Beautiful Sounding amplifiers.

Musicfirst

Musicfirst

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Apr 9, 2016
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Happy holidays Guys.

I am looking for recommendations of cost no object high powered amplifiers that are very musical as opposed to gear that is more on the analytical side of neutral.

My experience of amplifiers that fit this criteria are Jadis, and YBA.

Amplifiers that I have not heard but which might be candidates include Vitus, the latest Gryphon gear and perhaps CH precision.

I don't want to sacrifice resolution, noise floor or dynamics however.

I love the amazing bass, dynamics air and detail that the Soulution gear provides, but I'm looking for gear that has better synergy and will provide even better "soul" than the Soulution gear with my otherwise utterly resolving digital system.


Kerry
 
Hi Kerry,

I like the Constellation Centaur II monoblocks. They are really liquid sounding, have full bodied midrange and robust bass. A bonus is they run much cooler than most other amps. What speakers will you be using? Do you still have the Rockport Cygnus?

Ken
 
Hi Ken and Happy holidays.

Yes, i still have the Cygnus, but I am shopping for new speakers. The Cygnus are 90db 4 ohms, but most likely their replacements will be in the 85-88 db range, so big power is a must.

I heard the constellations at a show and came away unimpressed, but as you know, negative conclusions under show conditions means next to nothing.

I'll have to revisit based on your recommendation.

Also interested in hearing the latest MSB, Brinkmann and Audionet.
 
The Dan D’Agostino Momentum series fits your criteria. mono and stereo versions are available.
 
I have Avior 1 and Nagra HD amps. Very Dynamic and musical IMO, it's what I listen for. GLWS



Dave
 
To me an amplifier should preferably a wire with gain. A musical amplifier probably adds nice sounding harmonics but will obscure details and make certain (over) produced bands / singers like imagine dragons, fink and One Direction even unbearable. That is, if they were listenable in the first place to you, as we are talking about taste.
A clinical amplifier probably means either emphasizing a part of the frequencies or leaving certain parts out.
If I look at your main speakers, they are full range, ok in efficiency 90 dB, but a dangerously low nominal 4 Ohm which probably means they dip much lower so will like a lot of power especially for well defined bass base. I do see a lot of subs which I do not understand for your mains go as low as 20Hz. I ilke the Metrum dac which has a lot of bass and detail.

If you had a HT, I would order a D-Sonic amplifier as it has 1500 Watt for all three LRC channels. Fortunately they also have the same in stereo and mono blocks. Other options not yet mentioned are the Hegel H30 or the Mola Mola Kaluga. I like the feed forward way of working of the H30 which reduces distortion and increases damping for the Hegel. I have not heard the D-Sonic in action but love the way the Pascal, NCores and Hegel amplifiers sound, with totally different loudspeakers of course!

if you are changing speakers, you should maybe check out the Grimm LS1be, a complete system. No more tweaking and (mis)matching but unbelievably good to listen to.
 
Musicfirst said:
Hi Ken and Happy holidays.

Yes, i still have the Cygnus, but I am shopping for new speakers. The Cygnus are 90db 4 ohms, but most likely their replacements will be in the 85-88 db range, so big power is a must.

I heard the constellations at a show and came away unimpressed, but as you know, negative conclusions under show conditions means next to nothing.

I'll have to revisit based on your recommendation.

Also interested in hearing the latest MSB, Brinkmann and Audionet.
Click to expand...

Hi Kerry,

You haven’t heard the Centaur II monoblocks until you’ve heard them on the Magico M3’s with one of the new MSB DACs. Super liquid sounding and supremely musical. I think you should be considering your speaker and amplifier choice in tandem because synergy is everything in high-end systems.

Since you mentioned MSB, the M204 monoblocks deliver 200 watts of beautiful Class A sound. These monoblocks will be replaced by completely redesigned and more expensive monoblocks in Spring 2019 and a new stereo amplifier of the same topology. MSB has been working on these new amplifiers for quite sometime and promises they will be something special.

I don’t know if you’ve been following this lately but Audionet has gone insolvent. Their website has been shut down. Too bad, their Heisenberg monoblocks sounded very fine, more along the lines of the Soulution sound.

Best,
Ken
 
That is a difficult question. We all have different ideas about what is musical. Jadis is IHMO on the warm side of neutral.

The best amps I've heard are:
Aavik M300
Octave Jubilee mono SE
Emm labs MTRX2
Zanden 9600mk2

If I were forced to chose it would be the Emm labs or the Zanden. But it all depends on the speakers. The Zanden have a magic on the own. The EMM labs will control your speaker with a iron fist while no being over analytical.
 
Since my OP here, I have read about the Soulution 700/701 and 710/711 upgrades. It sound like I may have to revisit the '7x1's as they may just be my cuppa.
Any comments or links to the sonic diffs between the 7x0s and 7x1s would be greatly appreciated.
 
While I really like my Mark Levinson No536's the best I've heard and it isn't even close for me is the DartZeel mono's! Of course a pair of those cost almost what my entire system costs but if its a money no object suggestion that would be mine.

George
 
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