@@tallpaull9367 I've been around the block, had different architectures, technologies, approaches. Designed many an amp. Made my own serious A/B remote switcher more than forty years ago. There's probably fifty amplifiers in my house. Thing is, you can't even talk to people about this stuff. Too much black magic and snake oil in their neurons. I picked up an xs1200 refurbished for a theatre sub project I was developing and made the mistake of trying it on my main system, in place of my large monoblock amps that are fully complementary-symmetry and fully balanced input to output, power response into the am radio band, couple thousand watt difficult to move power supplies, biased to idle at five hundred watts each. Which clearly any audiophile would know sounds better without even trying but boy was I in for a schooling. Those monster amps are still around here somewhere... 🤔 And I don't really need the lfe subwoofers. I don't use the movie surround sound anymore either. My listening experience is better than ever and I've been an audiophile for over fifty years.
I recently upgraded my amp from an older multi channel class A/B amp with PS Audio Stellar M1200 hybrid amps. The improvement was dramatic and has brought a new level of enjoyment to my home theater. I was on the fence about class D, but when done well they can be truly fantastic. I almost went with a more budget friendly option, but sacrificed getting more gear for better gear and I’m happy I did. We all wish we could afford the really high end stuff, but finding good equipment for a reasonable budget, by comparison, is a true blessing.
I run a set of Class D monoblocks, the PS Audio Stellar M700's, and I'm very happy with them. I use them to drive a pair of Magnepan 1.7i's; a speaker that "traditionally" people recommend Class AB for, but these amps really make them sing.
Great video Gene! The more I learn the more I realize I need to learn! I've loved home audio all my life but only in the last 5 years have I really started exploring all the differences in gear. I've been buying and selling on the used market quite bit and even rebuilding some vintage speakers. Lots of fun and a great learning experience. Crazy how 10 years ago I thought my Best Buy Klipsh speakers and lower power Onkyo receiver were awesome sounding equipment lol. I look forward to more of your content!
My number one hate of the high end stereo amps is NO TONE CONTROL!!! Add a tone control but just add a bypass for those that think it is detrimental to the sound output. I don’t want to just listen to audiophile albums I want to listen to albums I like and when those albums are recorded bright or low then I need to have a bass and treble tone control.
Ever bench the older Crown Macrotech or QSC lines (MX etc)? I have always heard they are stout and great sounding. I hear people praising the newer drive Core lines and currious on the old vs new aspect. The QSC that was in the cover image for this video was one of the Mx or Rmx lines which not a cheap pro amp, that is an easy 1250+ pro amp.
I have an old Crown Microtech 600 and a Crown 800 CSL. Both are nice amps and of course old - so no longer produced but can be found used at around $200. The Microtech 600 is pretty nice. The 800 CSL is very very good. I think amps are like engines... there is no replacement for displacement. Low or high volume the sound is full and punchy, even without a preamp it sounds good straight from the source with very little hum at high gain. I run a couple of old rebuilt 3-way speakers with it and the sound is stunning, people are amazed they fill a big space with full range sound. I did evenutally use a parametric EQ to get the sound that I wanted from them. You don't have to spend a lot to have an amazing sound. My setup: Chromecast Audio ($30) > Nobsound micro tube preamp with GE tubes ($65 with the upgraded tubes, this device smooths the digital signal coming from a chromecast and makes it much more natural) > Monoprice 31 band EQ ($100) > Crown CSL 800 ($200) > Rebuilt Optimus 3-way speakers upgraded crossover, drivers, bracing, sound deadening, ($300 originally in 1990 and another $500 invested over time)
Thanks for the nice tips. Happy to hear about the EMOTIVA, that we bought one XPA-2 here in Brasil. We have a pair of Magnepans 3.6R and we hope to have a nice time with them.
NAIM is by far my favorite amplifier company (they pair well with Legacy speakers). I've tried others but always return to them. I'd like to hear LFD however.
I have a 5000 for my 4 atmos ceiling speakers and the 7000x for my main 7 channels. Aweaome amps and a great deal for the money. $1400 for both. Now I just need a HDMI 2.1 prepro. Marantz AV7706 or whatever it will be called.
Those are build by ATI , I got the bigger brother 7 channel these amps have been rebranded crestron, outlaw, cinepro , monolith Pretty much all the same amps .. Cannot go wrong with these tanks, my weights 97 pounds class a/b
One of your best episodes! Great to hear some real science underpinning a legitimate hypothesis on why certain amps can sound different under certain conditions. One thing which I think could use more fleshing out is *how much audible difference* does it make, and *under what conditions* is a significant difference going to be heard? Is this stuff that only matters under strenuous conditions like extreme dynamics at high SPL? Do most differences vanish at moderate volumes (we know most people probably never use more than 10-20 wpc).
Full of logical fallacies and justifications for snake oil. What could it possibly mean that an amp is "smooth sounding" or "more composed"? Give me a break. The use of such non-scientific, nonsensical, and therefore essentially irrefutable terms makes the whole thing easily dismissed. An amp that is cheap and light must sound worse? Right. Let's weigh our amps to see which one sounds better. That is old-school nonsense. How the marketing department specifies the power is a performance factor? That makes no sense aside from being sure to compare apples to apples. We don't play back sine waves and content is never "continuous" so measuring amps in that fashion is not necessarily more right than specifying peak power. There are plenty of independent measurements of the "cheap Behringer" amps that show they put out a lot more clean power for the money than the Emotivas and Monoliths no matter how you specify it. People paying extra for "beefy" amps with "audiophile" pedigree is marketing BS. He makes a big deal about impedance variability but the frequency response pictured shows a variation of about 2dB at 20KHz. I challenge anyone above the age of 30 to identify a 2dB variation at 20KHz in a blind comparison of real content. I doubt anyone of any age could hear it. Lots of reasons here why different amps might sound different, but no evidence of any sort that such differences are actually audible.
Good point! I cashed out my $6000. BAT VK-500 power amp system for a vintage Sansui AU-D11ii integrated with little regrets. However, I am still curious about the new Yamaha A-S3000 and the Luxman I-509x current attributes of "new" tech?
@@povertime6381 Go ahead and ignore the science and spend thousands on amps that have been proven to sound no different. This is just snake oil presented with a facade of science and reason, while ignoring the scientific method that would prove it false.
ESSPECIALLY WHEN YOUVE GOT GOOD 4K 7,1SURROUND SOUND,AND A GOOD SUBBWOOFER AS GOOD SPEAKERS,ARE A MUST.I E MOURDANT SHORTS MISSION Q ACOUSTICS WHARFDALE DIAMOND MONITOR AUDIO DALI TANNOY CAMBRIGE AUDIO FOCAL CORAS,I COULD GO ON.BUT I THINK YOU GET THE IDEA.MY AMP VOLUME NEVER GOES PAST _35 DB,I DONT KNOW WHAT IT IS IN WHATTS BUT I DONT THINK ITS MUCH MORE THAN 30 WHATTS PER CHANNEL??🤔🤔😉👌✌
Hello I am new to this different type of amp architecture, but have a question. I have an old Carver Amp, a 1.0T and a TFM-35 and have always wondered what type of amp architecture was used to design it and if such an older design and equipment is still considered good and relevant. Any guidance would be appreciated
You make a lot of good points, Gene. I really liked the reference to the listening spaces and the kind of music you play. This interaction is more important to me than the charts and graphs that most audio reviews spend their time presenting.
I've had a Roksan Caspian M2 Amp and CD player for the last 9 years, they still sound great to me. Although the Roksan Caspian M2 amp is only 85 watts per channel it can deliver high current, up to 60 amps I understand, and has no trouble with difficult loads I Have a small listening room and the KEF Ls50's I use sound great in there. I had a Parasound Halo before preferring and buying the Roksan. Thanks for the honest info, just subscribed to your channel, interesting stuff.
Recently I tried some different speakers, and I was reminded how the amp/speaker match so important. Some amps will perform better on some speakers than others. it’s impossible to say which is absolutely best at a price because it’s so dependant on what you are driving.
And absolutely agreed about how much audio performance has improved for the money over the last handful of years. Revolutionary. There's never been a better time for audio value than today.
Interesting video. I may be upgrading my amplifier setup soon. The class D amps from PS Audio and ATI seem interesting. I'd love it if Audioholics could review those (or similar amps). Thanks for the great content!
I have the NAD C-388 plenty of power future proof upgradeable with various modules, software upgrade by USB stick. To me, it sounds great very good control on speakers' tight bass and runs cool. Efficiency is 90%. Have been an Audio guy close to 50 years had Power A and Power A/B amplifiers and made the jump into D power and never looked back. The price is fair as well..
I wish the Class D stuff was more affordable. Class AB is fine and my Outlaw stuff is awesome quality for the money; I just want a lower electric bill.
I had a Madrigal Proceed AMP 2 ($1700), from about 20 years ago, used to drive Martin Logan SL3s. A long while back I did borrow an Audio Research Hybrid Tube power amp ($5500) and Mark Levinson power amp ($6000) from the store for a long weekend. I really could not tell the difference so ended up not upgrading. I recently got Legacy Audio Aeris speakers (with Wavelet preamp). I brought the various components of my system to the factory for a demo. What I found was that the AMP 2 sounded lousy compared to the Legacy Audio Powerblocks. Legacy Audio offered to customize the speakers to include 2 extra 350 watt class-D mono block amps (for the mid-woofer, mid-range, tweeter, and super-tweet) in addition to the 2 500 watt class-D mono blocks used to drive the 2 subwoofers. I now have a 3-way active configuration with 3 balanced cables going from the Wavelet to each speaker. The designer mentioned this configuration would allow him to more easily control the individual drivers to get much better time alignment. Sounds fantastic. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised that these power amps were very reasonably priced (about $2400 for the extra power amp modules - without needing a separate box to be in). Each speaker essentially has 1650 watts of power amplification.
I am selling my XPA-1 Gen 1 monoblocks in ebay right now. They have lasted me years and are fantastic, I recently upgraded to a class A amp, very little difference until very high listening levels
Hello Gene: I have been reading your wonderful "straight to the point", down earth and very explanatory comments since the "Stereo Review" era. I specially like this article on " Are there any differences among different amplifier brands and electronic approach?". You did it again, most of my doubts are clear now !!! I have a Sherbourne 7/2100 for my home theater set up which fills in many ways my audio needs. I particularly love the idea of having seven amplifiers acting almost independently in every aspect specially in the power section. It is like comparing front wheel drive vs real wheel drive cars. I of course would choose rear wheel drive for many good and obvious reasons. Keep up your tirelessly effort in shedding some light in this "shady" business !!!!!!
what about the highly praised ifi micro idsd black label that costs less than $1000 but is a dac/amp combo? or are you talking about speakers, not headphones?
It would be awesome to see some old vs new amplifiers like the best of vintage 70s and 80s. I would love to see a Vfet amp take on a transistor amp with good test equipment ❤️
Thank you Gene, great video! In my dedicated theater I have Crown XLR 2502's, alongside a Emotiva XPR 5. In my second system I went with the Sunfire 7401, and in my living room I'm running Emotiva XPA 5 gen 2. These amps have served me well, and it was based off your recommendations that I went with Emotiva as a brand. That said, I really hope that you and Matthew revisit this topic and provide more of a buyer's tutorial on how to buy an amplifier, doing things like you did in this video, providing definitions of terms that my go over the head of those of us who are not engineers. Terms like Damping factor, variable impedance, etc. And since we're on the subject of amplifiers, can we PLEASE discuss GAIN, what it is, and why it's important, which IMO is what most people want from their Amplifiers. Thank you and Audioholics for all you do, I look forward to the content and information you provide.
You are correct. Not all Amps sound the same. I had a choice between buying a Krell KSA 100 and a Boulder (can't remember model... was a smaller amp). Dealer kept going on about how the Boulder would smoke the older Krell. I hooked both amps up to a pair of Dynaudio 5.4 S speakers. The Krell, to my ears, had better detail than the Boulder and was 100 per channels watts less. As for now, I'm using SVS Ultra speaker cable. Not what I want, but it was what I could afford at the time. Dealer told me the Boulder would've sounded better if I had better speaker wire....like the Transparent cable they sold. My system, minus speaker wire is wired with JPS cable. It's all about what sounds good to YOU. Not necessarily about price. The used Krell was $2500. The used Boulder was double that.
13:19 I’ve been super happy with my a/b Emotiva 250/500 watt amp purchased a few years ago. This experience reinforces everything you cited in your video. It’s powered a wide variety of speakers including some difficult loads. I appreciate your straight-shooting advice.
I just bumped into your channel today and I must say it was a revelation. Finally, someone who tells it like it is, in a language even non technical folks can understand. Kudos to you, and I’ll spread the word. Great stuff.
finally...i very honest, quick and understandable explanation of how amplifier quality affects sound. there are so many opinions out there without any backup or explanation. so, thanks!
Speaking of class A running hot... My Accuphase E560 caught fire in an airconditioned room... it melted the tweeters of my Revel ultima salon... horror story of the day... but the 30 watts per channel was more than enough to drive it... about 600 bucks in repairs later it is up and running again... I wonder how it stacks up against that emotiva monoblock, I was always intrigued by the value proposition... it looks like a bargain, does the sound really differ that much from pass or classe?
I think you already have an experience with low power amp that destroys speakers. This shit happened because you set Volume to the level when pre-amp yields more voltage than maximum sensitivity of the amp. E.g. the class A amp has 31V peak voltage with 15,5V treated as polarity change. After input voltage amplification it must have got 32+V signal that exceeds maximum 31V, so it was truncated like if it is 31V where the amped signal exceeds 31V. As you probably know such square truncated signals are actually wide bandwidth signals that have lot of power in high frequency range. The amp did what it had to do, it yielded overdriven signal with lot of high frequencies to the speakers, the speakers crossovers filtered high frequencies for the twitter, and the twitter suddenly got most of those 30W, and I suspect it was not designed to get so much power. It melted because of the amp overdrive. Conclusion: don't overdrive the amp with pre-amp voltage more than the amp sensitivity. Use amp that has much higher voltage sensitivity and less gain with low power, or higher voltage sensitivity and more gain that also implies more power. Usually more power means more safety for the speakers. If you overpower speakers 10-30% they will sound awful, but stay alive, you just make Volume lower to return good sound back. If you overdrive the amp, the amp will most probably survive, but your speakers (esp.twitters) get smoke due to unexpected power sent to high frequency range.
@@alexanderbelov6892 this is 30 watts of pure class A. not class d. it drove the speakers fine for a year and also 804s, 805 and other speakers. it might have been the ups or simply bad power at the apartment building. i never turned the knob higher than 30% btw because that already yields 75db which is too loud for me. usually around 20 to 25%. this is an integrated amp. i connect straight to the dac board inside it.
What a golden nugget of a video, Gene. Thanks for not shying away from a much needed comparison and deep dive into class A and D and some key parameters of amplification beyond just continous output. In amps, output Voltages and output impedance matter. It's also a myth that you need 1000+ damping factor (looking at you, Accuphase). Benchmark has a great article on why 200 is a great, safe sweet spot for driver control. I just bought a used dual mono Onkyo M588F with 235W into 8 Ohms and love it. More than plenty of juice and the thing is over-built like a tank, 90s design with better than 80s capacitors and beefy solder joints. From a time before everything got outsourced to China. The layout is also so well thought out, PSU separated from the output section to minimize noise potentialy creepjng in, just awesome. Running two Noctua silent right above the heatsinks to keep it as cool as possible. Also got a 2nd gen Purifi based stereo amp from Boxem in Luxemburg on order. Class D has come a long way and if Marantz now uses the top of the line Purifi in their new $15K amp, you are getting steals right now with Boxem, Buckeye or VTV.
I love my Yamaha B-2. It's 44 years old, but that sound is very unique. I don't know all the specs and test results of it, but I will never sell it. It made my Cerwin Vega E-315s sound way better! No other amp has ever done that. Yes, I know that CVs aren't audiophile or revealing speakers. But that's my testimony. I paid $120 for the B-2 as junk here in Japan. It just needed a cleaning. Works perfectly fine now. Score!
Before viewing this video, my guess was that class D was going to take over. I think the days of massive back breaking, heat bricks will soon give way to super efficient, lightweight amps that sound just as good as any A/B amps. Thanks for letting us know that not all amps sound the same, and the law of diminishing returns does kick in pretty quickly, thanks to budget friendly brands like Emotiva/Monoprice. I recently upgraded to Parasound amps because I wanted 2 ch music to sound a little more refined. Coupled with some Martin Logan motions, they create a very nice synergy. But for movies, my older Emotivas were just as good.
@@kingdavid7571 Is that 6,5k for the amp itself or the entire rig? If you meant only the amplifier I'd say you could half that - just as our friend said up there in the vid. Already a decade ago there were a few brands that offered super value for the money at a price point less than 2000 buckaroos. Since then the price for really good stuf have dropped. ( I bought my main components a decade ago and paid a lit'l too much by the standards today, but tubes sound so much better for metal and for that musicality matters a lot more than perfect measurements - then spent too much again tube rolling.) The choice that remain is brand, looks, power (how loud you wish to play your growl metal), functionality (is there a need to play 24 bit PCM or FLAC or stream your growl metal from online sources) and in my case, musicality and and how fast it the growl metal get me headbanging.
@@andersforsgren3806 It also depends on your listening space. I've got a very small living room HiFi set up so don't need a Amplifier with loads of watts. Got a sweet 50watt class AB amplifier coming next week. Only cost £173 with some promo code and discounts and not a brand name. But I bet it will perform as good as a brand name 50watt £1000 amplifier which bumps the prices up sky high just for the name. Got good reviews online and on UA-cam and I already have a very high performance power chord and excellent rca interconnects I will use with it. If you do proper research you can get great performing AB amplifiers for bargains these days.
@@williammorales8204 Emotiva (Gen 1-3) Gen 2 was best, imo, Outlaw 7000x, Monolith 7x, and NAD M12. The Parasound Halo amps are still my favorite. I can't say it's superior to class D specs, but whatever color they add is warm and smooth, but still transparent.
I have the Yamaha AS-801 for over a year now and in combination with my Klipsch set I am very happy. I think its great quality for a reasonable amount of moneySo the Adioholics UA-cam review on my amp was great, thanks !
I'm seriously considering the AS-801 to upgrade my system - do you use it's DAC and if so are you happy with it? What Klipsch's do you drive with it ? Thanks
@@BruTay5454 at the moment i am not using the full functionality of the sac, I am using 2 Klipsch RB81 in combination with the sub RW12D perfect powerful combination to my ears 😉
@@zaldigo Thanks for the info - I have small Klisch's at the moment (R-41M), and am going to be upgrading them also. Probly the RP500M or RP600M, I don't have room for anything larger like you have. Good to know the AS-801 sounds good with your Klipschs.
you're welcome. in the beginning I had a very good old Rotel to drive my speakers, but I wanted to upgrade, bought a new Rotel, and was very disappointed with it, tried a more expansive flagship model and was also disappointed so I guess Rotel is just not what it was used to be. So after trial and error I discovered that Yamaha is a perfect match for Klipsch speakers. I wish you lots of musical pleasure !
Has anyone ever listened through Viktor/JVC's "Advanced Super A" amplifiers such as the ME-1000, AX-900, or AX-M9000? I've always been curious on how well they perform and it's hard to get information on how good those amplifiers were from back in the day as they were quite expensive.
I'm looking to add a good 2 channel amp to augment my Marantz SR7012 and run my front left and right speakers. What's my best option in the $500-$1,000 range? Or would I just be better off upgrading to the SR8012 and call it a day? Any incite would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
@Audioholics I'm a long time audioholics viewer and this is one of my fav videos. More like these Gene! I appreciate the detailed info and real world comparisons
Love this video, and love the work you do to cut through the audio BS out there. :-) I sometimes dabble in audio equipment, and tend to find myself investing more in areas of my life where acoustics is worse, such as my car. For my home, the acoustics are much better, but no where near any sort of audiophile level. I'm generally content with budget gear provided I can run my own equalization to get monitor-like, consistent sound. And I hate all of the budget monitors out there because the drivers and enclosure designs are normally very good, but the amps and crossovers inside are garbage. So I run passive bookshelf speakers that are run by an amp. My latest budget amp is a Dayton Audio APA150 (class AB amp), which is just a brand/model slapped on a Chinese-made design (eg: Emotiva BPA-1). The price is almost the same as its model number, for a very wallet-friendly $150. This amp hilariously has more distortion in the right channel, but still when I'm using it at 25% to 50% on its gain, the THD is still very, very low at most frequencies. My budget amp is powering a pair of Klipsch R-41M speakers. Some day I'd love to have fun creating a quality listening room and getting quality equipment, but it's always a battle with the wife to spend more money.
Years ago I could tell the difference, These days, I just want the instrument to sound good. I find to still be partial to tube amps. Enjoyed the video.
Thank you Gene for another informative and straight talking video. You have asked to comment on the amplifier we are using. In my case it is a NAD M22 class D power amp driving a pair of PMC Twenty.26 speakers. I am more than happy with the performance but to be honest I have not compared it with anything else, so whether my £2,400 would have been better spent on some other brand I have no idea. Hopefully not.
Thank you Gino buy can you please tell us can sound reinforcement amps be used to power hi fi and vice versa can we use our home audio power amps to drive live pro audio speakers systems ? and if so when and where can they be used in place of each other I do recall older home Stereo gear ran on a -20 impedance unlike the many new Hifi Amps that have balanced in's and outs run at + 4 db I have always tried to keep all my Audio gear +4 balanced But as you know there are some outboard Pro Audio effects recording gear that still is unbalanced using 1/4 connectors. this was a real pain in the ass many yrs ago when everyone used High Quality Cassette deck its hard to say both terms in the same sentence High Quality and Cassette. the Impedance mismatch over drove the Cassette inputs can you please explain ?
I went to an audio presentation in NYC back in the eighties. Nelson Pass was there talking about his Threshold amplifiers. He basically did tours to promote the sales of his premium Threshold amps. Nelson gave a lecture and in the middle volunteered that while his amps were great, there were others with less cost with the same performance. In other words better value. I'll never forget that in the middle of his lecture he told us that the Threshold amps were very well suited to the carriage trade. His exact words! Overbuilt and overpriced. Great amps, but you could buy the same performance for less dollars. Long live honest Nelson!
I have an old (15 years maybe) Boulder 500AE stereo amp with some weird op-amp design. Via a pair of JM Labs Mini Utopia speakers, it sounds pretty good. Very revealing, smooth, great bass. Can't complain. Bought it second hand via my dealer for a steal and it's been rock solid since.
I JUST got a Rogue Audio DragoN tube hybrid amp to pair with a Rogue RP-1 preamp with Monitor Audio Platinum 200 speakers. The DragoN is replacing PS Audio M700 Monoblocks that I love but was curious about having two tube pieces in my chain. Now I’m not so sure I prefer this combination. Especially not on all music 😬. I’m going g to do some testing with different combinations like running a Marantz PM 8006 as a preamp to the DragoN to see if going solid state to the tube amp will bring some of the THUMP i’m missing on some tracks. I have a second system that is the Marantz PM8006 as a preamp to Emotiva A1 BassX monoblocks to some Elac Debut towers. I’ll mix and match the pres and amps to see if I really wanna part with the PS audio M700s. Other separates in the chains include and Eversolo DMP A6 and an RME ADI-2 DAC and a Bluesound Node 2 in the respective systems.
Regardless of what any instrumentation may say we like what we like. It may not be theoretically perfectly sound either. The equipment I use is not the best. Far from it, but I'm happy with it. And in the end that's all that really counts.
Test benches can mislead when they measure audio factors with no regard to proven audibility. Just because a product measures better does not necessarily mean it sounds better. There is a graph in the video that shows an amp that has a 2dB boost at 20KHz under certain conditions. Can anyone hear such a difference playing actual content? I highly doubt it, but the amp is dismissed because of it.
@@gregworrel2623 I don't know what anyone else can hear. I know on average a human being cannot hear upwards of 2% distortion though. Which is an astronomical amount with today's amplifiers. People are such total morons with what they think they can hear, or see. Most don't know their assholes from their elbows. In tests people like volume. Take two identical signals with one louder than the other and people will favor the louder one. It'll "sound" better to them. The more the merrier I suppose? But an audiophile won't just say it is louder, they'll use all kinds of floral expression to convey their experience. It is airer, has more definition, separation blah blah. It's louder you fool!
That is one of the ways that people fool themselves. The difference can be less than .5dB which people do not register as louder, but they usually prefer it. Other ways people deceive themselves can be lumped in as cognitive bias. Anyone who sees the McGurk effect knows that hearing cannot be trusted. You sometimes hear what you expect to hear and the influences are subconscious. The coaching effect is one such bias, when one enthusiast tells another how much better such and such sounds. That is happening right here in this video.
@@gregworrel2623 double blind testing is the only reliable method when it comes to subjective audio appreciation. I actually like boomy bass. It is just a personal preference of mine.
The scariest thing isn’t the snake oil salesman. It’s the half science sounds legit salesman selling extra virgin snake oil. Yes amplifiers measures differently but does the frequency response measure differently when they drive speakers when not clipping. The answer is NO. $10000 says this guy can’t differentiate level matched non clipping amplifiers.
@@MrKom20 Modern amplifiers are a solved problem with distortion levels below the level of audibility and ruler-flat frequency response within the range of human hearing. Saying that one amplifier sounds "smoother" or "more composed" than another is pure snake oil nonsense. The real reasons amps can sound different is if they are not level-matched to within .1dB or if one is over-driven to clipping. So more powerful amps can sound better than less powerful amps at a volume level that causes the lower powered one to clip. The only other reasons amps will sound different are the same reasons people claim different speaker wires and interconnects sound different, subconscious bias. Gene is selling extra virgin snake oil, with his flawed observations backed with irrelevant measurements and engineering guesswork.
Greg Worrel Why are you listening to audio reviews if you’re already so knowledgeable? Please go back to your sterilized world of perfectly solved zero distortion and let the real audio lovers listen to different equipment. These differences are not always subtle. Have you heard any tube amplifiers? Second order harmonics? Do you actually listen or prefer to read graphs? I don’t know why I’m bothering here but I feel bad that people can be so small minded. If anyone else has bothered to keep reading, please experiment with different amps and decide for yourself.
@@MrKom20 Small minded is thinking the world is flat and ignoring all evidence to the contrary. That is what you are doing. Watch a video about the McGurk effect. That is not subtle either but it highlights the strong effects of psycho-acoustics on what we think we hear. Spending thousands of dollars on an illusion means that people are being ripped off. Many here are unaware of ABX testing and the $10,000 amplifier challenge. I hoped that Gene would tell the truth in this video, but he is either so steeped in the audiophile BS that he continues to spread the same nonsense, or he knows that his UA-cam views, review samples, and other revenue streams would be compromised if he told the truth. That is what is truly sad. Watch this video about the McGurk effect and then tell me you have confidence in what you are hearing when you compare different amps. ua-cam.com/video/2k8fHR9jKVM/v-deo.html
EVMYT I would think the older stuff has higher distortion and less headroom. Most of the old amps I’ve used sound good till you go past half way and it gets noisy. Plus capacitors go bad or get leaky making them less efficient leading to deterioration in the sound. They look cool but unless it’s had a full restoration I won’t touch them anymore. Besides the killer deals you used to find are now over inflated, even the boat anchors. There’s a lot of good deals out there for new amps. Yamaha makes great quality good sounding amps and the price is doable for most modest budgets.
There is very little correlation between sound quality and price when it comes to audio electronics. No you can’t make a great sounding 100w amp for 50 dollars, but you can mass produce one for hundreds of dollars. A few thousand will buy a state of the art one. 10’s and 100’s of thousands will buy you beautiful casework and the envy of other audiophiles but literally nothing in improved fidelity.
@@dednside5229 Hugely better because some people say they are. Described as better using attributes that can't be quantified. Most of high end audio is an elaborate fraud.
@@rwortman2 I dont need to convince you .... If you want high end gear thiers ways and tricks to get it like I do . Or...just discount it as audio snobbery . In the end it's the listening experience Do the research. Maybe grab an old Kenwood DC unit cheap and go from there . I found my first one in the garbage and repaired it , I was 12 . Hardoff Japan, Ship using tenso , start with the kenwood L line late 70's Dont forget to re-cap Re set factory bias Oh yeah, AR-M1 kick ass for cheap Ask Mark Levinson
@@dednside5229 I don't know how old you are but I've been messing around with audio equipment for over 40 years. I have a pretty nice VPI turntable, a pair of PSB Imagine T2 speakers and an additional matching center and surrounds for movies. I have separate two channel and surround setups that only share the front LR speakers and the power amp they are attached to. In addition to my main system I have three other stereo systems in two garages and a living room with a mix of newer and vintage gear some of which I repaired myself. I also do some unpaid work in live sound, recording, and mixing. It is my personal experience that the sound differences between properly designed electronic gear is largely imaginary unless one of them is introducing known distortion. It is also my personal experience that a good quality professional audio amplifier sounds as good as an audiophile brand one at a significantly lower price. I found this out by simply trying one that I had purchased for a project I was doing for a local theater group. I had it in the house so curiosity made me try it out. The only thing bad about it was the fan noise. I then purchased a better one with a whisper quiet fan that never comes on unless I am playing it so loud that you couldn't hear it anyway. It sounds great and has twice the power of my old amp. I sold my audiophile amp and spent the money more motorcycle gear.
Hi Gene! I totally share your opinion on the class D design (Brunos Hypex). I would though love to see you debunk or confirm through you strict measurement methods the use of Crown XLS pro amps in the home audio. I've seen multiple "high profile" audiophiles use those amps and I would hope that the used design of the "drive core" is a good one for home use. Thanks!
I have Pass Labs XA30.8 with xp-12 preamp and I love it. It sounds very engaging and smooth with a very satisfying big soundstage, it makes my Focal Sopra 3 completely disappear. It's only music in front of me. I'm super happy with my purchase and also the ability to purchase my dream speakers. Wish that type of nirvana to you all!!
I’ve had some really expensive audio, but my older Audio Physics Virgos (blown woofers) were driven by a Bel Labs MK5 and Conrad Tube Premier 17LS Pre-amp. However my wife prefers the sound of my old Adcom GFA 555 II driven by an Acurus Pre-amp on my new Klipsch RP 8000Fs (& Klipsch 15 inch sub). So now I have all my high end cables on my cheaper stuff and it’s more satisfying than my high end system was. . So now I’m in a quandary what to do.
Gene, I think your spot on. The other part is what are you doing with your system. If it is strictly Home theater, the amp will be less noticeable assuming your buying a decent amp such as an outlaw etc. if your using your system as 2 Chanel and home theater, then the amp can revel the sound differences more transparently. I have am running a 7:2:4 system as both home theater and 2 channel. I have a Marantz 7012 with 2 amps. A Rotel 1075 and an Outlaw Audio 750. Both are great amp and power my B&W 605-S2 speakers without issue. Recently I did a back to back comparison of the 2 in 2 Chanel mode. The Outlaw could power the speakers to higher DB levels but the Rotel was warmer with tighter bass and better transition in the mid range. Based on this I swapped the 2 front towers to be powered by the Rotel. So yes, amps make a difference, in the home theater mode it was more difficult for me to tell a difference. Now as for adding external amp, in my book it is a must. The Marantz sounded terrible with the B&W speakers. It did not have enough power to make the system even sound decent. So fo me in a good to great system, external amps are a must. My next step will probably be to add a 3ed amp (Parasound A21) to power just the 2 front towers and the rest will be split between the Rotel and Outlaw.
Right now, I use a Yamaha R-S 700 100 watt stereo receiver. I have a Quad 606 power amplifier which needs some repair, not easy in Canada, and the stereo receiver works so well I don't miss it. If I ever want separates, I would look at Bryston, a 3B should be plenty for me.
Huge fan of my Emotiva XPA-5 for home theatre gen 1 it was when Emotiva was huge bang for the buck. Makes me smile when I am listening to anything movies or music
Im probably on the lower end of the spectrum..... I also use a set of B&W 604 series 3 in my system too. Always curious if a better amp would make a significant audible improvement.
In one of my set ups I run the TA-100 as the pre (same as the PT-100 except can be a stand alone as well) and the A-300 except I went with the CD-100 in that set up. I run RF7 IIs with it. It has the ability to piss people off pretty far down the street
I have a Carver av705x that I bought used in 2003 5 channels 125 watts channel all channels 20- 20k. Runs cool and is a beast and absolutely quiet when I turn it on. I can turn the volume up and put my ear up to the speaker and barely a hiss. I still have it today. It was a $1200 amp
Can you give me a few pointers? How should I A/B my 2 amplifiers: Emotiva A-100 and Parasound A-21? There is a significant price difference, but I cannot seem to hear it. The speakers I have are KEF LS50 and Buchardt S400. DAC is OPPO Sonica. Thanks!
I have many amps Peachtree Nova 125 ice amp based , TPA 3255 , class AB mono block 4 channel, Class A, Hypex nCore Allo Volt +D. I love the Hypex nCore it’s outstanding power any speaker it will rock. If budget is low and u can live with little less power but super clarity try Allo Volt + D. There are some bass tones I have never heard in these amps Also try to go active instead of passive. And take extra power than what u need always I have sealed DIY subs all powered by my amps never look at brands and buy miniDSP
QSC pro audio amp works great. 300 watts X 2. Use it to drive my two front Cerwin Vega 15 inch three way speakers. A my Denon X6500 to drive all other speakers in my Dolby Atmos setup. Great sound. Only cost me $900.00.
If you like class D check out Lyngdorf’s SDA-2400 amps. Peter (Lyngdorf) been doing all digital ckts. since the Tact Audio days and now it’s trickle down technology of Steinway and Sons. Very analog but actually just very transparent amplification. Just paired 6 with the MP-60 pre/pro. Their Room Perfect works👌🏽 for HT too.
Hello Gene. So a SMPS is sonically inferior to a LPS? Most manufacturers are going that route which is a bummer since I have read that a SMPS cant reproduce bass as well as an LPS could.
Purifi, Pascal, Hypex, ICE. Purifi in NAD M28, Pascal in Storm Audio and RBH amps, Hypex in ATI NCore amps, ICE in Legacy Audio amps. There are other examples, but these stand out.
I'm waiting on a class D amp now, which I will hopefully get in February. It's based on the Hypex NCore tech, so should be pretty good. Very excited to hear the difference from my current class AB amp from around 2010. Love these videos.
First, you are a great source of audio equipment education and information. Thank you. I hope you can give me some insight. I have a Shanling A3000 amp, a big beast, 200w/ch @ 8 ohms and 320w/@4ohm, 80,000uf capacitance, big dual toroidals, 8 Sanken power transistors, 2 EH6922 tubes, and it is a discrete design, 33 kgs. My speakers are Sonus Faber Venere 2.5's. I am thinking of changing to a Kinki EXM 1 amp and Paradigm Founder 80F speakers. I have the heard speakers but cant say for sure they are better than my SF's. If you could chime, do you think this is a lateral or vertical move? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.
Well said. The amplifiers that I am still kicking around with is Parasound 2125 they support 2olm 4 and 8 . Bridged mono mode is 400 watts RMS in 8olms and 4 stereo mode 125x2 8olm 200x2 in 4. Im bi amping with those which is teamed up with my DENON AVR. My center is is running with DAYTON AUDIO APA150. I do have a sound reinforcement amp Steller LABS 3ch . 8000s model it has two fans in the back third channel is the sub channel which I am using for tactile shakers. 300watts in 8 480 watts RMS in 4. One day all do some changes but for now its doing the job.
I recently acquired a Bel Canto REF300S to replace a pair of well-regarded CLASS A monoblocks. I had previously upgraded several other components (media player, DAC, preamp, cables, etc) and even though there were improvements somehow I was always looking for more. In hopes to arrive sonically to this unknown place, I talked to a lot of people in the audiophile industry, watched many hours of youtube high-end audio reviews, visited RMAF, demoed components in my home, but none of them was as impactful as this 250w/ch Bel Canto. WOW! The most obvious thing I noticed was that the speakers disappeared and the music was just present. Without even trying to focus to find a difference what happened was that I found myself simply enjoying the music, tapping my foot, singing (I am not a good singer but with this kind of sound it did seem I had a great voice) and loving music more. No longer I would have to start describing the sound I just heard in some technical jargon, now I can just feel the music in my whole body which is pretty amazing. WOW! I love what this upgrade and what it does to what really matters...It's all about the music. Life is better with music,
Thanks for telling the short quick answer right at the beginning, and than telling details why. I like that way of answering the questions
Yes, but you really need to try a Crown XLS1502 (or higher XLS) with Drivecore. Gene, A/B test asap
@@tallpaull9367
I've been around the block, had different architectures, technologies, approaches. Designed many an amp. Made my own serious A/B remote switcher more than forty years ago. There's probably fifty amplifiers in my house. Thing is, you can't even talk to people about this stuff. Too much black magic and snake oil in their neurons. I picked up an xs1200 refurbished for a theatre sub project I was developing and made the mistake of trying it on my main system, in place of my large monoblock amps that are fully complementary-symmetry and fully balanced input to output, power response into the am radio band, couple thousand watt difficult to move power supplies, biased to idle at five hundred watts each. Which clearly any audiophile would know sounds better without even trying but boy was I in for a schooling. Those monster amps are still around here somewhere... 🤔 And I don't really need the lfe subwoofers. I don't use the movie surround sound anymore either. My listening experience is better than ever and I've been an audiophile for over fifty years.
Chabulawa12345 stars
@@tallpaull9367 I want more for us people in the cheap seats.
@@tallpaull9367 I was going to write the same.
That amp dose it. super good.
Gene is such a nice guy ! No snobbery or condescending yapping! He is a decent engineer and I always like his topics !
I recently upgraded my amp from an older multi channel class A/B amp with PS Audio Stellar M1200 hybrid amps. The improvement was dramatic and has brought a new level of enjoyment to my home theater. I was on the fence about class D, but when done well they can be truly fantastic. I almost went with a more budget friendly option, but sacrificed getting more gear for better gear and I’m happy I did. We all wish we could afford the really high end stuff, but finding good equipment for a reasonable budget, by comparison, is a true blessing.
One of the most educational channels on hifi available. Thank you for all the things I've learned from you.
Thanks for your reviews and please keep producing them! As far as amplifiers go, I love my older Bryson 4b and paradigm studio reference speakers.
I run a set of Class D monoblocks, the PS Audio Stellar M700's, and I'm very happy with them. I use them to drive a pair of Magnepan 1.7i's; a speaker that "traditionally" people recommend Class AB for, but these amps really make them sing.
Great video Gene! The more I learn the more I realize I need to learn!
I've loved home audio all my life but only in the last 5 years have I really started exploring all the differences in gear. I've been buying and selling on the used market quite bit and even rebuilding some vintage speakers.
Lots of fun and a great learning experience.
Crazy how 10 years ago I thought my Best Buy Klipsh speakers and lower power Onkyo receiver were awesome sounding equipment lol.
I look forward to more of your content!
My number one hate of the high end stereo amps is NO TONE CONTROL!!! Add a tone control but just add a bypass for those that think it is detrimental to the sound output. I don’t want to just listen to audiophile albums I want to listen to albums I like and when those albums are recorded bright or low then I need to have a bass and treble tone control.
Thank you!
Graphic equalizer
@@aussie8114 Schiit Loki in my chain for just that!
Luxman!
McIntosh C53 and 55 new with eq that can be turned off.
Ever bench the older Crown Macrotech or QSC lines (MX etc)? I have always heard they are stout and great sounding. I hear people praising the newer drive Core lines and currious on the old vs new aspect.
The QSC that was in the cover image for this video was one of the Mx or Rmx lines which not a cheap pro amp, that is an easy 1250+ pro amp.
I have an old Crown Microtech 600 and a Crown 800 CSL. Both are nice amps and of course old - so no longer produced but can be found used at around $200. The Microtech 600 is pretty nice. The 800 CSL is very very good. I think amps are like engines... there is no replacement for displacement. Low or high volume the sound is full and punchy, even without a preamp it sounds good straight from the source with very little hum at high gain. I run a couple of old rebuilt 3-way speakers with it and the sound is stunning, people are amazed they fill a big space with full range sound. I did evenutally use a parametric EQ to get the sound that I wanted from them. You don't have to spend a lot to have an amazing sound. My setup: Chromecast Audio ($30) > Nobsound micro tube preamp with GE tubes ($65 with the upgraded tubes, this device smooths the digital signal coming from a chromecast and makes it much more natural) > Monoprice 31 band EQ ($100) > Crown CSL 800 ($200) > Rebuilt Optimus 3-way speakers upgraded crossover, drivers, bracing, sound deadening, ($300 originally in 1990 and another $500 invested over time)
I like my QSC RMX 2450’s… built like a tank but run nice n cool. My application is home theater running off a Marantz 8005
I have a Rotel Ra 1572 integrated amplifier with Kef R300 speakers and sound fantastic.
Thanks for the nice tips. Happy to hear about the EMOTIVA, that we bought one XPA-2 here in Brasil. We have a pair of Magnepans 3.6R and we hope to have a nice time with them.
Hey Gene... I'm looking to build a dedicated movie theater in my home this year. Your videos have been very helpful. I really appreciate your content.
NAIM is by far my favorite amplifier company (they pair well with Legacy speakers). I've tried others but always return to them. I'd like to hear LFD however.
I bought an Outlaw model 5000 thanks to you and HE-MAN. Best purchase...$450
I owe you 1!!
Headroom and dynamics define themselves.
I have a 5000 for my 4 atmos ceiling speakers and the 7000x for my main 7 channels. Aweaome amps and a great deal for the money. $1400 for both.
Now I just need a HDMI 2.1 prepro. Marantz AV7706 or whatever it will be called.
Those are build by ATI , I got the bigger brother 7 channel these amps have been rebranded crestron, outlaw, cinepro , monolith
Pretty much all the same amps ..
Cannot go wrong with these tanks, my weights 97 pounds class a/b
@@MichelLinschoten Not the 5000. That's built by NAD.
😮
I confess I really didn't expect such a well thought out explanation. Thanks Gene.
One of your best episodes! Great to hear some real science underpinning a legitimate hypothesis on why certain amps can sound different under certain conditions.
One thing which I think could use more fleshing out is *how much audible difference* does it make, and *under what conditions* is a significant difference going to be heard? Is this stuff that only matters under strenuous conditions like extreme dynamics at high SPL? Do most differences vanish at moderate volumes (we know most people probably never use more than 10-20 wpc).
Full of logical fallacies and justifications for snake oil. What could it possibly mean that an amp is "smooth sounding" or "more composed"? Give me a break. The use of such non-scientific, nonsensical, and therefore essentially irrefutable terms makes the whole thing easily dismissed.
An amp that is cheap and light must sound worse? Right. Let's weigh our amps to see which one sounds better. That is old-school nonsense.
How the marketing department specifies the power is a performance factor? That makes no sense aside from being sure to compare apples to apples. We don't play back sine waves and content is never "continuous" so measuring amps in that fashion is not necessarily more right than specifying peak power. There are plenty of independent measurements of the "cheap Behringer" amps that show they put out a lot more clean power for the money than the Emotivas and Monoliths no matter how you specify it. People paying extra for "beefy" amps with "audiophile" pedigree is marketing BS.
He makes a big deal about impedance variability but the frequency response pictured shows a variation of about 2dB at 20KHz. I challenge anyone above the age of 30 to identify a 2dB variation at 20KHz in a blind comparison of real content. I doubt anyone of any age could hear it.
Lots of reasons here why different amps might sound different, but no evidence of any sort that such differences are actually audible.
Good point!
I cashed out my $6000. BAT VK-500 power amp system for a vintage Sansui AU-D11ii integrated with little regrets.
However, I am still curious about the new Yamaha A-S3000 and the Luxman I-509x current attributes of "new" tech?
@@gregworrel2623 Then listen to an amp they use for an intercom system or Karaoke party and be happy with it.
@@povertime6381 Go ahead and ignore the science and spend thousands on amps that have been proven to sound no different. This is just snake oil presented with a facade of science and reason, while ignoring the scientific method that would prove it false.
ESSPECIALLY WHEN YOUVE GOT GOOD 4K 7,1SURROUND SOUND,AND A GOOD SUBBWOOFER AS GOOD SPEAKERS,ARE A MUST.I E MOURDANT SHORTS MISSION Q ACOUSTICS WHARFDALE DIAMOND MONITOR AUDIO DALI TANNOY CAMBRIGE AUDIO FOCAL CORAS,I COULD GO ON.BUT I THINK YOU GET THE IDEA.MY AMP VOLUME NEVER GOES PAST _35 DB,I DONT KNOW WHAT IT IS IN WHATTS BUT I DONT THINK ITS MUCH MORE THAN 30 WHATTS PER CHANNEL??🤔🤔😉👌✌
Hello
I am new to this different type of amp architecture, but have a question.
I have an old Carver Amp, a 1.0T and a TFM-35 and have always wondered what type of amp architecture was used to design it and if such an older design and equipment is still considered good and relevant. Any guidance would be appreciated
You make a lot of good points, Gene. I really liked the reference to the listening spaces and the kind of music you play. This interaction is more important to me than the charts and graphs that most audio reviews spend their time presenting.
I've had a Roksan Caspian M2 Amp and CD player for the last 9 years, they still sound great to me. Although the Roksan Caspian M2 amp is only 85 watts per channel it can deliver high current, up to 60 amps I understand, and has no trouble with difficult loads I Have a small listening room and the KEF Ls50's I use sound great in there. I had a Parasound Halo before preferring and buying the Roksan. Thanks for the honest info, just subscribed to your channel, interesting stuff.
Nice video, now follow it up with an episode of some specific amp recommendations by price range and it will be even better. 😉
Recently I tried some different speakers, and I was reminded how the amp/speaker match so important. Some amps will perform better on some speakers than others. it’s impossible to say which is absolutely best at a price because it’s so dependant on what you are driving.
And absolutely agreed about how much audio performance has improved for the money over the last handful of years. Revolutionary. There's never been a better time for audio value than today.
Interesting video. I may be upgrading my amplifier setup soon. The class D amps from PS Audio and ATI seem interesting. I'd love it if Audioholics could review those (or similar amps). Thanks for the great content!
We have ATI Class D amp review here: www.audioholics.com/amplifier-reviews/ati-at4002
I have the NAD C-388 plenty of power future proof upgradeable with various modules, software upgrade by USB stick. To me, it sounds great very good control on speakers' tight bass and runs cool. Efficiency is 90%. Have been an Audio guy close to 50 years had Power A and Power A/B amplifiers and made the jump into D power and never looked back. The price is fair as well..
I wish the Class D stuff was more affordable. Class AB is fine and my Outlaw stuff is awesome quality for the money; I just want a lower electric bill.
@@lakorai2 some crown amps are class ab
Check out the Benchmark AHB2 amp. Not huge power, but very honest power.
I had a Madrigal Proceed AMP 2 ($1700), from about 20 years ago, used to drive Martin Logan SL3s. A long while back I did borrow an Audio Research Hybrid Tube power amp ($5500) and Mark Levinson power amp ($6000) from the store for a long weekend. I really could not tell the difference so ended up not upgrading. I recently got Legacy Audio Aeris speakers (with Wavelet preamp). I brought the various components of my system to the factory for a demo. What I found was that the AMP 2 sounded lousy compared to the Legacy Audio Powerblocks. Legacy Audio offered to customize the speakers to include 2 extra 350 watt class-D mono block amps (for the mid-woofer, mid-range, tweeter, and super-tweet) in addition to the 2 500 watt class-D mono blocks used to drive the 2 subwoofers. I now have a 3-way active configuration with 3 balanced cables going from the Wavelet to each speaker. The designer mentioned this configuration would allow him to more easily control the individual drivers to get much better time alignment. Sounds fantastic. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised that these power amps were very reasonably priced (about $2400 for the extra power amp modules - without needing a separate box to be in). Each speaker essentially has 1650 watts of power amplification.
I bought Emotiva back when the the Aussie dollar was equal to US. Xpa2 drives my ultra towers without breaking a sweat! Keep up the good work Gene 👌👌
I have an Emotiva xpa-3 and love it.
I am selling my XPA-1 Gen 1 monoblocks in ebay right now. They have lasted me years and are fantastic, I recently upgraded to a class A amp, very little difference until very high listening levels
is there a vid on recommend amps? Where does the diminishing return kick in hard where more $ will not improve the sound?
Hello Gene: I have been reading your wonderful "straight to the point", down earth and very explanatory comments since the "Stereo Review" era. I specially like this article on " Are there any differences among different amplifier brands and electronic approach?". You did it again, most of my doubts are clear now !!! I have a Sherbourne 7/2100 for my home theater set up which fills in many ways my audio needs. I particularly love the idea of having seven amplifiers acting almost independently in every aspect specially in the power section. It is like comparing front wheel drive vs real wheel drive cars. I of course would choose rear wheel drive for many good and obvious reasons. Keep up your tirelessly effort in shedding some light in this "shady" business !!!!!!
tomas baer , Buy a 4 by.
what about the highly praised ifi micro idsd black label that costs less than $1000 but is a dac/amp combo? or are you talking about speakers, not headphones?
It would be awesome to see some old vs new amplifiers like the best of vintage 70s and 80s. I would love to see a Vfet amp take on a transistor amp with good test equipment ❤️
Thank you Gene, great video! In my dedicated theater I have Crown XLR 2502's, alongside a Emotiva XPR 5. In my second system I went with the Sunfire 7401, and in my living room I'm running Emotiva XPA 5 gen 2. These amps have served me well, and it was based off your recommendations that I went with Emotiva as a brand. That said, I really hope that you and Matthew revisit this topic and provide more of a buyer's tutorial on how to buy an amplifier, doing things like you did in this video, providing definitions of terms that my go over the head of those of us who are not engineers. Terms like Damping factor, variable impedance, etc. And since we're on the subject of amplifiers, can we PLEASE discuss GAIN, what it is, and why it's important, which IMO is what most people want from their Amplifiers. Thank you and Audioholics for all you do, I look forward to the content and information you provide.
Love my old McIntosh amplifiers although some are now needing new capacitors after 45 years.
Nothing beats a Mcintosh!
Make sure the caps are put in properly. MrCarlsonsLab has a vid about the subject, and he demonstrates with a scope why it matters.
You are correct. Not all Amps sound the same. I had a choice between buying a Krell KSA 100 and a Boulder (can't remember model... was a smaller amp). Dealer kept going on about how the Boulder would smoke the older Krell. I hooked both amps up to a pair of Dynaudio 5.4 S speakers. The Krell, to my ears, had better detail than the Boulder and was 100 per channels watts less. As for now, I'm using SVS Ultra speaker cable. Not what I want, but it was what I could afford at the time. Dealer told me the Boulder would've sounded better if I had better speaker wire....like the Transparent cable they sold. My system, minus speaker wire is wired with JPS cable. It's all about what sounds good to YOU. Not necessarily about price. The used Krell was $2500. The used Boulder was double that.
PS Audio,Peachtree, Bel Canto, and NuForce all have some great Class D options.
I have a Nuprime HD-AVA (made by NuForce) which uses the same internal amp as is in the Nuprime IA-16, and it sounds really good.
NAD as well the affordable 328 and the more expensive C 388 which is future-orientated and can add Module I use the C 388 very happy with it
13:19 I’ve been super happy with my a/b Emotiva 250/500 watt amp purchased a few years ago. This experience reinforces everything you cited in your video. It’s powered a wide variety of speakers including some difficult loads.
I appreciate your straight-shooting advice.
Ive always used Arcam AVRs im waiting for you to review them. I would like to know how they stack up against the popular brands.
I wanna see the new reviews on the Arcam AV40! Vs competitors 🤞🤞🤞
I just bumped into your channel today and I must say it was a revelation. Finally, someone who tells it like it is, in a language even non technical folks can understand. Kudos to you, and I’ll spread the word. Great stuff.
finally...i very honest, quick and understandable explanation of how amplifier quality affects sound. there are so many opinions out there without any backup or explanation. so, thanks!
Speaking of class A running hot... My Accuphase E560 caught fire in an airconditioned room... it melted the tweeters of my Revel ultima salon... horror story of the day... but the 30 watts per channel was more than enough to drive it... about 600 bucks in repairs later it is up and running again... I wonder how it stacks up against that emotiva monoblock, I was always intrigued by the value proposition... it looks like a bargain, does the sound really differ that much from pass or classe?
I think you already have an experience with low power amp that destroys speakers. This shit happened because you set Volume to the level when pre-amp yields more voltage than maximum sensitivity of the amp. E.g. the class A amp has 31V peak voltage with 15,5V treated as polarity change. After input voltage amplification it must have got 32+V signal that exceeds maximum 31V, so it was truncated like if it is 31V where the amped signal exceeds 31V.
As you probably know such square truncated signals are actually wide bandwidth signals that have lot of power in high frequency range. The amp did what it had to do, it yielded overdriven signal with lot of high frequencies to the speakers, the speakers crossovers filtered high frequencies for the twitter, and the twitter suddenly got most of those 30W, and I suspect it was not designed to get so much power. It melted because of the amp overdrive.
Conclusion: don't overdrive the amp with pre-amp voltage more than the amp sensitivity. Use amp that has much higher voltage sensitivity and less gain with low power, or higher voltage sensitivity and more gain that also implies more power.
Usually more power means more safety for the speakers. If you overpower speakers 10-30% they will sound awful, but stay alive, you just make Volume lower to return good sound back. If you overdrive the amp, the amp will most probably survive, but your speakers (esp.twitters) get smoke due to unexpected power sent to high frequency range.
@@alexanderbelov6892 this is 30 watts of pure class A. not class d. it drove the speakers fine for a year and also 804s, 805 and other speakers. it might have been the ups or simply bad power at the apartment building. i never turned the knob higher than 30% btw because that already yields 75db which is too loud for me. usually around 20 to 25%. this is an integrated amp. i connect straight to the dac board inside it.
I refer to the answer my dad gave when I asked if people were smarter than dolphins: some are and some aren't.
I like that
depends whether you're in the water or on dry land
most aren't
@@reginaldjames7975 They seem to do okay without having to spend money on audio equipment.
What a golden nugget of a video, Gene. Thanks for not shying away from a much needed comparison and deep dive into class A and D and some key parameters of amplification beyond just continous output. In amps, output Voltages and output impedance matter. It's also a myth that you need 1000+ damping factor (looking at you, Accuphase). Benchmark has a great article on why 200 is a great, safe sweet spot for driver control. I just bought a used dual mono Onkyo M588F with 235W into 8 Ohms and love it. More than plenty of juice and the thing is over-built like a tank, 90s design with better than 80s capacitors and beefy solder joints. From a time before everything got outsourced to China. The layout is also so well thought out, PSU separated from the output section to minimize noise potentialy creepjng in, just awesome. Running two Noctua silent right above the heatsinks to keep it as cool as possible. Also got a 2nd gen Purifi based stereo amp from Boxem in Luxemburg on order. Class D has come a long way and if Marantz now uses the top of the line Purifi in their new $15K amp, you are getting steals right now with Boxem, Buckeye or VTV.
Rotel RMB-1585 amp here. Class A/B and love the sound. Heavy as hell though 😅
I love my Yamaha B-2. It's 44 years old, but that sound is very unique. I don't know all the specs and test results of it, but I will never sell it. It made my Cerwin Vega E-315s sound way better! No other amp has ever done that. Yes, I know that CVs aren't audiophile or revealing speakers. But that's my testimony. I paid $120 for the B-2 as junk here in Japan. It just needed a cleaning. Works perfectly fine now. Score!
I'm loving my monolith 5 amp. It replaced my Rotel class D amp. It really opened up my speakers.
I love my old Marantz 1152 dc integrated amp I paid 450.00 in 1978. A lot of money to me at that time
Love my totally updated SX 1250. Keeps me in shape when I have to move it. And you can’t beat the look.
Before viewing this video, my guess was that class D was going to take over. I think the days of massive back breaking, heat bricks will soon give way to super efficient, lightweight amps that sound just as good as any A/B amps. Thanks for letting us know that not all amps sound the same, and the law of diminishing returns does kick in pretty quickly, thanks to budget friendly brands like Emotiva/Monoprice. I recently upgraded to Parasound amps because I wanted 2 ch music to sound a little more refined. Coupled with some Martin Logan motions, they create a very nice synergy. But for movies, my older Emotivas were just as good.
The Law of Diminishing Returns seems to kick in at just over $6500, though. :)
@@kingdavid7571 Is that 6,5k for the amp itself or the entire rig?
If you meant only the amplifier I'd say you could half that - just as our friend said up there in the vid.
Already a decade ago there were a few brands that offered super value for the money at a price point less than 2000 buckaroos. Since then the price for really good stuf have dropped.
( I bought my main components a decade ago and paid a lit'l too much by the standards today, but tubes sound so much better for metal and for that musicality matters a lot more than perfect measurements - then spent too much again tube rolling.)
The choice that remain is brand, looks, power (how loud you wish to play your growl metal), functionality (is there a need to play 24 bit PCM or FLAC or stream your growl metal from online sources) and in my case, musicality and and how fast it the growl metal get me headbanging.
@@andersforsgren3806 It also depends on your listening space. I've got a very small living room HiFi set up so don't need a Amplifier with loads of watts. Got a sweet 50watt class AB amplifier coming next week.
Only cost £173 with some promo code and discounts and not a brand name. But I bet it will perform as good as a brand name 50watt £1000 amplifier which bumps the prices up sky high just for the name.
Got good reviews online and on UA-cam and I already have a very high performance power chord and excellent rca interconnects I will use with it. If you do proper research you can get great performing AB amplifiers for bargains these days.
What amp did you have before the parasound?
@@williammorales8204 Emotiva (Gen 1-3) Gen 2 was best, imo, Outlaw 7000x, Monolith 7x, and NAD M12. The Parasound Halo amps are still my favorite. I can't say it's superior to class D specs, but whatever color they add is warm and smooth, but still transparent.
Great insight... appreciate your view/perspective... would like to know what your thoughts are on McIntosh
I have the Yamaha AS-801 for over a year now and in combination with my Klipsch set I am very happy. I think its great quality for a reasonable amount of moneySo the Adioholics UA-cam review on my amp was great, thanks !
I'm seriously considering the AS-801 to upgrade my system - do you use it's DAC and if so are you happy with it? What Klipsch's do you drive with it ? Thanks
@@BruTay5454 at the moment i am not using the full functionality of the sac, I am using 2 Klipsch RB81 in combination with the sub RW12D perfect powerful combination to my ears 😉
@@zaldigo Thanks for the info - I have small Klisch's at the moment (R-41M), and am going to be upgrading them also. Probly the RP500M or RP600M, I don't have room for anything larger like you have. Good to know the AS-801 sounds good with your Klipschs.
you're welcome. in the beginning I had a very good old Rotel to drive my speakers, but I wanted to upgrade, bought a new Rotel, and was very disappointed with it, tried a more expansive flagship model and was also disappointed so I guess Rotel is just not what it was used to be. So after trial and error I discovered that Yamaha is a perfect match for Klipsch speakers. I wish you lots of musical pleasure !
If you plan on working without a subwoofer I would definetely go for the RP600M :-)
Has anyone ever listened through Viktor/JVC's "Advanced Super A" amplifiers such as the ME-1000, AX-900, or AX-M9000? I've always been curious on how well they perform and it's hard to get information on how good those amplifiers were from back in the day as they were quite expensive.
Thanks Gene. Again, you do an awesome job of demystifying this. Do you have an opinion on Devialet’s hybrid A/D design?
A response that's a few years late but a few reviewers came out and talked about as well as measured them and they did not perform well
I'm looking to add a good 2 channel amp to augment my Marantz SR7012 and run my front left and right speakers. What's my best option in the $500-$1,000 range? Or would I just be better off upgrading to the SR8012 and call it a day? Any incite would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
@Audioholics I'm a long time audioholics viewer and this is one of my fav videos. More like these Gene! I appreciate the detailed info and real world comparisons
Do you have an amplifier class of choice? A, AB, D...
Do you like tube or solid state?
Love this video, and love the work you do to cut through the audio BS out there. :-)
I sometimes dabble in audio equipment, and tend to find myself investing more in areas of my life where acoustics is worse, such as my car. For my home, the acoustics are much better, but no where near any sort of audiophile level. I'm generally content with budget gear provided I can run my own equalization to get monitor-like, consistent sound. And I hate all of the budget monitors out there because the drivers and enclosure designs are normally very good, but the amps and crossovers inside are garbage. So I run passive bookshelf speakers that are run by an amp. My latest budget amp is a Dayton Audio APA150 (class AB amp), which is just a brand/model slapped on a Chinese-made design (eg: Emotiva BPA-1). The price is almost the same as its model number, for a very wallet-friendly $150. This amp hilariously has more distortion in the right channel, but still when I'm using it at 25% to 50% on its gain, the THD is still very, very low at most frequencies. My budget amp is powering a pair of Klipsch R-41M speakers.
Some day I'd love to have fun creating a quality listening room and getting quality equipment, but it's always a battle with the wife to spend more money.
What would be your hands down recommendation for the best budget 9+ channel amplifier? Monoprice? Outlaw? Emotiva? Something else?
Best audio channel in UA-cam!
Years ago I could tell the difference, These days, I just want the instrument to sound good. I find to still be partial to tube amps. Enjoyed the video.
I love my monolith 11.
Thank you Gene for another informative and straight talking video. You have asked to comment on the amplifier we are using. In my case it is a NAD M22 class D power amp driving a pair of PMC Twenty.26 speakers. I am more than happy with the performance but to be honest I have not compared it with anything else, so whether my £2,400 would have been better spent on some other brand I have no idea. Hopefully not.
Excellent analysis , much appreciated . Emotiva was an excellent value but their strategy changed.
I agree, that’s why I’m glad I bought a couple of the gen 2 amps. I’m not too excited about their new amps.
Thank you Gino buy can you please tell us can sound reinforcement amps be used to power hi fi and vice versa can we use our home audio power amps to drive live pro audio speakers systems ? and if so when and where can they be used in place of each other I do recall older home Stereo gear ran on a -20 impedance unlike the many new Hifi Amps that have balanced in's and outs run at + 4 db I have always tried to keep all my Audio gear +4 balanced But as you know there are some outboard Pro Audio effects recording gear that still is unbalanced using 1/4 connectors. this was a real pain in the ass many yrs ago when everyone used High Quality Cassette deck its hard to say both terms in the same sentence High Quality and Cassette. the Impedance mismatch over drove the Cassette inputs can you please explain ?
Top ten audio products of the 2010s?
I went to an audio presentation in NYC back in the eighties. Nelson Pass was there talking about his Threshold amplifiers. He basically did tours to promote the sales of his premium Threshold amps. Nelson gave a lecture and in the middle volunteered that while his amps were great, there were others with less cost with the same performance. In other words better value.
I'll never forget that in the middle of his lecture he told us that the Threshold amps were very well suited to the carriage trade. His exact words! Overbuilt and overpriced. Great amps, but you could buy the same performance for less dollars. Long live honest Nelson!
The Crown Core2s amps sound great and beat many 'audiophile' amps in musicality, detail and dynamics.
I run a whole rack of Crown amps. Love them.
Bill Crane ... Heard so much about the Crown amps. Am really keen to try them. It’s cheap.
What have you compared them with?
Which "audiophile" amps have you compared them to?
There are MANY lines of crown amps. From very cheap to really expensive. Radically different machines.
I've got a Crown amp and preamp from the sixties!
I have an old (15 years maybe) Boulder 500AE stereo amp with some weird op-amp design. Via a pair of JM Labs Mini Utopia speakers, it sounds pretty good. Very revealing, smooth, great bass. Can't complain. Bought it second hand via my dealer for a steal and it's been rock solid since.
waiting for the 100,000 subs video :)
I JUST got a Rogue Audio DragoN tube hybrid amp to pair with a Rogue RP-1 preamp with Monitor Audio Platinum 200
speakers. The DragoN is replacing PS Audio M700 Monoblocks that I love but was curious about having two tube pieces in my chain. Now I’m not so sure I prefer this combination. Especially not on all music 😬. I’m going g to do some testing with different combinations like running a Marantz PM 8006 as a preamp to the DragoN to see if going solid state to the tube amp will bring some of the THUMP i’m missing on some tracks. I have a second system that is the Marantz PM8006 as a preamp to Emotiva A1 BassX monoblocks to some Elac Debut towers. I’ll mix and match the pres and amps to see if I really wanna part with the PS audio M700s. Other separates in the chains include and Eversolo DMP A6 and an RME ADI-2 DAC and a Bluesound Node 2 in the respective systems.
Test benches never lie, but manufacturers and some reviewer's ears do.
Regardless of what any instrumentation may say we like what we like. It may not be theoretically perfectly sound either. The equipment I use is not the best. Far from it, but I'm happy with it. And in the end that's all that really counts.
Test benches can mislead when they measure audio factors with no regard to proven audibility. Just because a product measures better does not necessarily mean it sounds better. There is a graph in the video that shows an amp that has a 2dB boost at 20KHz under certain conditions. Can anyone hear such a difference playing actual content? I highly doubt it, but the amp is dismissed because of it.
@@gregworrel2623 I don't know what anyone else can hear. I know on average a human being cannot hear upwards of 2% distortion though. Which is an astronomical amount with today's amplifiers. People are such total morons with what they think they can hear, or see. Most don't know their assholes from their elbows. In tests people like volume. Take two identical signals with one louder than the other and people will favor the louder one. It'll "sound" better to them. The more the merrier I suppose? But an audiophile won't just say it is louder, they'll use all kinds of floral expression to convey their experience. It is airer, has more definition, separation blah blah. It's louder you fool!
That is one of the ways that people fool themselves. The difference can be less than .5dB which people do not register as louder, but they usually prefer it. Other ways people deceive themselves can be lumped in as cognitive bias. Anyone who sees the McGurk effect knows that hearing cannot be trusted. You sometimes hear what you expect to hear and the influences are subconscious. The coaching effect is one such bias, when one enthusiast tells another how much better such and such sounds. That is happening right here in this video.
@@gregworrel2623 double blind testing is the only reliable method when it comes to subjective audio appreciation. I actually like boomy bass. It is just a personal preference of mine.
Do you have a video showing a SMPS being unable to deliver the required power?
The scariest thing isn’t the snake oil salesman. It’s the half science sounds legit salesman selling extra virgin snake oil. Yes amplifiers measures differently but does the frequency response measure differently when they drive speakers when not clipping. The answer is NO. $10000 says this guy can’t differentiate level matched non clipping amplifiers.
You should actually listen to different amps. Very sad if you can’t hear any differences in sound character.
@@MrKom20 Modern amplifiers are a solved problem with distortion levels below the level of audibility and ruler-flat frequency response within the range of human hearing. Saying that one amplifier sounds "smoother" or "more composed" than another is pure snake oil nonsense. The real reasons amps can sound different is if they are not level-matched to within .1dB or if one is over-driven to clipping. So more powerful amps can sound better than less powerful amps at a volume level that causes the lower powered one to clip. The only other reasons amps will sound different are the same reasons people claim different speaker wires and interconnects sound different, subconscious bias. Gene is selling extra virgin snake oil, with his flawed observations backed with irrelevant measurements and engineering guesswork.
Greg Worrel Why are you listening to audio reviews if you’re already so knowledgeable? Please go back to your sterilized world of perfectly solved zero distortion and let the real audio lovers listen to different equipment. These differences are not always subtle. Have you heard any tube amplifiers? Second order harmonics? Do you actually listen or prefer to read graphs? I don’t know why I’m bothering here but I feel bad that people can be so small minded. If anyone else has bothered to keep reading, please experiment with different amps and decide for yourself.
@@MrKom20 Small minded is thinking the world is flat and ignoring all evidence to the contrary. That is what you are doing. Watch a video about the McGurk effect. That is not subtle either but it highlights the strong effects of psycho-acoustics on what we think we hear. Spending thousands of dollars on an illusion means that people are being ripped off. Many here are unaware of ABX testing and the $10,000 amplifier challenge. I hoped that Gene would tell the truth in this video, but he is either so steeped in the audiophile BS that he continues to spread the same nonsense, or he knows that his UA-cam views, review samples, and other revenue streams would be compromised if he told the truth. That is what is truly sad. Watch this video about the McGurk effect and then tell me you have confidence in what you are hearing when you compare different amps. ua-cam.com/video/2k8fHR9jKVM/v-deo.html
Hey Gene. If you can get your hands on them I would love to hear your thoughts on the Michi p5 S5 combo.
Do older amplifiers sound better, that's the real question.
EVMYT I would think the older stuff has higher distortion and less headroom. Most of the old amps I’ve used sound good till you go past half way and it gets noisy. Plus capacitors go bad or get leaky making them less efficient leading to deterioration in the sound. They look cool but unless it’s had a full restoration I won’t touch them anymore. Besides the killer deals you used to find are now over inflated, even the boat anchors. There’s a lot of good deals out there for new amps. Yamaha makes great quality good sounding amps and the price is doable for most modest budgets.
@@jsdhesmith2011 Yep the caps in my Adcom GFA555 amp have leaked, bigtime!
Hey Gene thanks for the advice! What is your opinion of Parasound Power amps?
There is very little correlation between sound quality and price when it comes to audio electronics. No you can’t make a great sounding 100w amp for 50 dollars, but you can mass produce one for hundreds of dollars. A few thousand will buy a state of the art one. 10’s and 100’s of thousands will buy you beautiful casework and the envy of other audiophiles but literally nothing in improved fidelity.
That's rediculous
Look up the Big SET
Tube amps , thier Incredible and hugely better .
I wish you were right , bu thiers always crown ....
@@dednside5229 Hugely better because some people say they are. Described as better using attributes that can't be quantified. Most of high end audio is an elaborate fraud.
@@dednside5229 Yep, just call me names and spout more opinions. That's proof enough for me.
@@rwortman2
I dont need to convince you ....
If you want high end gear thiers ways and tricks to get it like I do .
Or...just discount it as audio snobbery .
In the end it's the listening experience
Do the research.
Maybe grab an old Kenwood DC unit cheap and go from there .
I found my first one in the garbage and repaired it , I was 12 .
Hardoff Japan,
Ship using tenso , start with the kenwood L line late 70's
Dont forget to re-cap
Re set factory bias
Oh yeah, AR-M1 kick ass for cheap
Ask Mark Levinson
@@dednside5229 I don't know how old you are but I've been messing around with audio equipment for over 40 years. I have a pretty nice VPI turntable, a pair of PSB Imagine T2 speakers and an additional matching center and surrounds for movies. I have separate two channel and surround setups that only share the front LR speakers and the power amp they are attached to. In addition to my main system I have three other stereo systems in two garages and a living room with a mix of newer and vintage gear some of which I repaired myself. I also do some unpaid work in live sound, recording, and mixing. It is my personal experience that the sound differences between properly designed electronic gear is largely imaginary unless one of them is introducing known distortion. It is also my personal experience that a good quality professional audio amplifier sounds as good as an audiophile brand one at a significantly lower price. I found this out by simply trying one that I had purchased for a project I was doing for a local theater group. I had it in the house so curiosity made me try it out. The only thing bad about it was the fan noise. I then purchased a better one with a whisper quiet fan that never comes on unless I am playing it so loud that you couldn't hear it anyway. It sounds great and has twice the power of my old amp. I sold my audiophile amp and spent the money more motorcycle gear.
Hi Gene! I totally share your opinion on the class D design (Brunos Hypex). I would though love to see you debunk or confirm through you strict measurement methods the use of Crown XLS pro amps in the home audio. I've seen multiple "high profile" audiophiles use those amps and I would hope that the used design of the "drive core" is a good one for home use. Thanks!
Electrically, its much harder for an amplifier terminated into a dummy load than in a dynamic load.
I have Pass Labs XA30.8 with xp-12 preamp and I love it. It sounds very engaging and smooth with a very satisfying big soundstage, it makes my Focal Sopra 3 completely disappear. It's only music in front of me. I'm super happy with my purchase and also the ability to purchase my dream speakers.
Wish that type of nirvana to you all!!
Must be nice to be able to bankroll tests that cost nearly 20 grand and have 50 grand speakers. 😅 Way out of touch for me.
that is nothing check out Jays Audio Lab
I’ve had some really expensive audio, but my older Audio Physics Virgos (blown woofers) were driven by a Bel Labs MK5 and Conrad Tube Premier 17LS Pre-amp. However my wife prefers the sound of my old Adcom GFA 555 II driven by an Acurus Pre-amp on my new Klipsch RP 8000Fs (& Klipsch 15 inch sub). So now I have all my high end cables on my cheaper stuff and it’s more satisfying than my high end system was. . So now I’m in a quandary what to do.
Every amp sounds the same
Gene, I think your spot on.
The other part is what are you doing with your system. If it is strictly Home theater, the amp will be less noticeable assuming your buying a decent amp such as an outlaw etc.
if your using your system as 2 Chanel and home theater, then the amp can revel the sound differences more transparently.
I have am running a 7:2:4 system as both home theater and 2 channel.
I have a Marantz 7012 with 2 amps. A Rotel 1075 and an Outlaw Audio 750. Both are great amp and power my B&W 605-S2 speakers without issue.
Recently I did a back to back comparison of the 2 in 2 Chanel mode.
The Outlaw could power the speakers to higher DB levels but the Rotel was warmer with tighter bass and better transition in the mid range.
Based on this I swapped the 2 front towers to be powered by the Rotel.
So yes, amps make a difference, in the home theater mode it was more difficult for me to tell a difference.
Now as for adding external amp, in my book it is a must. The Marantz sounded terrible with the B&W speakers. It did not have enough power to make the system even sound decent.
So fo me in a good to great system, external amps are a must.
My next step will probably be to add a 3ed amp (Parasound A21) to power just the 2 front towers and the rest will be split between the Rotel and Outlaw.
Right now, I use a Yamaha R-S 700 100 watt stereo receiver. I have a Quad 606 power amplifier which needs some repair, not easy in Canada, and the stereo receiver works so well I don't miss it. If I ever want separates, I would look at Bryston, a 3B should be plenty for me.
Hi, Opinions on PS audio Sprout and or PS audio in general? Thanks!
Huge fan of my Emotiva XPA-5 for home theatre gen 1 it was when Emotiva was huge bang for the buck. Makes me smile when I am listening to anything movies or music
Yup, same here XPA-5 Gen 1. Forgot how heavy the beast is too when I took it out to clean it for the first time since buying it about a month ago.
I dropped $2K on a Rotel RB-1582 mk II. That thing is 39 lbs. I never heard an amp sound so smooth and push 4 ohm speakers so effortlessly. I’m happy!
As with all Audoholics videos, great content. What was the Blu Ray you reference?
Emotiva A-300, Emotiva PT-100, Emotiva ERC-3, Emotiva T-2. Im loving it.
Im probably on the lower end of the spectrum..... I also use a set of B&W 604 series 3 in my system too. Always curious if a better amp would make a significant audible improvement.
Great video and thank you!!!
In one of my set ups I run the TA-100 as the pre (same as the PT-100 except can be a stand alone as well) and the A-300 except I went with the CD-100 in that set up. I run RF7 IIs with it. It has the ability to piss people off pretty far down the street
I have a Carver av705x that I bought used in 2003 5 channels 125 watts channel all channels 20- 20k. Runs cool and is a beast and absolutely quiet when I turn it on. I can turn the volume up and put my ear up to the speaker and barely a hiss. I still have it today. It was a $1200 amp
Can you give me a few pointers? How should I A/B my 2 amplifiers: Emotiva A-100 and Parasound A-21? There is a significant price difference, but I cannot seem to hear it. The speakers I have are KEF LS50 and Buchardt S400. DAC is OPPO Sonica. Thanks!
I have many amps Peachtree Nova 125 ice amp based , TPA 3255 , class AB mono block 4 channel, Class A, Hypex nCore
Allo Volt +D. I love the Hypex nCore it’s outstanding power any speaker it will rock. If budget is low and u can live with little less power but super clarity try Allo Volt + D. There are some bass tones I have never heard in these amps
Also try to go active instead of passive. And take extra power than what u need always
I have sealed DIY subs all powered by my amps never look at brands and buy miniDSP
QSC pro audio amp works great. 300 watts X 2. Use it to drive my two front Cerwin Vega 15 inch three way speakers. A my Denon X6500 to drive all other speakers in my Dolby Atmos setup. Great sound. Only cost me $900.00.
If you like class D check out Lyngdorf’s SDA-2400 amps. Peter (Lyngdorf) been doing all digital ckts. since the Tact Audio days and now it’s trickle down technology of Steinway and Sons. Very analog but actually just very transparent amplification. Just paired 6 with the MP-60 pre/pro. Their Room Perfect works👌🏽 for HT too.
Hello Gene. So a SMPS is sonically inferior to a LPS? Most manufacturers are going that route which is a bummer since I have read that a SMPS cant reproduce bass as well as an LPS could.
One brand I seldom hear you speak about Gene is McIntosh. I’m very curious what you’re opinion is on their amplifiers?
How do u feel about the Parasound A52+?
@audioholics thanks for your super educational content.. what are your top 5 Class D amps today?
Purifi, Pascal, Hypex, ICE. Purifi in NAD M28, Pascal in Storm Audio and RBH amps, Hypex in ATI NCore amps, ICE in Legacy Audio amps. There are other examples, but these stand out.
@@Audioholics thanks some amps to check :)
How abt hypex in nord acoustics ?
I'm waiting on a class D amp now, which I will hopefully get in February. It's based on the Hypex NCore tech, so should be pretty good. Very excited to hear the difference from my current class AB amp from around 2010.
Love these videos.
First, you are a great source of audio equipment education and information. Thank you. I hope you can give me some insight. I have a Shanling A3000 amp, a big beast, 200w/ch @ 8 ohms and 320w/@4ohm, 80,000uf capacitance, big dual toroidals, 8 Sanken power transistors, 2 EH6922 tubes, and it is a discrete design, 33 kgs. My speakers are Sonus Faber Venere 2.5's. I am thinking of changing to a Kinki EXM 1 amp and Paradigm Founder 80F speakers. I have the heard speakers but cant say for sure they are better than my SF's. If you could chime, do you think this is a lateral or vertical move? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.
Well said. The amplifiers that I am still kicking around with is Parasound 2125 they support 2olm 4 and 8 . Bridged mono mode is 400 watts RMS in 8olms and 4 stereo mode 125x2 8olm 200x2 in 4. Im bi amping with those which is teamed up with my DENON AVR. My center is is running with DAYTON AUDIO APA150. I do have a sound reinforcement amp Steller LABS 3ch . 8000s model it has two fans in the back third channel is the sub channel which I am using for tactile shakers. 300watts in 8 480 watts RMS in 4. One day all do some changes but for now its doing the job.
great video gene what are your thoughts on outlaw audio amplifiers..?
Great amps, most of their upper end stuff is made by ATI which is a solid brand.
I recently acquired a Bel Canto REF300S to replace a pair of well-regarded CLASS A monoblocks. I had previously upgraded several other components (media player, DAC, preamp, cables, etc) and even though there were improvements somehow I was always looking for more. In hopes to arrive sonically to this unknown place, I talked to a lot of people in the audiophile industry, watched many hours of youtube high-end audio reviews, visited RMAF, demoed components in my home, but none of them was as impactful as this 250w/ch Bel Canto. WOW!
The most obvious thing I noticed was that the speakers disappeared and the music was just present. Without even trying to focus to find a difference what happened was that I found myself simply enjoying the music, tapping my foot, singing (I am not a good singer but with this kind of sound it did seem I had a great voice) and loving music more. No longer I would have to start describing the sound I just heard in some technical jargon, now I can just feel the music in my whole body which is pretty amazing.
WOW! I love what this upgrade and what it does to what really matters...It's all about the music.
Life is better with music,
What happened to the good old Technics receivers from the 80s,I loved those things in my tiny budget and they were powerhouses back then.
I am still using a 4 heavy older amplifier Ashly FTX-2001 Series III. I do have a outlaw amplifier on the way it will be interesting to compare them.