The best amps are the sleepers. You have to know what is out there and take the time to talk to many people and listen to even more pieces of equipment. In the end, it depends on your ears, your ego and your wallet and how it all clicks in your brain. What satifies you may never satisfy anyone else. But a handful of manufactures do and can satisfy many. ATL is one. One of the sleepers is Portal Audio. What I find interesting and to this point is that I was at CES. I heard lots. There were over 15 reviews of CES on the web. Not one listed the three rooms that I thought had great sound, or better stated, that sound that pleased me the most. Is it adverting dollars? Is it fear of hear today, gone tomorrow? Or is there a direct correclation between cost and good reviews? Who knows. Who really cares. It's a hobby and its fun. We simply need to keep ourselves in check and accept that reality is in the eye of the beholder. Some of us set our spending limits. Others do not or do not have to. This is one reality of audio. And, to answer this thread, I don't doubt that a 4500 amp could perform as reported. There is a definite point where improvements are measured in microns, not inches or feet. And, yes, expensive amps should sound better, but this does not always happen. So,we are back to the issue of our ears. Part of the entertainment value is watching others and the market. Then we sit back in our chairs and listen to our systems knowing that we made a good choice....until we read another review and go out and listen to something new. The cycle starts over.
$4500 amp beat out the Tenor OTL in the latest TAS
You read that right! In the Feb/March edition of TAS, HP declares that the ASL (antique sound lab)Hurricanes at $4500 are the best amps he has EVER heard at any price. In another section of the same issue, the hurricane won tube amp of the year while the Tenor 75 watter was the runner-up.