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In Reply to: RE: audio manufacturers pay for reviews posted by cityjim on September 01, 2008 at 01:43:24
I have tried the latest nuforce and they were sterile, bright, and just non-musical. I have yet to herd a musical class D amp. This is the future, but it is not ready for prime time now. Tubes, tubes, tubes. If it doesn't have lethal voltage, it can't make music. Go with a good tube amp. I have used the ARC D300 SS amp and it was good, Electrocompaniet, but it was not good as tubes. The best so far has been the Quicksilver Silver monos and the V4's. I also compared the V4's to the Bryston 7BST's and the Quickies had better bass, midrange, and treble, not even close. The Bryston are overdamped. More is not better, it just leans the bass out. Try an ARC VT100 I,II, III or the VS110, or other similar amp. The ARC work well with Maggies. 100wpc is plenty. don't get lost in the wpc game. More power is not always better. Remember you have to double the power to go up 3db, a click on the attenuator...not much. Thus, 200wpc is only slightly louder than 100wpc, and twice the tubes and heat.
Follow Ups:
FINALLY a sensible guy writes in . Thanks Jallen .
I've been corresponding with Charles Hansen of Ayre Audio . He seems to demand the opposite about WPC . Charles Hansen "thinks" that no one on Earth could enjoy maggies with an 8wpc SET amp . Oh no , you got to have a 600 watt amp or better . Total BS as usual from him .
Charles must of been born with no ears . He needs 600 wpc channel to hear his speakers . No doubt clipping his amps all the time . Probably running at 10db compression just to feel the beat . What a flake .
Every class D amp I've tried sounded flat . Like a cheap transistor radio with one speaker . Some have killed my cordless and cell phone reception and created lines on the plasma TV . I was like who opened the microwave door and left it running ???
Amps I tried were Nuforce (terrible) , Bel Canto Ref 1000 (best of all class D , but how did they get a class A rating in Stereophile ?? Must have payed for it ) , Spectron Musician III SE Mk II (WAAAAY overpriced and caused lines on the TV and killed phone reception), and the Channel Islands D100 to name a few . All were disappointing to say the least .
I don't even see how a manufacturer can call their product "high end" unless the amp runs in class A only , 100% of the time . And especially charge $18,000 for some class AB compromise .
In the communications world there is no way one would use anything but class A for amps and repeaters . You would get massive packet loss . Here is your phone call to mom on a class A amp . "Hi mom how are you" . Here is your same phone call on a class AB , B , C or D amp . "H mo h w re u" In the case of class D your call to mom would be "@%()$@&@%^%!(#*(&!@#)@$@(" All freakin noise .
Anytime the outputs switch off you lose , in our case musical information . Most people don't look at the compromising amplification methods like that . Those being other than full class A .
All of this you already knew Jallen . Those Quicksilver amps you mentioned are wonderful and are way under rated . Just goes to show some manufacturers are under rated because they don't pay for reviews . Still they build some of the best gear out . Quicksilver , ARC , CJ , Lamm and Audio Mirror just to name a few of ever present giant killers .
cityjim
One thing I failed to mention is that my maggie 3.6's are driven by a highly modified Quicksilver silver mono pair with new power cords and very high quality mil spec polystyrenes on the coupling caps 2.7uf 400V and the 2.7 600V ones, 2 of each for each amp. These raise the price significantly, and I am sure the v-caps or sonicaps are also capable of elevating these and other tube amps foreward. Up grade coupling caps before switching tube amps...big difference. Jallen
its true; you need more than 8 watts to fully enjoy maggies. So you do what for a living again?
I am an audio and laser consultant, and not in that order.
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