The Fastest most musical amp

Dismalonyx, to my knowledge the Spectral and the Goldmund amps used to have the fastest slew rates in the industry. Furthermore I can assure you out of my own experience, that the MIT cables (I use the Oracle V2 and EVO ics ) do not slow down the Spectral's performance in the least. As far as tubes are concerend, the Jadis 500 and the 200 are no slouches either.

Hi Gang - Dismalonx, I have a few questions that are strictly curiosity-driven and NOT meant to disparage in any way.
1. What speakers are you mating this "fast" amp to?
2. What source are you using mostly: LP? CD? XRCD? SACD?
3. What type of music do you listen to that is recorded well enough to take advantage of this fast system? I'm interested because I think most music commercially available is recorded & mixed on less dynamic equipment than most of us possess, thus is either muddy and ill-defined, or overly detailed ear-bleed material. Could you list for me the 5 (or so) albums that you listen to most on your system? I'm always interested in finding well recorded music of any type, and would be willing to try some of your favorites - if I don't own them already. :-)

Gettin' more cynical every day, I'm still
Ed

interesting thread. "i want to find the FASTEST and MOST MUSICAL amp and preamp"......

what is "fast"? my perception is that some amps achieve speed thru skipping over texture and nuance. the very best pieces of gear and the best software seem to actually slow things down and allow you to hear deeper into music (oh yeah, music!). speed without texture and nuance is misguided IMHO. one amp, the Halcro, is most likely the fastest amp currently out there.....but it doesn't stir my soul.....so it's not for me.

real speed is the ability to render MICRODYNAMICS in a real way. when these microdynamics are combined with tonal texture and nuance you get the magic......veils are lifted and reality is suggested.

real speed is also the ability to be fast in the bass while getting tonality, texture and linearity thru the mid-bass. this is really an amp/speaker interface issue and not just an amp issue.

in my experience, the Tenor OTL is unique in it's ability to get this whole package correct. like the Atmasphere, the Tenor (as an OTL) is a tube amp with speed.

no doubt there are other amps i've not heard that may posses these attributes.

Mikelavigne to my mind has put it very well. It is the closeness to the "real thing" especially in the microdynamics, where "speed" is important. The way a sharply struck chord on a Steinway springs at you and decays, the resin on the bow of the violin, how a guitarstring plucked softly or hard and fast comes across. I share some of Egoss's thoughts, but to my mind that is not really the point. Rather I feel, Mike has hit it right on the dot.

Without getting into semantic corn syrup, speed to me
describes an amps ability to start and stop each tone
on time which keeps tones from smearing. Smearing,
or notes bleeding into one another will make for grainy
sound and detail, blackness, and rhythm will be lost under the smear. As has been stated, if an amp doesn't have enough power, often the bass is loose, flabby, or even missing. Maybe agility is a better word. When speakers are driven properly, I suppose some people could feel that the amp is slowing things down, but I certainly don't hear it that way -- to me it sounds pleasingly quick, or "agile" and it results in better
music. So, we can argue over terminology or we can see that we all want the same thing. Less grain, no smearing, detail, deep, tight, bass and uh...magic. Now, there's a word that needs no explaining, huh? Heh-heh-heh. Why doesn't someone start a thread
asking which is the slowest amplifier -- just for the heck
of it. Nahhhh....