New photos of Randy's system ...

A couple new changes, one in place the other on the way...

An additional subwoofer... added a KEF... I know not as elaborate as many suggested here, but a nice improvement... slightly larger driver but not big boomy... I do not like large drivers... and my favorite KEF speakers... and doing KEF tradition of adding nice full size passive!

The second change is on it's way... keeping with my pure sound no flash and not needing narrowly the power of the Ampzilla, a buddy needed that power... his Focals with large bass drivers were taxing his amp... so we are trading out... and I am very excited about this one...

Nelson Pass's personal playground, and an amplifier personally built by him.... the First Watt F6.... pure class A... one reviewer referred to it as the best sounding amplifier he has ever heard!
 
Absolutely nothing wrong with large drivers when properly implemented.

With that said, looking forward to your thoughts on that F6. It's a great little clean amp.
 
Hey Charles, certainly there are larger driver speakers and subs that are fantastic. In general I have a preference for smaller, tighter drivers... probably will never own a speaker above 10" driver. The KEF sub is 8" but also has an 8" passive. I have always like the KEF passive drivers.

Really looking forward to the First Watt. I have been intrigued since I first reading about them a year or so ago. Will find out in a couple days.
 
The F6 arrived today.... in the manual it states to give it about an hour warmup before critical listening. I heard smoothing out after about 30-45 minutes.

Thoughts... well it is not going to power a block party :)... but, as loud as I would ever listen and I still have not quite reached the active range on the STP-SE preampiflier.

But... WOW.... very wide and very stable imagine. Very detailed and open. I can see why one reviewer called it the best sounding amplifier he has ever heard. I think this has just become my standard go to amp and the ARC will be a nice change of pace.

They definitely sound different, both very good and I can't quite determine what the difference is yet... the First Watt definitely has a wider image with more depth. A more stable image. The Audio Research might be just a little smoother and very inviting. Very subtle differences!
 
A couple quick photos before anyone asks :)...

attachment.php
attachment.php
attachment.php
 
A couple friends from our audio club were over yesterday comparing the First Watt and Audio Research amplifiers. Well one preferred the FW and the other the ARC. I am neutral although maybe leaning towards the FW. The one who liked the ARC better is an Audio Research fan/owner from way back, so his heart was with ARC from the get go... and he really liked the VT50.

We all came to a definitely consensuses however that they are both pretty spectacular and fairly close. The ARC may have a little more "air" around it, especially in the highs while the FW probably has a fuller mid range and female vocals especially are startling good. Mid base very much favored the FW. Especially on a Fiona Joy SACD where the lower piano notes just had a more solid bottom residence. And the FW has probably a better and more stable image. Both are extremely good in this regards.

The ARC definitely has more power, but both are able to drive my MC's (which should be a very hard to drive speaker, 85 db, 4 ohm) to very high levels. Honestly, it is a really good problem to have :), and a very nice change of pace in amplifiers...
 
Nice. It appears to be another great amp from Nelson! Because my speakers are considered hard to drive the extra power of the F6, especially into 4 ohm was important to me. You won't be disappointed in the sound quality.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top