Mola-Mola Review in 6 Moons

Sounds like a plain piece of chicken to me. I like a little spice, a little BBQ sauce, heck even a little lemon or lime. But plain? Not for me.
 
Mike said:
How do we know? Has anyone actually ever heard a straight wire with gain?
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I have, when connecting a fresnel and it shorted, knocking me clear off the balcony when I used to do theatrical lighting.

I heard the sound of angels...

Followed shortly by the sound of laughter from my colleagues.
 
Mike said:
Sounds like a plain piece of chicken to me. I like a little spice, a little BBQ sauce, heck even a little lemon or lime. But plain? Not for me.
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Why would anyone want to hear what is on the record, what a ludicrous idea!
Keith.
 
Keith - I hear the record just fine. Neither of us were at the recording, so we will never know what is true to source. I've never had anyone say, "man, I want the most neutral amp in the world." Instead, they want midrange bloom, dynamics, sweetness on top, super tight bass, that sort of thing.

P.S. Are you a UK dealer for Mola-Mola? We ask that all dealers announce that they are a dealer and for what products. Thanks.
 
Mike Him I have edited my signature,
Ultimately you decide upon the sound in your room, personally I don't enjoy adding distortion to every record, I really want to hear what is on the recording.
Keith.
 
Purité Audio said:
Mike Him I have edited my signature,
Ultimately you decide upon the sound in your room, personally I don't enjoy adding distortion to every record, I really want to hear what is on the recording.
Keith.
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Agreed. I would prefer to add my own distortion to suit my tastes via dsp if necessary but would rather my amp did what amps are supposed to do without adding anything.
 
Mike said:
How do we know? Has anyone actually ever heard a straight wire with gain?
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No. It doesn't exist. Regardless of claims being made, all stereo electronics have a sound.
 
mep said:
No. It doesn't exist. Regardless of claims being made, all stereo electronics have a sound.
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this one comes pretty close.

I used it for 4 years and it's about as neutral as is possible. it humbled many a mega buck preamp in terms of transparency and clarity in my search to better it (and held it's own in the areas of dynamics and weight in my particular system of that time).

passives are not for every situation.
 
Mike Lavigne said:
this one comes pretty close.

I used it for 4 years and it's about as neutral as is possible. it humbled many a mega buck preamp in terms of transparency and clarity in my search to better it (and held it's own in the areas of dynamics and weight in my particular system of that time).

passives are not for every situation.
Click to expand...

Passive preamps are almost straight wires with no gain which are entirely different animals than active devices.
 
Mike Lavigne said:
this one comes pretty close.

I used it for 4 years and it's about as neutral as is possible. it humbled many a mega buck preamp in terms of transparency and clarity in my search to better it (and held it's own in the areas of dynamics and weight in my particular system of that time).

passives are not for every situation.
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I still keep an equivalent unit also using the same Vishay resistors and an high quality switch - the Ben Duncan Passion passive.

IMH experience, an active preamplifier, properly chosen and matched, always surpassed it in global performance.
 
mep said:
No. It doesn't exist. Regardless of claims being made, all stereo electronics have a sound.
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No a linear amp with extremely low distortion will be audibly transparent, you can test this easily by switching a component in and out of circuit.
Keith.
 
Purité Audio said:
No a linear amp with extremely low distortion will be audibly transparent, you can test this easily by switching a component in and out of circuit.
Keith.
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I guess we can debate what a "linear amp is" and what "extremely low distortion" means. I think the Japanese built linear amps with extremely low distortion in the 1970s so maybe we should have stopped there and called it a day. Halcro shocked the world in 2002 with their dm58 amp that included switch mode power supplies and distortion figures so low that those that love low distortion figures swooned.
 
People love to mention the '70's Japanese amps and the Halcro whenever the low distortion of Bruno Putsey's amps is praised.

The problem with the '70's Japanese amps is that the specs have been found to be outright lies in many cases. With Halcro, there were many superlative reviews of those amps. In any case, using them as an example of why low distortion is somehow less than good is a bit of a straw man argument.

Let's keep in mind that there is more to an amp than low distortion. Frequency response vs speaker load is also important. Again, compare Bruno's amps to nearly anything else and you will find not only vanishing low amounts of distortion but also flat frequency response with load. There simply isn't anything else out there that performs the task of signal amplification as close to objective perfection as Bruno's amps.
 
cab said:
People love to mention the '70's Japanese amps and the Halcro whenever the low distortion of Bruno Putsey's amps is praised.

The problem with the '70's Japanese amps is that the specs have been found to be outright lies in many cases. With Halcro, there were many superlative reviews of those amps. In any case, using them as an example of why low distortion is somehow less than good is a bit of a straw man argument.
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First of all, please point to where I said that low distortion is "somehow less than good." My whole point in my original post was that all active stages have some type of sound associated with them. We haven't achieved perfection yet that I'm aware of. With distortion levels, I don't think that Bruno is breaking new ground. The Mola-Mola amps are specified as having <.003% distortion and JA measured .0006% distortion for the dm58 amp back in 2002. My point was that distortion figures aren't the be all-end all of amplifier design which is backed up by what you said here:

cab said:
Let's keep in mind that there is more to an amp than low distortion.
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mep said:
Passive preamps are almost straight wires with no gain which are entirely different animals than active devices.
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Mark,

Curious that people start claiming power amplifiers behave like wires with gains but most of the time use the preamplifier case to make their points. IMHO in this Mola Mola case the proper debate should be carried using the amplifier in real conditions - using real speakers in stereo as the load.

IMHO many of the tests for wire with gain are flawed - they just used resistors as a load and attenuator, not the modern low impedance speakers with large variance in impedance.

Transparency of a component, defined as bellow, is a difficult concept to test - it can be transparent in a system and non transparent in another. How can we generalize the result?

Fortunately transparency has another meaning for hard core audiophiles ... :rolleyes:
 
microstrip said:
Mark,

Curious that people start claiming power amplifiers behave like wires with gains but most of the time use the preamplifier case to make their points. IMHO in this Mola Mola case the proper debate should be carried using the amplifier in real conditions - using real speakers in stereo as the load.

IMHO many of the tests for wire with gain are flawed - they just used resistors as a load and attenuator, not the modern low impedance speakers with large variance in impedance.

Transparency of a component, defined as bellow, is a difficult concept to test - it can be transparent in a system and non transparent in another. How can we generalize the result?

Fortunately transparency has another meaning for hard core audiophiles ... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Technical specifications can be difficult to grasp at first, but I would persevere ,you can determine the 'sound' or otherwise of a component from its measured specification.
If a component is audibly transparent then it will remain transparent in any system.
Keith
 
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