by Michael

Lamm ML3 Signature amplifiers – photos & first impressions

Lamm Industries generously loaned us a pair of ML3 amps for the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest – and we got them setup and they were warmed up enough for listening last night.

We did most of our listening on the Brinkmann Balance turntable, since the Emm Labs TSD1/DAC2 digital is still breaking in. Even so, we are running it through the Emm Labs DCC2 DAC’s linestege as we wait for our Audio Note M9 and Lamm L2 preamps to arrive.

I spent a lot of our listening time comparing these to the big Audio Note amps: The Kegon Balanced and Ongaku.

For now, my matchbook cover, over simplification of the difference is this:

Our friend Dave Cope once described the top flight Audio Note amps [and specifically the M10 linestage] as drill-sergeants – they are so intent on controlling each note with an iron [titanium] grip.

Well, in comparison with the Lamm, the AN primarily controls the MACRO dynamics with an iron grip, and leaving the micro-dynamics to be slightly less controlled [in comparison with the Lamm] and the Lamm controls the MICRO dynamics like nobody’s business [as Neli would put it], and the macro-dynamics is less controlled [in comparison with the AN]. Get it? They are PRIMARILY focused on different parts of the dynamic spectrum – not that they don’t control all parts of the dynamic spectrum better than any other amps out there, because they do. It is just that their APPROACH to the reproduction of the sound is different from each other.

So with these ML3’s, you can hear WAY into the music, the details are very, very three dimensional, the micro-harmonics incredibly varied and complex, the micro-separation really excellent.

For example, on Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Tin Pan Alley LP, the Lamm ML3 had an ability to convey how HARD each note was played on the guitar [which I grew up with and play on and mostly off – so I can hear rightness better than say, Neli :-)] not primarily through the different levels of dynamic punch, but because you could HEAR that the string was stretched and hear the pick as it slid rapidly and with great force across the string as it was picked. So this resulted in a sound that just whacked the listener across the ears – sometimes it sounded like that guitar string would BREAK if Stevie kept doing that – which is just like it is supposed to sound on those particular notes.

So this was a case where something that might be considered macro-dynamic was clearly rendered perfectly by the ML3. That is why I talked about how, using this hypothetical model of the two amps, their PRIMARY focus seems to be on different areas of the dynamic spectrum – but that this is just their APPROACH to the sound, that they still dominate all areas and aspects of the reproduction in ways that will take quite some time to understand [probably longer than the two weeks or so we get to hear these particular amps] .

[P.S. Neli tells me to post that she thinks that I am not being enthusiastic enough about the amps… not the Lamm nor the Audio Note. I guess I am being very analytical but I do have to focus mightily on understanding the sound so I can try and describe it in these clumsy words we all communicate back and forth with – and maybe I am just tired of the very, very long reviews that I read – when I read any at all these days – that, for their extreme, time-wasting length, are nothing really but vacuous cheerleading at best and disingenuous brown-nosing more often than not.

Hopefully describing WHY these are great amps speaks louder than “OMG Best Amp/Speaker/Digital Ever!!!” (… even though in these particular cases they, in all likelihood, ARE the best… ;-))

It is like, I imagine our very friendly, intelligent and passionate hypothetical readers to say “OK Mike, we have read and surfed our fingers to the bone and it seems like there is nothing out there that is not ‘The Best’. Now you say that these are the best. Now, describe WHY and HOW they are the best. And describe for us how they are different from all the other bests and second bests you have there. ….. And, only if you must, just briefly describe how these bests are better/different than the ‘stuff’ that other reviewers, dealers and manufacturers swear up and down are the ‘best’… but JFYI you can skip the comparisons with Bose”)

If any of you very friendly, intelligent and passionate hypothetical readers want to add to that, please let us know].

OK… photos:


The system all setup


Warming up


At night. Those GM70 tubes are quite bright.


Earlier in the day, the ML3 front


The ML3 rear


Closeup of the rear


The ML3 power supply front


The ML3 power supply rear


The ML3 power supply rear closeup


The ML3 without tubes


Closeup of the socket for the GM70 tube and the controls for feedback etc.


Some photos of the amps while warming up


Closeup of the glow of the ML3’s GM70 vacuum tube

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Lamm / RMAF 2008 / Show Reports 0 comments
 by Michael

Emm Labs: The TSD1 and DAC2

Here are some photos of the new EMM Labs TSD1 transport and DAC2 DAC we are taking to RMAF 2008 in a few weeks.

Here is the blurb sent to us which will fill you in on some of the particulars:

“The chassis is completely machined thick aluminum in gorgeous brushed silver with matching metal remote when bought as a set completely redone and retooled from the CES units so they look and feel a lot better and seamless.

The DAC2 is our next generation converter with a host of digital inputs and can be used EASILY with ANY digital source. It has Ed’s MFAST technology that allows it to completely get rid of source jitter and phase distortion inherent in all 2 or multibox systems and acquire audio seamlessly in milliseconds even from the most difficult sources like Satellite Radio, DVB, Computer systems, portable media players etc. It also has all of Ed’s prior technologies, MDAT up-conversion technology where incoming audio is up-sampled to 2X SACD (5.6Mhz) and Ed’s discrete custom built DA converters all built on composite aerospace EMMbed PCB circuit boards. Along with the regular I/O like AES, SPDIF, TOSLINK etc. it also has USB Audio port for connection directly to computers and music servers.

The TSD1 is has the built in MDAT up-converter and 2008 German drive plus it sports the new transport software and LCD screen. It also has the new single fiber EMM Link for interconnection between it and the DAC2.”

DAC2 MSRP is $9,500 US
TSD1 MSRP is $11,000 US

We can testify that when you look at them [and especially when you pick them up :-)] you can see that they are made with a thick aluminum chassis that feels very solid and robust.

First impressions, after about 3 whole hours(!) of playing [with :-)] them is that they are very lively like the CDSA but more so [through-out the entire note], that the notes are very well controlled throughout the entire note – something that neither analog nor digital has really contributed to in my experience [instead, we rely on uber amplifiers to do the best that can be done with the signal they are given], and a very black background [the honorable competition, and even the Emm Lab’s own CDSD/DCC2 pair to some lesser extent, seems to try and fill in the background with a lot of extra information – amplifying the quiet sounds so they do not get lost, or to please the listener with a sense of higher resolution – similar to the tipped up midrange on showroom speakers and tipped up contrast on showroom TVs? I don’t know but the digital revolution is still advancing at a rapid pace and this sounds like this will be de’rigeur in a few years. The feeling is that there is a lot more separation between the subtle notes].

But it has only been THREE HOURS. Right now we have to listen around the Cold New Player Effect – things will likely get even better if past experience [with new players] is any predictor of the future experience [improvements associated with broken-in players]. Already I think both Neli and I prefer this pair over the previous Emm Labs digital [and we preferred THAT over other digital we have heard – with the POSSIBLE exception of the Esoteric P-01/D-01/G-0s, which is much more expensive [at $60K+] and we would have to hear much more closely to get a feeling which is ‘better’, or just ‘different’. But this *is* the league EMM Labs is playing in – the best in the world.].

More in a few hundred hours or so. Or come to the show and hear for yourself 🙂


The TSD1 transport


The TSD1 transport turned on


The TSD1 rear panel


The DAC2


The DAC2 rear panel


The new remote


The new remote next to the remote that comes with the CDSD/DCC2. Not as wide, same thickness, and without volume controls… Both feel great in the hand

[unlike Sony XBR remotes – boy, my mute button is already squished in after 2 weeks of use. What a POS remote – and these are their top-of-the-line LCDs too].

in Emm Labs / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / RMAF 2008 0 comments
 by Michael

Meitner versus Meitner: the CDSA and the DCC2/CDSD pair

We had a chance to compare these two players recently as we were swapping in the DCC2 DAC’s linestage for the Lamm L2 reference linestage [which was getting refreshed for RMAF].

We ran the warm CDSA SE [with broken-in new transport] and then the cold CDSD SE [with the older transport] + DCC2 SE DAC, both through the L2.

We are most familiar with the CDSA on this system, as we have used it quite a bit up here on the Coltrane Supremes loudspeakers these last few months.

Even though the CDSA at $11.5K costs about exactly half as much as the CDSD/DCC2 pair [with its added linestage = inputs for the turntable, for example] it has received such affection from everybody, everywhere, that even we were wondering about the real differences between the two digital front ends.

Well, even completely cold the CDSD/DCC2 pair had greater presence, PRaT, detail, image solidity and soundstage realism, dynamic solidity… you name it. There wasn’t any area in which the pair was not better than the CDSA [if one figures that the linestage in the DCC2 is about a $5K preamp – and it is at least of that quality compared to stand-alone preamps out there, then the pair is only about 50% more expensive than the CDSA – and it’s quality is indeed about 50% better, given the expected diminishing returns at this level of high-fidelity]…

… except…


The CDSD transport

When thinking about WHY the CDSA is so charming – I think [besides the killer price] that it is a little more enthusiastic at the leading edge of each note – or has just a little bit less detail there, which makes it seem a little more dynamic right there at the leading edge. This makes the CDSA seem to sound a little more youthful, and at the same time a little more like other devices in the galaxy of solid-state equipment – a little less analog, but a little more familiar to people used to solid-state or who prefer a little more youthful presentation.


The CDSD transport close-up


The DCC2


The DCC2 close-up


The CDSA


The CDSA close-up

The CDSA is now downstairs on the $90K Audio Note Ongaku integrated amp and $60K Marten Coltrane and it sounds killer. We love this 3-piece system and in fact would like to take this exact system to the RMAF 2009 for one of our small rooms. Sounds great, looks great, … and is a lot easier to move than some of our other systems here… 🙂

The CDSD/DCC2 pair is on $300K Marten Coltrane Supreme system and connected to the $90K Audio Note Kegon Balanced monoblocks, no wait, it is now – this morning, connected to the Lamm ML2.1 amps, … no… wait… 😉

in Emm Labs / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo 0 comments