Audiophilepure

Rather than testing total harmonic distortion at full scale at 1kHz as many do, I prefer to understand what the amplifier is doing over a broader range of frequencies and at a more reasonable output level. So, I do a frequency sweep from 10Hz to 20kHz at 5 watts RMS into 8Ω instead. For reference, 5 watts will usually produce somewhere between 85-105dB sound pressure level depending on the connected speaker’s efficiency. I personally find 85dB to be quite loud for extended listening sessions. (I usually listen in the 75-80dB range for longer sessions to protect against hearing damage.) At 5-watt levels, we see that total harmonic distortion is dominated by 3rd-order products up to about 2.5kHz where 2nd-order distortion takes over. At 20kHz, distortion is about 0.04% which is very close to the manufacturer’s published <0.03% THD.

I can be brief, as it simply matches or even “eclipses” most of the competition in very nearly all the usual parameters. Neutrality, linearity, low-level resolution, transparency, focus, refinement, air, spaciousness, and the list goes on. In all of these parameters, the Eclipse equals or betters any other amplifier I heard so far, including the CH. But this is where it gets really interesting as the amp takes all these qualities and adds unbelievable flow and what seems like eternal sustain. With typical transistor amplifiers, especially those with many parallel output devices, intermodulation distortion spoils the party by adding smear and making successive notes blur into one another. The opposite can also happen, with a distinct black hole between successive notes, which can be interpreted as a lack of self-noise but, in reality, could potentially be a result of limitations in the design. In real life, there is no intermodulation distortion, and there is never 100% silence between any two sounds. Rather, the sounds tend to linger on and decay naturally. This is where the Eclipse truly shines: instead of the aforementioned blurring on the one hand or black-hole choppiness on the other, it sounds utterly natural and gloriously non-transistor-like. The Eclipse has absolutely astounding low-level resolution but presents it in a natural, decidedly non-electronic, fully organic manner: fluidly and continuously and never etched.