Power Amplifier

McCormack LD-2 Preamplifier and DNA-

250 Stereo Power Amplifier
Written by Jim Milton

Monday, 26 October 2009 00:00 In 1997, McCormack Audio was

purchased by Conrad-Johnson, known primarily for their fine tube amps and preamps.
They have the same high quality and value that Steve McCormack put into his designs in
California, but these current products are basically an entirely new line (and are built in
Virginia). In this review, we take a look at one of their line-stage preamps, and a stereo
(two-channel) power amplifier.Read more...

Tags: Amplifiers | Power Amplifiers | Preamplifiers | Two channel

Bryston 4B SST2 Stereo Power Amplifier Emotiva XPA-2 Stereo Power Amplifier
Written by Kevin Lichterman Written by Adrian
Monday, 17 August 2009 00:00 Wittenberg
Sunday, 14
December 2008
17:00
Bryston Ltd. is a
Canadian company which has been
designing and manufacturing audio
equipment for over 35 Years. While there
are many companies competing in their
market, Bryston’s gear is coveted by Everyone would like
enthusiasts and professionals alike. They a "good deal" in the
have earned the reputation of providing world of audio, but
bullet-proof reliability, high performance there’s usually a lot
and value. Byston’s value is not due to a of skepticism
bargain basement price. It's the sound and involved because of
their 20 year guarantee of high performance the tendency for
that can make a Bryston purchase a value. such products to be
This remarkable warranty speaks to made with cheaper
Bryston's confidence in their own quality components and
standards, and it is definitely the exception outsourced labor.
versus the rule in the A/V industry. It’s not unusual for
these kinds of
cheaper goods to
break, in even short
Tags: Class AB | Power Amplifiers | Stereo
periods of time.
Read more... Well, you get what
 you pay for. On the other side of the
Pass Labs XA30.5 Stereo Power Amplifier spectrum are very high quality products that
Written by Chris Groppi come at astronomical prices that, while
Monday, 06 July 2009 00:00 providing the ultimate experience, are often
way out of many consumer’s budgets.
Somewhere in the middle of all this though,
there are still a few companies that make
products that have high performance and are
also affordable. Emotiva, over the years, has
What do a 30 watt been one of these companies and they have
stereo solid-state amplifier and a 500 watt gained a favorable reputation with
solid-state monoblock have in common? A audiophiles because of it.
lot, it turns out. The seemingly diminutive
Pass Labs XA30.5 weighs 75 pounds, has Tags: Amplifiers
an enormous toroidal power transformer, Read more...
and uses 20 output transistors to deliver 30
watts of pure class A power. It turns out Jaton Operetta 2300a Class A/B Amplifier -
these specs are similar, or in some cases, First Look
better than my recently reviewed Emotiva Written by Jared Rachwalski
XPA-1 monoblocks. The XA30.5 proves Wednesday, 19 November 2008 17:00
that rated power is by no means everything.
In fact, if you have speakers of even
moderately high sensitivity, the XA30.5
renders any discussion of power output
irrelevant. When paired with the right The Jaton company
speakers, this may be one of the best has been around for over 25 years. They
amplifiers there is, regardless of price. started with manufacturing PC video cards,
and have since branched into home theater
Tags: Amplifiers | Class A | Class AB | Power and hi-fi gear. Lyra's HD-661 DX speakers
Amplifiers | Stereo were recently reviewed at Secrets, and their
Read more... interesting design and great sound made me
want to try out their amplification. George
Bel Canto S500 Stereo Power Amplifier from Jaton was kind enough to send me a
Written by Walt Meger rather large and heavy Class A/B Stereo
Monday, 16 March 2009 00:00 amplifier capable of putting out 300 watts
RMS per channel into 4 ohms. Initial
problems with the amplifier has
required Jaton to redesign it, and the revised
version will be sent to me for review In the
Let me first state “I meantime, here are some initial
like this amp, I really do.” What does “Class observations on the unrevised unit.
A, A/B, D, ICEpower” mean to the average
Tags: Amplifiers | Class A | Stereo
audiophile? Will there be an audible benefit
by upgrading to the newer technology? If I Read more...
am making an initial purchase will this
technology satisfy me? Does the amp du Rotel RMB-1085 Class D (Switching) Five-
Channel Power Amplifier
jour really make a difference in the listening Written by Jared Rachwalski
experience for the average listener? Wednesday, 27 August 2008 17:00
Read more... Class D switching
amplifiers are here
Emotiva XPA-1 Monoblock Power to stay. The RMB-1085 is a five channel
Amplifier home theater amplifier that uses ICE power
Written by Chris Groppi modules which stay cool and deliver very
Sunday, 04 January 2009 17:00 efficient high power, all from a small
chassis.

Tags: Class D | Power Amplifiers | Switching

Amplifiers
Read more...
ADDENDUM -
4/1/09 I (JEJ) was so impressed with Chris' Halcro MC70 Seven-Channel Power
review of the XPA-1 (published in January, Amplifier
2009), I asked Emotiva to send me one so I Written by Ross Jones
could run some of my own tests. I borrowed Sunday, 04 May 2008 16:00
a different power amplifier from a friend
that cost more than 6 times the price of the
XPA-1, which I will call Amplifier "X"
here. I ran the same tests on both amplifiers.
Click on the photo to see the results (go to
Page 4: Emotiva XPA-1 On the Bench, and
my results are down near the bottom of the Halcro's MC series
page). amplifiers come in two, three, five and
seven channel configurations (designated
Tags: Amplifiers
the MC20, MC30, MC50, and MC70). The
Read more... MC70 lists for $7,000, but compared to the
Halcro Reference DM88 monoblocks,
which will set you back more than $40,000
per pair, the MC70 is quite the bargain. So
what kind of amp do you get for a kilobuck
per channel?

Tags: Class D | Switching Amplifiers

Read more...

Power Amplifier
Lexicon ZX-7 Multi-Channel (300 watts x 7) Power Amplifier
Written by John E. Johnson, Jr.
Monday, 21 January 2008 07:52 The Lexicon ZX-7 is a
very powerful (300 watts RMS x 7 into 8 ohms) amplifier that delivers exquisite sound
for two-channel music, surround sound music, and any movie you can imagine. Read
more...

Tags: Class AB | Multichannel | Power Amplifiers

Rotel RB-1092 Stereo (500 Watts/Channel) Class D (Switching) Power Amplifier

Written by Jared Rachwalski
Wednesday, 05 December 2007 16:00

Decades ago, an amplifier with 80 watts per channel (they were

all two-channel amplifiers in those days), was considered a big amplifier.
Read more...

The Power Amplifier Review Archives

Written by Staff
Sunday, 31 December 2006 16:00
Visit the Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity Power Amplifier Review Archives.
Spectron Musician III Mk2 Class D Stereo Bryston 14B SST2 Stereo 600 Watt per
Power Amplifier Channel Power Amplifier
Written by John E. Johnson, Jr. Written by John E. Johnson, Jr.
Thursday, 21 October 2010 00:00 Thursday, 03 June 2010 00:00

Spectron has been Bryston, renown

manufacturing Class D amplifiers since
before most people even knew what they
were. I remember meeting John Ulrick,
Spectron's designing engineer, many years
ago at a CES, and seeing his first model. I
had no idea how it worked, but what
impressed me was that it was extremely
powerful, yet relatively small. Class D
amplification technology has come a long
way since then, but definitely, Spectron was
manufacturer of amplifiers with a 20 year
warranty, markets products with a full
gamut of power output ranges. The 14B
SST2 is a stereo power amplifier rated at
600 watts per channel output into 8 ohms.
That's a lot of power. Is all that power
useful? Is it necessary? Read our review and
discover.
Read more...
a pioneer. In this review, we take a look at Emotiva UPA-5 Five-Channel Power
the Spectron Musician III Mk2, which will Amplifier
deliver 600 watts rms per channel into an 8 Written by Chris Heinonen
ohm load, and is rated into 2 ohm loads. The Monday, 17 May 2010 00:00
amplifier weighs 52 pounds.

Tags: Class D | Switching Amplifiers

Read more...

Earthquake Sound Cinenova Grande Multi-

Channel Power Amplifier with Class A Bias
Written by John E. Johnson, Jr. Over the past decade, a lot has changed on
Friday, 01 October 2010 00:00 receivers that we buy for home. We've gone
from S-Video to Component to HDMI for
video, replaced 6 RCA cables for 5.1 audio
with a single digital cable, to having it
integrated in the HDMI signal along with
We reviewed the video. Receivers have added all sorts of new
Earthquake Sound Cinénova Grande multi- functions with better on screen menus, room
channel amplifier several years ago, but it correction, Ethernet ports for streaming
has gone through some changes in the media and firmware upgrades, and we have
circuitry, including significantly higher also moved from 5.1 channel audio, to 6.1,
output, so we thought it was time to revisit then 7.1, and now all the way to 9.1 or
this legendary product. It is available with greater when using Dolby ProLogic IIz or
up to seven amplifier modules, each capable Audyssey DSX. However, one thing on
of delivering 360 watts RMS into 8 ohms. receivers has barely changed when I look
Our review unit came with five modules. back over the spec sheets: weight.
Tags: Class A | Power Amplifiers Tags: Amplifiers | Power Amplifiers
Read more... Read more...

Bryston 3B SST2 Stereo 150 Watt per PrimaLuna DiaLogue Seven Tube
Channel Power Amplifier Monoblock Power Amplifier
Written by John E. Johnson, Jr. Written by John E. Johnson, Jr.
Monday, 13 September 2010 00:00 Thursday, 31 December 2009 00:00

Following on our review of the Bryston 14B PrimaLuna is a

SST2 stereo power amplifier, we now take a Dutch-based company that released its first
look at its smaller brother, the 3B SST2, products, the ProLogue One and ProLogue
which delivers 150 watts rms x 2 into 8 Two integrated tube amplifiers in 2003.
ohms. Although it won't necessarily rattle Then, in 2006, they released the ProLogue
the wall studs like the 14B can, it provides Three preamplifier, and ProLogue Five, Six,
 and Seven power amplifiers. Late in that
good solid power at very low distortion. same year, the PrimaLuna DiaLogue series
hit the market, which had the DiaLogue's
Tags: Balanced | Power Amplifiers basic features, but with upgraded parts and
Read more... additional capabilities. Here, we review the
DiaLogue Seven, which is a monoblock
Mystere pa21 Stereo Tube Power Amplifier power amplifier, capable of delivering 40
Written by John E. Johnson, Jr. watts RMS in triode mode, and 70 watts
Monday, 21 June 2010 00:00 RMS in ultra-linear mode (see review for an
explanation of what this means). The
bottom line is that the PrimaLuna DiaLogue
Seven monoblock is more than capable of
delivering a clean, detailed, and lush sound
(ah, those tubes are responsible for that).
Durob Audio is a Read more...
company in the Netherlands that markets
PrimaLuna tubed audio components, Rotel RMB-1575 Five-Channel Class D
including integrated amplifiers, power Power Amplifier
amplifiers, and a CD player that has a tube- Written by Jared Rachwalski
based clock. It also has a discrete output
Thursday, 05 November 2009 00:00
stage with triodes running in pure Class A.
Conventional CD players use op-amps in
the output stage. Although the tube output
stage and op-amp output stage sound Class D switching
different, one doesn't necessarily sound amplifiers are more and more common.
"better" than the other, although tubeophiles Manufactures have made great strides in
would all opt for the "better". We reviewed overcoming the high-frequency
the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Two integrated shortcomings found in the early models.
amplifier in December, 2009. Rotel in particular has been involved with
this technology for a few years, with a
With the introduction of Durob Audio's significant portion of their line-up now
Mysterè line, we now review the Mysterè using this.
pa21, which is a 55 watt per channel stereo
tube power amplifier. The Mysterè line goes Tags: Class D | Home Theater | Ice power | multi-
beyond the PrimaLuna line with larger channel | Rotel
transformers, more power supply Read more...
capacitance, and an auto-bias circuit that
lets the consumer choose between using
KT88's or EL34's as the output tubes.

Tags: Amplifiers | Power Amplifiers | Stereo | Tubes

Read more...