The piano sounded veiled and highly distorted with the pre-amp in the audio chain, the whole presentation sounded NATURAL with no pre-amp!, yes the vocal,s sounded a little more solid and slightly bigger with the pre-amp, lol!, however everything else sounded washed out with the pre-amp, most seasoned audiophile,s know tubes give a bigger more organic presentation, that is the only illusion you have believing the pre-amp is better, my opinion is the no pre-amp desamated the pre-amp set-up, to let you know I have years of experience on what live sound sounds like, the no pre-amp is deemed the winner here!
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 38 responses by audiolabyrinth
Pulled the trigger on the Luxman L-509X integrated amplifier, the amplifier ships Monday, bought new cable's, buying new digital, already have magico q3 speaker's, all new 2nd system, the cable's of course are the Tara Lab's muse 8ft speaker cable's and muse interconnect's thru out the system, complimented by the Tara Lab's cobalt power cord for the Luxman L-509X integrated amplifier, I will be doing a review on everything on the Tara Lab's thread, so stay tuned as I build the system, got to make decisions on what to get for digital, the flagship Luxman dac has high regard's , said to be better than this amplifier, cheers |
Whitecamaross, you know the 700cx is a ghost sought out amplifier, counting your's, I've seen 7 since 2012!, I'm looking continuously to find them, also, one of these amplifier's these day's made new in my opinion would be north of $50,000.00 based on the power and performance you get, I mean go ahead and check it out, the amplifier's today are uber expensive doing what this krell does. |
@ whitecamaross, Seems we have alot in common, you see, I have the only modified krell 700cx done by krell, with Dan D Agostino telling me what to do by phone, yes I have him on speed dial, any way, to be clear here, you need a 10/3 10awg line run to a furutech NCF gtx-Rhodium duplex receptacle , do not plug nothing else to that receptacle but the Krell, now sit down, do not allow anyone tell you different than what I’m about to say, you know how so many people complain about the heat of these incredible amplifier’s?, are you aware the manual said to use a 20 amp single pole breaker?, it says that, however, that’s a mistake!, Krell and Dan told me to do this, I run a single pole 30 amp breaker, guess what, after 4 or 5 hours of play, here’s what you get, the 700cx barley gets warm kicking loudly for hour’s, the sound stage is noticeably bigger, more refined and dimensional, more detail with finess and no grain, also wanted to mention that my amplifier took 600 hrs to break in, so if nothing is new you are still looking at half that time of burn in and resettlement to your system, my krell is on my main system, the over priced magico q3 speaker’s that I don’t hate enough to sale is on the second system I am currently rebuilding, I have just moved my Tara Lab’s cobalt to the second system because I am waiting delivery next week of the Tara Lab’s cobalt reference power cord that is a step up in the cable food chain, this will go on my digital running direct to the Krell 700cx as always, the Krell is running the Tara Lab’s balanced zero gold interconnect’s, omega jumpers running on the bi-amp jbl L-7 modified circa 1992 speaker’s, the amplifier runs the Tara Lab’s omega gold speaker cable’s to the speaker’s, let’s just say it’s very difficult to find speaker’s that can play Celtic music, classical music, jazz, hard rock, heavy metal, dance music like Michael Jackson, the magico cannot do this, it falls on it’s face!, so hence the smooth sound of the Luxman L-509X integrated amplifier will help the magico on the second system along with my building that system is the new Tara Lab’s muse speaker cable’s and interconnect’s mated to the Tara Lab’s cobalt power cord, these cable’s will provide musicality, organic sound, without losing resolution that the magico needs, I’m thinking ps audio, audio research, Luxman, esoteric audio, on the digital, maybe the community can chime in on this digital, I’m only going to pick from these unit’s though, these are on the table for offer to me for deal, cheers |
@ nebob, that would depend on how you use a 700cx, I have $46,000.00 in just 3 cable's on the 700cx, I assure you that there is no Luxman in existence that Will come close, not only that, my 700cx is modified to today's technology, btw, I get my Luxman L-509X today!, I can get audio when most cannot get it, connection's! |
Luxman in the house!, I will post impression's on the Tara Lab's thread, so some of you can talk there with me, btw, had some audiophile's over with the Luxman last night, opened the box, we all looked at each other when we saw the stock power cord, then they looked at me, they all said, naaa!, laughed hard, so we installed the Tara Lab's cobalt power cord $5,500.00 retail price on the Luxman L-509X integrated amplifier, this worked very good, whitecamaross, did you use the stock power cord on your Luxman L-509X integrated amplifier? |
Everyone, we need to be fair to whitecamaross, there is no way he can review anything with the furutech gtx-Rhodium d NCF version receptacle's, lol! , they take 500 hrs of break in time!, that said, whitecamaross, the pay off is worth while, to be clear here whitecamaross, I posted aleady about the 30 amp single pole breaker , do not use a duel breaker!, use 10awg 3/1 Romex electrical cable for the Krell, I did the complete install my self, btw, I also did the furutech receptacle wall plate and frame, a little secret, I also used a very thick 1/2 or 3/4 fiber glass gain box in the wall for resonance control, tested, beat the cheap gain box's for sound reproduction hands down. |
Please allow me to stop the confusion, the Krell 700cx only will peak draw 26 to 28 amp, most of the time, a little over 20. Amps, say 23, do not use 25 amp single pole breaker, rather, the 30 amp single pole breaker with 10 gauge 3/1 Romex electrical cable, meaning one hot, one negative, one ground, you do not need what so ever the 30 amp receptacle!, the furutech is 20 amp built like a tank!, the amplifier in no way on 110 is ever going to draw 30 amps!, it’s really not entirely a 30 amp circuit! All this is just allowing the amplifier to get the proper current , I have been usein this circuit for years with no issues, cheers |
I'm using the magico q3, and the community secret legacy book shelf speaker's, the jbl-L1 circa 1992!, these truly play what you put on them!, no kidding!, refer to my Tara labs thread, I do not want to hi Jack whitecamaross thread, this is to reference of the Luxman L-509X and tara lab's muse cable system. |
Whitecamaross, everyone has an opinion, so, I will express mine, the Luxman L-509X is one of the best integrated amplifier's I've listened to, how does it compare to my modified Kell 700cx?, the Krell sounds like you are at the actual live musial event, very real as it gets, the Luxman sounds like a refined stereo system., the Krell is the Ferrari here where the Luxman is a Lexus. |
Obviously you didn't listen to the video! techno_dude, you remind me of those who do not believe cable's make a difference with an audio system, I'm listening to the Luxman L-509X right now, sounds good, but like I said, it does not sound as good as the above video of the Kenwood kr-9600, or when I listen to my Kenwood kr-9600, I bought the Luxman L-509X because I'm a huge fan of Darlington power supply, they do sound similar. |
@ techno_dude, Any real audiophile knows better to make that statement you said about newer is better when it comes to audio, I have this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf5hU_FQz4k Sound familiar?, this is the Kenwood kr-9600 with Darlington power supply, same as the Luxman L-509X, however, the Kenwood kr-9600 sounds better period than the Luxman L-509X integrated amplifier, as a matter of fact, the Kenwood kr-9600 has better refined ,deeper bass than my krell 700cx!, this will kick the crap out of most equipment out there, this Kenwood kr-9600 is circa 1976, so I really don't want to hear noise in my ear about newer is better, my Kenwood kr-9600 is in mint condition like the one in the video, I am a vintage audio equipment collector and high end audio equipment builder , installer, I even build interior fencing around audio system's to keep pets out and away from the system's, lol!, my Kenwood kr-9600 is named dino, short for dinosaur, big, old, heavy, powerful like a dinosaur, as a matter of fact it's only a couple pounds lighter than the Luxman L-509X. |
Gentleman, it's not amplification has done leaps and bounds with technology, now digital has, vintage digital is crap, as you can see, they can say and do so called improvement's in amplifier's, but to my ears, don't hear leaps and bounds with sound improvement, the video above is some evidence with what I'm saying, happy 4th of July, cheers. |
+ 1 minorl!😎😎, that's close to what I'm saying, I have the equipment, and I'm testing exactly like you posted, that's another reason techno_dude doesn't know what he is talking about! What is he testing? Does he have the Kenwood kr-9600 and Luxman L-509X there to even have any weight to his statemnt? LOL! |
@ whitecamaross, not bad for a legacy amplifier, I wanted to ask you, have you ever heard the ole adage that your system is as good as your weakest point? That said, the power cord on that amplifier is it!, however, the good thing here is it is directly connected to the power supply with no buss bar unlike. Most amplifier’s , to help you get the high grain free exteneded treble you desire is relatively cheap! First off, you are starving this amplifier of current!, we can get there with no modifications to your amplifier, you have to fully break in a furutech NCF rhodium duplex receptacle and use this, do not plug nothing else to that receptacle, with a dedicated line with a single pole 30 amp breaker to free up the current, like I specified, you have to have a 3 conductor 10awg electrical cable, this is really cheap!, and to even further the grain free extended highs, based on what I’m hearing on the Luxman L-509X, as it turns out, you can get great cable’s without breaking the bank!, I’m telling you now, the Tara Lab’s muse speaker cable’s and interconnect’s mated to the Tara Lab’s cobalt power cord , in this case, to your preamp or source is spectacular, because you cannot use it on the amplifier, but that’s where the receptacle comes in!, hope this helps, cheers whitecamaross. |
@ rsf507, your statement is extremely inadequate!, the muse cable system is new technology, the cable's was just introduced this year! Have you listened to these cable's?, they kill the shunata z-tron anaconda speaker cable's and interconnect's that they replaced! Nobody is shilling anything here, I am saying what I hear, I am very impressed, believe me, that is hard to do. |
@ whitecamaross, Hi, Although you did not give the legacy krell 700cx a fair shake by not usein the amplifier correctly, I won't hold against you forever, lol!, my main system has the modified krell 700cx, this may be of interest to you, first off, welcome to the magico family, I have said many time's that I have a love hate relationship with magico, you may research your own thread here, might have mentioned it here, anyway, I have the magico q3 speaker's on my second system along with the Luxman L-509X, if you have questions, by all means ask, let's say currently everyone is incorrect about toe in of magico here on this thread, you need to realize magico tweeters are hot!, second, the q3 has a lot more resolution than the S5 mk2, magico recently discontinued the q3 and replaced by the m 3 speaker's, you also need to know the current flagship magico speaker's other than their insane horn speaker's is the magico Q7 mk2, cheers😎 |
Hi whitecamaross, I’m glad you have got a taste of some good cable’s, to be clear here, I’m not going to base an opinion, but rather facts, some of the posters are correct about nordost, to much can result a thinner sound on some system’s, these cable’s are certainly system dependant, here is a list that I have lived with or listened to extensively that I know is the best, all other cable’s are non listenable to me, yes, they cost as much as a small house, here is the list, stage 3 concepts, Crystal cable, Tara Lab’s, nordost, purest audio design, siltech, jorma design. If you like the Nordost odin power cable, better not ever listen to the stage 3 concepts kracken power cord, or the proteus power cord, please don’t listen to the Leviathan power cord, all three will make the odin sound broken to say the least, I will say I do not believe in mixing cable brand’s within a given system, been there, done that, I call it chasing the dragon’s tale, Crystal cable model the absolute dream or the ultimate dream interconnect’s would take your breath away on your lampi dac, any of these brand’s here is the only state of the art cable’s these day’s, others give cable’s a bad reputation, thus cable na sayers lol!, btw, always remember this, once you indulge in such cable’s, best not to talk about them, most audiophiles do not react to well, the mass trolls will eat you alive if you tell them you have $60.000 retail in three or four cable’s, that is why my personal world wide friends talk by mostly emails, I hope this helps, cheers whitecamaross 🍷🍸🍹🍺 |
Atownkeep, you got me brother, that was what I was going to do, the Grandmaster by Tara Lab's is the end of the road. However, spoke to the vice president of Tara Lab's , sadly, he said they don't do the Grandmaster on the loaner program, but I'm working on the situation, not sure if I can pull that rabbit out of the hat🤓😀 |
Viber6, I love nordost upper echelon model cable's, I use to own the odin, great stuff, like I said in my previous post, most cable's are system dependant, that said, the Tara Lab's discontinued zero gold interconnect's and omega gold speaker cable's had a most engaging beautiful sound that I preferred on my system, I also listened to a lamm system and nordost sounded better in that position , I listened to the stage 3 concepts top three model power cable's against the odin, check them out on the internet, an incredible amount of science and best quality parts used, made in USA 🎶🎼 |
@ viber7, I enjoyed your post, I totally agree with you about the Luxman L-509X integrated amplifier, Hi fi sound, don't waste your money!, I did a comprehensive integrated amplifier shoot out between Rega osiris integrated amplifier, Luxman L-509X, and the new krell k 300I integrated amplifier, the Krell by far out performed the Luxman!, the Rega over all out performed the Luxman, but did not have the treble detail, however, the Krell had better treble detail, clarity, sound stageing, debth, bass, mid-range, etc..., everything you can think of the krell did better than the Luxman, all this was done on multi thousand dollar power cables, speaker cable's, and interconnect's , all same cable's were used on all equipment mentioned here, whitecamaross once told me that the Luxman L-509X integrated amplifier has the same house sound as the best Luxman gear, based on that, I will always stay away from Luxman!, I also bought the Luxman L-509X integrated amplifier based on what was said by whitecamaross and others on this thread, so to all of you here, I enjoy this thread, however, do not buy anything mentioned here until you listen to it first on your system or else where first!, valuable lesson learned by me, cheers. |