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RE: N core

A-21 is a Parasound. Nice amp overall, high bias class A smoothness and free of most bipolar grain, but it has some flaws, namely flabby midbass (which actually sounds quite nice), less definition and soundstage precision than some of the very best, and highs that aren't the last word in cleanliness.

I confess I'm not personally fond of amps that add harmonic distortion. They sound syrupy or grainy to me, and I find both effects fatiguing (the latter far more than the former). What I love about the old tube stuff is that it was usually so free of unpleasant distortion. Yes, it rounded off the sound, but it lacked the harsh distortion one so often hears from solid state and for me that meant a much better listening experience.

So really, I prefer the absence of unpleasant distortion to the presence of pleasant distortion, and that for me accounts for a lot of the difference, not the presence of the euphonic coloration which is a drawback. I was listening to a 1950's mono recording of Duke Ellington mentioned in TAS the other day and it was wonderful. So much closer, despite the limitations of the technology, to what one actually hears at a live performance than the typical commercial release. Not I think because of the euphonic colorations, but because of the absence of non-euphonic ones!

For me, the Benchmark does that beautifully. For example, high notes like triangles are pure and bell like, while the same notes listened to through the A-21 sound more like a chuff of noise. And it does it without any syrupy coloration. It's the purest amp I've ever heard.

It's the dynamics that bother me, and I'm still not entirely sure about that -- as I said, I have to do more listening. But that for me is what robs the music of life.

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