Audiophilepure

“The Adcom amplifier’s bass quality is more of the “rolling thunder” variety, making it difficult to hear individual bass strings vibrating. The $4495 Cary SA-200.2 ES and $2999 Benchmark AHB2 amplifiers far outperform the Adcom in the bass, being much more resolved and linear into the deepest bass. The 12 Watt single-ended Valvet amplifier also has greater resolution down low, although it does not offer a challenge to the macro dynamic prowess of the Adcom’s 300 Watts. The Magicos are 4 Ohm speakers. 

The GFA-555se offers excellent dynamic performance. One can clearly appreciate the pop or attack when a drum stick hits the snare or hear a rim shot. Low level dynamics, the quiet shifting of intensity of a voice, or the way Brad Paisley changes the force with which he plucks almost every guitar string, is apparent and enjoyable.”

https://novo.press/audio-research-vt80-se-vacuum-tube-power-amplifier-review/

Across the frequency spectrum, the Tung Sol KT-150 output tubes produced lightning-fast transients and startling dynamics. Soundstaging was immense in size and imaging within the sound stages was precise and clearly delineated. With high quality 2-channel stereo recordings, wandering into the walk-through 3-dimensional musical landscapes produced by the VT80 SE was a breathtaking pleasure.

Shortcomings…? The VT80 SE’s 4Ω outputs are grounded. In the owner’s manual, ARC notes: “Avoid wiring and speaker switching systems that have a common ground wiring or switching of the amplifier output.” After connecting the 4Ω taps to half dozen different pairs of speakers, I consistently heard a low-level ground hum. Although the hum didn’t overpower the music, it was still *there*; and not in a good way.”

https://hometheaterreview.com/denon-pma-150h-integrated-network-amplifier-reviewed/

The back panel is recessed, which does make plugging in cables and interconnects a little trickier, but not by much. Honestly, the unit is so compact that I found it easy enough to spit it around, make the connections from the front, then spin it back, although if you don’t have enough slack in your wiring, this might not be an option.

Front panel controls are minimal, consisting solely of navigational buttons, Enter, and back, as well as a power button and one that cycles through inputs. All of these buttons save the power button are touch-sensitive, which adds a touch of class that’s honestly a few steps up from what I would expect in a $1,000-ish stereo integrated amp.”

“And I was beguiled by the MC1.25KW’s reproduction of bass. At low volumes, there was a sense of weight, kick drums were punchy, and notes were articulated, transparent, and tonally accurate enough that I could easily discern the differences among electric, synth, and double basses. I don’t hear this level of resolution from my reference monoblocks, because at lower levels there simply isn’t enough bass volume for me to do so. At moderate volume levels, the weight, punch, and dynamic drive of the MC1.25KW grew in scale and articulation, and this control and body is maintained even at outlandish listening levels, much as I heard from Simaudio’s Moon Evolution 888. Male and female voices were consistently vivid and intricately communicated, which goes a long way toward implying that the requisite level of detail is there, even though it isn’t. I suspect that, without a more resolving pair of amplifiers sitting right next to the MC1.25KWs for instant comparison, some listeners might not notice that anything at all is missing.”

https://audiofi.net/2019/12/hegel-h390-amplifier-and-more-norwegian-good/

“Now that we’ve established what the H390 is not, what it does purely as an integrated amplifier is quite amazing. Planar-magnetic speakers such as Magnepan are notoriously power-hungry, and it takes a special amp to really make them sing – the H390 is one of those.

Music simply flowed through the H390, which handled anything that I could throw at it with poise and ease. Vocals, instruments and percussion, and all genres of music from classical, jazz, rock and even metal – the H390 took everything in its stride.”

https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/pbn-olympia-eb-sa3-amplifiers-lxi-preamplifier/

“Where this neutrality becomes very useful aside from distinguishing the recording’s origins and pure musical enjoyment, is what the changes made upstream yields. Changing from the PBN Lxi preamp to the D’Agostino Momentum was not a difficult shift to grasp. The Momentum is a bit of yin to the Lxi’s yang. It’s a shade darker, a shade warmer, a touch deeper in stage, and just as wide, if not as forwardly detailed. Textures are a bit more organic, but these qualities come at a 30% premium in price. The Lxi was livelier where the Momentum’s depth of stage seemed to shave a hair off dynamics. The bass is an equal in terms of extension, a bit heavier feeling-voiced, more bottom up, though with the tone controls the Momentum possesses, it can be transformed in either direction. I have grown so accustomed to having the tone control feature, especially one as well executed as the D’Agostino, I would find it hard to live without. But the Lxi was in the same league, and despite the quirk of not having the ability to switch sources with the remote, and no balance adjustment, I could live very happily with the Lxi. The one caveat beyond those inconveniences would be the Lxi would best suit a system that needs a kick in the pants, and move the stage and upper frequencies a bit forward in mix. “