Subtlety ? do any American amps do it?


Not heard that many but it strikes me that everything from the colonies sounds a bit stark and bleached. Spent a year trying to come to terms with a Pass Labs which is vastly overated ( and I mean vastly), listened a lot
to Mark Levinson and thought Thank God I did not spend a fortune on that - clean, clear, hifi and so bereft of soul that it was like a visit to the Dentist !
I'm not that biased, it's taken Naim years to make something resembling music - PRAT ? until recently bunch of narrow minded PRATS.I know lots of Naim fans and their mindset belongs to the third reich !
UK companies like Meridian and Musical Fidelity have managed to do the bizz for at least 30 years that I've known/used and they still manage to make a noise that at least resembles real music. MF get tarred with a do it cheap brush but anyone who has heard their gear and says it's crap is probably a dealer who wants to sell you something at 3/4x the price.
The Brazilians do it a treat - Heard Audiopax 88s at the last Edinburgh show and if anyone there had ears, they should have packed up and went home - different league does not describe it.
Realise this is antagonistic but want some input.
Even the UK press seems blinkered to the crap - Pass, Krell
- whoah, nice hifi, shame there's nothing remotely musical involved, apart from the laughter as they take our hard earned money !

I have a Quicksilver phonostage - lovely and a great customer focused company, had a Lancelot Camelot, super and amazingly friendly & helpful people but go to the Big boys and it's just a money grabbing frenzy ?
I dreamed of a Pass Labs for years and ? my next amp will be coming from somewhere in Europe !

Si
simon74

Showing 2 responses by sorlowski

maybe your problem is that you do not get SS amps ?
I do not like most of them too, does not matter US made (Krell, ML, Pass) or European made (gryphorn, MF) all of them are lifeless, spiritless hifi monsters (with a few exceptions, Jeff Rowland, Bluenote, Clayton...), try tube amps they saved me, I was starting to think that hifi is about noise and power, listen to VAC, Manley (I do not like Maintosh), if you like Subtlety the most, and you do not care about dynamic and power at all, maybe try SET amps (I do not like them , yes they are refined but sounds weak to me), I have discover myself in 50-100W tube amps.
I guess I was lucky, I have used Clayton with Supratek Chenin, and that not many 4 times more expensive separates on CES sounded better...
VAC Phi sure did...
But now my British Arcam after 9 years of service died and now I have to temporary use SACD SONY as source, wow it really sound now as $200 boombox :), so good source is a must.