My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!

Yeah I’ve never met WC but YT limitations aside I think my sonic tastes are very similar also. Except I never really liked any of the Dagostino stuff much but my theory is WC didn’t either he just didn’t want to rip it 😂

🙂

🤣🤣🤣

The XD stuff inverts phase?  I haven't experienced that with my Theater 7...

Dave

The Krell Duo amps do NOT invert phase.

 

All the best,

Walter

Walter Schofield

COO | Krell Industries, LLC

psnyder149 said, "1st row, 2nd balcony, Orchestra Hall Chicago or Heinz Hall Pittsburgh.   Best sound in the house!"

"Best" means his preferences for laid back sound missing a lot of the musical information picked up by the much closer microphones.  You can "like" anything you want, but my statements are objective facts to consider in your preferences.

See my post in the early part of p 372, 12/19 at 10:15 PM.  Mercury made great recordings in Orchestra Hall with the main mikes 10-12 feet above the conductor's head and left and right omni's close to the stage.  They knew what they were doing by combining great close detail with the spaciousness from that mike placement.  Tom Fine said in the Dec 2021 S-phile issue beginning p 133 that these recordings made by his father captured better sound (aka best of everything) than any location in the hall.  Tom likes rock/pop more, but anyone who likes classical music should listen to these great recordings.

Pauls' listening is mainly to rock/pop.  With those processed recordings, and terrible live sound from PA amplification, I understand his preferences.  If I were at those live concerts, I would want to seek refuge from the electronic assault in the balcony also.

dropping at 12pm ET:

(Merry Christmas to you all!)

@Viber,

You couldn't be more correct.  Elevated and from just in front of the orchestra is absolutely the best sound.  Now if only I could find a seat that fit that description...

The time has come... 

Enjoy the trailer and if this doesn't get your blood pumping then I don't know what will!

That was a trip!  

Merry Christmas all.  Safe travels and visits with relatives and friends!

psnyder149,

Mercury’s mike placement was the absolute best. Tom Fine states that his father recognized the HF rolloff with distance, so he used Schoeps mikes with the "presence peak." (That was Mercury’s form of EQ which was effective. I merely encourage any home listener to experiment with EQ with any recording, in effect being his own recording engineer to his tastes). This enabled him to get more detailed sound than anywhere in the hall. The closest I came to that ideal position was when I was playing solo near the front center on stage with my ears almost 6 feet in height. For my small orchestras and other ensembles, my central mikes about 6 feet high were ideal, and my recordings beat most commercial recordings for immediacy and detail. For large orchestral pieces in those Mercury recordings, 10-12 foot height was necessary to get the proper balance.

The next best listener position for capturing immediacy and detail is the 1st row center. The balcony is best for overall balance, but unfortunately the compromise is in overall loss of musical information in all freq, due to unequal absorption of various freq with distance, and messy greater wall reflections with distance. Still, at any given hall position, the human ear is smarter than the microphone. The human ear adapts to the compromises, aided by visual cues, and has a way of zero-ing in on what it wants to ear, but the mike is dumb and visually blind and just captures the messy soup of sound.

Jay, perhaps your career is in movie production.  If not, you're still a great promoter.

Just wait until you hear my thoughts on Nordost on this next video...

Jay, 

I just watched your part 2 interview with Mikey, 12/16.  You say it best right at the end--smooth, warm amps (his choices) are jack of all trades, master of none.  As an aside, most fine things in the real world are best enjoyed in small doses, with plenty of opportunities to go back for more.  Example--I used to eat an entire pint of decent ice cream in 1 sitting.  I gained weight, and realized after the first few mouthfuls that my taste buds were getting saturated, so the remaining mouthfuls were nothing but guilt and harm done.  But now I enjoy my select favorite pint, in at least 4 different sessions.  I savor each small portion, which is more enjoyable than the whole pint of the other relatively mediocre ice cream.  Some gluttons even go through a half gallon in 1 sitting.

I approach music in the new way of enjoying ice cream.  Full savory tasting is like getting the full, intense power of the music.  If the music is loud and exciting, just a few minutes is enough intense enjoyment.  If the music is soft and subtle, I can't concentrate fully for more than a few minutes for that.  So forgiving components, while they permit longer listening, are total failures at providing maximum appreciation of any type of music, but accurate/revealing components deliver everything.  Modest SPL's permit longer maximum enjoyment, and loud SPL's are great for the short intense bursts.  When I had warm components on trial, even loud SPL's could not reveal the full musical information and were the equivalent of large portions of unsatisfying ice cream.

You can maximally enjoy ALL of your music in this way, but it appears that you are getting bored with Mike's way.

@viber6 

“You can maximally enjoy ALL of your music in this way, but it appears that you are getting bored with Mike's way.”

After 343 amps..  Jay will get bored again in 10 minutes..  His channel won’t last if he can’t be changing and comparing amps every other week.. Great way to check out new gear, but flash in the pan doesn’t reveal the nuances and attributes that you pick up over time from many listening sessions..  but it’s great to see what’s out there and get an introduction… 

The time is here.. today 12 pm ET, MEET JAY’S BEST POWER AMPLIFIER EVER.

This amplifier has topped a total of 342 amps that i have personally owned. This makes it amplifier number 343! 

Well finally we get the reveal that I predicted 3-4 months ago. Even tho WC did a video that said he was completely done with Gryphon, I still knew he’d get the Solo’s and predicted back then that those were the solid state amps he had. 
 

But was it really necessary to repeat that Vibers amp completely fell apart on complex music passages?  (A point I also made before it was revealed which amp was which in the blind test). 

It was not necessary to clarify the shortfalls i detected with Class D. I just don’t think there is a Class D amp that can bring a REAL BATTLE to the Mephisto Solos.

These amps have bested anything else i have owned, but as i mentioned on my video, these are not amps for systems that are incomplete. You dont fly one of these planes on the video below being out of shape right? It is understood that when you get behind one of these planes you are in top shape and the expectation is the same with the Mephisto and what it will ask from YOU and the rest of your system. It is a fighter jet that isn’t there for you to play with. Put your helmet and suit on, get in the cockpit and stay alert.

Jay, 

I enjoyed your monologue.  Congrats on your G Mephisto monos which I hope are keepers for you for a long while at least.

Although I value neutrality, it is still subservient to clarity in importance.  Neutrality is the absence of favoritism for any freq, but it doesn't guarantee the highest clarity at any freq.  Although you said the the M mono has the best bass of any amp you've owned, I'll assume that it also has the similarly highest clarity in midrange and HF, although you didn't get into that in this brief intro.

Likewise, my experience with some Nordost cables is that they have the highest clarity in all freq.  Yes, most people including I find that Nordost has a brighter sound than other products, but this is a general characteristic of products that strive for accuracy/clarity.  The human ear is most sensitive at 3-4 kHz, and Nordost best reveals everything at all freq.  Most other products don't reveal HF overtones of natural instruments as well.  It is true that some designers like Pass and the other sweet camp stuff you mention, deliberately give many euphonically oriented listeners what they want.  However, Nordost's philosophy seems to be going for lowest distortion with highest accuracy.  I don't think they deliberately design for HF prominence.  It's just true that Nordost reveals everything with equal opportunity excellence in all freq.  It may take you some time to realize that Nordost is doing what you like about M monos, and that they DO work well together.  

The risk is that you continue to maintain that there is such a thing as "too much clarity."  That idea will lead you to soften the M monos with sweet stuff like tubes, rolled off HF in cables, DAC's, etc.  Yes, the M monos will expose the deficiencies of these other components, but this is a great opportunity for you to continue to build on the wonderful qualities of these amps with other similar components.  In the past, you have advocated the "synergy" approach, which really is some combination of revealing and warm components that sends your soul to heaven.  But you made the giant leap of admitting now that you are bored with that approach, and want to hear more of what your music has to offer, so the M monos is a great step, as were the other great steps you made by getting the XLF speakers and the 725 preamp.

I have known and worked with a few top elderly violinists, and have read interviews about other great legendary musicians who, despite having achieved great fame and wealth, still wanted to improve their musicianship.  Maybe at age 80, their technical facility level had declined, but their subtlety of phrasing and timing continued to improve.  They never said that there can be too much clarity or sensitivity.  They still tried to improve despite their handicaps.  I believe that's one of the factors in extending their productive life.   Classical music is much more complex than you realize, and no performer or listener has fully re-created and appreciated everything it has to offer, respectively.

I respect Jay takes because no one owned 343 amplifiers.. His video will be useful, and for me interesting to watch...

His advice will be useful for many..

Criticizing him about "clarity" or " neutrality" are meaningless arguing..

Clarity is defined against a backgound not in itself... light is defined by night and vice versa..

In acoustic and psycho-acoustic experience there is no clarity or neutrality FIRST and LAST...But dynamical micro playing tonal timbre surface and volume inside of which there is an interelated play between the acoustical setting background timing onset of waves and frontwaves and reverbarations and the internal acoustic timbre content frequencies spectrum... There is no clarity by itself here or neutrality by itself, these notions are relative to too many factors to use them unilaterally as guide save in engineering where effectively clarity may be excessive from some gear in some pairing and where neutrality in the design is a must... But acoustic and psycho-acoustic experience are more complex and cannot be argued about ONLY with words and motto like "neutrality" or "clarity"....

Szigeti seems to play violin less clearly than Heifetz in Bach violin sonata but we must say instead that the two players choose different paths... Szigeti spoke where Heifetz sing...Than clarity dont play the same in this 2 different use of the violin...Spoken contrasted articulation is not singing glisando... Then clarity and neutrality analysis means not a lot here and fall short of describing phenomenal musical experience...Like they fall short to describe acoustical and psycho-acoustical experience... The vocabulary of audio engineering is not the musical vocabulary and the two are not the acoustical and psycho-acoustical vocabulary either...

And arguing about cables IN ITSELF out of any room, any gear connection make no sense especially with all possible cables choices...

If Jay said that Nnordost cannot be used with HIS GEAR in his room for his ears because they introduce too much clarity in some system/room/ears pairing it simply described his experience... Arguing against someone IRREPRODUCIBLE experience made no sense... On the opposite some very good cable could add too much claity in a perfect already system this is COMMON PLACE FACT...There is no ABSOLUTE in gear choice because it is always gear dependent, room dependent and ears dependent...

Am i wrong?

Perhaps i am only an average audiophile with no experience with many systems. only a great experience about how to implement successfully a chosen one, mechanically, electrically and acoustically...MINE...

But Jays experience is interesting...Honest and passionate...i can say that, even if we are at the complete opposite of the spectrum... He look for a complete audio experiences with all possible highly costly designs at the peak of engineering, WHILE i look for the way to install and embed at low cost ONLY ONE chosen system... it takes me few years of work with a selected one...I am more than happy but being curious, i listen Jays passionnate takes...

It will never cross my mind to criticize his choices out of his shoes about "clarity"...

or "neutrality". these words are there only to convey his impressions not to establish an axiom like: there is never too much clarity...

Timbre experience is a SUBJECTIVE perception where the OBJECTIVE spectrum of frequencies is ONLY one constutuent factor in the definition of timbre... Then arguing about clarity on all frequencies spectrum dont adress the timbre perception itself..

Thanks to Jay for  being  so dedicated...

Congratulations Jay.   This has been such an informative thread.  While I will never be able to justify the expense of a rig such as yours, in my home, I as well as many others, have been living vicariously through your journey!

"Criticizing him about "clarity" or " neutrality" are meaningless arguing.." This is so true and getting old.

Clarity doesn't just come with silver cables. This is far from the truth. Transparent Opus is copper and it is extremely clear too. 

mahgister,

I liked both Szigeti and Heifetz for their respective artistry.  But each were well trained masters with excellent, accurate technique in the service of their message about what the music meant to them.  I studied violin with later masters and have spoken to many great musicians who studied with these masters.  But these masters did not reveal their inspirational secrets to us students, but stressed that clarity and precision in technique were necessary for full realization of our musical messages. They spent most of their time as teachers on clarity/precision, and only after these basics were evident in the students, they discussed artistic expression.

If one believes that the purpose of great hifi is just that--high fidelity to the recording, then the system must have accuracy and maximum revelation of the detail in the music.  The music is the artistic message, not the system.  Jay also mentions early in the latest video that the best amp must have speed, resolution.  These are among the ways of describing clarity.

Very interesting post about violonists viber thanks...My best version is the first Szeryng version for all my life , but i am fascinated by the Szigeti mysterious spoken sound....

My remarks are only about the fact that speaking a common place fact like " there is never enough clarity" is itself an unclear maxim...

Lived musical event will never be a registered event, then clarity, in sound, clarity in music, clarity from amplifier, clarity from speakers, clarity from the physical acoustic setting, clarity resulting from the control of psycho-acoustic conditions are all different " clarity"... Clarity is not related only to the frequencies spectrum perception but to other acoustic factors also which are related to timbre subjective perception ... Clarity coming from a cable is a complete different thing...

The same words is used related to many different phenomenon...

Jay conveying his experience with a cable giving too much "clarity" is understood by almost all people because the word is used in a specified context...

Then saying that there is never too much clarity, implying that some cable cannot act negatively on some gear/room/ears impression is wrong...

If we compared lived musical event and some playback experience of the same event in some conditions the playback event could present indeed "too much clarity" or to much details which will float in separated bubble so to speak compared to some listener location on the scene of the original event...

And the structure and history of each one of us hearing cannot converge about the same experience of "clarity"....Some will call clearer conditions in gear, room, cables acoustic, music,that others will feel less clear...

What we will call clear is always related to what aspect our ears/brain will want to perceive or will perceive or not...

is it not evident?

Anyway i apologize if i hurted your feeling .... i respect very much all musician and i am not one...

Come on viber6.  Give us all a break.

rbach,

Just ignore me if you don't find my writing useful to you.  No need to bash, rbach.

I thought Jay said he wanted to try the Solos in the interview. Did the Solo XD change from the Stereophile measurements? "The Solo 575's voltage gain at 1kHz into 8 ohms was 26.5dB with both balanced and unbalanced input signals. (I couldn't measure its performance via the CAST input; with unbalanced drive, I inserted the supplied shorting plug between pins 1 and 3 of the input XLR jack.) Unusually, the Krell inverted absolute polarity for both its balanced and unbalanced inputs."  Krell Solo 575 monoblock power amplifier Measurements | Stereophile.com

mahgister,

There are many manifestations of clarity, as you say.  Simply put, clarity is the accurate transmittal of anything you evaluate.  If the visual is an impressionist scene, then if the camera picture of it removes the fog and changes it into a collection of sharp edges, that is not clarity--it is just distortion.  Clarity, or high fidelity to the impressionist scene would preserve the exact nature of it, as closely as possible.  

An example of deliberate vagueness was Furtwangler's (F) opening of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony.  Toscanini (T) and others took the score literally, with the soft tremolos, but F wanted the strings to be NOT uniform.  An audio system playing the F recording would not be accurate if it sounded like T, and vice versa.  

So for audio, I prefer the concept of "accuracy" to "clarity."  In other matters of life,  I want conversations to be well thought out and expressed without uncertainty or ambiguity.  This is hard to do, so editors function to help the writer express more clearly what he is trying to say.  There can never be too much clarity in these matters.

Live music is wonderful of course, but most listeners are not in the best seat.  Even the compromised seat is a unique experience, but I have found that the best seat makes a big difference for maximum appreciation of the music.  I hope you listen to those Mercury recordings which were designed to give the most clear perspective that is better than any seat.  A great audio system playing these Mercury recordings is wonderful.

Music is not an equation and i know you now that...

Sound is no more reducible to an equation.... Then clarity or accuracy means something in a context and in a precise perspective, your musical example which is a musical example not an acoustical one is good...

But life is complex, no lived event will be the same at different location on the original scene of the lived event... Because no audio system can reproduce the original event only translate it and recreating it, the trade-off of the recording engineer are choices which impose a perspective on ALL acoustic cues, timbre perception for exanple...

Then all your applications and requirements about clarity and accuracy are legitimate expression BUT they are only that, applications and requirements in a precise context for some perspective...

No audio system and no hall theater , and no recording technique can REDUCE the complex sums of possible perspectives in the perception of timbre microstructure to only one you can call the clearer one on all aspect save the musician himself listening to himself, but even there, the experience will be dependant of some acoustic factors and from a choice of instrument... And each room / system / ears will interpret clarity and accuracy in the context of some acoustical cues or to another one, because timbre perception is so complex that it cannot be defined in SIMPLE terms with one equation, it is also a psycho-acoustic experience and not only an acoustical one...

Then clarity and accuracy, we all wanted that, but what it means? These two concepts and experience CANNOT be an absolute meter for reproduced sound, because we listen to music through sound and we listen sound through music and the two experience coincide perfectly  only for ONE listener...They vary  with each system/room/ears... And the difference between the lived event and the playback is not reducible to zero... In music this is different...music has his own vocabulary and is not reducible to sound...For this reason your musical example is good and made sense musically ...but music is not acoustic and vice versa...

But speaking about recorded sound, translation of sound for a system/room/ears, these 2 concept lost some their power... This is the reason why Jay speaking after the addition of a cable in his system say that they "add too much clarity"...There is no too much clarity in music but we  can have "too much clarity" so to speak in the acoustic experience when listening in some room with some system we introduce a a modification in cable...

By the way clarity and accuracy are not synonymus at all...one concept is mostly subjective, the other mostly  an objective one in acoustic...And even musically they are not synonymus...

And too much "clarity" on some count can represent a lost of clarity on some acoustical perceived cues because sound is not a sum of external clear  elements but an integrated  colored WHOLENESS which is perceived too...

Did i miss something?

I am not a scientist nor a musician but it is my experience...

Let’s shift gears:

I will be releasing my personal tidal playlist this week. Within this playlist, you will find about 73 songs which will provide you with over 5 hours and 40 min worth of music.

This playlist will keep getting updated by me so all you need to do is add it to your favorites. I really hope that dealers and manufacturers also save this playlist so that they can use it next time they are displaying their product at a show.

These songs are handpicked by me and have at least one (if not more ) of the following traits:

1. Big soundstage with depth and height
2. Clarity
3. Deep bass
4. Intense imaging
5. Big bold vocals
6. High resolution

Use this playlist to evaluate your own system too!

Jay,

That’s a fantastic idea! I don’t have your setup. I recently bought Luxman m900u & I’m itching to explore its capabilities. 
 

In order to listen to your playlist, would I need Basic, Hifi or Hifi Plus subscription? 

You should buy at least HiFi...never the basic version...

Really looking forward to this playlist Jay. From the few songs you have recommended, will be settling in for a long listen. Thanks for the work culling such a list.

I am not involved with streaming services or servers.  Is it possible to post links or just name the songs and artists on those recordings?  If this is too much work, you can choose just a few.  I liked Nils Lofgren songs you used in the past, so I bought the CD, Acoustic Live, which had other nice songs on it.  Thanks.

Google is your friend

So the last video I posted about the best power amplifier I’ve owned has been the best performing video I’ve had this year. YouTube has said to me that it has performed unlike any other video I’ve released in 2021. No wonder WHY YouTubers create controversial video all the time such as " the fastest car I’ve owned" , " I pushed my tv off the balcony" etc etc. People want drama or controversy. Hmm... 🤔

Good. How about a YT video--"The best playlist for music and sound."  You could give a few examples, such as, "listen at 1:52 for big soundstage and depth" then "1:31 for clarity" then "3:05 for deep bass" and so on.

hm. a few of us might like that but doesn’t necessarily drip w drama or controversy

Hi all, 

Here is my personal playlist:

Enjoy !!

@viber6

Man, i feel like you are cherry-picking now... just buy tidal man.. it is cheap.. Download it to your computer and you will be up and running in less than 5 minutes. Do you realize all the work i would have to do if i were to embark on what you are requesting above? It is 73 songs as of today... You are asking that i go through each song individually and find the exact second where to pay attention..Come on man...

I finally got around to installing the furutech outlets today and from a raw state, they are OUTSTANDING. Wow. 

More dynamics, feels as if the music has more thrust, more bass, the vocals in some songs reach out and touch you due to the sheer body. 😳...more to come .

Hi Jay, 

Joined Tidal & Subscribed to HiFi Plus. 
Forgot to mention earlier, I also bought m900u based on your YT video. 
 

Thank you very much for your contribution to the community! 
 

My next task is to buy a Tube PreAmp that synergies well with the m900u. Any suggestion is highly recommended.   

Jay, happy that you like the Furutech outlets. Just be patient with these babies. They will improve over the coming weeks. I have installed 3 of these in my system and value them as the best bang for the buck tweak.

@dasign 

Thank you. I will keep burning them in. They sound amazing. 

No wonder why the gryphon Mephisto was yelling at me.. 😬

Jay - Thanks for posting the Playlist!!!  Been listening all day while working - great stuff!

Hey Jay,

Awesome report on the Furutech outlets...  I don't know what else you installed with them, but...  After 15 months due to move and renovation, I finally got my 7.1 surround system working last week and despite a less good room, the surround sound portion of my system has been greatly elevated...  The only differences...  the isolated exterior grounding rod, the Furutech GTX wall frames and the Furutech 106D NCF carbon fiber cover plates.  No way for me to reasonably do before/after, but I now feel confident in recommending these "add ons" to your outlets.  I can't explain it, but they just seem to work!