Audiophilepure

On a challenging piece, such as the “Intolerance” track from The Mighty Wurlitzer: Music for Movie Palace Organs (New World Records 80227), the NuPrime was able to nicely capture the tonal complexity of a four-manual, 34-rank Wurlitzer Special that was built in 1928 for the Fisher Brothers (of auto-body fame). Here, but not with the Fleetwood DeVille, I was a bit disappointed with its limited macrodynamic reach. I expected more from an amp that is said to generate instantaneous power in excess of 360W into 3 ohms. It sounded like it was just stopping short of fully scaling dynamic peaks. For a better perspective, I switched over to a recent acquisition of mine, the SMc Audio DNA-1/GT-21 Ultra. This Class AB amplifier represents a complete overhaul of the venerable DNA-1 and incorporates Steve McCormack’s latest circuit refinements and tweaks. On the Omega, the GT-21 Ultra was just crushing it with stupendous bass slam and macrodynamics that reached Olympian heights. It also became clear that the GT-21 Ultra offered better image focus, and as a result, more incisive spatial resolution. However, the NuPrime did have an edge in terms of soundstage dimensionality. Both amps resolved low-level detail exceedingly well, though the edge goes to the GT-21 Ultra.

Comments are closed.