Best Pure Musical Amplifiers (power not important)

Argh, Mike! You left off the Ref160Ms, did you grow weary of their musical awesomeness?
 
I think it has taken a long time to actually get it broken in because I was listening mainly to my SET amps, however I think I finally have my T+A broken in. I got to say, the more I listen to this mighty midget the more I am blown away. It is one of the sweatiest amps I have ever heard. Very fast, like Goldmund fast, amazing control on the bottom end, better separation and imaging then about any mono blocks I have heard.

Dam I would love to be able to afford one of their higher amps, however it sounds like T+A has keep the same tech but simply at a lower level... 1-200,000 hz band width. Holy F!@#$%^....
 
mep said:
Not that it matters now, but did you have the amps plugged into some type of power line conditioner? If so, did you try plugging them straight into the wall outlet to see if the random static and slight random hum issues went away?
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Ya beat me to it, mep. I was thinking power supply to the home also. Or, power conditioner.
 
Wow, you guys are just mean :D.... I am the typo king after all. And yes I might have been sweaty, but that would have been with the Audio Mirrors... dam they ran HOT... :)

The T+A definitely won out; the AMP 8 is one sweet sounding amplifier. It took a long time to get it completely broken in (because I keep going back to the SET amps), and it took a long time for me to move beyond the apprehension of a physically small amp being able to sound so good... Anyway, after breaking in and getting my head out of my A@#$%... wow the T+A is a really good amplifier!

So I sold the Audio Mirrors when it became apparent that every time I hooked them up I wanted to re-hook the T+A.

Oh, those amplifiers that were so finicky for me I did try all of the above including powering them straight from the wall. Never had any other amps do these type of things... I ended up selling them to a Quicksilver fanatic... He had been looking for a pair of that model amps for a while to complete his collection.
 
Mike said:
Often the amp/preamp combo is too critical to split up. But I’ll take a stab at it:

1. VAC 200iQ/450iQ
2. Viva anything
3. SIT-3
4. Pass XA.5 with the edge to the 60.5/160.5
5. Shindo D’Yquem/WE300b
6. Dart
7. D’Ag S250
8. Audio Arts Mono II, but must be paired with the matching preamp
9. Gryphon Colosseum
10. Mc 2301’s
11. BAT VK55SE monos
12. MBL 9011/9008
13. AudioNote Ongaku
14. Luxman M900u monos/stereo

Almost too many to mention....I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few.

#1 is my amp at home (200iQ). $15K. Invest in some killer NOS tubes and you have a world class amp for $20K or less. It’s an amp that keeps pulling you back for “just one more song”, no matter how late it is.
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No T+A on your list Mike :(...
 
Randy Myers said:
No T+A on your list Mike :(...
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Yeah, yeah, heard that from another person. No NAIM either (a glaring miss on my part). Don’t know what to say? I’ve heard the T+A monos at shows, but never had them in my store. They were great when I heard them. The HV stuff has that meat on the bones, smooth sound.


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Randy, really. I did not know you were having issues. I am interested in SS, but just cant pull the trigger. So much love or hate for the same this or that.

I still very much like my amps. I tried a very inexpensive SS amp that was wow at first. After some days I found I was never draw to sit and listen. When I put the Casablanca back in it was just wow. Even though they sound pretty similar, the Casablanca just makes you want to stop, listen and enjoy.

I'm not plugging my amp. I'm just stating my concern that 2 to 3 months down the road a SS amp may leave me flat. Maybe not. I just don't know. Are you 3 plus months into the T&A and find you can just sit back and enjoy. I don't want hyper attention. I want correct tone and toe tapping music.
 
Kingrex said:
Randy, really. I did not know you were having issues. I am interested in SS, but just cant pull the trigger. So much love or hate for the same this or that.

I still very much like my amps. I tried a very inexpensive SS amp that was wow at first. After some days I found I was never draw to sit and listen. When I put the Casablanca back in it was just wow. Even though they sound pretty similar, the Casablanca just makes you want to stop, listen and enjoy.

I'm not plugging my amp. I'm just stating my concern that 2 to 3 months down the road a SS amp may leave me flat. Maybe not. I just don't know. Are you 3 plus months into the T&A and find you can just sit back and enjoy. I don't want hyper attention. I want correct tone and toe tapping music.
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Kingrex, not sure what your amps are, but have you tried Gryphon?
 
Kingrex said:
Randy, really. I did not know you were having issues. I am interested in SS, but just cant pull the trigger. So much love or hate for the same this or that.

I still very much like my amps. I tried a very inexpensive SS amp that was wow at first. After some days I found I was never draw to sit and listen. When I put the Casablanca back in it was just wow. Even though they sound pretty similar, the Casablanca just makes you want to stop, listen and enjoy.

I'm not plugging my amp. I'm just stating my concern that 2 to 3 months down the road a SS amp may leave me flat. Maybe not. I just don't know. Are you 3 plus months into the T&A and find you can just sit back and enjoy. I don't want hyper attention. I want correct tone and toe tapping music.
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It was the Quicksilver amps that I had a while ago that acted very finicky for me. The Audio Mirror amps always worked fine. I really liked them and initially I would hook up the T+A but quickly wanted to re-attach the Audio Mirror. After several months I started noticing the opposite. Every time I hooked the Audio Mirror up I wanted to listen to the T+A again. It got to a point where the T+A had became my main stay and the Audio Mirror were starting to become more decorations and the T+A is the amp I was enjoying the most. I guess it took some time for the T+A to break in and show its full potential.

The T+A has never become fatiguing at all to me. It is very music, very detailed, wonderful sound stage, extremely fast. It reminds me a lot of the Goldmund amps, but better bottom end fullness.
 
Hey, wasn't it you who turned me on to Quicksilver? I thought they look interesting but went with ampsandsound in the end. I guess I made a good decision.

I wish I could find a musical pair of solid-state monoblocks that we're reasonably priced. All my cabling and set up is design for monos.
 
Honestly, if I were looking for a new tube amp that was reasonably priced I think I still would not shy away from Quicksilver. I still believe they are a great product, very good sounding. I think the weirdness I experienced was just a fluke.
 
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