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Review 1 of 1
Price Paid:
$250.00
from second hand Summary:
Audio fans live in glorious times. While everyone seems to be losing their appreciation of how good music can actually sound, the second hand market is flooded with great bargains. On a whim I went for a used Teac, which got replaced by some huge Rotel home theatre monster by its previous owner. As far as I can tell from the one review I found on this amp, the A-BX7R seems to be a Copland CSA-8 in diguise. And Indeed, it's made in Denmark. This is one heavy peace of equipment, what audioreviewers usually call 'battleship quality'.
I’ve had quite a few amps before, but this one lifts my musical experience to a different level. I thought differences between amps where only marginal. Boy, was I wrong!
I’ve had a hard time finding a good amp to match my Altec Lansing Voice of the Theatre hybrids (using a 24sound 15 inch woofer), mainly fed by an ancient Sony 77ES cd player (upgraded with a Tent Labs clock) + equally tweaked Cambridge Audio DAC. The speakers sounded too bright or too soft with about all amps I tried – and yes, I tried some tube amps as well. Even though all amps did some things brilliantly, somehow the balance of lows, highs and mids was missing. With the exeption of an old Musical Fidelity Caruso (B1), which did give good results but lacked subtlety and spaciousness.
Much to my surprise I'm now experiencing what so many audio reviewers talk about: going through my music collection all over again. As much to my surprise I find myself jabbering away like a hysterical audiophile. The improvent in sound quality is incredible. Everything seems to click in place. The refinement and resolution of this amp, it’s dynamic vitality and perfect tonal balance are spectacular. Finally deep bass is there, well pronounced and not just at insane sound levels. This amp keeps the balance no matter at which volume. It doesn’t sound cold or warm, it has the intense electric menace of a very powerfull engine with megawatts of power to spare – especially on hypersensitive hornspeakers. Especially spatial information is magical: on some tracks the soundstage (what a lot of crap I always thought) expands two meters to the front of the speakers, and reaches almost behind the listening position. Quite unnerving. Often I just jolt because some sonic information jumps out of the mix hat never seemed to be there before.
“It's one of those amplifiers you might want to consider settling down with when you're tired of all those costly flavour-of-the-month brands”, says Andrew Wong's review. I wholeheartedly agree.
Strengths:
Built quality, excells in making music, cheap because Teac as amp maker has low snob appeal. Weaknesses:
Not very common on the second hand market. Similar Products Used:
Arcam, Musical Fidelity A1, Caruso, A2, Eico tube amp, Decware Zen, Aura Evolution VA100 mkII, Harman Kardon HK 6850, Trends T-amp, Yba Integre, Mission/Cyrus + PSX
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5 of 5
