FM Acoustics Amplifiers

What is the secret of their good sound?

I don't know any secret. They match all components in pairs, used per each channel (i.e. manually, post materials purchasing phase) -- but that's not a secret. That may be a contributing factor.

Are the technical people at FM Acoustics and Boulder smarter than the people at Madrigal or Krell

:) Unlikely, I would say (Ok, I realise you're joking). Just a different product category aimed at a different market segment...
ASAIK, FM sells mostly to the pro market anyway.

Gregm, of course I was joking. The fact is: many audiophiles (mostly in South East Asia), but also world famous artists like Yo Yo Ma and late Leonard ("Lenny")Bernstein think FM Acoustics power amps (and preamps as well) are much better than the offerings from Madrigal and Krell. So, I'm just curious what could be the reason for this: Better parts quality/matching? Better engineering? Designer's kharma? Voo doo magic? The almost insane price tags?

Chris

Are these really class A amplifiers? Judging from the casings, it doesn't seem like they are. Pure class A amplifiers have huge heat sinks (like Gryphon, etc.).

apparently they are (pure class A).
but they don't run very hot at all...

If you are talking about high bandwidth amplifier designs, two others are Essence and Spectral. My Essence Emerald II amp has a bandwidth of more than 5 MHz. The thing you have to be careful about in most of these designs is the amplification of RFI and EMI noise.