|
Review 1 of 1
Price Paid:
$200.00
from Audio Advisor Summary:
Having been a solid-stater all my life, when the opportunity to pick up a pair of these little guys as demo units came around, I couldn't resist the chance to dip my toe in the tube waters.
These slotted into my system to temporarily replace a 20-year old B&K ST-140. At first I expected a significant drop in apparent power output, but that didn't happen. While the sound quality is very nice - smooth and detailed with a decent soundstage, it wasn't a drastic change from the B&K. Most noticeably the sound gained a bit of bloom, probably from what I'm perceiving as a bump in the upper bass, at least compared to the old amp. This sonic signature works extremely well in the service of classical and sparsely-instrumented jazz. It adds a dimension that seemed to be missing before on all of these recordings, good and bad. It tends to sound a little bit on the boomy side, though, on rock and pop recordings.
All in all, though, for the price, it was definitely worth pursuing, and they piqued my interest in tubes enough for me to try my next experiment - a second-hand PrimaLuna Prologue 2.
Associated equipment -
VPI Scout with Sumiko BPS
Rega Planet 2000 through a ModWright-modded Channel Islands VDA-1 and VAC-1
Sony SCD-CE775 SACD player, modded by Matt Anker
Adcom GFP-710
Meadowlark Audio Kestrel IIs
Hsu Research VTF MK II subwoofer Strengths:
Good sound for the money. Weaknesses:
Questionable or non-existent QC - One unit has an on-again, off-again (mostly off) power LED, and a badly made face plate.
| 
4 of 5
