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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.
michael_moskowich

Showing 1 response by macdadtexas

macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
I had the Spectron Musician 3 in my system (with Maggies), and it sounded a bit bright. Maybe I didn't give it enough time to break in before I got rid of it. Also, I had a SS preamp at the time, maybe if I had my current Cary Preamp there would have been a better match. It replaced some Innersound monoblocks there were AMAZING. Fast, tons of bass, and extended highs. With the exception of the current amps I have, the Innersounds (now Sanders Sound) were the best amps I have ever heard with Maggies. Although, the Brystons are great too.

It really is a synergy thing with amps and speakers especially. I was very excited to get some McIntosh 501's a little more than a year ago, and they sounded aweful when I put them in my system. I tried different cables of all types, to no effect. I called McIntosh (great and very helpful) the guys asked what type of speaker I had, then said try them on another speaker to see if there was anything wrong before sending them back.

A buddy has some B&W Nautilus', so I hauled those bad boys over to his house, and hooked them up, and man, his system never sounded so good. In fact, those amps are at his house to this day in a great sounding system.

I guess the point is, between subjectivity in preference, and nuances in differnt equipment, there is never going to be a 'best anything'.

Well except for Magnepan speakers!!
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