Granite Audio amps

Oz, congratulations on the new babies! I predict you will really love them.

Oh, and another couple of nits to pick on the Granite 657. The remote is absolute crap, but that seems to be the way of high end CD players. WHY can't high end audio companies build $3000 CD players with better remotes than my $129 1987 Pioneer PD5100 or the $99 Samsung HD850 universal I picked up last year. Building on that remote complaint is the fact that the CDP itself contains no onboard controls - no buttons, nothing. I'm sure a universal remote can work the player, but again...

Still, as I said, the sonics are as good as you can find in a CD player.

Ozzy62, so do you have them, and if so, how do you like them???

Hi Joe,

Yes I got them and I like them very much. Very transparent and detailed, while still being quite musical. Not etched or hyper detailed at all. But I think they aren't going to have enough power for the volumes I listen to in my fairly large room. My Music Reference RM9, while not quite as refined and transparent, has more balls and is slightly more dynamic. For listening at more sane levels, this wouldn't be an issue. But when I want to crank it, I REALLY want to crank it. I should probably keep them and wait until I am in my new listening room, which may be smaller, but I will probably pass them on. I might regret it in the long run however, but the RM9 is such a well balanced performer that it's hard to beat it.

Oz

I've been very impressed with the Granite sound at CES shows (where most of the rooms had failed to impress me : - )
Art

Oz, I can surely relate to your statement about when it comes time to put the hammer down, you want the oomph to be there.

Personally, I thought the Granites were quite strong, but it very well may be the other amps outdo them here. One thing you may want to do is to check the bias, it may well be off. After retubing, I noticed that even when they were biased at 10 mV, well short of the 40 mV, the sonics did not change much when I actually then adjusted them to spec.

You could also try talking with Don Hoglund, owner of Granite, to see if biasing the amps higher does anything for you powerwise. From my own experience, he may be babying the tubes, as after about 4 years, I measured the JJ KT88, and they just about measured new. I was more than surprised at that. Of course, these may not be the amplifiers for you due to the power requirements. In which case, maybe something like the Quicksilver V4, with double the output tubes, would more fit the bill?