Adromada III or sumo nine

There is no comparison to the two. I have been a Sumo dealer back in the early 80's and sold the Original Andromeda as well as the Andromeda II and the Nine. The Andromeda was a Bonjourno piece, all bipolar outs, very tight and controlled, very fast, but lean and a bit dry for my taste. The Andromeda II was not a Jim Bonjourno piece, this is after Randy Patton bought the company, Jim would not use mosfets at that time. It was a bit better in the mid range as well as not as dry on top, but not near as controlled on bottom nor as fast in its overall presentation. The Nine is just a fabulous sounding amplifier. Other than power, it lunches both of these amplifiers in every aspect. A year or so ago, I picked up a Sumo Nine and had Ed Martin of the old Marcof Electronics do extensive mods. Litz hardwired in and outs, nearly tripled the filter capacitance, replaced the bridge rectifiers with newer higher voltage pieces, tons of better resistors and alot of electrolytic replaced with pure polypropylene caps. This improved every aspect of an already very nice amplifier. The bottom is more substantial, everything about the wonderful midrange and top end stayed in tact and it lost the slightest bit of grain that it had. This has turned out to be an outstanding amplifier for very little money on the mods.

My vote is for the Sumo 9. I acquired one at the end of last year and had Mike Bettinger of GASAudio.net restore it this summer. The Nine really does sound phenomenal. After letting it warm up properly the music it makes is wonderful. From cold start it sounds fine but with the full warm up time it sounds great. The only thing I don't like about it is the fan noise. The 9 runs hot and the fan helps keep things cool but I can't find an AC fan that can push out decent CFM that is quieter than 33dBs.

Just acquired a Sumo The Nine Plus (Revision C).
Wonderful sounding little gem highly recommended.
Sounds almost as good as the Levinson ML-2's I once had, delicate and detailed.
Do not try to service/upgrade it your self because it needs more skill the your average DIY'r.
Had perfect feedback from Mike Bettinger from GASaudio(http://www.gasaudio.net/index.html). Very decent guy superb communications. The Nine and Nine Plus are worth the investment of upgrading by GASaudio in my opinion.

Hi Brian_eno

Glad you are enjoying the Sumo amp you acquired. What is Revision C on the Nine Plus you have? Does that mean you have a 3rd generation Sumo Nine Plus? I don't think I've ever read anywhere about different revisions for the Sumo amps.

Mike Bettinger does great work on Sumo and GAS amps. He send me pics of the work he did while he was re-building my Sumo Nine and I was amazed. Very nice work. I'm contemplating a reference re-build for my Sumo but I really don't like being without it. Even in this summer heat I enjoy the music it makes. I did eventually get used to the fan noise.

Hi Brian,
Jason Stoddard is still around, he is a co owner of Schiit Audio. He was the head designer at Sumo when Jim sold out and did the conversion from the Nine to the Nine Plus. He would be available to answer any questions, plus full Schematics are available online. As much as I loved the Nine, My modded piece is sooo much better than the stock, I'd hate to discourage anyone from improving this amp. Mike Bettinger used to do parts upgrades on this amp himself, he may also be willing to do upgrades.
Tim