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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!


128x128jays_audio_lab
viber6
2,448 posts
 

I am puzzled why the two Stromtank models Jay talked about have different sound characteristics.  Jay's descriptions match the Audiodrom review from the Stromtank site.  The only difference in the models is in the amount of battery energy storage.  The goal is to generate a pure sine wave from the inverter in the S-tank.  (The S-tank must be a 2 in 1 unit--battery plus inverter to generate the sine wave to feed the electronics.)  Why should the sine wave be different in each model?  The way Jay described the sound is like how people describe tube amps vs SS amps.  Jay said the S1000 sounds more articulate (like a SS amp) and the S2500 as smooth (like a tube amp), making bright recordings sound more forgiving.  The ideal power conditioner should not color the sound in a forgiving manner.  I am confused about this technology.

Ricevs would say that the models may differ in the materials used, which would explain the different sound characters.

Your turn, Jay.  Thanks.

ricevs
1,543 posts
 

Yes, all inverters will sound different.  Inverters are a kin to a class D amp....they synthesize a sine wave......and they then have a coil and a cap on the output to filter the noise......all coils and caps have a sound......all electronics have a sound.....and, as Jay mentioned....when you have a charger connected to the batteries....it degrades the sound.  i imagine the brand and type of batteries used will affect the sound as well.  However, i have never heard anyone using ANY inverter that was not blown away by the sound improvement and video improvement.

Back in the 90s I first played with the Exeltech inverters (first in the world with low distoriton sind wave inverters).....they were expensive.....even the 500 watter back in the mid 90s was $500.  Now you can get a 2000 watter for less than that.  I changed the caps on the output from some Panasonic caps to Wonder caps and it made a noticeable difference.  Of course, the jacks, wiring and everything make a difference.

Re, the difference between the two "Clean out my bank account Stroms".....he he: You don't just have a difference of battery capacity but current capacity ......meaning bigger and more parts in the large one......and some larger parts might not sound as good as smaller parts....and on and on to infinity.

brewmasterdon
68 posts
 

Will be interested in seeing how Jay keeps thing whole now that he has a selling agenda??

 

Ric, please go away,

 

Don 

ricevs
1,543 posts
 

The truth serves everyone.  We are all welcome here.  BTW......the reviewer of the Yeti 400 above is now using a Yeti 1200 as well.....to power his Pass X250.8 amp.......he has it in a closet so he cannot hear the fan......he loves it.......of course, one Ecoflow Delta Pro would be way, way better than both those baby Goal Zeros.

jays_audio_lab's avatar
jays_audio_lab OP
5,381 posts
 

The Stromtank 2500 has a larger battery than the s1000 and it also uses dual inverters.

Everything i do with these units can be heard. I even tried an aftermarket powercord to charge the battery and proceeded to listen to the Stromtank in battery mode and it sounded different.

I thought I was going nuts but nope. The battery itself can be charged with a different flavor if you use different powercords.

This is WHY i like the Magico S7 A LOT. I can see hear everything that is happening.

The 2500 quantum Stromtank is super smooth and huge sounding. It makes things sound like a Dagostino momentum amplifier. The leading edges are polished and filed down in a way that even terrible recordings sound listenable and very acceptable through a revealing speaker like the Magico S7.

One of the most significant changes of the Stromtank is the purity of the midrange. It is locked-in dead center and extremely focused. You can even hear if the vocals were dead center or slightly off to the right or left. It is CRAZY 😂

The S1000 is more neutral allowing for more of your system to come through while still helping to clean up all the noise and interference that you WOULD NEVER know is there.

You guys know i own the Boulder 3060 and 2110 and both have incredible noise suppression and overbuilt power supplies that dig out an insane amount of detail that other electronics simply miss and yet adding the Stromtank has shown me that i wasn’t done and that there was more for me to extract.

I sat and listened to both units for about 3 months and tried to go back to stock outlets and each time i did that the beryllium tweeters from my Mágico and focal Maestro became aggressive and yes abrasive at times.

By the way, even the ON-GRID mode suppresses noise and gives you A LOT of clarity. You can listen to both units for 5-6 hours in battery mode and then they automatically switch to ON-GRID mode once the batteries reach 10% - no interruptions EVER.

I represent the STROMTANK because there is nothing like it. It is the only battery powered unit in the world that is specifically made for audio systems and comes "plug and play"

I also feel like this is a "add on" to an already great sounding system. I have been very strategic about only representing those brands I’m probably never going to change in the near future.

I don’t want to embark on marketing efforts for other dealers to cash in on my work. Look, I’ll be very transparent here:

It has been brought to my attention by actual buyers of some of the gear you’ve seen on my channel that dealers are using MY VIDEOS to make sales - to close deals. Dealers actually send my videos out to customers " watch this video from the dude on YouTube who’s had everything. Did you see what he said about the product you asked me about?".

Well folks, i understand that comes with the territory, but i will not be doing public service for dealers to drive a Ferraris and have 6 figure boats. You all don’t think my Gryphon videos have helped gryphon dealers sell more?

Notice, i don’t represent any products that are considered the "MACROS" of a system. I am focused on things that very few folks will buy. You really think people will be buying $9,000 stands everyday? You really think people will be blowing up my phone to spend $15k on a Stromtank? Lol...come on folks...these are pieces that maybe 10-15% of the entire audiophile community would even consider and guess what? Even the dudes that have deep pockets WANT A DISCOUNT!!

Don’t get things twisted: what i represent won’t make me pull up in a Ferrari tomorrow. I’m aware of the skepticism that some folks will have, but if I’m going to live my life worried of what others will think then am I really living my life?

These past few months have allowed me to simply accept that I can’t listen to music without a Stromtank. It’s one of those components that you shouldn’t listen to if you can’t afford it because it will be impossible to unhear it.

I have owned many different power conditioners and they all have been great and had their positive impact on my systems. I simply feel that the Stromtank is more special and FINALLY erases the need to spend thousands of dollars on expensive powercords... Yes folks, stock powercords will sound amazing when plugged into the Stromtank. Why keep buying and selling powercords? Let me be the one to keep doing that since that is what my channel is all about. For once, here you have a solution to never having to buy 6-8 powercords that cost more money than the S1000 or even the 2500 quantum.

You guys don’t get sick of buying and trying expensive powercords? You all don’t get sick of having to sell your powecords each time you change components because maybe the new components don’t have synergy with your current powercords? Hell, i get sick of it too so that is why I just keep about 5-8 different brands of powercords at my disposal.

Lastly, going forward you all will be seeing far more from the Magico S7 and Stromtank. As a matter of fact, I’ll say it here first: My focal Maestro Utopia EVO left the room a week ago. Find out on my next video why I sold them .

 

 

 

 

 

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