Audiophilepure

https://www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2023/1/3/ps-audio-perfectwave-dac-ii

The M3si properly honoured this performance with each speaker I tried, helped in part by the album’s immaculate production quality. Given some of the M3si’s strengths, I see how it could handle midrange-focused vocal recordings. Listening to Where Are We reassured me the amplifier was not all brawn but had the brain (and heart) to do justice to a more tender recording. 

With all the speakers I used, the M3si retained a consistent personality. It had massive drive, hard-hitting bass delivery, and the ability to command a wide clean soundstage. With warmer speakers the overall presentation was the most musical and with leaner speakers such as the Canton Vento 20, the presentation could turn brittle with recordings that were less than easy. While I only was able to try four different speakers, this trend was apparent enough for me to recommend that the M3si either be matched with neutral to warm speakers or carefully auditioned with unfamiliar speakers.

https://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0324/AGD_DUET_GaN_Power_Monoblock_Amplifier_Review.htm

There was no over-emphasis on upper frequencies, stridency, or stretch. Transient string and metallic percussion articulations were strikingly beautiful, consistent across the frequency and dynamic spectra, devoid of any sense of artificial exploitations. There was a tangible, organic presence about the lower frequencies – Firm, well-fleshed, and true to character. Definition, speed, and tautness were equally accurate and impressive. For such an unassuming amplifier, the DUETS made their presence known with real weight and punch – plenty of heft behind them.

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/ta-caruso-r

The matching speakers haven’t been supplied for this review, but the unit has enough power to drive a wide range of third-party choices: the onboard amplification delivers 50W into 8ohm, doubling into a 4ohm load, with peak output at 50 percent more. That proves to be more than sufficient for the speakers with which I try the T+A, including the Scansonic M20 reviewed in the last issue and my own Neat Iota Xplorer (HFC 435), both of which are driven and controlled with authority, whether from network or online sources, or the excellent onboard CD player.

The balance here is more refined and mature than red in tooth and claw, meaning that the Caruso R puts up a fine showing with First Aid Kit’s live Who By Fire set of Leonard Cohen covers. A small tweak of the contour controls brings out more of the presence of the set, but that apart the immediate impression is of weight and richness allied to fine levels of detail, instantly involving the listener in the performances. There’s not quite the speed and drive you’d get from the similarly priced models in the Naim Uniti range, for example, or from NAD’s M-series all-in-one streaming amplifiers, but the generosity of the T+A sound combined with the ease of listening it offers is hard to overlook.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/krell-kma-i800-monoblock-power-amplifier

Given the KMA-i800’s huge power output—Krell says it can output 800W RMS into 8 ohms, doubling twice to 1600W into 4 ohms and 3200W into 2 ohms, and can drive speakers of 1 ohm impedance—I wondered whom Dave and Rondi envisioned as buyers. “There are plenty of people out there who have rather large rooms and want commensurately large speakers they can play loudly,” Dave replied. “No one is going to use this much power, but it makes average listening levels, which may go up to 100W, sound much better because that’s a small percentage of the total possible power output. It’s more linear than an amp that tops out at 100W, because as you approach the limit, your distortion goes up dramatically. A high-power amp gives you much more quality than an amp whose power exactly meets your needs.” As someone acutely aware of the arbitrary and frequently over-exaggerated divide between the two viewpoints commonly labeled “subjectivist” and “objectivist,” I asked Dave, “When you developed the KMA-i800, were you looking at measurements or at sound? What was the final arbiter that led you to declare, ‘It’s done!’?”

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/aurender-ap20-integrated-review-r1256

The design of the AP20 is really something to behold. It’s the right horse for not just a single course, but many courses. Its flexibility enables it to be used as an all-in-one or as a single component of a larger system, or as something that falls in between those two. I used it in two different systems, and mainly as the only component connected to my Wilson Audio Alexia V loudspeakers. I still have a smile on my face when thinking about playing Mahler’s Third through this system, with little volume attenuation. Enough transients to scare any listener and plenty of delicacy to please even the most discerning audiophile. The team at Aurender has seriously outdone itself.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/bat-rex-500-power-amplifier

Joining this is the sheer atmosphere the REX 500 brings to tracks, big or small. ‘My Home Is In The Delta’ by Muddy Waters [Folk Singer; Geffen 96kHz/24-bit] was immensely evocative. Tiny details of his slide guitar playing were picked out, and the intimacy and ambience of this sparse recording shone through. At the other end of the scale, ‘America’, from Deutsch Grammophon’s live capture of Bernstein’s West Side Story featuring Jose Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa [96kHz/24-bit], saw vocalists placed along a wide, deep stage. Dynamic brass moments arrived with force – a counterpoint to softer percussion and shimmering latino guitar parts. This chaotic track is as much of a melting pot as its subject matter, yet the REX 500 gave equal footing to every tone and texture.

BAT’s amp performs just as admirably with music of a more modern bent. Daft Punk’s ‘Giorgio By Moroder’ [Random Access Memories; Sony Music 88883716862] began with a sonorous rendering of Moroder’s monologue and an almost surround sound delivery of the background ambience. Then we’re into wah-wah guitar and a club vibe, hammered home by a pounding kick drum and deep bass. The Perlisten S7t LE speakers were kept on a tight leash here, and the imaging between them was seamless.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/rotel-michi-x3-series-2-integrated-amplifier

And in the next moment, Rotel’s amplifier can deliver a beautifully atmospheric yet focused view of Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’, in the 2019 Thomas Oliemans release accompanied by Paolo Giacometti [Channel Classics CCS 42119]. Here, the wonderful texture of the baritone voice was revealed, the piano beautifully measured, while the sense of chill ran right through the whole enterprise. There’s no shortage of information here, yet again the Michi X3 Series 2 seems to downplay its contribution to the sound: this may be something of a big bruiser of an amp, but it’s also light on its feet and deliciously crisp.

I thought to maintain the atmosphere with the Hoff Ensemble’s classic Quiet Winter Night set [2L 2L-087], which is both another one of those remarkable Morten Lindberg recordings set in a generous church acoustic, and a perfect jazz album for long, cold evenings. Again, the X3 Series 2 showed just how much information it could deliver, from Jan Gunnar Hoff’s beautifully restrained piano to the soaring vocals and brass, plus serious punch in the ensemble’s drums and bass. It sent a tingle down the spine, and not just due to the wintry themes.