Amplifiers:A Keeper for Life. Do you know of one ?


Just wondering, with this audio merry-go-round of buying and selling, if anyone has an amp that will be a keeper for life. I haven't yet but came verrrry close once...
sonicbeauty

Showing 6 responses by detlof

A Jadis 200 is very hard to beat: The highs are sweet, the midrange juicy and the bottom end nice and round.
Cventura, I think your reasoning is very sound, only I woudn't say better, I would rather say "different", because after you've reached a certain level, close to the state of the art, you'll certainly find differences in the overall rendering of music, but to find something really "better", that is closer to the live experience of music, is going to be quite difficult. Your new amp might be better, for example, in rendering soundstage depth, but the highs, which you loved yo much in your old piece of gear just don't sound as fresh and sweet any more as you were used to, etc. etc. Our audiophile ears are fickle. What might at first seem the king of the hill, with intensive listening will just turn out as a new set of compromises, and if you've just been to a live concert, will fall terribly short of the real thing anyway in one way or another.
Whatever, much much earlier in this thread I swore by the Jadis 200, which I loved. I've now exchanged it for the Atma MA2.MK.III, which does not have the Jadis' seductive and euphonic midrange,is much more neutral, much more refined in the ppp mode of classical music, with the ability of incredible fast and powerful dynamic swings. It does ppp to ffff with the right kind of music completely effortlessly and I'm completely enthralled with it. However I miss the Jadis midrange, even though I know, that it is nothing but an euphonic cheat, however a very clever and seductive one. one.So to these here ears, the Atma does a lot of things, no, most things, "better", but not all....
Audiophiles are fickle and I might well change my mind someday, however fact is, that I have been listening to Ralph Karstens gear for years now. (Atma-Sphere)
Hi John, my Atma monos never burnt and through several upgrades I HAVE STUCK WITH THEM FOR ALMOST 20 YEARS NOW. Those are for life, while everything else in my set up has changed.