OK, I didn't want to weigh in because I get hot under the collar with knowitalls that have never owned nor listened to that of which they speak. So I will in usual style speak about ONLY things that Ive listened to in MY RIG in MY HOME. anyone else is just bumping their gums from boredom. or guessing, speculating, fantasizing, or otherwise just stroking.
I make it my business to speak from first hand experience, anything else regarding ones opinion of the efficacy of any given product is not welcome in HiFi as far as I’m concerned. Time to change the playing field, and make forums something respectful and honorable. Unless you wish to kill the industry which is very much the way it looks. Newcomers read crap like this and run away from us. so gather up sit down and listen.
I have 4 AGD monoblocks as we speak, because I biamp. I also have 2 Jeff Rowland 625 S2’s because they are a top level class AB reference, I have 2 Jeff Rowland 535 amplifiers since they represent the first class D to fool me into thinking I was listening to Class AB. these can be bridged for 900WpC. Next week I will receive a tweak from Jeff that catapults them to new levels once bridged.
So I speak from experience and furthermore I Prove myself by making videos and recording the differences in sonic so you guys can hear for yourself. OCD Hi Fi Guy on youtube. There you wiill find the veteran industry guy that is paid by no advertiser, and owns my company, so I say it the way it is.
So to give Ceelander what he asked for in the first place, I will share my experience with these amps.
The AGD GaN amp is unlike anything Ive heard so far in HiFi. It literally took me aback whereby I had to relax and calm myself to wrap my head around what I was hearing. Complex music at high volume with the most articulate top end ive ever heard. This means things that normally can be a touch smeared are now perfectly discreet all in their own place, to me this is an indication of stunning speed and accuracy. I played torture test pieces that normally hurt, that were so clear without edge it bewildered me. This is something I did not think was possible. I love defined leading edge in my playback. It is the very thing that brings clear 3 dimensional rendered images into my soundstage. The little thing that brings life, and I mean life in the way that you sense a human in the room with you. Normally this comes with borderline stridence. Never have I heard a top end so defined and smooth at the same time. (speakers are heavily modified Magnepan 3,7i with custom sub towers on channel 2 crossed at around 90 with a 12)Bass.. let me be a New Yorker for a second.. You can friggin fuggedaboudit.
Tight and tonally correct, musical even. Mids clear and liquid to the point that I got nervous about my beloved Rowland Model 12 .. when I first tried the AGD’s I had 4 Rowland model 12 monos. I got so unnerved by AGD, I sold them and bought a brand new pair of 625S2, the amp that in Jeffs words when asked replied "Ive taken Class AB as far as I can take it" even if I beat these amps out I’ll keep them as my example of AB at its highest.
im starting to get freaked out because this is getting very long and ive erased full pages like this so I’ll post and start a second
Cheers
Mike Powell
