My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!
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@ricevs Frankly, I think you are being waaayyy to modest. Mr viber has already mentioned on several other threads that his new amp is a "Giant Killer", if not the exact words, definitely the meaning. And that he will be sending it to you for modding,great advertising. By the time you have modded viber’s amplifier, we are worried that it will make every other amplifier so obsolete that the goodwill stores will not accept them at all. I am checking the spot price for scrap metal as I type. Thank goodness the new class D are too light to compete with our old amps as boat anchors! But beyond that, women will name their babies after you, men will fall over themselves to buy you dirinks, but only in those few establishments that do not give them to you on the house. No well drinks for you! |
Well, if you come into this thread to preach giant killers, send them my way or else then take it to another thread. it won’t cost you a dime to send it. If you choose not to send it in then that’s fine but please move the cheerleading of giant killers elsewhere. We smoking Cuban cigars here...take the cigarettes outside. |
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I have heard some great Class D amps including Ric’s EVS 1200. They can sound very good indeed and be competitive with most any amp, but we have to remember sound quality is subjective. To date, I find these giant killers do all the sonic gymnastics or sonic feats of strength very well. You know, fast and deep bass, highs that extend , smooth sounding, wonderful dynamics…. All the Aphile check marks. Where some may not think they are giant killers is in the area of tonality and emotional soul. Here these giant killers, to date, lack some of the bottom up muscularity and weight many cherish. The mids are not as texturally rich and meaty. My findings and thoughts thus far. Based on what I read, this seems to follow for the new Voyager and other affordable GAN amplifiers. One’s individual sonic priorities will always dictate what is a cherished possession vs scrap metal 🙂. |
TMI for you guys. What I said is real. Better for me not to talk about this new technology. Those that read my two posts I removed....have been warned. I have only told 2 people.....it is staying at that. My desire is to shout the good news to the whole world......but, we are not quite ready. I will shout when ready. Have fun......blessings. |
Some, like Viber6 do not like "texturally meaty soul".....they think it is a coloration. How much TMS is natural? Even that is debatable. Tubes tend to make things sound better than real......or some might say, restore the original texture that the recording process removes. Here is what is really interesting. YOU CAN do a straight wire bypass test on an amp to see how true it is to the source. You simply add another amp between the preamp and amp and then pad the preamp down for the added gain of the additional amp. Yes, connector adapters would be required. If an amp cannot drive the high input impedance of an amp without coloration....it is not going to do any better on a low impedance speaker. I know someone who was doing this back in the 70s....his wideband transistor amp killed every amp (tube or solid state) amp it was ever A/Bed with. So, if Jay wants to know how pure an amp is.....then he should do this test on all amps he listens to. What is really weird is that I have never heard anything pass the straight wire test....including small pieces of wire. Everything colors the sound......so, what color do you like.? What I want is the instruments to sound so real and detailed that I go into trance. However, I do not need tubes to do this. Solid state and super tweaking everywhere brings all the harmonics in proper order. If you use a Wilson speaker with 4 sets of binding posts in series with the mids and highs......how can you get all the harmonic richness through?....you cannot. If you were to hardwire a Wilson....you would know what I am talking about. Years ago I was installing a set of Music Post binding posts on a guys speaker but the posts were too long to mount correctly.....we had listened to the installed posts hanging off the back of his speaker already......but because we did not have a hacksaw I could not mount them. So, for temporary use I soldered the wires from inside the speaker to the side edge of his spade on his speaker wire. We played the same tune (the Bob’s.....men A capella) and within seconds the guy looks at me and says....."well, forget Music Posts" . It sounded like a different recording....you could hear all these subtle harmonic shadings and dynamics and color in the voices.....and this from removing one set of posts.....imagine removing 4 sets of posts from the Wilson.....OH MY GOD! it would blow your mind. |
If your goal is to create realism which you claim to have the formula for, why haven’t you created something and gather investors? You wouldn’t need to be here with us typing all day. You could be traveling to Hawaii, Alaska and Iceland all year long with the money you’d be making. Don’t waste time presenting your theories here. Present it to people who can believe in your skills and who are willing to invest in you. |
Don’t let your ego get in a ruffle. That is called defense by attacking. What I do is my business. What you do is yours. I am here to inform. I am here to help others with their life and their stereo. What I said is not a theory....the new technology exists RIGHT NOW and is being tested by several companies.....you WILL see the results in 6 months to a year. You have been warned. |
ricevs, you just come off as being too cheap to advertise on your own dime or by starting your own thread, but are content getting attention by sponging attention off the most popular thread on A'gon. Your doing it by trying to trash the highest end products that we only dream about and live vicariously through Jay's excellent adventures, Your attacking the very essence of the thread. If this sounds a bit brutal to bring up, you don't get much respect for your message around here that you act like an automoton repeating over and over like your audience wasn't smart enough to understand the first five times. We get it, go play with the others on the other class D threads where you have a much better and classy message.. . |
I am not advertising here. I might or might not have anything to do with this new technology.....I certainly won’t make much money from it. I am offering you information that is ahead of its time. Most of you will not benefit from my advice as you see what I say as a threat to your ego and your expensive equipment. No problem. Only one person has to benefit. By those that think and ponder and use their heart also.....they might benefit. I feel sorry for those that dream of owning expensive equipment. This moment is a total miracle....way beyond any one million dollar stereo. If you live this moment.....and the next and the next in the miracle that it is then vicarious living is a dream.........I am happy....I am happy right now. I don’t need a one million dollar anything. Yogananda said.....be a smile millionaire.......it is free! We are not separate.....I am also your audience. I have spoken. It is so.....blessed be. |
I own class D amps but i`m not on this tread to promote anything i'm interested in Jay's take on what he own's which by chance i have heard many of his amps so for me it's interesting. Saying class D is going to replace any or all of his amps is crazy, right now there are only a couple of class D amps that can compete or get close with what he owns and it's not some modded 3k amp, wishful thinking on that one, if you really think this an ear cleaning is needed. |
I already stated that this new technology has nothing to do with what I am doing now......this is new technology...never implemented before. Yes, it will replace everything! I could care less about the reaction that a few people have on this forum. There is always an opportunity to state the truth. Of course, if I say the same thing every hour.....then I am like all the others here....he he. I come every few days to state the truth.....that will set you free. And that truth is.....you are beautiful.....beyond whatever you think or anyone thinks.....we are infinite and truly a miracle......an eternal miracle. We keep evolving to feel this truth.....more and more. And audio keeps evolving so we don’t have to spend so much money and time on it. It is as beautiful and changing as we are. May we all feel the infinite/eternal love and joy that we are! Thank you for starting this thread so that all can speak their truth and we can therefore all live in more joy! |
Thank you for starting this thread so that all can speak their truth and we can therefore all live in more joy!Unfortunately, along with all your beautiful messages of the miracle and joy of life, is your tasteless message gloating that all of our expensive amplifiers will become worthless. Even for an open minded soul like myself it is really difficult to not think that the best posts from you here would be no posts at all. |
I agree somewhat with jetter - nice messages about life, but not sure I understand your "agenda" here, with continual discussion on upgrades that you do, as well as this new technology which you might or might not have something to do with?? WC has basically (and nicely) asked that we keep this thread in line with its title. He's also made a generous offer to showcase lower priced equipment against higher priced equipment. All of that is in line with the title of this thread. Your new technology sounds like it could be interesting - and I'm open minded to it. I would follow a thread on that, if you opened a separate one. Dave |
Giant killer = a component that is praised to be as ferocious and as big as a pitbull but has the body of a miniature pinscher and the bark of a Chihuahua. They tend to be dogs that "should" protect the house in the same fashion as guard dogs and aren't as "high maintenance" as the larger breeds that eat 40 lbs of food a month. They are highly liked by the masses but for unknown reasons nobody has seen these "giant killers" actually killing the big dogs. This is the mystery that the legend of the Chupacabras didn't even come close to. |
Where, oh where, are the giant killers? Bryston? Rane? Mytek? AHB2? Coda? AGD? Rogue? zip cord? WC will pay the shipping for you to send your giant killers to him for audition against the big boys! This is the chance you’ve all been waiting for! Send them in! Let’s see if they do any better than Tekton did....... I am not presupposing any of them will fall flat on their face. But let’s see it, send them in |
Grannyring had a good post 1:28 PM today, confirming most of what I have been saying. It is also interesting that he values things like "soul" for the sound of SOTA electronics. This is consistent with what Logydoghan said recently about how expensive electronics prioritize a certain type of flavor. He said that the Nagra Classic has some tubelike warmth, and the Gryphon Essence is even warmer. Those like me who strive for neutrality/clarity/transparency are interested in high fidelity to the original music source, and NOT finding some elusive color or flavor. The Benchmark AHB2 is the most well known readily accessible amp that exemplifies this ideal of high fidelity. It is cheap, because it doesn't take much money to build a simple circuit that is transparent. It can be objectively demonstrated that inserting a Benchmark preamp like the LA4, and doing a bypass test shows little difference. Yyzsantabarbara did this, and Kalman Robinson of Stereophile did the same. Probably the Soulution 725 does this also, but then I wonder how the 725 could be so heavy, complicated and transparent at the same time. Maybe the Benchmark LA4 shows less difference than the 725 in a bypass test? For those who want more dynamics in a preamp, all you need is 10 dB of gain to get some headroom. But with most common preamps mentioned here, this extra dynamics comes at a price of detail/transparency loss. If someone disparages the concept of high fidelity and insists that deliberate flavoring is their preference, that's fine for them, but don't say that flavor A is better than flavor B, C, etc. If I sent Jay the AHB2, or a ricevs-modded IceEdge 1200 AS1, he probably wouldn't like it, because he is in the flavor camp with a little dollop of warmth of cream in his coffee. All that would prove is that Jay doesn't like the transparent amp, which he is entitled to say, but it doesn't prove his statement that ultra cheap stuff cannot be SOTA just because he doesn't like it. Getting back to grannyring and "soul," I say that the "soul" is in the real, live unamplified music, and the job of the audio system is to reveal the real "soul." His meaning of "soul" is the popular emotional attachment to warmth, which is his ticket to enjoyment. My ticket to enjoyment is maximal revelation of the subtleties of music, which is realized by neutrality/clarity/transparency. The common audiophile meaning of "soul" is the rounding off of edges which removes some of the live/subtle details of the real music. |
Viber you’re wrong because WC will PLAY your giant killers on his channel, at least that’s how I understand what he is offering (correct if that not so, WC). So who cares if WC doesn’t like it, or even if he says that, but everyone can listen for themselves to see how the giant killers compare in the same room with the same equipment, and if they are really better like you’ve long contended, I’m sure that will be obvious to many and they’ll say so. What is not to like, unless the so-called giant killers are actually nothing of the sort? You and ricevs are making excuses, as I suspected you would, and unfortunately that reflects poorly on credibility. |
@viber. So I am clear regarding my thoughts posted above. When I say many like “bottom up muscularity and weight & mids that are texturally rich and meaty”, I am talking about body and tone. The same thing one finds in live un-amplified music. You know, hearing the body of the instrument as part of the tone. With vocals, hearing a body with the head and just not the head of the singer. That kind of realism. This is not an artifact or addition, no it is part of what the best gear delivers in the way of realism. Giant killers rarely deliver this sort of nuance. It is possible and we will see about what Ric is talking about soon……or not? |
The issue is if my amps crush these giant killers then i look like the bad guy... Ain’t that a b!tch....oh well. With that said, one thing i didn't bring up is if i should use my cheapest or most expensive amps for this exercise... Oh wait, you all don't know this yet...maybe I'll leave it for this coming weekend... Yes, i will unveil a set of tube monos this coming weekend. Don't miss it. |
I will soon have the ricevs modified LSA Voyager. It is actually with Ric being modified at the moment. I am the first in the queue and this will be my first mod by Ric. I am looking forward to these mods because of past experience with another modder who did my Sony SCD-1 SACD player 20 years ago. Those mods made my great player sound incredible, even today (on SACD’s). Ric has a great reputation as a modder on A’gon. Once I get the Voyager back and compare it on my gear using the CODA 07x preamp. I will send Jay an email to see if he is interested in getting this amp for his own comparison. The Voyager is not heavy and it is my extra amp so I can be without it for a while. I have 4 amps and the Voyager is my 4th favorite (preference) at the moment. My favorite is the Benchmark AHB2 monos. Second is the the KRELL K-300i integrated and then the CODA #8 is third. These 3 amps do not sound similar. I have the second tier CODA model and not the top end CODA #16. It makes no sense to send the #8 to Jay since it is not their best effort and also heavy to ship. The CODA #8 sounds a bit like the Luxman m900u to me. It would be interesting for me to have someone send in the supposedly much better CODA #16 to FL for some comparisons. BTW - the only giant killer gear I own is the RAAL SR1a (paired with the KRELL K-300i). |
@jafant: So I’m still breaking in the new XLRs and my speaker cables arrive this Friday. I plan to do the formal video of the cables I’ll be using this coming weekend. As a side note, i have about 200 hours or so on these new xlrs (they just came out to the market by the way) and I’m now finally starting to hear things that are quite impressive: More separation, imaging is wow and bass is starting to get punchier. This Friday i will be over at Suncoast audio and i will be filming FROM THERE, my top, middle and bottom tier amplifier groups. Some of these amps are amps that Mike has on the floor and they won’t make the top list. This will be done to show everyone that i can come into a dealer’s showroom and STILL give you all my opinion in front of the dealer himself. Mike has agreed to let me tell it like it is even if it means that i won’t be praising all his amplifier lines as being the best of the best. This video will be awesome 😎 |
Hello Jay. I’m new to this thread so please forgive me if you have already evaluated these amps. I’m interested in these integrated amps and would like your impression. Boulder 866, simaudio 700iv2, gryphon Diablo 300. Please feel free to include any others that are cheaper but perform just as well. I’m looking at a lower-mid level pair of rockport speakers. Thank you. |
Grannyring, There is a universe of difference between the body and tone of live unamplified musical instruments (LUMI) and that of an audio system trying in vain to reproduce it. LUMI varies with the size and unique character of each instrument/voice, the size of the room it is played in, the materials of the walls/ceiling/floor. I have heard large pianos in rooms and large and small concert halls. The body and tone is much fuller in the smaller room, yet even here there is neutrality and clarity if you know how to listen for it when the body can overwhelm you. Contrast this NATURAL body with the artificial, distorted body from an audio system attempting to produce fullness. Tubes and tubelike euphonic SS amps, large dynamic speakers produce this type of "body" but such sound is distorted and colored with all its warmth, sacrificing to some extent detailed musical information. But LUMI give everything--body, tone, AND neutrality/clarity. What about female singers with naturally beautiful, sweet voices? I have been surprised hearing them at close range, where the microphones would pick them up for recordings, and finding they are much colder and less sweet than I thought they would be before hearing them. They are more neutral than warm and sweet. But heard from a distance in a hall, they are warmer and sweeter due to all the reverb acoustics and soft wooden walls, etc. Many listeners at a distance design their systems around the distant sweet sound, but it is not the true tonality heard up close where the mikes are. My final point is that whatever the natural tonality is, all audio systems impose their own tonal personality on the natural tonality. This is why people who strive for system neutrality and clarity want to hear the REAL TONALITY as closely as possible, and shun deliberate colorations from equipment. Let the system disappear, in other words, be as transparent as possible. Also, more nuances will be revealed by detailed, transparent systems. |
Ihave followed this thread for a long time. If you go back to early absolute sound and stereophile the same issues are argued over and over. Back then solid state clearly had a long way to go. At least now we can hear the reference system as opposed to Harry Pearson's. I have switche to solid stae and find what I have now superior to the arc system I had. That is my opinion in my room. |
@viber6 Gryphon Essence is not warm like an Mcintosh. It is warmer than Nagra means Nagra has a brighter but lean sound. Essence is still very transparent but with a magical touch. I think you can read JVS's article: https://www.stereophile.com/content/gryphon-essence-mono-power-amplifier 'the (Dan Dagostino) Progressions delivered a fuller sound while bringing to the fore instruments that had previously been buried in the orchestral blend. But the sheer entrancement of listening to Schubert's joy-infused melodies through the Essence monoblocks was not repeated.' Think of it as a Stradivarius violin. It is not the violin with all the high-tech or the utmost transparency, but it is highly musical and when falls in the right hand (like when Essence pairs with nice gears), it just sounds magical. I think Benchmark, Mcintosh, Gryphon, Dan all measure pretty well. very very low THD that no one can actually hear them. But they do sound very different from one another... I thinkwe need a new set of specs to evaluate this... I do hope someday a regular priced amp could sound like the Gryphon today. Because then I would like to hear how an expensive gear could sound like in the future. There will always be consumer priced stuff and high-end stuff. Like large screen TV was uber expensive back then. But now they are like under $2k you can get a pretty decent and large TV. There is still $10k TV/Projector out there if you are looking for 100-inch TV. I wouldn't need that. But for people who own them, 'good for you bro!' |
