own preamp? Can constellation Audio sound better with this ? I'm extremely excited to find out. |
We shall see how the Soulution 725 does in here. We can not overlook "synergy" here. If i were to discover that the Pandora sounds better with Gryphon amps than the Soulution 725, does this mean the Soulution sucks? no... it means it does not "click" well with Gryphon amps or Constellation or whatever else i have. I am playing with great components so i doubt that anything i have in my possession is no good. I have quite a challenge coming because having 4 preamps in here will make things quite tough for me. I doubt that there will be one of them that will make all amps sound better than the rest of the preamps. I think each preamp will make a particular amp sing better and it will be up to me to decide which combination will stay. In my opinion, it is MUCH HARDER to evaluate preamplifiers than amplifiers if the preamps on hand are excellent that is. |
i will lay it real simple here: IF you have electronics that have some sort of external power supply like the boulder 2110 preamp for example, you are wasting your time and money using a power conditioner. My Pandora linestage has an external power supply and when i go into the Shunaya, it sounds compressed, choked, terrible. I am a believer that components that already have well-designed power supplies dont need stupid line conditioners. Will there be exceptions? of course, there will always be a component here and there that will respond positively to a line conditioner even though it has its own external power supply, but that is hardly ever the case. I will say that about 3/4 of my 2 channel electronics are not really benefiting much from the Shunyata everest. The MSB also was choked by the Shunyata by the way and well it does have 2 external power bases.. The DCS did improve with the Shunyata and so did my Marantz home theater processor as well as my 8 channel ATI Class D amp. |
Well, here is a new component https://youtu.be/p5Jye9rxIf8 Time to guess what it is? Let’s see how good you all are 😆 Ps: headphones...a big plus here. |
whooooaaaa, well, well... look at this! The thread was DEAD and now it is starting to take off again. It appears to me that a little controversy, drama, etc is just what people need from time to time. To address the comments above, I was very clear and still stand behind what i said: IF YOU ARE A YOUTUBER AND THIS IS YOUR 9-5, A DEDICATED ROOM IS A MUST. I never said this applies to you folks who are hobbyist and have regular jobs. I started this in my living room (as mrdecibel said) and was able to gather enough funds to build a dedicated room once i became more serious about it. I have been vocal about this: I DO NOT DO THIS 100% (FULL TIME) I need health insurance, 401k, etc, etc, but i treat it as if it was a full time job because I work my @$$ off doing content, driving far to pick up equipment, spending ridiculous amounts of money to present to you some of the finest electronics available today. I wear many hats:
It is not easy to do what I do (try it and see how much fun it is). I will definitely continue to voice my opinion (this is all subjective) because people want to know my deepest thoughts about many different subjects. Lots of people were sending me links to the video that was made about someone calling out reviewers who are not ready to review speakers because reviewers sometimes don’t have the proper room - so I responded. Differences of opinion are a real thing in everyday life. Often times people just want an opinion about a component and these opinions can be had from anyone at your local best buy or even your local grocery store, but if you want QUALIFIED OPINIONS on equipment then that is A WHOLE DIFFERENT animal. Ultimately, it is up to you to decide which opinion you are looking for.
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Well i just brought home yet another component after the one you all heard on my last video. Sometimes there are components that right out of the gate, dead cold, zero stupid "warm up" just blow you away. This component i received today falls within this category. I might release a clip later today. |
Let’s see if you all can guess this one https://youtu.be/z_OapWq26Q4 We can continue to elevate this XLF to new heights. Is this the best sound out of them? Is this the best sound to come out of my room? Maybe... Maybe not.. but let me know your thoughts. |
I do not have any reason to sell the XLF even though,I WILL ADMIT IT - I HAVE looked at possible replacements, i feel like most are like "meh" and simply don’t motivate me to begin to crate the XLF. In my personal opinion, anything under 100k MSRP is not going to come close to the level of this speaker. In the event that i replaced it with a speaker under $100k MSRP it would be more to try something "different" than actually something better. There is no "ifs and buts" about that and i am quite CLEAR on this. I have spoken to many of my sources about other speakers and everyone presents the same argument to me which is: " i don’t really know where you go from there Jay...honestly just about everything will be a downward movement UNLESS you spend a boat load of money on top of the XLF to bring something far more expensive". So there you have it. Those thoughts have actually been put to rest and i expect to still have the XLF when I go to Axpona later this year. Wilson Alexx V might happen, but not this year. I don’t think it can happen until probably summer of 2022. I need to hear it in a better environment because quite frankly i would be MAD AS HELL if i sell my XLF to buy the Alexx V and find out that it was a lateral move at best... Yea, dealers will always sing the same song with mariachis next to them telling you how far better the Alexx V is than any other Wilson speaker, but guys we know what’s up... we have heard that same tune about other stuff and when you are playing with this top end speaker, everything that is presented to you as a possible replacement needs to be evaluated thoroughly. |