@techno_dude,
The Lampi uses only SE cables, no XLR.
The Lampi uses only SE cables, no XLR.
My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!
So I have been in a long journey looking to find the best amplifiers for my martin logan montis. As you know, the match between an amplifier and speakers has to be a good "marriage" and needs to be blend exquisitely. Right now, I think I might have found the best sounding amplifier for martin logan. I have gone through approximately 34-36 amplifiers in the past 12 months. Some of these are:
Bryston ST, SST, SST2 series
NAD M25
PARASOUND HALO
PARASOUND CLASSIC
KRELL TAS
KRELL KAV 500
KRELL CHORUS
ROTEL RMB 1095
CLASSE CT 5300
CLASSE CA 2200
CLASSE CA 5200
MCINTOSH MC 205
CARY AUDIO CINEMA 7
OUTLAW AUDIO 755
LEXICON RX7
PASS LABS XA 30.8
BUTLER AUDIO 5150
ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005
With all that said, the amplifiers I mentioned above are the ones that in my opinion are worth mentioning. To make a long story short, there is NO 5 CHANNEL POWER AMP that sounds as good as a 3ch and 2ch amplifier combination. i have done both experiments and the truth is that YOU DO lose details and more channel separation,etc when you select a 5 channel power amplifier of any manufacturer.
My recollection of what each amp sounded like is as follows:
ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005 (great power and amazing soundstage. Very low noise floor, BUT this amplifiers NEEDS TO BE cranked up in order to fully enjoy it. If you like listening at low volume levels or somewhat moderate, you are wasting your time here. This amp won’t sound any different than many other brands out there at this volume. The bass is great, good highs although they are a bit bright for my taste)
NAD M25 (very smooth, powerful, but somewhat thin sounding as far as bass goes)
Bryston sst2(detailed, good soundstage, good power, but can be a little forward with certain speakers which could make them ear fatiguing at loud volumes)
Krell (fast sounding, nice bass attack, nice highs, but some detail does get lost with certain speakers)
rotel (good amp for the money, but too bright in my opinion)
cary audio (good sound overall, very musical, but it didn’t have enough oomph)
parasound halo (good detail, great bass, but it still holds back some background detail that i can hear in others)
lexicon (very laid back and smooth. huge power, but if you like more detail or crisper highs, this amp will disappoint you)
McIntosh mc205 (probably the worst multichannel amp given its price point. it was too thin sounding, had detail but lacked bass.
butler audio (good amplifier. very warm and smooth sweet sounding. i think for the money, this is a better amp than the parasound a51)
pass labs (very VERY musical with excellent bass control. You can listen to this for hours and hours without getting ear fatigue. however, it DOES NOT do well in home theater applications if all you have is a 2 channel set up for movies. The midrange gets somewhat "muddy" or very weak sounding that you find yourself trying to turn it up.
classe audio (best amplifier for multi channel applications. i simply COULDNT FIND a better multi channel amplifier PERIOD. IT has amazing smoothness, amazing power and good bass control although i would say krell has much better bass control)
Update: The reviews above were done in January 2015. Below is my newest update as of October 2016:
PS AUDIO BHK 300 MONOBLOCKS: Amazing amps. Tons of detail and really amazing midrange. the bass is amazing too, but the one thing i will say is that those of you with speakers efficiency of 87db and below you will not have all the "loudness" that you may want from time to time. These amps go into protection mode when using a speaker such as the Salon, but only at very loud levels. Maybe 97db and above. If you don’t listen to extreme crazy levels, these amps will please you in every way.
Plinius Odeon 7 channel amp: This is THE BEST multichannel amp i have ever owned. Far , but FAR SUPERIOR to any other multichannel amp i have owned. In my opinion it destroyed all of the multichannel amps i mentioned above and below. The Odeon is an amp that is in a different tier group and it is in a league of its own. Amazing bass, treble and it made my center channel sound more articulate than ever before. The voices where never scrambled with the action scenes. It just separated everything very nicely.
Theta Dreadnaught D: Good detailed amp. Looks very elegant, has a pleasant sound, but i found it a tad too bright for my taste. I thought it was also somewhat "thin" sounding lacking body to the music. could be that it is because it is class d?
Krell Duo 300: Good amp. Nice and detailed with enough power to handle most speakers out there. I found that it does have a very nice "3d" sound through my electrostatics. Nothing to fault here on this amp.
Mark Levinson 532H: Great 2 channel amp. Lots of detail, amazing midrange which is what Mark Levinson is known for. It sounds very holographic and will please those of you looking for more detail and a better midrange. As far as bass, it is there, but it is not going to give you the slam of a pass labs 350.5 or JC1s for example. It is great for those that appreciate classical music, instrumental, etc, but not those of you who love tons of deep bass. It is articulate sounding too
Krell 7200: Plenty of detail and enough power for most people. i found that my rear speakers contained more information after installed this amp. One thing that i hated is that you must use xlr cables with this amp or else you lose most of its sound performance when using RCA’s.
Krell 402e: Great amp. Very powerful and will handle any speaker you wish. Power is incredible and with great detail. That said, i didn’t get all the bass that most reviewers mentioned. I thought it was "ok" in regards to bass. It was there, but it didn’t slam me to my listening chair.
Bryston 4B3: Good amp with a complete sound. I think this amp is more laid back than the SST2 version. I think those of you who found the SST2 version of this amp a little too forward with your speakers will definitely benefit from this amp’s warmth. Bryston has gone towards the "warm" side in my opinion with their new SST3 series. As always, they are built like tanks. I wouldn’t call this amp tube-like, but rather closer to what the classe audio delta 2 series sound like which is on the warm side of things.
Parasound JC1s: Good powerful amps. Amazing low end punch (far superior bass than the 402e). This amp is the amp that i consider complete from top to bottom in regards to sound. Nothing is lacking other than perhaps a nicer chassis. Parasound needs to rework their external appearance when they introduce new amps. This amp would sell much more if it had a revised external appearance because the sound is a great bang for the money. It made my 800 Nautilus scream and slam. Again, amazing low end punch.
Simaudio W7: Good detailed amp. This amp reminds me a lot of the Mark Levinson 532h. Great detail and very articulate. I think this amp will go well with bookshelves that are ported in order to compensate for what it lacks when it comes to the bass. That doesn’t mean it has no bass, but when it is no Parasound JC1 either.
Pass labs 350.5: Wow, where do i begin? maybe my first time around with the xa30.8 wasn’t as special as it was with this monster 350.5. It is just SPECTACULAR sounding with my electrostatics. The bass was THE BEST BASS i have ever heard from ANY amp period. The only amp that comes close would be the jC1s. It made me check my settings to make sure the bass was not boosted and kept making my jaw drop each time i heard it. It totally destroyed the krell 402e in every regard. The krell sounded too "flat" when compared to this amp. This amp had amazing mirange with great detail up top. In my opinion, this amp is the best bang for the money. i loved this amp so much that i ended up buying the amp that follows below.
Pass labs 250.8: What can i say here. This is THE BEST STEREO AMP i have ever heard. This amp destroys all the amps i have listed above today to include the pass labs 350.5. It is a refined 350.5 amp. It has more 3d sound which is something the 350.5 lacked. It has a level of detail that i really have never experienced before and the bass was amazing as well. I really thought it was the most complete power amplifier i have ever heard HANDS DOWN. To me, this is a benchmark of an amplifier. This is the amp that others should be judged by. NOTHING is lacking and right now it is the #1 amplifier that i have ever owned.
My current amps are Mcintosh MC601s: i decided to give these 601s a try and they don’t disappoint. They have great detail, HUGE soundstage, MASSIVE power and great midrange/highs. The bass is great, but it is no pass labs 250.8 or 350.5. As far as looks, these are the best looking amps i have ever owned. No contest there. i gotta be honest with you all, i never bought mcintosh monos before because i wasn’t really "wowed" by the mc452, but it could have been also because at that time i was using a processor as a preamp which i no longer do. Today, i own the Mcintosh C1100 2 chassis tube preamp which sounds unbelievable. All the amps i just described above have been amps that i auditioned with the C1100 as a preamp. The MC601s sound great without a doubt, but i will say that if you are looking for THE BEST sound for the money, these would not be it. However, Mcintosh remains UNMATCHED when it comes to looks and also resale value. Every other amp above depreciates much faster than Mcintosh.
That said, my future purchase (when i can find a steal of a deal) will be the Pass labs 350.8. I am tempted to make a preliminary statement which is that i feel this amp could be THE BEST stereo amp under 30k dollars. Again, i will be able to say more and confirm once i own it. I hope this update can help you all in your buying decisions!
Bryston ST, SST, SST2 series
NAD M25
PARASOUND HALO
PARASOUND CLASSIC
KRELL TAS
KRELL KAV 500
KRELL CHORUS
ROTEL RMB 1095
CLASSE CT 5300
CLASSE CA 2200
CLASSE CA 5200
MCINTOSH MC 205
CARY AUDIO CINEMA 7
OUTLAW AUDIO 755
LEXICON RX7
PASS LABS XA 30.8
BUTLER AUDIO 5150
ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005
With all that said, the amplifiers I mentioned above are the ones that in my opinion are worth mentioning. To make a long story short, there is NO 5 CHANNEL POWER AMP that sounds as good as a 3ch and 2ch amplifier combination. i have done both experiments and the truth is that YOU DO lose details and more channel separation,etc when you select a 5 channel power amplifier of any manufacturer.
My recollection of what each amp sounded like is as follows:
ATI SIGNATURE SERIES 6005 (great power and amazing soundstage. Very low noise floor, BUT this amplifiers NEEDS TO BE cranked up in order to fully enjoy it. If you like listening at low volume levels or somewhat moderate, you are wasting your time here. This amp won’t sound any different than many other brands out there at this volume. The bass is great, good highs although they are a bit bright for my taste)
NAD M25 (very smooth, powerful, but somewhat thin sounding as far as bass goes)
Bryston sst2(detailed, good soundstage, good power, but can be a little forward with certain speakers which could make them ear fatiguing at loud volumes)
Krell (fast sounding, nice bass attack, nice highs, but some detail does get lost with certain speakers)
rotel (good amp for the money, but too bright in my opinion)
cary audio (good sound overall, very musical, but it didn’t have enough oomph)
parasound halo (good detail, great bass, but it still holds back some background detail that i can hear in others)
lexicon (very laid back and smooth. huge power, but if you like more detail or crisper highs, this amp will disappoint you)
McIntosh mc205 (probably the worst multichannel amp given its price point. it was too thin sounding, had detail but lacked bass.
butler audio (good amplifier. very warm and smooth sweet sounding. i think for the money, this is a better amp than the parasound a51)
pass labs (very VERY musical with excellent bass control. You can listen to this for hours and hours without getting ear fatigue. however, it DOES NOT do well in home theater applications if all you have is a 2 channel set up for movies. The midrange gets somewhat "muddy" or very weak sounding that you find yourself trying to turn it up.
classe audio (best amplifier for multi channel applications. i simply COULDNT FIND a better multi channel amplifier PERIOD. IT has amazing smoothness, amazing power and good bass control although i would say krell has much better bass control)
Update: The reviews above were done in January 2015. Below is my newest update as of October 2016:
PS AUDIO BHK 300 MONOBLOCKS: Amazing amps. Tons of detail and really amazing midrange. the bass is amazing too, but the one thing i will say is that those of you with speakers efficiency of 87db and below you will not have all the "loudness" that you may want from time to time. These amps go into protection mode when using a speaker such as the Salon, but only at very loud levels. Maybe 97db and above. If you don’t listen to extreme crazy levels, these amps will please you in every way.
Plinius Odeon 7 channel amp: This is THE BEST multichannel amp i have ever owned. Far , but FAR SUPERIOR to any other multichannel amp i have owned. In my opinion it destroyed all of the multichannel amps i mentioned above and below. The Odeon is an amp that is in a different tier group and it is in a league of its own. Amazing bass, treble and it made my center channel sound more articulate than ever before. The voices where never scrambled with the action scenes. It just separated everything very nicely.
Theta Dreadnaught D: Good detailed amp. Looks very elegant, has a pleasant sound, but i found it a tad too bright for my taste. I thought it was also somewhat "thin" sounding lacking body to the music. could be that it is because it is class d?
Krell Duo 300: Good amp. Nice and detailed with enough power to handle most speakers out there. I found that it does have a very nice "3d" sound through my electrostatics. Nothing to fault here on this amp.
Mark Levinson 532H: Great 2 channel amp. Lots of detail, amazing midrange which is what Mark Levinson is known for. It sounds very holographic and will please those of you looking for more detail and a better midrange. As far as bass, it is there, but it is not going to give you the slam of a pass labs 350.5 or JC1s for example. It is great for those that appreciate classical music, instrumental, etc, but not those of you who love tons of deep bass. It is articulate sounding too
Krell 7200: Plenty of detail and enough power for most people. i found that my rear speakers contained more information after installed this amp. One thing that i hated is that you must use xlr cables with this amp or else you lose most of its sound performance when using RCA’s.
Krell 402e: Great amp. Very powerful and will handle any speaker you wish. Power is incredible and with great detail. That said, i didn’t get all the bass that most reviewers mentioned. I thought it was "ok" in regards to bass. It was there, but it didn’t slam me to my listening chair.
Bryston 4B3: Good amp with a complete sound. I think this amp is more laid back than the SST2 version. I think those of you who found the SST2 version of this amp a little too forward with your speakers will definitely benefit from this amp’s warmth. Bryston has gone towards the "warm" side in my opinion with their new SST3 series. As always, they are built like tanks. I wouldn’t call this amp tube-like, but rather closer to what the classe audio delta 2 series sound like which is on the warm side of things.
Parasound JC1s: Good powerful amps. Amazing low end punch (far superior bass than the 402e). This amp is the amp that i consider complete from top to bottom in regards to sound. Nothing is lacking other than perhaps a nicer chassis. Parasound needs to rework their external appearance when they introduce new amps. This amp would sell much more if it had a revised external appearance because the sound is a great bang for the money. It made my 800 Nautilus scream and slam. Again, amazing low end punch.
Simaudio W7: Good detailed amp. This amp reminds me a lot of the Mark Levinson 532h. Great detail and very articulate. I think this amp will go well with bookshelves that are ported in order to compensate for what it lacks when it comes to the bass. That doesn’t mean it has no bass, but when it is no Parasound JC1 either.
Pass labs 350.5: Wow, where do i begin? maybe my first time around with the xa30.8 wasn’t as special as it was with this monster 350.5. It is just SPECTACULAR sounding with my electrostatics. The bass was THE BEST BASS i have ever heard from ANY amp period. The only amp that comes close would be the jC1s. It made me check my settings to make sure the bass was not boosted and kept making my jaw drop each time i heard it. It totally destroyed the krell 402e in every regard. The krell sounded too "flat" when compared to this amp. This amp had amazing mirange with great detail up top. In my opinion, this amp is the best bang for the money. i loved this amp so much that i ended up buying the amp that follows below.
Pass labs 250.8: What can i say here. This is THE BEST STEREO AMP i have ever heard. This amp destroys all the amps i have listed above today to include the pass labs 350.5. It is a refined 350.5 amp. It has more 3d sound which is something the 350.5 lacked. It has a level of detail that i really have never experienced before and the bass was amazing as well. I really thought it was the most complete power amplifier i have ever heard HANDS DOWN. To me, this is a benchmark of an amplifier. This is the amp that others should be judged by. NOTHING is lacking and right now it is the #1 amplifier that i have ever owned.
My current amps are Mcintosh MC601s: i decided to give these 601s a try and they don’t disappoint. They have great detail, HUGE soundstage, MASSIVE power and great midrange/highs. The bass is great, but it is no pass labs 250.8 or 350.5. As far as looks, these are the best looking amps i have ever owned. No contest there. i gotta be honest with you all, i never bought mcintosh monos before because i wasn’t really "wowed" by the mc452, but it could have been also because at that time i was using a processor as a preamp which i no longer do. Today, i own the Mcintosh C1100 2 chassis tube preamp which sounds unbelievable. All the amps i just described above have been amps that i auditioned with the C1100 as a preamp. The MC601s sound great without a doubt, but i will say that if you are looking for THE BEST sound for the money, these would not be it. However, Mcintosh remains UNMATCHED when it comes to looks and also resale value. Every other amp above depreciates much faster than Mcintosh.
That said, my future purchase (when i can find a steal of a deal) will be the Pass labs 350.8. I am tempted to make a preliminary statement which is that i feel this amp could be THE BEST stereo amp under 30k dollars. Again, i will be able to say more and confirm once i own it. I hope this update can help you all in your buying decisions!
Showing 24 responses by bigddesign3
Glad to see the massive power of the Titan is being put to good use. The Neolith is made to take the power. Now for the 1st time you have an amp to see what the power brings. Whether a small power amp brings more to the table at lower volumes, or not. Some of us relish the ability to turn it up and hear that roar. Even if is only for a few seconds, that HOLY MOTHER OF GOD experience is an adrenaline rush, not unlike driving a supercar or supercharged muscle car with your foot to the floor. Nice job!! You deserve to unleash the Kraken with these Neoliths. Not to say that this is the end all of amplification, but anyone with a speaker like this should experience 1,000 w/ch or more coming out of it. Why? BECAUSE YOU CAN. |
Allman Brothers Concert 1975, Long Island, New York. I had just gotten my car, and really wasn't ready to drive there with not that much experience. So I let my older friend drive my Station Wagon (66 Dodge Monaco 383) along with 5 others. My 1st concert with General Admission, and it was as good as you could get from a band LIVE. 3 hours plus, and it was amazing how they could start jamming, and extend the songs when they felt like it. I was 17. Great time.... |
WC, Enjoyed the synopsis of the amplifier testing. The Titan may have lost the Gold Medal. And the Block Audio Monos sure deserve it being Class A for 200 watts. But it must be cool to have the Titan around for all out blasting sessions at high decibels. Not sure how much you paid for the Titan, but if it was relatively inexpensive, it should be a keeper for the times when supercharged power is what is on the menu. Even if the Lampizator had enough gain.... there is what you have said about the ARC Ref 10 making a majority of songs sound better. I'm sure purists will say different till they are blue in the face, but there is no substitute for a proper preamplifier. Also having XLRs going into the amplifier does have it's advantages. Usually the noise floor is lower, and the detail is greater with XLR connections. Anyway, it looks like you have one heck of a true SOTA system going on, and I think the Neoliths blow away the MOST speakers at the same price point. Me, being a Martin Logan fanboy my whole adult life, am very pleased that you are taking this journey with my favorite speaker, regardless of price. Thanks bro. |
WC, I remember you mentioning that someone has used the Audio Research REF 750 SE with the Neolith, and it was the best amplifier he had heard with the Neoliths. What do you think of trying them for yourself? On a scale of top amplifiers to try, I would think that the Audio Research REF 750 SE may be one of those choices. I noticed on Audiogon that one is for sale that has only 380 hours on it, and is a year old. When looking at what other amps you can audition, the Audio Research REF 750 SE seems like a logical choice (If you can get it at a good price, and be able to sell it for not much loss). Just me thinking out loud....... |
"
Concertgoers who sit up front don't get ear fatigue. Only audiophiles
who push the volume beyond natural levels get ear fatigue.
" WHAAAAT!!! I can only assume this meant acoustic music. Anyone who has been to a Concert that is not acoustic, knows how much louder it is being in the front. I have been to many a concert over the years, and up front is a recipe for ringing ears. I must admit.... that being closer (not in front) lets you hear all the musicians better (ie: the drummer). Over the years (and I have had a lot of them), I would steer away from buying "LIVE" albums of my favorite artists. The only one that comes to mind that was enjoyable was Peter Frampton's. Most of us audiophiles or music lovers with a decent stereo will enjoy a studio album of the same music. It's just that simple. My Lady was a sound engineer for many years, and the stories she can tell about "LIVE" performance, and the room correction headaches are endless. These statements have nothing to do with Classical music. That's a whole different banana. I have been in the front of a venue many times where I was being pushed into the PA system by a whole lot of stoned people. They were just as happy to have ringing ears for a while after the concert. But to sit down to listen to your favorite artists, or even new ones always sound better with an album produced in the studio. Drops Mic. |
WC, Question? They make a Lampizator Pacific with Balanced XLRs out and the Volume Control. I know that you already own a single ended one, but there is the possibility that the XLR version of the Pacific. It will have more gain and a lower noise floor for even blacker backrounds. XLR balanced to a high quality amp is usually better. I know that you would lose a little money selling your existing one....But the rewards could be more than any other upgrade or change you can make for your system. Also, who knows what will sound better.... no preamp or ARC Ref 10. You have come this far, and it is a possibility that the Pacific with XLR will bring better sound. Just a thought from the thinker, Me. |
I believe that the Lampizator Pacific is a great DAC. Tubes are so nice to have somewhere in the system with Solid State amplification. I pointed out that the Lampizator Pacific is available with XLR outputs. And thus the gain is increased, and the noise floor is decreased. Even if you use the ARC Ref 10 in the chain... the XLR outputs should garner better sound. I don't think for a minute, that WCSS should sell his ARC Ref 10. Funny thing......... I own the Audio Alchemy DDP-1 with the PS-5 external power supply. It's a DAC/Preamp/Head amp. It's a perfect example of a DAC with all proper design elements. Having a volume control with the proper gain and separate power supplies for digital and analog. |
Just saw this "How It's Made" Video on this page when checking out those KR PX4 Tubes. It shows from start to finish. Pretty cool stuff. https://www.tubedepot.com/t/brands/kr-audio |
I came across something when WCSS was deciding on what new DAC to get a couple of weeks ago. It was a review of the Lampizator Pacific, and it told a lot as well about the previous flagship Lampizator Golden Gate. It is quite long, but it points out the differences between the 2 Lampizators.
Dawid Grzyb, the writer had the Golden Gate with Volume Control and fully balanced XLRs. The interesting thing in the review is the way each DAC takes the music and produces a wonderful result. The Golden Gate is much more forgiving with the music (according to David), and many songs that are not the best recordings come out as listenable. The Pacific model comes out as being much more transparent, and faster. The Pacific is going to give you the whole banana of the recording quality, and therefore give you the music without any of the "very tube like" smoothness of the Golden Gate. The article makes for a great read, and points out some of the things that we look for in what we want from our DAC. It is definetly a great read of the 2 DACs from a company that has a designer with vision, and also has mated tubes to the DAC with terrific results. Here is the link to the Lampizator Pacific from Hifi Knights website...http://hifiknights.com/reviews/sources/lampizator-pacific/ I just found this to be so relevant with the SOTA in the DAC world. |
Holy Cables Batman... that's a huge statement of the Odin power cables... I do not doubt what is happening..... but power cables, doing the sound a magnitude better? Makes you wonder what Voodoo that have found out. Anyway, I think it's great that you are tweaking your system, and getting it to sound even better. I would love to see some Dan D'ag or the new Krell XD hooked up to the system. And the Gryphon Mephistos look crazy good too. I'm still so stoked that you have taken the time to work on those Neoliths. I have been wanting to see what they are really capable of. And you are sure going down that road. Happy Super Bowl!!! |
I feel that Martin Logan uses lower case preamps and amplifiers as a marketing strategy to sell the speaker initially. I have noticed that much of the advertising shows claims of "easy to drive" with many different equipment options, even Receivers. We all know that Martin Logan plays so much better with the right amplifiers. Class A amps just make for better sound with MLs, and I have called them and they won't tell you what brand to use. But they did say that an amp with a doubling of power down to 2 ohms or even better 1 ohm is what seems to work best. So it looks to me like what the strategy behind inferior equipment is to get you to buy the product first. I don't think for a minute that Martin Logan is clueless. I think that they don't want to be bunched into the class of speaker that only sounds good with something really, really expensive. Eventually the speaker owner will figure it out by talking to some others about how much better sounding they are with great electronics. |
There is..... I'm sure.... quite a few other combinations of equipment that will make for great sounding Neoliths. The Solid State side of it still has the D'ag, SimAudio, Gryphon. And the coveted Naim Statement, which has been endgame for some. Then there are some of the tube amplifiers that may bring great sound.... but minus the high db levels of Solid State gear. Tube preamps could also bring something new to the table. There is one thing that is now quite clear..... (with WCSS testing). The Neolith is an endgame speaker system, that is welcome in the heady company of any speaker made in the world. |
WCSS, This is just a suggestion..... take the time out to test these new Odin Speaker cables against your previous favorites..... but test by taking the new Odin Power Cords out of the system and putting back the original cords. Put the ARC Ref 10 back. So basically you will just be testing the difference between speaker cables. You got too much crap going on at once.... and the understanding of what each piece is doing is not possible. Each cable, whether power cable or speaker cable from Nordost with have a filter like effect on you equipment. And as such, conclusions need to be taken one at a time. The Odin Power Cords are definitely, in a way filtering things, and I'm not sure that they are doing things in a good way (just an opinion). It also makes sense to have your speaker cable figured out first, before the power cords. You may not beat your WireWorld speaker cables with the Odins, but you will be able to tell the difference much easier with regular power cords. I'm on the fence with what these fancy power cords actually do IMO. Especially at Odin prices. You could be bi-amping those Neoliths. But that is just me. I'm also the guy that loves his 8 gauge speaker cables, so I could be the crazy one. |
@viber6, I use speaker cable from the Car Audio Industry. KnuKonceptz Karma Kable Twisted 8 Gauge Speaker Copper Wire OFC (8 feet). I supply my own connectors. Currently I have Banana to my ML Montis Speakers, and Spades to my Krell KSA-200S amplifier. These speaker cables allow for a very strong bass, and are just a little easy on the highs. Seems that the thinner versions of this same cable will give you just a little bit more up top. I have been using this brand for so many years, that I don't remember even when I started to use them. The construction of these cables for the money is a hidden secret that gives you high end OFC tinned copper for little money. And they perform. In the car stereos I would build.... 8 guage was used for the subs. I have seen many a subwoofer cable burn up, from being too small a guage. Shooting 500 watts with almost 1000 watt peaks out of my Krell amp to the Martin Logan Montis does quite well with this 8 guage speaker cable. And also my system likes to be played at low and medium volumes, and these speaker cables shine when these lower levels are in play. Very pleased with the sound quality. But I look foward to testing some new speaker cables in the future. I'm spending time just listening lately, and not doing any tweaking till 2020. For about $75.00, you can build a set of these at 8 ft length. I just finished last year with my Morrow Audio cables for XLR and RCA, Coax and REL Subs. |
My Knuconceptz Karma SS (8 gauge) has 860 strands per side and is twisted. What I like is the cable is all OFC copper with silver tinning throughout. You can buy the Karma SS from 16 gauge all the way down to 8 gauge. I like the twisted cable design personally, but I am open to anything that has great sound. I will stand by my statement that a larger gauge cable can transfer large amounts of power, along with more bass. |
I am an owner of quite a few Morrow Audio cables. They are quite good with Martin Logans. Love them for making separation of instruments and vocalists surreal. In the future... I will be getting their speaker cables. They have a sale that you can get their $4,000 speaker cable "Elite Grand Reference Speaker Cable (1152 runs of Morrow SSI wires) " for $1,600 (60% off). These are 2 cables perchannel. One positive cabe, and one negative cab. They have sales all times of the year. 60 day Returns with 100% money back/less shipping....... decide if you like them, with a return available is a safe way to find out if you get the 3D imaging that I get. |