edge vs boulder vs halcro

adnan,

i've listened to all three at various times but only the Halcro DM-58 in my room for a few days.....

the Halcro (on my Watt/Puppy 6s) were the fastest, most detailed and transparent amps i have heard; amazing detail and extension.....very neutral....could be too lean in some systems. with the right system absolutely fantastic (maybe a tube preamp).

i heard the $30k Edge monoblocks at CES on the Lumen Whites and i really was impressed, probably the most tube-like solid state amp i have heard. it reminded me of my Tenors, great clarity but still with excellent tonality (i still prefer the Tenors). it would be hard to separate whether i was hearing the Lumen Whites or the Edge amps. as the Lumen Whites don't extend to the lowest registers i can't say how they extend but the bass articulation was excellent. the only thing that i didn't like was the lack of a balanced input on $30k monoblocks, but that is just a minor quibble. i would choose these amps among all solid state amps i have heard.

i listened to the Boulders at a local dealer a few times in a Wisdom based system and never really enjoyed them. i'm not sure whether it was the amps or the Wisdom speakers but i just wasn't pulled into the music. they seemed slightly grainy and lacking substance. i have talked to some people that i respect that think very highly of the Boulder. let's say i haven't yet discovered what the Boulders can do.

I think you should also try Chord SMP5000 as well, also one of the best detail, transparent and involving sound. I heard Harco with advangade speaker and I was pretty impressived. But Bouder is not my cup of tea, it sound too analysis and forward to my taste.
Hope this hope.

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I've heard all three
I still prefer the Lamm 1.1

I've listened to these three amps and think very highly of them all.

The high power amp that impresses me most isn't on your list. It's the big GamuT stereo amplifier, called the S300. This is a 300-watt amp that weighs 400 pounds(!), so the power supply is humongous. And, the amp only uses a single output device per channel, whereas (to the best of my knowledge) all other high-power amplifiers use multiple output devices. So instead of having a chorus of closely-matched voices, you have a single voice. The coherence is extremely engaging - reminsicent of a single-ended triode amp. And the dynamics are absotlutely unmatched in my experience - at Ole Christensen's demo (using Wisdom Audio speakers) the sound was incredibly lifelike, whereas before I had been very un-impressed with the Wisdoms (driven by Edge amps, the Wisdoms sounded lifeless to me). The volume in the GamuT room was so high I had to shout to the person next to me, but the music didn't hurt our ears! I have never encountered that phenomenon before except with live music.

Needless to say, the big stereo GamuT (or the 600 watt monoblocks build on the same chassis) would be my first choice in a superamp. I don't have a pair yet, but one of these days...

Getting back to your original question, I'm not sure which amp I'd choose between the Edge, Halcro and Boulder. I agree with Mike Lavigne that there was a wonderful synergy in the Edge/LumenWhite room, and if Mike is putting the Edge amps in the same league as his Tenors then that is very, very high praise indeed.