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!
@kren: I’m not sure I can use a baby integrated like what you mentioned on a speaker like the Alexx. Most folks don’t realize that the Alexx needs power or serious amplifiers to wake them up. Could we get away with small amps? Sure we can but let’s remember i have you all used to gryphon and boulder with Alexx. If a small integrated sounds thin and lethargic with my Alexx, this is because we are all comparing it to the big boys i have here. However, these integrated amps would sound killer in a more "normal" system. Last night I tried a 200 watt stereo amp with Alexx and well.. soundstage got smaller, less depth, etc. I've heard of some people using tube amps (small tube amps) and i don't know how they do it. My guess is that they wouldn't know any better since they haven't heard the speaker with big amps.
Maybe you will bring in a longer term budget speaker so that again you can have a franchise speaker (Alexx) and a budget speaker at same time for different purposes. When you had Alexia 2 and 20.7 you made comments suggesting that was your plan at the time to do that going forward, and it worked really well to have both Alexia 2 and 20.7 for as long as you did, I thought. Perhaps you’ll find a good deal on another great sub-$15k speaker that would make an integrated shootout like that a better fit.
It would be nice to do, but remember that the Alexx weigh 452 lbs and my carpet is thick and it is no joke to move them around. As a matter of fact, moving the Alexx around my room has shifted the carpet in my room and now i have like 1/4 inch gaps between the wall and the carpet in some areas. Moving the Alexx drags the carpet slightly and this has never happened with any other speaker i have ever owned. It is certainly the 452 lbs that shift my carpet. Trust me man, when you get a huge speaker like the Alexx, you are almost forced to not move it once you position it because the logistics to move it around almost requires a forklift in the room.
Alright boys, Tekton Ulfs are 30 min away from hitting the stage. I want feedback and opinions so we can have a good discussion. This will be awesome! Headphones are a plus !!!
Why can’t people just go with it? Just listen and enjoy and take your own notes. If you want a specific speaker here then buy it and send it here. I’ll do the heavy lifting.
Okay, just the one. Listening to Knopfler now, never knew the Dell could sound so good.So how do they sound in person? Better than through my 'puter I hope!
Wait- what? Seriously? Its the Wilsons that are butt ugly. Its easy having scarred vision from looking at them, the residual image probably still clouds the mind. Ulfberhts on the other hand are so iconic they inspired Kubrick's monolith.
Just had chance to listen critically to both Boulder/Gryphon videos. I can get onboard with WC conclusion that Gryphon/SR the best of the four combos. I really liked Gryphon AQ combo though also. I think somebody else said above that combo is the value leader, and I’d have to agree. Funny to say value leader when the system still probably close to $300k with Alexx, Gryphon, dCS, cables.
Noticeable stepdown in quality of sound with Tekton video with Alexx out of mix, but that is to be expected, I suppose. Big difference in clarity, resolution, bass tightness, lower midrange, .... Still sound very good. I was not expecting them to compete with Alexx, and WC warned us days ago in the live chat that they do not compete at all with Alexx, but I’m sure there are some here who will say they beat the Alexx. I suspect the Tektons would beat the 20.7 in a head to head because it can do things 20.7 just cannot. Probably strong contender under $15k I’d guess. I think this one could be a contender against that Focal two Focals ago (the one that lost to the Wilson Sasha DAW - forget what it was called). That might have been a good matchup. Or maybe even that recent Magico that I didn’t care for and was gone in a couple days.
It isn't OP's speaker. Somebody loaned it to him. So he didn't pick the configuration. I think it has some BE upgrade maybe not all. Not intended to be a shootout vs. Wilson Alexx. Just a cool diversion to hear a new speaker with top notch equipment.
The wife loves it. Plenty of others too. Meanwhile the Wilson still looks like something out of a bad robot movie. Better one monolith than boxes piled one on the other. Worst thing in the world for sound is what? Connections. So you look around back and what do you see? Connections. Krikey! Sorry, but its not even debatable. The Ulf wins hands down. There's even a whole entire movie devoted to the genius of the monolith. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSo6s_xrj4c
I have never seen Tektons with grills. Do the grills take that much away from SQ? They are beautiful to their owners though. I heard them over a Terry Londons. Nice bang for the buck if you can live with the looks.
Other than the ULF’s sounding BIG, I thought they lacked the details of the Alexx. Actually, disappointed, as I wanted to like the Ulfs. The bass seemed boomy, lacked tightness. Knopfler’s guitar sounded distant, which is not at all as it sounds on my system. Again, maybe it is YT, but for their size, the Ulfs did nothing for me, as I like pro drivers, in well constructed boxes. Maybe cabinet resonance was the culprit. Could be the SR speaker cables. Not impressive at all. Again, just a BIG presentation. The truth is, I am never able to make a truly valued judgement, unless I was " in the room ", but this is me. Paul McGowan and others, including me, set the system up, not for imaging, but for bass weight and tightness, 1st. The speaker location and Jay's listening seat might not have been optimized for the Tektons, as they were for the Alexx.
Pass on the Tekton... I compared them to the Magnepan 20.7 (Iron Fist) that Jay posted - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGrQeL1v51Q and felt there was no comparison. Tekton sound boring if you listen to both videos. For the little bit extra money, Magnepan's would be my choice.
Jay, I am not sure these even matter. Time alignment ( in this case ) through a YT broadcast....can it make much difference. 450 lbs on castors, these castors are not vibrating with that much weight on them. Again, over a YT broadcast ? Alexx just better ( cleaner ) than Tekton......
The Ulfs are not burned in....they probably need 300 or more hours....especially the bass drivers. They should be played at 90+db constantly. The bass and lower midrange will get way, way better......so will everything else.
However, no matter how much burn in.....they are still very compromised from the factory. The xover parts on the midrange are ordinary. Ordinary coil, ordinary cap....and ordinary wire...ordinary resistors. Way better xover parts in the Wilson. I will repeat.....if you remove the xover from the speaker and put longer/better wires on drivers that extended out the back and have the xover mounted on a damped platform behind the speaker......you could then change all the xover parts to state of the art parts. This would completely transform the speaker (I know someone who did 60% of this to his Ulfs and is amazed). You also want to felt around all the tweeters (just now talked to someone who did this on his Moabs) and you will get better focus. You could also do extensive bracing and damping inside that would get rid of the remaining lower midrange and bass colorations (most would disappear with better xover parts, wiring and burn in).
These speakers are $9600 delivered (with the single BE tweeter upgrade that you are listening to). More money for fancy paint. You can buy 11 sets of Ulf's and have them delivered for the same price as one set of Wilson's). If you invested $3k in super xover parts, wire and bracing and damping you would be almost at $13k.......if you had someone come over and do all the mods....maybe add another 2K (assuming you have no DIY skills). So $15k max would not get you a speaker that might actually beat the Wilson. The speaker would be completely transformed. You are hearing just the tip of the iceberg.
Even better would be to tri amp the speaker using a three channel modded Purifi based amp. You could put the 6db per octave xover for the midrange before the input buffer of the midrange amp using the worlds best parts and then you could run the midrange tweets directly from the amplifier with no coil, cap or resistor in series with the tweets.....oh my....you would all die and go to heaven if you heard that. If the xover to the mids is 3K and it is 4 ohm....then you would need about a .22mh coil. If it is 18 gauge......then we are talking at least 25 feet of ordinary copper wire (covered in enamel) in series with the midrange.....that is why the type of coil you use is so important. The coil in the stock Ulf is ordinary copper. What if you used a 12 gauge OFC foil coil.......OMG......way better sound.....but still a lot of foil in the signal path.....that is why triamping and having no coil, is so cool.
Lots of possibilities for those that like to tweak. For those that don’t, they are still a great speaker for the money (once all burn in is done). Again, I will state....you have to POUND those woofers as loud as possible for 300 hours to really hear the speaker.....all the other xover parts will burn in better with loud playing, as well. We are talking 90 plus db constantly. You can do it when you are not home or Jay can do it probably all the time....if you have a detached room....it will not be that loud in your house.
By the way, if you did similar to the Wilson’s you would also die and go to heaven. The Wilson’s have 4 sets of binding posts in series with the mids and highs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yikes.....If you ran wire directly out of the Wilson’s and down to an external xover you could get rid of 3 of those connectors and if you use my binding post bypass system on the input of the xover then zero connectors. Also, you can attach the wires from the xover to the drivers directly to the voice coil wires on the mid ranges and woofers for even better sound. Also the Caddock power resistors sound much better with nude Vishay bypass resistors. Nothing much is done to my standards....I am so fussy! I want the best sound possible. Most people just want plug and play.
@ricevs, you and I go way back with mods ( you more as a business ), and I have done much of what you are / have been doing, with many products ( an example is viber’s Rane EQ ). Damping heatsinks, isolating crossovers, better parts, yadayada. These ULFs are borrowed, and are used. They likely are broken in. The purpose of Jay getting them in was because his followers showed a lot of interest. No one is denying what you speak of, and you are on every thread talking about these things. I believe, you need to give it a rest. Jay has already stated he is not interested in tweaking, anything, for that matter, not even fuses. The reality is, a STOCK pair of Ulfs ( with the one beryllium tweeter in each ) are far behind a STOCK pair of Alexx ( although I can understand why people will like the Ulfs, especially at 1/10th the price ). My best to you, always, MrD.
Ricevs: When are you starting your own thread when it comes to tweaks and DYI? I think 99% of the folks here don’t care to be taking apart crossovers , wrapping heatsinks in aluminum foil or using birthday cake toppers on top of the amp to prevent vibration let alone lamp cords on boulder or cloth hangers to hang the cables from the roof so they don’t touch the floor.
@mrdecibel:
Thank you for articulating things above. I still don't think he will stop.
This thread is not for anyone.....it is for everyone. My posting about the felting on the front of the speakers is what got the guy who called me today to felt his Moabs. He did not do it because I told him directly. He read it on a forum. Of course, I know what most people do. I know what Jay will do and not do. I post for those that might want to know this. Some of the information that I just shared has practically never been spoken of before: (tri amping to get rid of coils on midrange, extra distorting binding posts and unbypassed Caddock resistors on Wilson, length of wire in a coil, 90+ db pounding bass for 300 plus hours, etc.). Someone will find this information helpful for getting better sound. Most will not. So be it. As far as the Ulfs.....well, there is no reason for me to state the above again. End of story. But I am glad I contributed. Stock gear can sound great......tweaked gear will blow your mind.
@ricevs I did not mean to insult you, or make you feel defensive. People know of you, here, and elsewhere, as you keep repeating yourself. " I " do understand what these tweaks do, as I have been involved with them for over 50 years. So again, my apologies to you....and, my apologies to Jay, and everyone else on this thread, because I was an Ahole at times. But, no more. I fixed myself. Enjoy !
@ricevs, its pretty simple, start your own thread so you are not intruding on others. Don't think it’s an insult, the chances are once you do you will love it because it’s interesting stuff and I for one am interested in reading about it.
Tekton Ulfberht: nice, but not at all at the same level as the Alexx. The Ulf sounds in comparison flat and boring. Had higher expectations of these due to all the glowing reports.
"I think 99% of the folks here don’t care to be taking apart crossovers , wrapping heatsinks in aluminum foil or using birthday cake toppers on top of the amp to prevent vibration let alone lamp cords on boulder or cloth hangers to hang the cables from the roof so they don’t touch the floor. "
@mrdecibel All good. I don't hold grudges and all the beef from before is forgotten. We are about to enter 2021 and 2020 was a sh!t year for most of us. Let's move on
I also was expecting the Tektons to sound better, if only because so many rave about them on Agon and I think this is the top model.
I figured, well I did just listen to 40 straight minutes of Alexx (the two shootout videos) right before listening to the Tekton vid, so probably that is a very tough act to follow, so I probably inadvertently cut them some slack.
When I get some free time I do want to go back and compare the Tekton sound to some of the lesser speakers WC has had, like the Maggie 3.7i and 20.7 and the Dynaudio’s just to hear how they stack up.
I cannot encourage enough, to Jay and all of the respondents of this thread, to acquire the recordings of Tony Minasian ( Tonian Labs ), as these recordings are some of the TOP recordings to evaluate equipment. I mentioned it before....These recordings, have been reviewed.......you will wonder why everything can't be recorded in this fashion, and this will be my final announcement on the matter. Enjoy ! MrD.
Jay, Thanks for the opportunity to hear the Tekton Ulf. On Dire Straits Iron Hand I went back and forth with the Alexx using Boulder and Gryphon, and the Ulf + Gryphon. The Ulf is quite respectable by comparison to the Alexx. The HF are more brilliant on the Alexx. The lower midrange of his voice is fuller on the Alexx. It also may be more spacious on the Alexx, but I can't tell on my computer. The midrange has a certain pleasant coherence on the Ulf which is musical. I surmise that if the remaining 14 tweeters for each speaker were Be, the Ulf at $20K overall might come very close to the Alexx. These 14 tweeters cover the range 270-3000 Hz, so the beauty and naturalness of the voice probably would be really excellent. I could take my Rane and probably make the Ulf surpass the Alexx without EQ. But the better of the two speakers would be the Alexx tweaked with EQ. In reading Tekton threads, it seems that much work is devoted to optimizing speaker placement. It is remarkable that even in the early going, you have demonstrated the extraordinary potential of the Ulf.
Just sayin, the tektons will open up much better after more break in. I have the Moabs with about 500 hours and they are still getting better. The more power the better, IME.
" I could take my Rane and probably make the ULF surpass the Alexx without EQ. " Viber, can you explain this statement ? I use the 3 Tonian cds as tools, to compare any audio related items, as well as room / system set up. Music is good ( I would say mild jazz ); the musicians he uses for his recordings are all world class. Two more recordings by him will be released shortly.
Better wire and xover parts would make way more difference than using BE tweeters everywhere. And yes, better xover parts will help the bass and lower midrange a lot.......and bracing the box/front baffle and damping the drivers and reflection control in the box and more burn in would improve everything even more. Remember.....all of this can be done for very little money (relatively speaking).....Go! Tekton modders, Go! Oh, am I repeating myself?.......so is everyone else. That is the way of the mind.
Here is what really needs to be repeated:
"I am Beautiful, You are beautiful, I am worthy, you are worthy, I am loved, you are loved. I love myself, I love you, I love everyone. You love yourself, you love everyone, I enjoy my self, I enjoy you. I like myself, I like you. I forgive myself, I forgive you, I forgive everyone. I am blessed, you are blessed, I am grateful for all of life and for everyone and every circumstance. I create happiness by focusing on it. Happiness is always present. Joy is always present. Love is always present. I choose happiness right now and every right now.....again and again. I am worthy of choosing happiness in every second. I choose happiness.....right now."
All this audio stuff does not bring what we really want in our soul.....and that is happiness. Happiness is our very nature.....but we have been programmed to think we and everyone is WRONG.......there has never been anything wrong. When we stop making our experience (and that means what you think, say, feel and do about yourself and about everyone) wrong....then you start to realize that life is one Beautiful eternal dance of love and joy. Please choose happiness....we have lots of toys. toys do not make us happy.......just elated for a few minutes. Happiness is forever.....it is so sweet....so amazing. Thank you life....thank you Jay, thank you everyone.....you are all so beautiful. Repeat the sounding joy....yes, repeat, repeat the sounding joy!
Happiness chosen and repeated creates more happiness. And when you wish others happiness, it makes you happy.....we are all in this together. I wish you all happiness....now and forever.
annoying equals......something wrong. Try choosing again.....go for the happiness......wish me well.
Do you like being annoyed? Why would you choose that experience? When you point a finger at someone, there are three pointing back at you. When you fully love yourself and have completely forgiven yourself then everyone is now beautiful.......and there is very little annoyance....I mean.....I just wrote a few words. This is not like I did something to someone.....he he. Pretty much nothing going on here.....about the smallest drama we can create......and that is annoying? Again, choose joy.....it is available every second.
I've visited the Tekton ULF Youtube Demonstration, and am very pleased to have done so. The Tekton ULF has a delivery that was very satisfying to my personal tastes. If the Youtube set up was in a Room at a HiFi event, I would be making dedicated return visits to such a room, to use it as a benchmark for other auditions being listened to.
Without putting too much emphasis on the Purchase Price, there does seem to be a lot of attractors on offer from these speakers performance, for the required outlay.
I am glad that it has been well accepted. The video has had a lot of views in the short time it's been up which indicates a lot of people are interested in the speaker. That said, the front end, cabling, room, etc need to be factored in. You can't buy this speaker and expect the same results.
All, EQ can be used in great and bad ways. Musically untrained users can twiddle the adjustments at random and create badly distorted sound, but musically knowledgeable users like me who know the differences between live music and audio systems can go a long way to narrow the gap. The differences between excellent speakers such as the Tekton Ulf and Wilson Alexx are much smaller than the variations from different settings of the Rane EQ. Well, why do I still look for superior speakers, amps, etc.? Because the EQ can't do everything I want. I could roll off the HF and boost bass on the Alexx, and make it inferior to the Ulf without these adjustments. Of course, I wouldn't do that. However, let's say that without EQ, the guitar has more sparkle on the Alexx than on the Ulf. I could JUDICIOUSLY boost the HF from the Rane, and get more sparkle from the Ulf than the Alexx. This is not about my HF hearing loss, because younger people here can agree with what I said, AS LONG AS THEY HAVE AN OPEN MIND, LISTEN WITH THEIR EARS, AND ARE NOT BIASED BY PRESTIGE BRAND NAMES AND PRICE.
I can also reduce congestion in the voice by making EQ adjustments in the midrange. I don't claim any special expertise in these areas, because any professional mastering engineer uses EQ and other effects to create tonal qualities that are admired by the lovers of these processed recordings. Sometimes they do bad things, but sometimes they do good things. For example, I find that pop recordings like Nils Lofgren have brilliant guitar sounds, and I boost HF much less than I do for classical recordings which are more laid back. Nils' voice is more veiled than the guitar, so I make slight adjustments in the midrange to make it clearer and more focused.
I hope to demonstrate these things in an upcoming video. Hear it, and don't waste space with uninformed bashing.
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