USHER BE-20 + Spectron Musician III MK2

Hi Natty,

My speakers are Watt/Puppy 8 - still I own Spectron monoblocks and for a few months, I am in waiting list for Joule-Electra "300" preamp. I been told today that in a few days it will be shipped and I will post my impressions.

BAT VK52SE or better REX (not 51 with solid state power supplies) are also good preamps but at $250 per tube with need for re-tubing every year or two (6-10 tubes?) - can't be even compared with "300" where you need to re-tube every 10 years or so and cost of full retubing with NOS tubes is....$210. Nothing can beat it. Sorry.

Mike

NEW BLUE NOTE AWARD 2009 for Spectron.

"...what really has my juices flowing is using these amplifiers in monoblock mode. Apart from the obvious benefits of monoblock configuration -- massive power providing near-infinite headroom and freedom from clipping -- the monoblocks sound even faster, sweeter and more relaxed, have superior bass depth and pitch definition, and throw a larger, more dimensional soundscape than a single stereo Musician III.

No, they don't mimic the special quality of tubes -- a kind of creamy sweetness in the harmonic presentation. It is easy to understand the appeal of that tube sound; it has had a grip on me for years. But what the Spectrons do is, to my mind, ultimately even more impressive. The "full boat" Musician III Mk II monoblocks --with the Bybee A.C. internal Bullets and V-Cap options -- 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 amplifier, at any price, based on any technology, that I have ever heard."

- Wayne Donnelly, EnjoyTheMusic November 2009