Rating Reviewed by: Jack Durrett II(Unregistered User)
(AudioPhile)
Review Date July 6, 2010
Overall Rating 4 of 5
Value Rating 5 of 5
Used product for More than 1 year
Review 1 of 9
Price Paid:
$0.00
Summary: My 400 replaced an Electrocompaniet A100 and has been used with a Conrad-Johnson PFR solid state and now with a C-J CT 5 tube preamp and pushes Dunlavy SC IVs which are relatively efficient but require substantial current at two places in the audio spectrum.
Read REGreen's review in TAS. It is accurate. This amp is dead neutral, startlingly clear and crisp from top to bottom. Treble is clear, crisp and sweet with bass that is taunt, deep and accurate. In 50 years of building a system and listening to most everything, this is a truly great bargain. My room is 15 x 17 and has the usual carpet and furniture. It runs fairly cool and hasn't given me any trouble in 10+ years. Buy two.
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Summary: I was an early adopter of this amplifier following a glowing review in The Absolute Sound. The bottom line is that this is a great amp for moderately efficient speakers and reasonably sized room, but it is not a great amp for huge rooms or difficult loads. In the right system the amp sounds great, with a little bit of a tubey forgiveness even. I would not hesitate to buy this amp for moderate loads. Pricing is reasonable.
Strengths: Ease of listening
No hard edges
Weaknesses: In spite of delivering 200 watts into 8 ohms, it will not deliver huge amounts of current into difficcult loads.
Similar Products Used: Edge NL-12
Parasound JC-1
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Summary: The Marsh amp is truly a wonderful sounding amp. Very smooth and without grain. More detail than I've ever heard and bass that seems to reach lower than the monster Parasound Hca3500 that it replaced. Vocals are rich, smooth and coherent. This amplifier amazed me with it's overal sound quality. I'd read the magazine reviews and the descriptions of others but usually figure they are off the mark by at least a little bit or exagerating. In this case they positive reviews were very accurate and I'm afraid I'd have to agree. I had no idea a solid state amp could sound like this. It's worth a listen to anyone looking in the price range. Easily outclassing my Parasound from top to bottom.
Strengths: Smoothness, detail, neutrality and imaging.
Weaknesses: It's a little bright and may be a touch reticent in the upper midrange(perfect match for my speakers though)
Similar Products Used: Various Haflers, Denon, Carver, Parasound.
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Summary: This is a great sounding solid state amp. You really get everything you expect from solid state: Plenty of power XLR and RCA inputs, excellent bass control, low noise, 2 sets of speaker binding posts, and a IEC. In addition to that is an amp that provides very good imaging, soundstaging, and detail. No harshness-2 D sound with this amp. It also runs fairly cool.
If you are looking for a solid state amp in this price range give the Marsh a listen. I wasn't a big fan of their preamp (P2000) but this amp is Real Good.
Strengths: Nice looks to go along with it's sonic qualities
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