Review: Portal Panache Integrated Amplifier


Category: Amplifiers

First, let me start by saying I’ve never written a review before and I find it to be quite a daunting task. It scares me to no end that someone might actually base their purchasing decision on what I write here but at the same time I feel compelled to put fingers to keyboard. Who am I to declare if an amplifier is a worthy contender or not for someone’s system though?

Am I an audiophile? Certainly not! Am I a man of much experience with vast amounts of high-end equipment? With a wife, two kids, and a mortgage – you’ve got to be kidding, right?!? Am I a music lover? You bet! I find nothing more pleasurable than sitting for a couple of hours in front of a pair of speakers with a favorite piece of vinyl spinning… I’ve had this passion for decades.

I listen to mostly rock exclusively on vinyl – not the modern stuff, but primarily 70’s and some very early 80’s material. My associated equipment is:

- Rega Planar 25 Turntable

- Dynavector 20xL Moving Coil Cartridge

- Dynavector P-75 Phono-stage in PE-Mode

- Von Schweikert VR-1 Monitors

I started a journey early last fall to replace my aging, but much loved, Musical Fidelity A300 Integrated amplifier. I always enjoyed the A300. I found it to be warm, very involving, with nice frequency extremes.

At the same time, the A300 wasn’t the most detailed amplifier I’d ever heard. I found the bass and mid-bass to get a bit muddy on more dynamic passages, especially if the volume was pushed and I also found that some instruments found in rock music, like crash cymbals, sounded a bit “off”. I wouldn’t call it sibilance, but cymbals sometimes had that “tearing paper” hiss to them that I found somewhat distracting.

After researching a fair amount, I sold the A300 and picked up a Creek 5350SE on Audiogon. The bass on the 5350SE had an incredible amount of definition and detail but lacked any real weight in my system. I ultimately found it to be an incredibly detailed and refined but an exceptionally boring amplifier for rock. It didn’t involve me in the music like the Musical Fidelity had. After living with the 5350SE for a while, off it went on Audiogon too.

Enter the Portal Panache. An integrated I had never heard of, but that was mentioned by a couple of responders to my tale of woe and plea for help on Audio Asylum and, here, on Audiogon. I started researching the Panache and lo and behold, Portal Audio resides not 20 minutes from where I live. All the reviews seemed to indicate that from a performance standpoint the Panache may be just what I’d been looking for.

Portal has a 60-day “in-home trial” policy, so I figured I had nothing to lose. I called Joe Abrams of Portal Audio up and made arrangements to purchase one of his demo units he had listed on Audiogon. I have to interject here that Joe is one of the finest people I’ve ever met in my short time with Audiophile gear. Willing to answer a whole host of mundane and novice questions I threw at him and even went so far as to meet me at a local coffee-shop so he could personally deliver the Panache to me – where he proceeded to buy me a cup of coffee and spent a good half-hour talking audio with me. My only contribution to the whole affair being parting with an embarrassingly small check for such a piece or equipment.

So, “get to how it sounds already!” I hear you cry…

The Portal Panache has, in my opinion, all the warmth of the A300 with all the definition and detail of the 5350SE; with the added necessary “oooomph” to bring out the excitement in more dynamic pieces of music.

The bass is well extended and has a great deal of slam yet I can distinctly pick out minute details that were clearly not there with the Musical Fidelity A300. Every pluck of Geddy Lee’s bass comes through as if he’s right there in the room with me – it’s not one big lump of one-note bass lines, I can hear every detail. The bass extension is deep too. My speakers are a limiting factor here although they are exceptional for a monitor with regard to bass. Kick drums are distinctly heard and “felt” in as much as the VR-1’s will allow.

The midrange is warm and detailed as well without being over-emphasized. One professional reviewer stated that the Panache had a tube-like midrange not unlike the Manley Stingray, and he’s correct. The midrange is where this amp really shines and where many solid-state amps I’ve heard waiver, including the 5350SE.

Treble is well extended but not the least bit harsh or edgy. Cymbals sound correct – they have that wonderful metallic shimmer to them that was missing with the A300 and it’s quite detailed. To be honest, this is the one area, however, that I felt that the 5350SE outshined the Panache. The 5350SE had a bit more detail and extension to the high-end than the Panache but not so much so that I’d call it a deciding factor or that I feel like I’m missing anything.

Soundstaging and imaging are not exactly a top priority for most rock recordings but the Musical Fidelity A300 had a real problem keeping a stable soundstage in more dynamic passages. The 5350SE and Panache both are stellar at setting up a wide and deep soundstage and maintaining it no matter how dynamic or congested the music gets. I hear this especially on certain works like Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and it is quite an amazing experience.

So, everything’s wine and roses – right?

Well, yes – actually! For me that is, but the Panache is a bit of a quirky beast and not for everyone. Many people will find the spartan cosmetic design of the amplifier not to their liking. It’s basically a big black box with three knobs and a power switch on it – the only light is on the switch itself. It’s truly built like a tank though – weighing in at around 35 pounds and everything, while simple, looks, feels, and screams quality. I love it – it’s exactly what it needs to be and no more.

As Sam Tellig pointed out in Stereophile, it’s a bit of a misnomer to call the Panache an integrated amplifier. The pre-amp section is passive so it’s basically an amplifier with a volume pot, a balance control, and a 4-point selector switch on it. No remote, 4-inputs, one output, “whumps” when you power it up.

It appears the designer, Joe Abrams, wanted the guts of the amp to be much like the aesthetics of the amp – for it to be as “pure” and simple as possible. That means not including much of the circuitry found in many modern amplifier designs. Such “jewelry” as a remote control, soft-start circuitry, etc. are nowhere to be found.

My understanding is that when Joe had the amplifier engineered he wanted there to be as little as possible between the source and the speakers. All the less to impart sonic-signatures along the signal path would be the mantra of the design philosophy. By all accounts that philosophy has paid off in spades to my ears!

There are some oddities that the spartan design philosophy yields though. For example, due to the passive pre-amp design, if you have a recording device attached to the outputs that device has to be powered on while listening or you have to disconnect the device from the output of the Panache. Otherwise sound quality is severely diminished.

The Panache also is also more sensitive to ground-loop hum than the A300 and 5350SE were. Something I found out while spending an entire Saturday hunting down the rogue device in my home that was imparting a low-level buzz through the speakers that wasn’t present with prior amps. The lack of remote control is going to be a deal-breaker for some too. For me, though, these were all minor nuances that the sound this amplifier emits more than outweighs.

If you’re looking for a simple, detailed, musical, slightly warm integrated with fantastic extremes and rock solid soundstaging you can’t possibly go wrong with the Portal Panache at $1,795. If you’re lucky enough to snag a demo at $1,295 consider yourself a thief and I seriously doubt anyone will be taking advantage of Joe’s 60-day return policy - I know I’m not!

Associated gear
Click to view my Virtual System

Similar products
Musical Fidelity A300
Creek 5350SE
slate1
Steve- It occurs to me that you have an agenda in your relentless harping on
this particular detail. If you go to the Portal Website you would see that Portal does, in
fact, refer to the Panache as an "Integrated Amplifier". In fact, that
title is emblazened across its black face plate.

Marco

Is trying to teach and keep the standards consistent an agenda?
Is using varifyable facts a form of agenda, or is it teaching and helping the audio community?

I would think you and some others posting here would welcome learning about the recognized standards instead of fighting them tooth and toenail. Sounds like you have a vested interest or agenda. Do you?
Also makes me wonder if you are receiving ANY form of compensation by anyone, any kind what so ever guys?

I brought only the facts to the table. Here is another one.

Bound for Sound, in issue 163, "Components of Merit" #5, "Power Amplifiers and Integrateds" Knows that there are differences. But you guys have fought it all the way.

I mean, if you don't understand, why are you fighting the information tooth and toenail?

>>" In fact, that title is emblazened across its black face plate." (refering to integrated)

No kidding. Are you trying to change the subject? It is about unfounded claims made in the review, and the quoted comment from Sam.

Want to see a good review? See the review by Scotty of the VAC. It is excellent without bringing up weird comments or changing definitions.
sas > Then your amp is not a Basic amp, but an integrated amp with the extra gainstage already incorporated into it. If it was a Basic amp, then you wouldn't be running a CD player directly into it and getting full power output.

1. How many standalone amps by whatever name cannot be driven by a line level source such as a CD player with sufficient output voltage and adequately matched impedance? What are some examples of amps which do and do not contain this extra gainstage, which actually makes these amps integrateds (or not)?

2. Integrateds which are advertised as having passive preamps usually indicate the passive preamp is a cost savings measure. This is true for Portal and for Jolida, for example. Why, if these integrateds (or amps) actually have an extra gainstage don't the manufacturers take the advantageous route of advertising the integrateds (or amps) as having active preamps?
I would think you and some others posting here would welcome learning about the recognized standards instead of fighting them tooth and toenail. Sounds like you have a vested interest or agenda. Do you?

No vested interest or agenda that I'm aware of. It's one of three very different amps I currently listen to and I'm quite impressed with it. I've never been as taken with an SS amp, so it came as quite a surprise to me. I still prefer both tube amps I own, but I enjoy the Panache for a unique combination of qualities it offers.

As far as my interest in "learning about recognized standards" my response, which I recognize as being quite personal, is this: Initially I was making a simple statement based upon what I understood, and wanted to make it clear I was no expert, which is why I left it open to correction. To the ends you have taken to debating this particular detail, I have about as much interest in this subject as I would about the learning about similar standards regarding the manufacture and marketing of a hammer. I'd rather just heft the hammer, pound a few nails with it if I could, compare it to other hammers, and see how it suits me. Whatever debatable "marketing hype" the hammer manufacturer uses or doesn't use to sell their tools goes is soon forgotten once the hammer is in hand...it's part of the game everybody plays trying to get others to buy stuff they don't need anyway. Each of us is inundated with it every day on so many levels. IMO you have a snowball's chance in hell of changing that. You will note I never took issue with any of your rhetoric about passive vs. active vs. moderately interested gain stages. I initially pointed it out because you seemed to be asking a question or to be confused about it, when in fact, you now seem to have all the answers you need so I'm not really sure why you initially were confused. In the end I don't care if they used a wad of Play-Dough™ in the output stage to make it sound good. If it works for me and my purposes I don't really spend much time questioning why, I simply enjoy it while I'm still breathing.

Marco
See above. And look around.

2>>"Why, if these integrateds (or amps) actually have an extra gainstage don't the manufacturers take the advantageous route of advertising the integrateds (or amps) as having active preamps?">

Everybody knows what integrated means, except it seems you.
And just looking at the sensitivity shows what is inside.

See above posts about weaknesses of integrateds. And that is just one problem. Look at CJ. They tell what gainstages are in their amps. But notice how they do it. They make it clear so all can understand, not play word games. Very intelligent of them.

Take care.
Steve