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Review: Spectron Musician III Signature Edition Amplifier

Category: Amplifiers

This review is of the newly released Spectron Musician III "Signature Edition" MSRP $5995. The signature edition has improvements over the $4995 standard version (which is an exceptional amplifier as-is) that improve the specs and sound to the degree of making it a strong competitor to $20K-40K reference monoblocks. John Ulrick (former co-founder of Infinity and creator of the first digital amp in 1974) has really outdone himself with this new design. The Musician III Signature version is one of the most natural, detailed, robust and transparent amplifiers I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. The soundstage is so vast that when I closed my eyes, my once constricted sounding listening room sounded like someone snuck into my new home and added an extra room behind the speakers! Ok, I may be exaggerating about the stage a little bit but not about the clarity, detail and bass authority. This amp is POWERFUL and difficult loads do not even phase it. I have MBL 111E Omnidirectional speakers connected to it. I originally focused my attention on the ship anchor sized MBL 9011 monoblocks and fell in love with them at CES 2005. The Spectron was purchased to be a temporary place holder until I could afford the MBL giants. After purchasing this tiny, less than 60 lb. digital powerhouse, I have no desire to shell out for Monoblocks that cost as much as my new BMW 5. Everyone recognizes that the new digital designs are powerful and efficient but there exists an industry wide stigma about the musicality of most digital designs. Many inexpensively or poorly implemented digital chip based designs simply do not have the warmth and natural sound of the finest tube and class A solid state amps. The Spectron Musician III Signature is in a category all by itself. I enjoy listening to cello and piano. I ran through about 2 hours of "The Essential Yo Yo Ma" and was shocked. The Spectron revealed nuances and micro details that I never noticed previously on tracks that I listen to frequently. The bass is robust, strong and very controlled. The Spectron sounds nothing like many of the digital ice-power or tripath based designs. The Spectron is very transparent. What comes out of it is exactly what you put into it. Use a great power cord and exceptional source equipment and you cannot lose with this amp. Other Spectron owners tell me that tube preamps such as BAT are a perfect companion for the Spectron. If you are considering purchasing a new amplifier in the $10000+ category, you owe it to yourself, and your wallet, to give the Musician III Signature a listen. Be sure to have a pair of well respected tube or solid state amps that cost at least twice as much in the same room for A/B comparison. You will be amazed! The manufacturer burns in the amps for a week or so at the factory and informed me that I need to give it at least a week of burn-in at home to fully appreciate it. After a few hours of warm up, right out of the box, it sounded great. I am on day 4 of listening and it just keeps getting better.

Strengths: Powerful, Open Soundstage, Critical Midrange is natural and dynamic. Nice build quality. Pretty Face

Weakness: No rack mount option at this time.

Associated gear
Theta CBIII w/Extreme DACS running 2ch
Underwood Modded Denon 3910
MBL 111E Omnidirectional Speakers
PS Audio Duet
Mr.Cable Musician Power Cord

Similar products
Parasound JC-1
Theta Enterprise
Pass X-600
Mark Levinson 331 x2
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sodapop OP
14 posts
 
To: Guidocorona

Prior to the Enterprise Monos, I owned a Theta Dreadnaught II. I still maintain that the Dread II is one of the finest sounding and best looking solid state amplifiers ever made. I upgraded to the Enterprise Monos because I needed more power to properly drive the MBL Speakers. I hoped that the Theta monos would simply be a more powerful version of the Dreadnaught II. Sadly I was disappointed. For some reason, the Enterprise Monos did not have the sweetness and character of the Dread II. Since I could not afford the price of the Monster Theta Citadels, I looked into other Amplifiers. I chose the Pass x-600's. They had the power and finesse that I was looking for but were a bit clinical sounding when paired with the MBL's. Note: I do have to say that the current Pass Designs are exceptional and that their customer service is second to none.

Moving to the Spectron Musician III Signature was the best decision I made. It is 1/3 of the price of the now discontinued Pass x-600's and little over half of the price of the Enterprise Mono's and surpasses them both.
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Thank you for the feedback Sodapop, much appreciated.
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
I have read in a couple of places that the Spectron Sig is a 'true' balanced amp. Does this mean it is a differentially balanced design, or is a synthetic balanced signal achieved in some other way?
dob
577 posts
 
Hello Guido.
This amp has true balanced input where two signals with oppose phases are carried. The signals summated and further processing is done in single ended mode. I am not familiar with any class D amplifier which work in balanced configuration in similar fashion to linear amps and this is because, theoretically at least, there is almost no advantage to do so in this class.
Hope it helps.
Rafael
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Spoke today to Jeff at JRDG. Apparently the 312 amp is balanced both at the input and the output, while my old JRDG 7M has balanced input but a single ended output, with one of the two conductors in the speaker wire acting purely as ground. I am not sure if the Spectron Sig has balanced output. Admittedly, ultimately it may not matter. Our ears are the ultimate judges--hopefully independent from stated technology/looks/etc. . .--and I have not aA/Bd the two devices.
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