Munich High-End 2015 – EMM Labs and Lansche [photographs by a young German audiophile]
EMM Labs new DA2 reference DAC, Mola Mola amps and Lansche speakers
The EMM Labs MTRX amplifiers – what we learned.
Dynamic Response versus Dynamic Range
How the MTRX, the better tube amps, and vinyl, (and efficient loudspeakers) typically have more realistic and engaging dynamics than the more monotone-like competing technologies.
We’ll talk more about this in a future post.
Who’s the Boss: Speakers or Amplifiers?
How strong, domineering amplifiers, like the MTRX, can control speakers so well that the speaker’s performance level increases dramatically (and, conversely, how the vast majority of amps are weak willed and the sound quality you hear is largely determined by the cross product of the weaknesses of the speakers with that of the weaknesses of the amps).
We’ll talk more about this in a future post, as well.
At low to medium loud SPL, the best tube amplifiers = MTRX + Bloom
How the MTRX sounds a LOT like the very best tube amplifiers (costing more than the MTRX, BTW), but without the Bloom.
I want to talk about this topic, here in this post.
Bloom is when the dynamics swell beyond what is required by the music. Like the ocean swelling onto the beach, or when your heart swells with emotion when someone you love is nice to you.
In this context, when the amps are otherwise handling the dynamics realistically, accurately, … correctly, I consider bloom to be artificial sweetener [when it is not artificial sweetener is when bloom is used to help less competent tube amps get closer to the dynamics that the music calls for (closer than most solid-state BTW)].
I had a real struggle with whether I actually preferred bloom over no bloom.
That extra little emotional zing, did I need that? Was I addicted to that?
Was it in some way preferable to add bloom in to counter balance emotion that may have been lost somewhere further up the chain; somewhere else between the source and the speakers?
Over the months we had the MTRX here, my answer to that question changed.
At first, yes, I thought bloom just made listening more fun and exciting.
But, in the end, I decided I could take or leave bloom. It is fun, like sprinkled chocolate bits on top of ice cream, but I do not NEED it. At the same time, I do not now dislike bloom or think it is necessarily bad either.
I think bloom is like listening to music while intoxicated or stoned. It is drug-like. It is more revealing of the intentions of the musicians, even if it exaggerates a bit.
For those of us with hardly any brain cells left, the few remaining just rattling around in our empty heads, we can’t afford to lose any more to the concoctions we imbibed while we were young [not to mention those millions we lose to the everyday stress of modern life]. So music with a little bloom is a gentle reminder of how great music sounds when we are a little happier than we should be… 🙂
Because the MTRX has awesome amounts of resolution and ACCURATE dynamics, UNLIKE ANY OTHER solid-state amplifier, which sound soft, mush, muddy … wimpy … in comparison, it is extremely satisfying without the 2nd harmonic distortion and bloom of analog and tube gear.
We were just amazed , over and over again, over the six months or so, how intoxicating the sound was [yes, Neli and I would just be sitting on the couch listening and then start talking about this. We spend a lot of time here trying to figure out how we are supposed to get any work done :-0] .
EMM Labs insists that there is nothing in the amps that require ‘break in’ – but we noticed a definite slight ‘relaxation’ of the sound. Not a lot, but it was there. Maybe the 40 foot long power cords were what was breaking in. Whatever ;-).
They also, there is little doubt, hate for me to compare these amps to tube amps:-) – but the very best tube amps get many things right which solid-state amps have, until now, been unable to do. Things that make the sound more closely resemble music [something many of us are interested in when we listen to hi-fi gear :-)].
Where the Lamm ML3 Signature amplifiers approach “straight wire with gain” from the tube side, the MTRX approaches it from the solid-state side.
We got ourselves a real ballgame here.
The MTRX are on our list of the top three most desirable amplifiers… in a 3-way tie. We are still coming to grips with this, this ‘solid-state upstart’, being on the list at all – so please bear with.
And, because they don’t require a modestly efficient loudspeaker, there are some applications – those with speakers that manufacturers made quite difficult to drive in the pursuit of their vision of what they wanted the speakers to sound like – where the MTRX are a natural ‘best’.
P.S. For those that are wondering:
“Heart” – Audio Note U.K. Gaku-On: No holds barred, drug-like, engaging, emotional, ‘there is no spoon’, ‘this is effing music’ adventure
“Mind” – Lamm ML3 Signature: ‘Straight-wire with gain’ Audiophile-style, subtle, detailed, even-handed, majestic worlds of music one can spend many lifetimes exploring
“Mind + Heart (by way of the explosive dynamics)” – Emm Labs MTRX: ‘Straight-wire with gain’ Mohammad Ali-style, tight, punchy, extremely precise yet harmonically complete, from bass to treble, from massive macro dynamics to the very subtle.
EMM Labs: MTRX Amplifier – The Sound of Quiet
We started doing this by accident. Not sure I remember how we starting doing this, in actual fact. But once we did it was fun to do, and to demonstrate to people, because it produced such an amazing effect.
What did we do? With these 750 watt per channel solid-state monsters … I mean amplifiers?
We turned the volume down.
Way down.
So low that people could have a conversation using their ‘quiet voice’.
Well, maybe not quite that quiet. [Not when Neli was around, anyway, given her life-long love affair with that volume control :-). What’s a husband to do? *sigh* :-)].
So, what was the effect? This amazing effect?
The effect was that the music was still perfectly legible. It was just quieter.
Soundstaging, imaging, separation, timbre, decay, rhythm… the same as when the volume was turned up.
The background noise was THAT quiet.
The ability to control the speakers in the tiniest ways, which we have been posting about many times before when the volume was quite loud, apparently has as a consequence this other, unworldly, strange, Twilight Zone-like unique capability at very low volumes.
This makes the music really accessible at low volumes.
Typically, on other amps, music at low volume is missing a lot of information. So, for these ‘other’ amps, much of the signal for most of these quiet subtle notes is so close to zero that the notes start to fade into the amps background noise. Anthropomorphically, these amps are trying to figure out “Is it noise? Or is it a musical note?”
Bass, for example, with the MTRX, is still there. It starts. It stops.
It even has slam… it is just miniaturized. Those little bass notes are just a tiny little ‘Pump’, but it is still tightly rendered, with accurate start, stop, and decay.
Reminds me of those model train sets some people build, where everything looks like a real town, just smaller [Well. YMMV :-)].
The MTRX amps are so different from what has passed as ‘solid state amps’ for 50+ years.
We need a new category.
Maybe we could call these ‘Good Amps’. Or the others ‘Performance-challenged Amps’. 😛
Anyway, the point here is that it is really important that an amp be able to control the small details of your music playback when the volume is turned down low, because then most of what you are hearing is small details.
