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Spectron Musician III - Can anyone comment on it?

I am currently on the hunt for a pair of amplifiers that have massive peak power capability with excellent micro dynamics and neutral presentation. I am driving a pair of Martin Logan Statement E2's

The Spectron Musician has been reviewed exceptionally well everywhere I looked and seems to fit the bill but I just can't get over 25 years of snobbery telling me to avoid switching amps because linear amps just sound better and, hey, the name on the faceplate ain't Krell or Mark Levinson!

Can I PLEASE get a few people with experience listening to these amps tell me why I should or shouldn't buy them?

I desperately want to buy a pair of the BAT VK-600SE's since I own mostly all BAT equipment but to produce, say, 110db peaks one would comfortably need several thousands watts of power in the bucket to meet the challenge. I don't think the BAT amps have that under the hood.

Advice?
sashua
dob
577 posts
 
Hey Romandoc, did you get your super tube preamp to run your Spectron monoblocks?
Thanks
Rafael
romandoc
11 posts
 
Hi Rafael,

Not yet. The guy does good quality work at a reasonable price so he's swamped with orders. I also made a couple of changes to the original design. I heard of a couple of very highly regarded preamps using DHTs so I asked Nicholas what he thought of this. He said no problem, my own preamp uses a 45 tube driven by 6922. He adapted his preamp for the use of 6FQ7, electrically similar to 6SN7 and sat down and listened to pure 6SN7 vs 6FQ7 driving a 45. 6SN7 was darker, 45 was fuller sounding, better upper extension and more microdetail.
So now my preamp will be a choke coupled 6SN7 driving a 45 conservatively, the output transformer lowers the gain to 4dB in low gain mode or 8dB in high gain mode, I have 2 pairs of XLR outs and 2 pairs of SE outs , output impedance around 50 ohms with both XLRs used, which is very low.
The other thing is that the remote control unit didn't work out as expected and manual was significantly better sounding, so that's what I chose.
Will let you know how it sounds driving the Spectrons in monoblock mode.

romandoc
dob
577 posts
 
"Will let you know how it sounds driving the Spectrons in monoblock mode"

Thank you very much - post your impressions
All The Best
Rafael
tedmbrady
208 posts
 
My second Mark II amp (for monoblock)showed up and I'm beginning the 250-400 hr process of breaking it in. It's on a separate system running 24/7 with mono out of phase XLO break-in tracks running continuously via Squeezebox and a set of speakers facing each other, with thick comforter over them....works darn well, with little in-phase noise leaking out, even at decent gain levels.

I'll report back when I officially go monoblock. I'm geeked.
tedmbrady
208 posts
 
Well, tonight I hit the 100 hr mark of break-in for my 2nd Mark 2 amp. The y-adapters that showed up were too short anyway, so i have to be patient and let the amp break in and wait for the right length XLR y-adapters to be shipped. Any monoblock users out there hazard a guess as to when it would be proper to move the 2nd amp into monoblock mode? I guess I'm being overly cautious cuz it's not like when a biamped amp moves in; that amp can integrate in as the bass amp or whatever and likely not show its differences..unlike the monoblocks where one is distinctly left channel, and one right channel. Am I being too picky? thanks
Ted
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