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Review: Spectron Musician III Signature Edition Amplifier

Category: Amplifiers

This review is of the newly released Spectron Musician III "Signature Edition" MSRP $5995. The signature edition has improvements over the $4995 standard version (which is an exceptional amplifier as-is) that improve the specs and sound to the degree of making it a strong competitor to $20K-40K reference monoblocks. John Ulrick (former co-founder of Infinity and creator of the first digital amp in 1974) has really outdone himself with this new design. The Musician III Signature version is one of the most natural, detailed, robust and transparent amplifiers I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. The soundstage is so vast that when I closed my eyes, my once constricted sounding listening room sounded like someone snuck into my new home and added an extra room behind the speakers! Ok, I may be exaggerating about the stage a little bit but not about the clarity, detail and bass authority. This amp is POWERFUL and difficult loads do not even phase it. I have MBL 111E Omnidirectional speakers connected to it. I originally focused my attention on the ship anchor sized MBL 9011 monoblocks and fell in love with them at CES 2005. The Spectron was purchased to be a temporary place holder until I could afford the MBL giants. After purchasing this tiny, less than 60 lb. digital powerhouse, I have no desire to shell out for Monoblocks that cost as much as my new BMW 5. Everyone recognizes that the new digital designs are powerful and efficient but there exists an industry wide stigma about the musicality of most digital designs. Many inexpensively or poorly implemented digital chip based designs simply do not have the warmth and natural sound of the finest tube and class A solid state amps. The Spectron Musician III Signature is in a category all by itself. I enjoy listening to cello and piano. I ran through about 2 hours of "The Essential Yo Yo Ma" and was shocked. The Spectron revealed nuances and micro details that I never noticed previously on tracks that I listen to frequently. The bass is robust, strong and very controlled. The Spectron sounds nothing like many of the digital ice-power or tripath based designs. The Spectron is very transparent. What comes out of it is exactly what you put into it. Use a great power cord and exceptional source equipment and you cannot lose with this amp. Other Spectron owners tell me that tube preamps such as BAT are a perfect companion for the Spectron. If you are considering purchasing a new amplifier in the $10000+ category, you owe it to yourself, and your wallet, to give the Musician III Signature a listen. Be sure to have a pair of well respected tube or solid state amps that cost at least twice as much in the same room for A/B comparison. You will be amazed! The manufacturer burns in the amps for a week or so at the factory and informed me that I need to give it at least a week of burn-in at home to fully appreciate it. After a few hours of warm up, right out of the box, it sounded great. I am on day 4 of listening and it just keeps getting better.

Strengths: Powerful, Open Soundstage, Critical Midrange is natural and dynamic. Nice build quality. Pretty Face

Weakness: No rack mount option at this time.

Associated gear
Theta CBIII w/Extreme DACS running 2ch
Underwood Modded Denon 3910
MBL 111E Omnidirectional Speakers
PS Audio Duet
Mr.Cable Musician Power Cord

Similar products
Parasound JC-1
Theta Enterprise
Pass X-600
Mark Levinson 331 x2
sodapop

Showing 4 responses by sodapop

sodapop's avatar
sodapop OP
16 posts
 
Zaikesman/Eldartford, Sorry it has taken me so long to respond. Yes, I owned all of the amps I listed and used them all with my MBL Speakers. The digital amps I auditioned were, nuforce, bel canto and a few others. I am quite aware of the UcD/Hypex and even the Zetex designs. I can only write about the amps that I have actually heard on my speakers in my setup at my home. We all know that listening to something in a room at CES with different source equipment than what we have at home is not a proper way to compare equipment. It has to be an A/B comparison with all outside conditions remaining constant. Zaikesman I would imagine that the Spectron M3 Signature would be an excellent mate to your Thiel 2.2's. I LOVE Jim Thiel's designs. Plus he is really a great guy.

The age of class D has arrived... let's hope it keeps getting better and better. I am reminded of the past when tube amp consumers were skeptical when solid state designs first arrived on the audio scene.
sodapop's avatar
sodapop OP
16 posts
 
Hello all! Sorry that I have been away from the fourms for awhile. My daughter was born about 14 weeks ago and takes priority.

What I can say is that I too have experienced that the Spectron Musician III Signature definitely improves with at least three to four weeks of burn-in/listening.

Here is my current setup:
-Underwood Hi-Fi Modded Denon 3910 Player (replaced my Meridian 800)
-Modded Theta GEN VIII DAC w/volume control. (Modded by The Upgrade Co.)
-Spectron Musician III Signature Amplifier
-MBL 111E Radialstrahler Speakers
-MIT MH-750 Shotgun Bi-Wire Speaker Cables (soon to be replaced by Spectron Remote Sense Cables)
-"Musician" power cord with the upgraded gold wattgate plugs from www.mr-cable.com

To answer Owenmd 's question about the JC-1's vs. Spectron M3 Sig.

While I think that the JC-1's (especially modified) are excellent amplifiers in their own right, the Spectron simply sounds cleaner and more open and has a substantially better sound with regard to the micro details in the crucial upper midrange and highs.

I also preferred my Pass Labs X-600 Monoblocks to the JC-1's for this reason. The X-600's are amazing amplifiers but they lack the warmth and open feeling of earlier Pass Aleph designs. It was my original intention to move to the Pass X-600.5 Monos at $18000.00/pr until I auditioned the Spectron Musician III Signature.

If you look at my Audiogon sales history, you will see that I sold my X-600's once my Spectron arrived.

It is amazing that this little cool running, under 60lb. powerhouse can outperform monster Monoblocks in the $15,000-$30,000 range. I am still stunned! My guests make comments like: "That little amplifier is powering your MBL's???" I think that they think I have some big monoblocks hidden somewhere behind my equipment rack.

If you won't take my word for it, then simply give a Spectron Musician III Signature edition a trial run in your system. You will not return it. Fortunately I have mine already, hurry up and get yours before they realize how good their product is and they start charging more!
sodapop's avatar
sodapop OP
16 posts
 
To: Guidocorona

Prior to the Enterprise Monos, I owned a Theta Dreadnaught II. I still maintain that the Dread II is one of the finest sounding and best looking solid state amplifiers ever made. I upgraded to the Enterprise Monos because I needed more power to properly drive the MBL Speakers. I hoped that the Theta monos would simply be a more powerful version of the Dreadnaught II. Sadly I was disappointed. For some reason, the Enterprise Monos did not have the sweetness and character of the Dread II. Since I could not afford the price of the Monster Theta Citadels, I looked into other Amplifiers. I chose the Pass x-600's. They had the power and finesse that I was looking for but were a bit clinical sounding when paired with the MBL's. Note: I do have to say that the current Pass Designs are exceptional and that their customer service is second to none.

Moving to the Spectron Musician III Signature was the best decision I made. It is 1/3 of the price of the now discontinued Pass x-600's and little over half of the price of the Enterprise Mono's and surpasses them both.
sodapop's avatar
sodapop OP
16 posts
 
Simon and Guido,

Both of you bring up very vaild points. Your recent posts have educated me further on the design of both the Spectron Musician III Signature and the Rowland 312.

I have great respect for many of the designs by Jeff Rowland, Nelson Pass and John Ulrick. Everyone engineer has his/her place(s) in the market and their own design visions and implementations based on available parts, imagination, skill, creativity, expertise, knowledge and price point.

I respect all of these designers for their contributions to the audiophile community. I am not currently an employee for Spectron, JRDG or any other audio company. I am in the sodapop business and I am passionate about quality audio. I am not an engineer, but I do understand a bit about electronics and I am impressed with the large recent improvements and acceptance of Digital Class D designs. I enjoy reviews and comments in the forums and love attending CES.

What I can share and contribute are comments about my spectron amp with my current setup. I can tell you that the Musician III Signature just keeps getting better everytime I listen to it. I find myself pulling out music that I have not listened to in years just so that I can hear what I was missing with the equipment that I owned a decade ago or more.

I am incredibly impressed with the Spectron on my MBL Speakers. Guidocorona, I am not sure what source equipment or speakers you use, but I hope you will take the opportunity to try the M III Sig. sometime soon. I am very interested to hear your opinions. I have a strong feeling that with your ears as your guide, you will be as impressed as I am. I honestly have never heard anything like this before.

Happy Listening.... Soda
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