Compared against the 'best' tube amps? There are a lot of tube amps out there (more manufacturers in the US now than in 1958). Did you listen to all of them :) ??
The Best Tube Amplifiers vs Spectron ?
Before I bought Spectron stereo amp for my Watt/Puppy 8 I used McIntosh 2202, excellent tube amp and one of the best I ever owned. However, Spectron was better or even much better in all respects, most interesting - harmonic richness of midrange closely approximated the real music. The key is that this amp need very long time to fully break-in.
Today, I have read the latest Spectron's review (see http://spectronaudio.com/reviews.htm) where reviewer preferred Spectrons over state-of-the-art $50k VTL Siegfrieds!!! Amazingly, he wrote "The Musician III Mk II monoblocks have a crystalline purity in the reproduction of every voice and instrument that sounds more to me like the essence of live, unamplified music -- which I attend, on average, more than once a week year-round -- than any other amplifiers -- at any cost, based on any technology-- that I have ever heard."
I must agree with him (plus with Spectron you have no output tube maintenance, no heat, no huge weight) and I wonder if others have similar experience.
Mike.
Today, I have read the latest Spectron's review (see http://spectronaudio.com/reviews.htm) where reviewer preferred Spectrons over state-of-the-art $50k VTL Siegfrieds!!! Amazingly, he wrote "The Musician III Mk II monoblocks have a crystalline purity in the reproduction of every voice and instrument that sounds more to me like the essence of live, unamplified music -- which I attend, on average, more than once a week year-round -- than any other amplifiers -- at any cost, based on any technology-- that I have ever heard."
I must agree with him (plus with Spectron you have no output tube maintenance, no heat, no huge weight) and I wonder if others have similar experience.
Mike.
Showing 3 responses by atmasphere
Michael_moskowich, I doubt that Wayne has heard everything out there either. A lot also depends on the speaker that is used with the amp- if designed for an amp that does *not* double power as impedance is cut in half, you will get tonal anomalies if you use an amp that can. So it gets tricky making a comparison between the two, unless you are working with a speaker that works equally well with tubes or transistors, and you would be surprised at how few fall into that category. For more info see: http://www.atma-sphere.com/papers/paradigm_paper2.html |