Audiophilepure

I listen to a lot of classical recordings and the HINT 6 really surprised me with how well it dealt with complicated orchestral pieces; instruments had excellent separation and I found myself often lost in how vivid the combination was. Voices were never lost in the mix and very easy to place.

The midrange resolution was also rather superb; Maggies excel with the human voice and the HINT 6 did not disappoint; texture, timbre, and so much presence with most recordings.

I also own a pair of vintage Klipsch Heresy II’s and I wanted to see if the HINT 6 had the headroom to drive them with rock, heavy metal, and other complex electronic pieces that can really load the room.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/hifi-rose-ra180-integrated-amplifier

The high-pass crossover function allows you to filter the output of one of each amplifier pair – there are two amplifier modules per channel in the RA180 – above 600Hz-6kHz. You might choose to use this function to limit the bandwidth of the amplifier feeding the treble arm of a bi-amped speaker, for example, or set it to the top 6kHz filter before driving a supertweeter.

A typical stereo amplifier features four loudspeaker terminals. The RA180? Sixteen, which is astonishing even if you consider the A/B speaker option (note that’s an ‘either’, not an ‘and’, option, as you cannot enable the A and B pair at the same time). As previously mentioned, there are not two but four identical amplifier modules in the RA180 for a claimed total of 4x200W. But you’ll only use the four together when utilising one of its specialised speaker modes, either to bi-amp a pair of speakers (two amplifiers per channel) or bridging each pair into a higher-powered stereo configuration, where the claimed output becomes a whopping 2x400W.

https://www.whathifi.com/us/reviews/primaluna-evo-300

There are a number of areas that we feel are open to criticism. The most obvious of these is its inability to portray dynamic contrasts convincingly. There isn’t the requisite level of dynamic expression we would expect from a product of this price. The result is that this amplifier sounds restrained, almost as if it is gently compressing the music signal, losing excitement in the process. Want to listen to Beethoven’s Fifth or Help! by the Beatles with some of the energy taken out? No, neither do we.

A side effect of this is that regardless of the partnering speakers, we find ourselves constantly playing with the volume level. It’s a struggle to find the point where the music displays the required sense of life without pushing the volume level too high for comfortable listening. This is an amplifier with clearly defined upper limits. Push it hard and things become harsh and edgy very quickly.

Combine these shortcomings with relatively poor rhythmic drive and the inability to communicate changes in musical momentum well, and it’s no surprise to find that our musical enjoyment is diluted.