Apparently Charlie is an engineer, and from my experience engineers are a little different from the rest of us (no offense, Charlie). They literally want to measure everything and leave out anything that is not measurable. That is just the way they are, and the way they have been trained.

That has its advantages, of course, and without engineers we would have no audio toys to play with, except maybe a toy drum! But engineers characteristically have problems seeing shades of gray, or making subjective judgements - because they can't measure it, I guess.

I personally prefer to be rational as much as possible, and I consider myself an objectivist in the audio arena. But, and here it comes, I definitely hear audible differences between amplifiers. My speakers are unusually accurate (Digital Phase) and as a result I may hear subleties missed by some, and my hearing checked out as "good for a man your age" a couple years ago (I am 57).

Anyway, here are some of the amps I have auditioned in my system (preamp is the Citation 7.0):

H/K PA5800 (still using in a backup capacity)

Carver 705X (dull sounding)

Citation 7.1 (hurt my ears so bad I had to go to an audio specialist - I'm not kidding, that is when I was tested).

H/K Signature 2.1/1.5 (these sound the same - nice for their price but lacking enough that I did not want to keep)

Bryston 4BST (so well considered by all I had to try it and it sounds very neutral and detailed, but had a bit of an edge and lacked something musical. After about 15 minutes I didn't want to listen anymore)

Chiro C-500 (when Kinergetics went under I got this new and cheap and for several months it was in my system and sounded great. Very smooth, with good detail and plenty of dynamics. Makes everything sound god, but prone to a little hum and I have traded it)

Marsh A200S (wanted to try this after reading such good reviews, and it does sound good - very detailed, almost bright but not quite, a little lacking in the bass. I would have kept it except for the next amp)

Innersound ESL (this is the one that I love; the best I have heard to date. It is neutral as the Bryston and almost as detailed but with none of the edginess - just smooth and extremely dynamic. Puts out 300w/8ohms, 600w/4 ohms and 1200w/2 ohms. Also very very quiet, and designed to power electrostatic speakers (ESL makes those also). Now here is the kicker - it idles at 3 (yes three) watts! It runs very very cool and I leave it on all the time - there is no switch on the front. It is not digital, and even though I read their white paper I still don't quite understand how they get this much clean power out of a 42 lb amp. It is also beautiful to boot. Regular price is $3,000 but I was lucky to get a return unit (guy wanted the older model with a switch in front) for much less with full warranty. The amp is sourced by Coda Technologies, one of the top audio manufacturers and build quality is high end all the way. Anyone interested can go to innersound.net for the info. They also make a multichannel model with slightly lower power ratings. Oh, yes, they also make 1,000 watt (@ 8 ohms) monoblocks if you need that much power.

dsmith901



[This message has been edited by dsmith901 (edited September 19, 2002).]