Centaur Stereo Amp

Dpod4 said:
I noticed more texture and dynamics when centaur was run from a tube preamp versus the constellation preamp (which I demoed). Constellation preamp won on low volume presentation - ARC ref 40 tube amp won on slam and texture. Also - did Fremer listen to it with Magicos? My S5s never had such slam as with the constellation amp. Synergy of amp and speakers is everything.
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Darrin, Fremer reviewed the monos with a Dartzeel pre and Wilson Alexandria XLF's.
 
I agree. In my short time to listen last night, The bass is definitely not lacking. It's there, very textured and revealing.

MDP said:
Mike, Fremer's review was the only one that mentioned a lack of bass. In my system the Constellation absolutely "Rocked" !! It really excelled at Rock music better than any other amp.
And before anyone says Rock music always sounds bad, let me tell you that Rock is one of the hardest genres to unravel !! An amp that can break down all the many instruments in Rock or Classical is what I want, it's very complex music. It's too easy for a lesser amp to just blend it all together rather than decipher it all.

As far as the Constellation preamp goes, when I heard it at David's on the S5's, it had tons of slam, even more when run in Balanced instead of Direct. But it sill had plenty no matter which way you ran it.
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As soon as the stereo amp makes it's rounds it will be fun to compare it to the mono's. Murali, one of the owners, said they were very different from each other.
 
asiufy said:
Well, from what I remember of Fremer's review, his opinion seemed to match mine, of the Constellations. They had bass, lots of it actually. It's just that they were delicate about it. It's not old school, monster amp bass. And that causes a little bit of dissociation, since you're looking at this gorgeous, big amp, expecting prodigious bass, and still it sounds delicate.

That could lead one to believe the amps lack slam, but I found the Constellations very laid back. They were actually the most laid back amps (gear, actually, since I had the preamp as well) I've ever heard! So, they were perfect for rock, specially badly transferred digital like early CDs, or recent, compressed recordings. And while they were laid back, even forgiving, they were also absolutely transparent and resolving, with perfect resolution.

Needless to say, I was very impressed :) My only caveat was the preamp, whose ergonomics were not to my liking.

Oh, my impressions were on a Magico Q3, so yeah, Magico/Constellation is one sure way to go!

alexandre
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Very good description.
 
After my relatively short time with the Centaur Stereo amp, I can absolutely say it is a great amp.

I didn't do a blind test with the D'Agostino Stereo but I did compare them.

My biggest recommendation is that if anybody is looking into a $25-30,000 amp then you HAVE to listen to both of these amps. Both are great - personal preference and speaker choice would be the difference.

The short of it is: tighter bass - Dag, vocals - tie/personal preference, cymbals - the Centaur has more texture. The Dag has better blacks when used with the Dag preamp. The Dag is better at low volumes, prob due to the blacker blacks.

My Accuphase preamp sounds better with the Centaur than the Dag preamp does.

I can't see anybody that has either switching to the other. Just too costly for not that much difference.
 
Jock, thanks for the feedback.

Curious why you thought the Accuphase was better with the Centaur than the Dag pre? More body/warmth?
 
I don't know exactly. But, when I listened to the Dag/Centaur combo, my toe didn't tap like it did with the Dag/Dag or Accuphase/Constelation combos.

I want to also add that my system has been optimized for the Dag amps. They are also what I am used to. So even tho I preferred the Dag over the Centaur, they are close enough and with no glaring problems with either. I would bet that if I was used to the Centaur and had optimized my system for it, that I would feel the same (opposite?) way only preferring the Centaur instead.
 
That really stinks. Hopefully the S3's don't have the same effect on you. Hope to get those in next week. They have shipped so it won't be long.
 
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