by Michael

CES 2014: EMM Labs MTRX Amplifier

These amps really drove the poop out of the speakers. Yep, poop ALL over the floor. You could hear exactly what the amps were trying to get the speakers to do, and whether the speakers were capable of doing it or not. Do not think ‘yet another big mofo solid-state amp’. Those other solid-state amps sound wimpy and weak and are probably in need of a flu shot. There really is that big of a difference – this is not one of those subtle audiophile-ish things.

The tone here is very Meitneresque: tuneful and clear sounding and not at all solid-state-ish, although it is certainly not tube-ish either. It is kind of like you always thought solid-state amps were supposed to sound, before you learned that the vast majority of them are stereotypically harsh, lean, uneven, aggressive and unpleasant to listen to.

These amps seriously change the landscape and set a new bar for performance, much like their CDSA CD player did several years ago, sounding better at $10K than the $60K top player at the time. At $130K these 1500 watters arn’t cheap, but there is finally [finally!] a solid-state amp commensurate with the extreme high quality of the bevy of hard-to-drive statement speakers from Magico, YG Acoustics and, more recently, Marten [not to mention Sonus Faber, Venture, Avalon, etc. Lots of hard-to-drive speakers out there that have never been driven well]. Word to the wise: Once you hear these on your favorite speakers, whether at a friends house or dealership, you are going to feel really silly [or perhaps some other emotion :-/] for having bought one of those other mega amps. Just sayin’.

[This is an excerpt from a previous post posted last January. We’re trying to modernize and make posts like this available to other parts of the website].

 

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 by Michael

The Acapella Experience

These last few months with the Acapella Atlas speakers have been quite different from what we have been used to.

Easy open dynamic sound with modest resolution versus what we had previously: over-the-top resolution with modest dynamics [we were only able to get world class dynamics when pairing the Audio Note Gaku-On amp and Nordost Odin cable with the Coltrane Supreme speakers. And I mean this was real dynamics, not the typical artificial dynamics of solid-state].

So we listened and listened to the Atlas. Yeah, it was quite nice. With the Acapella Atlas being about 1/4 the price at only the relatively modest, if not measly, $100K we certainly didn’t expect it to sound *better*.

And it didn’t.

But this weird thing happened that has confused the issue some. For me anyway.

While Kevin was here a week or so ago, we decided to nudge the speakers around a bit. We wanted to try and see if we could position them better.

A word about our somewhat infamous 24 foot tall listening room that looks out on the Boulder / Denver metropolis.

Our house was built in 1975. In Boulder. With this fantastic view. Boulder. The mid 70s?

We just figure that the engineering was just a wee bit [OK, a LOT] pharmaceutically enhanced. None of the steps are the same distance apart. A lot are kind of tilted this way and that. Not only are the rooms not square, of course, but the angles of the octagons is quite random as is the length of the sides of the octagon. We could go on…

We find it to be one of charming things about the house, but…

The point being that one just can’t measure distances from the listener or the walls and make things [sound waves] all sync up nicely. So speaker setup is much more of an art, and would probably take a bit more of that pharmaceutically-enhanced engineering technique to get really perfect [if we must, we must. (one of the most wonderful things about ‘legalizing it’ is all the new jokes we can make, about seemingly everything and anything – like about, in this case, speaker setup! 🙂 )].

So, although Kevin was beer-driven, we tried to setup the speakers with the limited skill sets of the sober.

A lot of 1…2…3…. to move each speaker a quarter inch [the feet on the Atlas speakers are not spikes the way we have them setup, but still not easy to move on carpet either].

After maybe a half-dozen attempts at this a light from heaven shown down on my listening position. Which is to say the sound took a leap for the better.

“Uh, guys, this is sounding pretty good. Really good.”

Neli and Kevin were sitting closer, on the sofa, and I was sitting behind it in a chair. Took awhile to figure out that they weren’t hearing it as good as I was.

We eventually played with the position some more to get the sound more optimized for their listening position.[instead of just moving the couch back! Might as well been 420’d given the poor quality of our decision making that night. Doh!].

But I did get about two hours of listening to these speakers in what was one of those extremely rare optimally-setup-speaker anomalies.

This held me quite spell-bound and, although I tried to understand it the best I could, and to compare it to past ‘magical’ listening experiences, I fear I am not going to do a very well-reasoned decomposition of what was happening.

Was this particular experience unique to Acapella speakers? To horn speakers? Or can it happen with many speakers?

Don’t know but I have my suspicions that it is limited to very good horn speakers.

The experience was something like this:

It was like listening to music in a sound-pressurized room [which was not the case here, our room is open to the dining room / kitchen] combined with an intimate head-phone ‘voice right next to me’ experience [but without the artificiality of the headphone experience].

It was like the soundstage and imaging were irrelevant. All that ‘where is this and that particular sound coming from; where between the speakers? How far in front/behind the speakers? etc. [I know 100% Audio Note systems CAN be like this – though the experience this night was more startling. There was absolutely no pretense at an audiophilia experience here – just plain ‘experience’].

The soundwave collapsed in such a way that it provided a unified view of itself. Vocals were speaking directly, intimately, to me, Michael, not coming from across the room in a detached, impersonal yet well-reproduced manner [this is an effect I had noticed with the Acapella Triolons a way long time ago – but the effect this night was more intense].

It wasn’t head-in-a-vise, though it obviously did not extend to 3-feet in front of me and about a foot below to Neli and Kevin.

It was quite nice to just sit there and as they switched CDs I just could sit and listen, and as they forgot to change CDs I could just sit and listen. It was all very absorbing.

Anyway, we moved the speakers and lost the magic. Way better than when we started – and it was better for Kevin and Neli after the last move – but not the magic.

So was it as good an experience as that with the Marten Coltrane Supreme speakers?

It was just so different. Very different. Different parts of the brain were, are, stimulated. Kind of like comparing alcohol versus … something else. It will take a whole lot of experience with both and then perhaps flipping a coin…

 

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 by Michael

Break-through amplifiers. Part II

So, lets compare the Audio Note U.K. Gaku-on and Lamm ML3 amps.

The Gaku-On is a $265,000 monoblock 211-based amp [I think of it sometimes as 2 very souped-up Ongaku amps without a volume control]

The Lamm ML3 Signature is a $139,490 monoblock GM-70-based amp [4 boxes: 2 amps plus 2 power supplies]

Technology

Though I understand just a very little about how these amps break new ground in technology and simplicity of design, I am not qualified to compare them to other designs out there and describe why these are significantly better. So, although these are pretty obviously breakthrough amps in terms of technology [just look at the circuits – it is simplicity itself], it is really the breakthroughs in terms of the listening experience that is, and what some say [including us, and many others of this blog :-)] should be, the real criteria for breakthrough-level excellence.

The technology of the Gaku-On is found in several other amps from AN including the Kegon Balanced. Some of the technology of the ML3 is found in their matching L1 preamplifier.

Audiophile Characteristics

I feel that the ML3 has more resolution than the Gaku-On, but both have more than any other amp we have heard. The Gaku-On has purer harmonics than the ML3, much purer than any other amp we have heard [especially when paired with the better AN amps and digital sources]. The ML3 has greater harmonic resolution and harmonic and dynamic linearity, again breaking new ground. The Gaku-On is more dynamic and dynamically nimble, breaking new ground here itself [live with these for awhile and you will understand in a visceral and indelible manner why most big amps and solid-state amps have real problems with the kind of dynamics found in real music]. The ML3 has a quieter, startlingly dark background although the Gaku-On is itself among the most quiet tube amps in the world.

But enough with the audiophile chatter… 🙂

Character of the Amps

These can be thought of, I think, in terms of Heart versus Mind [though it is a Yin Mind and a Yang Heart we are talking about here].

When one things of Yin amplifiers versus Yang amplifiers one might think of, say, Jadis amps versus old Krell amps. And certainly the idea that Yin represents winning us to its side through delicacy and Yang through overwhelming power… kind…of… represents the case here…

The idea is that the Lamm ML3 presents music in a very sophisticated, delicate, intricate and accurate manner – and the Audio Note UK Gaku-On in a dynamic, colorful, and enthusiastic manner.

Effect of the Amps

The effects are more similar than what one might expect, especially when you realize that the heart can be won by convincing the mind [some say we always consciously (mentally) CHOOSE who we fall in love with], and the mind can be won by convincing the heart [e.g. love is blind, all you need is love, etc.].

I feel that the Gaku-On pulls harder on the heart strings, that the dynamic swells and casual ease and rich, insidiously TRUTHFUL color overwhelms our inhibitions and forces us to fall heels over head into the music.

I feel that the ML3 pulls harder on the higher mental functions, that the dynamic and harmonic resolution and convincingness is so entrancing that the mind is unable to resist falling head over heels into the music.

Strength of the Effect

It depends

You might think that after a day of doing math homework, say, you might want… something different – something that appeals to the heartstrings to distract your tired mind from a day’s hard work? Or would you want something that is intellectual but incredibly beautiful that sneaks into the head which is already open to intellectual stimulation.

Similarly, after a day of arguing with nincompoops, you might want something refined and delicate, the best of humanity in high resolution. But, maybe you want to just blast away all remembrances and de-nincompoop the day with some beautiful, heart-rending stimulation.

Both these amps are fun. Both help distract me from the days’ travails. Both are convincing and exciting and delicious. And even if I sometimes THINK I would prefer one or the other, I am wrong as often as I am right.

But that is me. I enjoy equally well both appeals to the heart and to the mind…. just sometimes more one than the other.

Mental Pattern Matching

Now that we have described some of the basic characteristics of these amps, we can try and talk about the listening experiences in more detail.

Our Believability Helper Processor
Our Whiteout Processor

These amps, largely based on the quality of their reproduction, require previously unheard of low levels of use of our fixer-upper mental processors. They are far more believable and have far fewer annoying characteristics than other amps currently available and/or that we have heard.

Our Rainbow Processor

Our desire and ability to mentally enhance our music in a fun and exaggerated manner never flags, and with these amps there is no exception, although the need or desire to do so is lessened quite a bit.

Our Pattern Detection Processor
Our Pattern Matching Processor

Here is where we can start comparing the amps and how they differ in what they offer the listener.

[Please note I am somewhat exaggerating the differences in order to better explain what is happening to a listener. In reality there is quite a bit of overlap as both amps are able to render the all kinds of music quite well and convincingly]

The extreme resolution of the ML3 lends itself the ability to render very complex patterns. These patterns stimulate the higher cortex of the brain. [I think. Therefore I am]

The extreme purity and dynamics of the Gaku-On lends itself to render very deep, primal patterns. Patterns that stimulate our human and animal natures. [Woof!]

[I feel like I should write more here in this section. But… well… see previous posts about how the patterns in music cause matching resonances in our brains, resonances that aid us in thinking and understanding and feeling things.]

Our Emotional Contexualizer

Both amps draw out the emotional subtleties of the music. In somewhat different ways, as described above, but both are very emotional amps.

Our Beauty / Wonder / Spiritual Processor

Similar to the emotions, both can frequently provide glimmers, nay stark proof, of the beauty of the universe.

An example: these amps on the Marten Coltrane Supreme Speakers

Putting the ML3 on the Supremes is pairing like with like. They are both high resolution and capable of rendering exquisitely subtle detail. People who are looking just for music that stimulates their heart, and not their mind, will not be so pleased. Those who like both will enjoy the experience quite a bit. And those who are primarily looking for music that stimulates the mind first and foremost, these people will be flabbergasted.

We played this exact system at RMAF … 2008? … and if you read the reviews, you are able to see immediately the preferences of the reviewer. The next year we brought the Gaku-On amps in a mostly Audio Note system. This mostly ‘appealing to the heart’ system flabbergasted those who really did not like nor understand the above system, these people preferring their music to be heart-centric rather than mind-centric.

Putting the Gaku-On on the Supremes is pairing male with female, chocolate and peanut butter. The combination sounds like the perfect horn speaker: a dynamic, high-resolution, harmonically rich point source. This was a more balanced, both heart-and-mind centric sound. Systems like this are a good compromise if you, like me, like both heart-centric and mind-centric sound.

Comparison to other sounds

Mind-centric does not mean cold and unemotional. Cold and unemotional systems have insufficient resolution to render the subtleties required to communicate emotion in voices and instruments [often because the speakers are too hard to drive and small sounds just get lost as the amps struggle with the major sounds] .

Heart-centric does not mean fake or sugary sound. The often used epithet used by people who fear heart-centric sound is artificially sweet is undeserved for real heart-centric systems. If there is to be more than just one emotion communicated by a system [like cheap wine, missing is all the wonderful variety of flavors possible], it needs to be high-resolution and highly realistic.

Conclusion

For a long time I preferred the Gaku-On and neli preferred the ML3. The I’d hear the ML3 and she would hear our Kegons or something and we’d swap. We’d go back and forth, usually wanting the opposite of what the other wanted [yes, some of it due to husbandly cantankerousness, but also some of it because I really do know best and she just kept getting it wrong :-)].

I lot of the appreciation of life, for me, comes when one knows what one appreciates. Not so much from getting what one appreciates, but understanding just where one stands with respect to where quality can be found. I know which two amps I want, and this does make the world make a little more sense than back in the day when I was a fish biting on everything that came along – including all those rocks, leaves and whatnot.

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