Emm Labs MTRX Amps LIVE
Emm Labs MTRX Amps LIVE – and we are already learning a lot about music, sound and what we have been missing.
We all know solid-state amps have lots of power – but typically sound not so much like music but like ‘hifi’.
Well, we already learned one reason why that is…
Who knew solid-state amps were so sloppy with the sound, petering out on notes all the time, making what now sound like half-hearted attempts at each note – some attempts getting closer to where the note is supposed to be, some fumbled all together..
And those background notes! Geez.
Not anymore.
Until you hear it, it is hard to believe.
We’ll have a lot more to say, and about how the 93dB Acapella Atlas speakers, with 2 10in woofers and one isobaric 10in woofer, can tell us some things right away about these amps.
Previously we had on the Atlas speakers an older pair of Edge amps, 200 watts, and to our ears one of the best solid-state amps made [probably worth $50K to $60K in today’s inflated market if that company still existed and did some marketing and hadn’t keep shooting themselves in the foot. You can get this old pair for $8K here. These are WAY better than most of your $120K amps that have been all the fad lately, in our opinion, with more resolution, micro-dynamics, linearity, etc. but somewhat less bass slam].
Currently playing: the famous $25K Emm Labs XDS1 CD / SACD player, the legendary $130K Audio Note M9 Phono preamplifier [lots sold, but have NEVER seen one on the used market], the $130K Emm Labs 750 watts/channel amps, and the $99K Acapella Atlas speakers with ION tweeter [our demos need a new home before CES]. Mostly Nordost Odin cables and power cords. HRS SXR equipment rack. Oh, and Kimber Model 10 PowerKords on the amps.
Radiohead – In Rainbows
Can hear amps warming up minute by minute
Kings College Choir – Nelson Mass
Voices much more distinct and legible [we’ve heard this CD on a LOT of different systems, some quite good]. Hear more emotion and modulation and the power of the lead vocal’s voice.
Radiohead – Kid A
More complex and innovative than In Rainbows. The MTRX really showed how this album is a spectacle of sound . Massive amounts of separation – can hear Everything. Changes in tone more accurate a the amps were able to keep up with all the weird changes. The cacophony near the end of track 3 was actually understandable as about 5 to 7 different ‘instruments’ making sound at the same time [some purposely obnoxious. You know. Radiohead.]
Amps still warming up. Been on about 4 hours. With only about 150 hours on them, they still need breaking in as well.
Silly me, but you know how you hear a song on the car radio, and then go home to hear it on your system – you know, to hear what it REALLY sounds like? This is like that, except all over again.
Ha! You think I exaggerate.
…..
All significantly better systems make you want to hear this album on it, and that album…
… but here there is so much more accuracy, so much more information [because the amp does not allow the speaker to slack off on any of the sound, which tends to muddy things up a lot, and which obscures lots of what we hear, ordinarily] … it really is a case of ‘great sound’ [which we had before with some of the best solid-state amps around] or ‘great sound with none of the music removed’ [of which there is, apparently, a LOT.], and which is what, with the MTRX, we are hearing now.
A lot more later… and over the forthcoming days and weeks.
Hi Mike,
I was wondering if you will be hooking up the Pre2 to the system? I would be interested to hear your views on the sound of an all eMMLabs system and how it differs from that of the present set-up?
Michel
Hi Michel,
🙂 We have been wondering the exact same thing.
After cranking it up to 100 dB just a few hours after we turned everything on (!?) [we couldn’t help ourselves. like little kids we were], we are now waiting for everything to warm up and settle in a bit before we do too much critical listening and comparisons [all the while trying to pay close attention to how the amp changes as it warms up, settles in, and finishes break in. This will help us be much more accurate when predicting how the new amps our customers take home will break in, and how long it takes for them to get to something like, oh, ‘90%’ broken in, for example].
Take care,
-Mike
Mike,
At this juncture, you and Neli have heard a variety of different amps, both tube and solid state on the Acapella speakers. While I understand that there is value in discussing how this amp differs from other solid state amps, I personally am more interested in how it compares to the Audio Note and Lamm amps which you have employed in the past on various Acapella speakers. It seems to me that these set the standard.
Fred
Hi Fred,
Oh. So you want an answer to the 64 trillion dollar question [inflation, you know], do you?
At some point I’d love to answer this question. Certainly want to wait until after break in [of the amps and, not to be forgotten, the two, 40 foot Kimber power cords and the brand new 10 foot power cords (our 240 volt outlet is not near the amps 🙁 )].
But, it may be that, like comparing analog to digital, they can both be really good, but different. I know we all look for and talk about a convergence, specifically here between the sound of solid-state and tube amplifiers, and there is some aspects of the sound of the (un-broken in) MTRX that leads me to think that this may indeed happen [some of the voices are in such high resolution with such nice microdynamics that they start to approach the emotion found in voice from good tube amps],so we may get our wish. 🙂
Take care, Fred.
-Mike
I should clarify that it is not that the sound is harsh – this is not why we want to wait until things are broken-in – which is why we felt comfortable listening to it at 90+ dB 4 hours after we turned them on]. The sound IS not quite as good as it will be right after we turn them on [cold-amp sound Neli calls it], however, [we had to turn everything off again due to a lightning storm, at like 4am (!), a few days ago].
It is just that it ‘sounds louder’ than it should be at, what is now 100dB [measured. Phonic – personal audio assistant.] in the listening room as I write this from my office 🙂 100dB in a VERY large space, I might add. For example, we play 100dB downstairs in a much smaller space on the small Audio Note system, doesn’t sound as loud.
Now that we think of it, we are also breaking in the speakers at this volume [the Atlas can kick some butt!]
[our experience has been that very good sound never sounds loud, just more awesome, as one turns up the volume. Just remember your ears are fragile everybody].
We fully expect this ‘sounding too loud’ to change as everything breaks in.
The sound is exceptionally, almost super-naturally, clear sounding with an incredibly black background, even at this 100dB volume. [trying not to giggle hysterically]