I confess I wish you had decided to add a McIntosh MC462 to the mix (no, I don’t own one). At slightly less than one-half the price of both the Moon and the Luxman amps, I wonder whether it is only half as good. Certainly, it is a popular choice for those who seek to own a high powered, good quality stereo amplifier.
My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!
So I have been in a long journey looking to find the best amplifiers for my martin logan montis. As you know, the match between an amplifier and speakers has to be a good "marriage" and needs to be blend exquisitely. Right now, I think I might have found the best sounding amplifier for martin logan. I have gone through approximately 34-36 amplifiers in the past 12 months. Some of these are:
Bryston ST, SST, SST2 series
NAD M25
PARASOUND HALO
PARASOUND CLASSIC
KRELL TAS
KRELL KAV 500
KRELL CHORUS
ROTEL RMB 1095
CLASSE CT 5300
CLASSE CA 2200
CLASSE CA 5200
MCINTOSH MC 205
CARY AUDIO CINEMA 7
OUTLAW AUDIO 755
LEXICON RX7
PASS LABS XA 30.8
BUTLER AUDIO 5150
ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005
With all that said, the amplifiers I mentioned above are the ones that in my opinion are worth mentioning. To make a long story short, there is NO 5 CHANNEL POWER AMP that sounds as good as a 3ch and 2ch amplifier combination. i have done both experiments and the truth is that YOU DO lose details and more channel separation,etc when you select a 5 channel power amplifier of any manufacturer.
My recollection of what each amp sounded like is as follows:
ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005 (great power and amazing soundstage. Very low noise floor, BUT this amplifiers NEEDS TO BE cranked up in order to fully enjoy it. If you like listening at low volume levels or somewhat moderate, you are wasting your time here. This amp won’t sound any different than many other brands out there at this volume. The bass is great, good highs although they are a bit bright for my taste)
NAD M25 (very smooth, powerful, but somewhat thin sounding as far as bass goes)
Bryston sst2(detailed, good soundstage, good power, but can be a little forward with certain speakers which could make them ear fatiguing at loud volumes)
Krell (fast sounding, nice bass attack, nice highs, but some detail does get lost with certain speakers)
rotel (good amp for the money, but too bright in my opinion)
cary audio (good sound overall, very musical, but it didn’t have enough oomph)
parasound halo (good detail, great bass, but it still holds back some background detail that i can hear in others)
lexicon (very laid back and smooth. huge power, but if you like more detail or crisper highs, this amp will disappoint you)
McIntosh mc205 (probably the worst multichannel amp given its price point. it was too thin sounding, had detail but lacked bass.
butler audio (good amplifier. very warm and smooth sweet sounding. i think for the money, this is a better amp than the parasound a51)
pass labs (very VERY musical with excellent bass control. You can listen to this for hours and hours without getting ear fatigue. however, it DOES NOT do well in home theater applications if all you have is a 2 channel set up for movies. The midrange gets somewhat "muddy" or very weak sounding that you find yourself trying to turn it up.
classe audio (best amplifier for multi channel applications. i simply COULDNT FIND a better multi channel amplifier PERIOD. IT has amazing smoothness, amazing power and good bass control although i would say krell has much better bass control)
Update: The reviews above were done in January 2015. Below is my newest update as of October 2016:
PS AUDIO BHK 300 MONOBLOCKS: Amazing amps. Tons of detail and really amazing midrange. the bass is amazing too, but the one thing i will say is that those of you with speakers efficiency of 87db and below you will not have all the "loudness" that you may want from time to time. These amps go into protection mode when using a speaker such as the Salon, but only at very loud levels. Maybe 97db and above. If you don’t listen to extreme crazy levels, these amps will please you in every way.
Plinius Odeon 7 channel amp: This is THE BEST multichannel amp i have ever owned. Far , but FAR SUPERIOR to any other multichannel amp i have owned. In my opinion it destroyed all of the multichannel amps i mentioned above and below. The Odeon is an amp that is in a different tier group and it is in a league of its own. Amazing bass, treble and it made my center channel sound more articulate than ever before. The voices where never scrambled with the action scenes. It just separated everything very nicely.
Theta Dreadnaught D: Good detailed amp. Looks very elegant, has a pleasant sound, but i found it a tad too bright for my taste. I thought it was also somewhat "thin" sounding lacking body to the music. could be that it is because it is class d?
Krell Duo 300: Good amp. Nice and detailed with enough power to handle most speakers out there. I found that it does have a very nice "3d" sound through my electrostatics. Nothing to fault here on this amp.
Mark Levinson 532H: Great 2 channel amp. Lots of detail, amazing midrange which is what Mark Levinson is known for. It sounds very holographic and will please those of you looking for more detail and a better midrange. As far as bass, it is there, but it is not going to give you the slam of a pass labs 350.5 or JC1s for example. It is great for those that appreciate classical music, instrumental, etc, but not those of you who love tons of deep bass.
It is articulate sounding too
Krell 7200: Plenty of detail and enough power for most people. i found that my rear speakers contained more information after installed this amp. One thing that i hated is that you must use xlr cables with this amp or else you lose most of its sound performance when using RCA’s.
Krell 402e: Great amp. Very powerful and will handle any speaker you wish. Power is incredible and with great detail. That said, i didn’t get all the bass that most reviewers mentioned. I thought it was "ok" in regards to bass. It was there, but it didn’t slam me to my listening chair.
Bryston 4B3: Good amp with a complete sound. I think this amp is more laid back than the SST2 version. I think those of you who found the SST2 version of this amp a little too forward with your speakers will definitely benefit from this amp’s warmth. Bryston has gone towards the "warm" side in my opinion with their new SST3 series. As always, they are built like tanks. I wouldn’t call this amp tube-like, but rather closer to what the classe audio delta 2 series sound like which is on the warm side of things.
Parasound JC1s: Good powerful amps. Amazing low end punch (far superior bass than the 402e). This amp is the amp that i consider complete from top to bottom in regards to sound. Nothing is lacking other than perhaps a nicer chassis. Parasound needs to rework their external appearance when they introduce new amps. This amp would sell much more if it had a revised external appearance because the sound is a great bang for the money. It made my 800 Nautilus scream and slam. Again, amazing low end punch.
Simaudio W7: Good detailed amp. This amp reminds me a lot of the Mark Levinson 532h. Great detail and very articulate. I think this amp will go well with bookshelves that are ported in order to compensate for what it lacks when it comes to the bass. That doesn’t mean it has no bass, but when it is no Parasound JC1 either.
Pass labs 350.5: Wow, where do i begin? maybe my first time around with the xa30.8 wasn’t as special as it was with this monster 350.5. It is just SPECTACULAR sounding with my electrostatics. The bass was THE BEST BASS i have ever heard from ANY amp period. The only amp that comes close would be the jC1s. It made me check my settings to make sure the bass was not boosted and kept making my jaw drop each time i heard it. It totally destroyed the krell 402e in every regard. The krell sounded too "flat" when compared to this amp. This amp had amazing mirange with great detail up top. In my opinion, this amp is the best bang for the money. i loved this amp so much that i ended up buying the amp that follows below.
Pass labs 250.8: What can i say here. This is THE BEST STEREO AMP i have ever heard. This amp destroys all the amps i have listed above today to include the pass labs 350.5. It is a refined 350.5 amp. It has more 3d sound which is something the 350.5 lacked. It has a level of detail that i really have never experienced before and the bass was amazing as well. I really thought it was the most complete power amplifier i have ever heard HANDS DOWN. To me, this is a benchmark of an amplifier. This is the amp that others should be judged by. NOTHING is lacking and right now it is the #1 amplifier that i have ever owned.
My current amps are Mcintosh MC601s: i decided to give these 601s a try and they don’t disappoint. They have great detail, HUGE soundstage, MASSIVE power and great midrange/highs. The bass is great, but it is no pass labs 250.8 or 350.5. As far as looks, these are the best looking amps i have ever owned. No contest there. i gotta be honest with you all, i never bought mcintosh monos before because i wasn’t really "wowed" by the mc452, but it could have been also because at that time i was using a processor as a preamp which i no longer do. Today, i own the Mcintosh C1100 2 chassis tube preamp which sounds unbelievable. All the amps i just described above have been amps that i auditioned with the C1100 as a preamp. The MC601s sound great without a doubt, but i will say that if you are looking for THE BEST sound for the money, these would not be it. However, Mcintosh remains UNMATCHED when it comes to looks and also resale value. Every other amp above depreciates much faster than Mcintosh.
That said, my future purchase (when i can find a steal of a deal) will be the Pass labs 350.8. I am tempted to make a preliminary statement which is that i feel this amp could be THE BEST stereo amp under 30k dollars. Again, i will be able to say more and confirm once i own it. I hope this update can help you all in your buying decisions!
Bryston ST, SST, SST2 series
NAD M25
PARASOUND HALO
PARASOUND CLASSIC
KRELL TAS
KRELL KAV 500
KRELL CHORUS
ROTEL RMB 1095
CLASSE CT 5300
CLASSE CA 2200
CLASSE CA 5200
MCINTOSH MC 205
CARY AUDIO CINEMA 7
OUTLAW AUDIO 755
LEXICON RX7
PASS LABS XA 30.8
BUTLER AUDIO 5150
ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005
With all that said, the amplifiers I mentioned above are the ones that in my opinion are worth mentioning. To make a long story short, there is NO 5 CHANNEL POWER AMP that sounds as good as a 3ch and 2ch amplifier combination. i have done both experiments and the truth is that YOU DO lose details and more channel separation,etc when you select a 5 channel power amplifier of any manufacturer.
My recollection of what each amp sounded like is as follows:
ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005 (great power and amazing soundstage. Very low noise floor, BUT this amplifiers NEEDS TO BE cranked up in order to fully enjoy it. If you like listening at low volume levels or somewhat moderate, you are wasting your time here. This amp won’t sound any different than many other brands out there at this volume. The bass is great, good highs although they are a bit bright for my taste)
NAD M25 (very smooth, powerful, but somewhat thin sounding as far as bass goes)
Bryston sst2(detailed, good soundstage, good power, but can be a little forward with certain speakers which could make them ear fatiguing at loud volumes)
Krell (fast sounding, nice bass attack, nice highs, but some detail does get lost with certain speakers)
rotel (good amp for the money, but too bright in my opinion)
cary audio (good sound overall, very musical, but it didn’t have enough oomph)
parasound halo (good detail, great bass, but it still holds back some background detail that i can hear in others)
lexicon (very laid back and smooth. huge power, but if you like more detail or crisper highs, this amp will disappoint you)
McIntosh mc205 (probably the worst multichannel amp given its price point. it was too thin sounding, had detail but lacked bass.
butler audio (good amplifier. very warm and smooth sweet sounding. i think for the money, this is a better amp than the parasound a51)
pass labs (very VERY musical with excellent bass control. You can listen to this for hours and hours without getting ear fatigue. however, it DOES NOT do well in home theater applications if all you have is a 2 channel set up for movies. The midrange gets somewhat "muddy" or very weak sounding that you find yourself trying to turn it up.
classe audio (best amplifier for multi channel applications. i simply COULDNT FIND a better multi channel amplifier PERIOD. IT has amazing smoothness, amazing power and good bass control although i would say krell has much better bass control)
Update: The reviews above were done in January 2015. Below is my newest update as of October 2016:
PS AUDIO BHK 300 MONOBLOCKS: Amazing amps. Tons of detail and really amazing midrange. the bass is amazing too, but the one thing i will say is that those of you with speakers efficiency of 87db and below you will not have all the "loudness" that you may want from time to time. These amps go into protection mode when using a speaker such as the Salon, but only at very loud levels. Maybe 97db and above. If you don’t listen to extreme crazy levels, these amps will please you in every way.
Plinius Odeon 7 channel amp: This is THE BEST multichannel amp i have ever owned. Far , but FAR SUPERIOR to any other multichannel amp i have owned. In my opinion it destroyed all of the multichannel amps i mentioned above and below. The Odeon is an amp that is in a different tier group and it is in a league of its own. Amazing bass, treble and it made my center channel sound more articulate than ever before. The voices where never scrambled with the action scenes. It just separated everything very nicely.
Theta Dreadnaught D: Good detailed amp. Looks very elegant, has a pleasant sound, but i found it a tad too bright for my taste. I thought it was also somewhat "thin" sounding lacking body to the music. could be that it is because it is class d?
Krell Duo 300: Good amp. Nice and detailed with enough power to handle most speakers out there. I found that it does have a very nice "3d" sound through my electrostatics. Nothing to fault here on this amp.
Mark Levinson 532H: Great 2 channel amp. Lots of detail, amazing midrange which is what Mark Levinson is known for. It sounds very holographic and will please those of you looking for more detail and a better midrange. As far as bass, it is there, but it is not going to give you the slam of a pass labs 350.5 or JC1s for example. It is great for those that appreciate classical music, instrumental, etc, but not those of you who love tons of deep bass.
It is articulate sounding too
Krell 7200: Plenty of detail and enough power for most people. i found that my rear speakers contained more information after installed this amp. One thing that i hated is that you must use xlr cables with this amp or else you lose most of its sound performance when using RCA’s.
Krell 402e: Great amp. Very powerful and will handle any speaker you wish. Power is incredible and with great detail. That said, i didn’t get all the bass that most reviewers mentioned. I thought it was "ok" in regards to bass. It was there, but it didn’t slam me to my listening chair.
Bryston 4B3: Good amp with a complete sound. I think this amp is more laid back than the SST2 version. I think those of you who found the SST2 version of this amp a little too forward with your speakers will definitely benefit from this amp’s warmth. Bryston has gone towards the "warm" side in my opinion with their new SST3 series. As always, they are built like tanks. I wouldn’t call this amp tube-like, but rather closer to what the classe audio delta 2 series sound like which is on the warm side of things.
Parasound JC1s: Good powerful amps. Amazing low end punch (far superior bass than the 402e). This amp is the amp that i consider complete from top to bottom in regards to sound. Nothing is lacking other than perhaps a nicer chassis. Parasound needs to rework their external appearance when they introduce new amps. This amp would sell much more if it had a revised external appearance because the sound is a great bang for the money. It made my 800 Nautilus scream and slam. Again, amazing low end punch.
Simaudio W7: Good detailed amp. This amp reminds me a lot of the Mark Levinson 532h. Great detail and very articulate. I think this amp will go well with bookshelves that are ported in order to compensate for what it lacks when it comes to the bass. That doesn’t mean it has no bass, but when it is no Parasound JC1 either.
Pass labs 350.5: Wow, where do i begin? maybe my first time around with the xa30.8 wasn’t as special as it was with this monster 350.5. It is just SPECTACULAR sounding with my electrostatics. The bass was THE BEST BASS i have ever heard from ANY amp period. The only amp that comes close would be the jC1s. It made me check my settings to make sure the bass was not boosted and kept making my jaw drop each time i heard it. It totally destroyed the krell 402e in every regard. The krell sounded too "flat" when compared to this amp. This amp had amazing mirange with great detail up top. In my opinion, this amp is the best bang for the money. i loved this amp so much that i ended up buying the amp that follows below.
Pass labs 250.8: What can i say here. This is THE BEST STEREO AMP i have ever heard. This amp destroys all the amps i have listed above today to include the pass labs 350.5. It is a refined 350.5 amp. It has more 3d sound which is something the 350.5 lacked. It has a level of detail that i really have never experienced before and the bass was amazing as well. I really thought it was the most complete power amplifier i have ever heard HANDS DOWN. To me, this is a benchmark of an amplifier. This is the amp that others should be judged by. NOTHING is lacking and right now it is the #1 amplifier that i have ever owned.
My current amps are Mcintosh MC601s: i decided to give these 601s a try and they don’t disappoint. They have great detail, HUGE soundstage, MASSIVE power and great midrange/highs. The bass is great, but it is no pass labs 250.8 or 350.5. As far as looks, these are the best looking amps i have ever owned. No contest there. i gotta be honest with you all, i never bought mcintosh monos before because i wasn’t really "wowed" by the mc452, but it could have been also because at that time i was using a processor as a preamp which i no longer do. Today, i own the Mcintosh C1100 2 chassis tube preamp which sounds unbelievable. All the amps i just described above have been amps that i auditioned with the C1100 as a preamp. The MC601s sound great without a doubt, but i will say that if you are looking for THE BEST sound for the money, these would not be it. However, Mcintosh remains UNMATCHED when it comes to looks and also resale value. Every other amp above depreciates much faster than Mcintosh.
That said, my future purchase (when i can find a steal of a deal) will be the Pass labs 350.8. I am tempted to make a preliminary statement which is that i feel this amp could be THE BEST stereo amp under 30k dollars. Again, i will be able to say more and confirm once i own it. I hope this update can help you all in your buying decisions!
Showing 32 responses by jmeyers
@WC A white 1964 Camaro RS convertible was my first car, but that is off-topic. More to the point, since you evaluated any of the Krell amplifiers, their performances have been meaningfully upgraded with the addition of their new "XD" technology (according to a number of critics who publish in magazines). Consequently, is a latest-version of a Krell amplifier on your list of power amplifiers to next evaluate? By the way, let me add to the chorus of your fans my own appreciation of your constant efforts to keep us "Audiogonians" informed about the relative performance capabilities of popular higher-end amplfiers. For me, this ongoing posting is a daily "must read". |
For those of us who haven't tracked this discussion closely over the past couple of months, could someone please list the components which currently are being used as the "baseline" -- preamp, primary source component(s), amplifier(s), speakers, power conditioner (if any) and cabling (interconnect, speaker, and power)? Thank you. |
I have used Roon resident on a Nucleus+ extensively for more the one year. I use Cox Cable at 150 mb/sec, with data passing along via Wireworld Starlight 8 Ethernet cable from and to a Luxul AV switch and then onto a LUMIN T2 music server/DAC. Never even once have I heard a Tidal track skip, even for a moment. |
Well, I enjoyed the opportunity to listen to all of the videos you took at the Florida show. As with all prior videos, I listened to their audio streams from my Oppo 203 via a Shunyata HDMI cable to my Theta Digital Casablanca V preamplifier (power to both components conditioned by a Shunyata Denali 6000/S) via Wireworld Eclipse 8 interconnects to my Krell FPB 200c power amplifier (power conditioned by a Shunyata Denali 2000/T) via Wireworld Silver Eclipse 8 speaker cables to my Revel Ultima Studio loudspeakers. To me, most of these videos sounded good to quite good. Now, I am not a shill for Krell. However, to my ears, the video Jay made to demonstrate the Krell integrated amplifier sounded significantly better than any of the show videos. There may be a number of reasons for that, including different venues, different microphones, etc. Nonetheless, these comparisons made me appreciate the performance of the Krell K-300i all the more. The problem I have in offering my opinion is the one I always have. The Krell integrated amplifier is part of a system that also includes a terrific MSB DAC and superb Focal speakers. The relative contribution of each to this system's outstanding sound is an enigma to me. I can say without reservation, though, that the MSB/Krell/Focal system is one I would be quite content in owning. |
I am embarrassed to state this publicly, but I could not find where I am supposed to cast my vote for the DAC I preferred. Consequently, let me say here that I definitely preferred #2 over #1. That said, now let me rile some feathers by stating that, for me, this experience was similar to when I heard the Wilson Alexx V vs the Sonus Faber Aria II. The Aria II affected me (in a most positive sense) in a way that the Alexx V could not. |
I wanted to respond to Jay’s question regarding my preference of the Aida II over the Alexx V -- recognizing it is a digression from the thrust of this thread currently. While I am somewhat of an audiophile and do actually get a kick (from time to time) listening to how equipment impacts the sound rather than listening to the music, I primarily listen for personal enjoyment. There are three selections I typically choose to "test" a system: Peggy Lee’s "Is That All There Is", Ludovico Einaudi’s "Life" (from his album "In a Time Lapse"), and Led Zepplin’s "Dazed and Confused". Each was streamed from Tidal. The other equipment was generally [for Aida II] Audio Research preamp and power amps; DCS stack; cabling unknow, but obviously high quality and [for Alexx V] Spectral for preamp and power amps; DCS stack; Transparent Audio cabling. I listened to the Alexx V recently at a high-end audio store. The sound which I heard was a perfect rendition, with extraordinary definition. I marveled at the clarity. My thought was that, if one wanted to perform an autopsy on a performance, this was the speaker (and associated electronics) to utilize. I heard the Aida II at the most recent AXPONA. Dazed and Confused was the last track played. I can say without hesitation, that song/music/performance was the greatest audio experience of my life. Led Zepplin was there, live, and playing their hearts out -- just for me. When the last note played, I was standing there silent and then just exclaimed "Holy crap!!" Now how could it be ever better than that? |
Finally, and I am putting my head on the chopping block here, I think in all three videos the same DAC was #1 and #2, respectively. It will be fun to find out tomorrow whether I was right because I still will retain a head on my shoulders even if I am wrong -- which is a really good deal, all considered! |
It is amusing. The results of the DAC shootout are yet to be announced, and yet already this forum's more active participants are fantasizing about what Jay should do next. I confess to being among those fantasizers, and initially I thought "how about a totally different sort of shoot-out"? Being a music lover for decades, there are recordings of favorites of mine which I have on vinyl, CD, hard drive (provided to me as part of a pre-loaded HDD), and, now, via Tidal. Which version sounds best? Thinking about it a little more, I realized I could not obtain an objective answer. Before reaching the point of amplifier via speaker cable to speakers, my vinyl version is impacted by my choices of turntable, arm, cartridge, phono preamp, preamplifier, and related cables; the CD by my choices of transport, DAC/preamplifier (I have a Theta Casablanca, which incorporates an excellent DAC internally) and related cables; the hard drive by the source loaded onto the drive, as well as by my choices of hard drive, DAC, the preamplifier, and related cables; and Tidal by streamer, DAC, preamplifier, and related cables. Obviously, with this many variables, we don't have a situation of just apples and oranges; it is more like apples and screwdrivers. The only standard apparently remaining is not what IS better, but rather what SOUNDS better to the listener. And, ultimately, even that is not the end goal, for all of us listen for our own personal pleasure. The equipment we choose to accomplish the reproduction of a performance in our homes is what enables us to experience real enjoyment from listening, limited only by our individual financial resources. Stepping down from my soapbox, let me say that I simply enjoy Jay's videos and postings (and most of those of fellow contributors). They might even influence some of my future equipment purchases. In the end, however, I buy something, bring it home, set it up, cross my fingers and hope the result is "better" in my system than what it has replaced. Fortunately, doing this has been fun for me for over 50 years. |
Well, it appears that you "touched a nerve" when you mentioned your back pain. Having had three back surgeries over the past 17 years, each of them addressing a different area of my spine, my perspective isn't as skeptical as others who have provided you with their best advice. The real question always is, what is going on with your spine that is causing the pain (and what type of pain is it)? The surgeon can really only determine that after examining an MRI of the affected area. In my cases, each time it was a bone spur (one time, five of them actually) digging into my spinal cord and causing me truly excruciating pain if I moved "wrong". The surgeon removed the spur(s) and, in each case, the relief was instant, and the recovery took maybe a total of two days, although exercising again was postponed for about four weeks. In my latest surgery of last year, I had two herniated disks as well that were repaired without any subsequent adverse affect. Overall, I can say that, in my situations, the surgery was a lifesaver and has enabled meet to maintain a high quality of life. The only thing that has been curtailed has been squats; for some reason, that particular exercise (even wearing a belt) has caused me some temporary (in days) lower back discomfort. I do agree with the the other posters here that (1) losing some weight -- which would likely be helpful and (2) exercising to keep the muscles around your core strong are both important. Lastly, you move around some very heavy equipment, which cannot be a good thing given your hernias. I suggest you consider buying a manual lifter such as this one: Wesco Value Lift 47" Lift Manual Hydraulic Fork Stacker (digitalbuyer.com). I think it would be a good investment in your health. |
So, to return to the primary subject at hand, I am now actively in the evaluation stage of what I should do to upgrade my system, the amplifiers and speakers of which are around 20 years old. As some here have noted (sagely), one's audio system is synergistic. Consequently, while I am eager to own and employ some of the "latest and greatest" new components, since the whole is greater than the sum of its parts in this case, I am conversely quite hesitant, too. The largest aspect of the problem is that it is nigh onto impossible to audition new components where I live. For example, I am intrigued by Rockport's latest speakers. The nearest dealer is 350 miles from my home. I would like to try out the new McIntosh 611 mono amplifiers -- same problem. Jay's videos are very helpful in that they provide us with some comparative differentiation. On the other hand, most are so high-end that -- for me, at least -- they are also unaffordable. I am sure I am not alone in facing with this problem, and so I am interested in learning how other deal with it. And, since this is an amplifier/preamplifier thread, particularly in auditioning better amplifiers. |
First, thank you for this shoot-out. It was a terrific experience -- as well as unique. I was pleasantly surprised that the amplifier I preferred, the Sim Audio's Moon 860 V2, is the one that was essentially neutral. However, it got me thinking of one potentially paradoxical aspect of this shoot-out and other listening experiences on your channel as well. What if my amplifier is also "warm" and adding to it the warmth generated by the other two amplifiers simply made it too warm? Now, I think that I do prefer a neutral (if there really is such a thing) sound and the addition of warmth doesn't work well for me, so the Moon amp was the one I instantly and clearly liked the most. I suppose my question is how do we, the subscribers, best audition the components you demonstrate sonically if our systems are already colored? |