by Michael

RMAF 2013: EMM Labs MTRX amplifier


Prototype EMMLabs MTRX amplifier on Sony speakers with EMMLabs digital and Pre2 preamp, and Kimber cables.

The 1500 watt $100K Emm Labs MTRX amplifiers in the EMM Labs, Sony, Kimber, IsoMike room

In many ways this was the perfect way to introduce an amplifier at a show.

We have all, all of us show goers, heard this same system, with the Pass Lab amps, many times over the last several years. We all know what this system sounds like. It is shown at CES and RMAF each year.

Oh, there have been minor changes: A little more musical when the EmmLabs PRE2 was inserted in the system. Then a bigger dose of musicality when the final version of the PRE2 was inserted in the system at CES a few years ago.

So most people who actually listen to the sound in the rooms at these shows had a pretty good idea of what to expect when they walked into the room this year. An EMM Labs amp inserted into the system? Probably going to be somewhat more musical / music-like.

And there was a definite increase in the EMM Labs sonic signature – that purity of tone – which is found in all their digital gear and their preamp.

But….

That was relatively minor compared to the difference in openness, in ease, in the way the notes could just hang there in space. It didn’t seem to control the speakers with an iron fist the same way the best tube amps do – but it didn’t just smack the drivers around with power like a lot of the big solid-state and big tube amps do, either.

[neli]: One of the room co-exhibitors described the effect of the amp on the speakers as “cheerful obedience”. I love this description.

Obviously we are still trying to figure out just what these amps do. And these particular amps are just prototypes – the finished products are supposed to be lighter, around 200+ pounds [yay!], smaller, and in a finish similar to their other gear… and are supposed to sound as good or better [we have already expressed our personal desire that this be so – several times now :-).]


Prototype EMMLabs MTRX amplifier on Sony speakers with EMMLabs digital and Pre2 preamp

But…

A few anecdotes.

1. I heard this system for the second time right after we walked back from the Wilson Alexandria XLF / VTL / dCS / Transparent demo at the Hyatt. Somehow this all-solid-state system sounded warmer and more involving [and timbrely correct and much more stable imaging for that matter] than the tube-based system at that demo. It was not a close thing. [VTL already hates me, but to their defense, there were many contributors to the overall sound at the Wilson demo, although you can rule out the speakers – we know the speakers well enough and they are in-general more musical and involving than the Sony speakers in this EMM Labs room]

[neli]: this was really not subtle. Made me want to hear these electronics with the XLFs. Much more involving. Much more dexterous. Real sense of effortlessness and ease. Proper timbre. Good harmonic response. Very clean, but not too lean.

2. They play the IsoMike-recorded music in this room. It is usually fairly calm stuff. But against this background of calm easy to listen to music was a more complex arrangement where lots of instruments were playing at once. There was quite some confusion and collapsing of the soundstage during this passage and it was readily obvious that it was the speakers were having a problem with this passage. The amps were so able to handle issues like this that the sound was not horrible or anything – it just casually revealed a flaw in the speakers against the background of the flawlessness rendering of everything else.

Ugh. Not sure that was clear. The point is how casual this all was. Often speakers and amps fight at times like these [in fact, many speaker-amp couples fight almost all the time 🙂 … the amp struggling to make the speaker do what it wants it to, and the speaker struggling to show that Newtons 1st law, 3rd law, all 3 laws in fact but lets just say ‘inertia’, are the law of the land. This fighting is actually audible, unfortunately]. The Sony speaker was not able to put up much of a fight against the MTRX – presumably due to the overwhelming force of 1500 watts and whatever else they are doing in those giant boxes – and this lack of fighting was a sonic relief for the listener.

3. It is rare to hear such a clear difference like this. Everybody could hear a difference – not just experienced listeners. Between the Pass Labs and the Emm Labs amps. We often heard these kinds of improvements between the Walker turntable and other turntables [the Walker has issues, like many turntables, and many small manufacturers, but excellence of playback is not one of them] and we used this fact to quantitatively determine that the Walker was more than a little better than the competition. If we extend this argument to amps, one has to conclude that these amps are significantly better than the Pass Labs, and by extension [by years of hearing Pass Labs compared to other amps] most other amps as well.

You all know we are as demanding of solid-state amps as we are of tube amps. The early Edge amps had a sophisticated mind-centric sound [like Ayre, Goldmund, MBL] with few bad side-effects and with enough inner detail / micro-dynamics to convey a sense of emotion [i.e. have some amount of heart-centric capabilities]. The big old $125K [back when $125K amps were unheard of] Edge NL Reference [pyramids] did most of this and with 800 watts it had some of the ease with speakers we see in the EMMLabs MTRX amps. These amps are acceptable [we don’t hate them] but they do not do half the things that the music demands, things that many tube amps are able to do.

Most other solid-state amps are just giant show pieces, or technical tour-de-forces, or just plain electronic hammers to beat speakers [and ears] over the head with [guess that metaphor ran out of steam there]. Nothing wrong with these other types of amps – they are just another way to have fun, after all.


Prototype EMMLabs MTRX amplifier rear

So where does the MTRX fit in?

Right now I think the MTRX is fairly balanced in terms of heart- and mind-centric capabilities. We don’t know if this new MTRX amp is just an amp at the top of the solid-state amp category – or something new. But in either case, it is welcome – and should be welcomed by everyone who assigns a high value to their system actually sounding like music. [Or if you happen to really like giant show pieces. Or if you like technical tour-de-forces. But not so much the electronic hammer thing :-)].

We have anticipated these amps for years, expecting some kind of nice, tuneful amps that don’t suck and which can replace the hole left by the increasingly problematic / then sold / then dealerless / finally defunct / now not-defunct Edge Electronics amps we used to carry.

But these MTRX amps – they are more than just worthy replacements for state-of-the-art solid-state amplifiers. They are an advancement of the art. They are one of the few components out there that will generate newer, better kinds of results – not just a different flavor – on our over-worked playback systems. They will be used to explore the frontier of just how good can things get, to hear just how good things can really sound.

Or, [lightening up a bit here :-)], they are just a new really fun toy to play with that will take us places we haven’t been before.

in Emm Labs / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / RMAF 2013 / Show Reports 0 comments
 by Michael

RMAF 2013: Magico S1 and Krell

[I hear that JV has his show report up, so I better get a move on here. I write my impressions before I read anybody else’s impressions; otherwise, if I see an impression with which I happen to agree, then I just lose momentum and incentive to write anything at all. ].

First, I am partial to the Magico S1 speaker. In fact, I like all the Magico speakers [don’t listen to Alon, he doesn’t understand me :-)], I just think the systems they usually show them with are deeply flawed. I liked the S5 speakers on the Luxman amps. And we have both liked what we have heard of the S1 speaker.

The S1 is well-priced, and is capable of good timbre and reasonable dynamics, is not incredibly difficult to drive [apparently], and is able to handle complex material.

And I liked this modest Krell system.

I heard well-rounded, well-separated notes with a good, accurate timbre. Fairly dynamic. Fairly open sounding.

At this show, this year, a sound like this is a home run.

Given the relatively low price of both the S1 and Krell gear and the strength of the brands, this is a system that I hope lots of audiophiles paid attention to.

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / RMAF 2013 / Show Reports 0 comments
 by Michael

About these RMAF 2013 show reports…


My badge for the show. Was kind of incognito. Nice.

Well folks, it looks like we are going to do two show reports.

The show report on Ultimist will have all the photos [about a 1000], and we’ll talk about everything but the sound. A lot of fun things happen at a show. Many things that are really not at all related to the process of listening closely and determining the quality of the reproduction of the music being played.

The show report here on the blog will talk about the sound, focusing mainly on the rooms that we liked. It will be relatively short. There wasn’t much that was really high-end, or even pretended to be really high-end.

In fact, a lot of it was old-school, and sounded like early 90’s stereo systems. We just hope people went to other rooms besides these and heard how there have been advances in the last decades – mostly in not sounding not quite so fake and artificial.

We will also talk here about the industry and various trends.

Heck, might as well talk about them now since I am thinking about it now and who knows where the brain will stash this stuff over the next few days as we move away from ‘Show’ mode and on to normal life.

Trends

Predatory dealers – These are dealers that exhibit at shows far away from their store, attempting to steal audiophiles away from the local dealerships. There just used to be one or two, and now there are at least 5 or so. Manufacturers are increasingly looking the other way when it comes to geographical restrictions. It is a free-for-all out there, but luckily for us, we are pretty safe being one of the very few who actually care about what things actually, you know, sound like. Most dealers are just box pushers and having remote dealers come into their territory at shows like this is going to cause one heck of a fuss.

Pricing is getting weird – hard to put my finger on exactly what is going on, but I am frequently shocked at how much or how little various pieces of gear are being priced at. This is not sticker shock but audaciousness. Again, at both the high and low ends. It is like target marketing segment and/or target demographics determine prices now, not performance and the relative price of competing gear.

CD Players are disappearing – I’ll have to double check the photos, but there is the requisite turntable for rooms who care about sound, and a laptop / music server for those who care about selection and convenience, and sometimes, sometimes a CD player for those rooms that are willing to play people’s CDs they bring to the show.

Old fashioned bad sound – For those that just include a laptop and some of the more mainstream gear, it seems really easy to create a sound that is reminiscent of early 80s sound. Bright. Tinny. Artificial transients. Incorrect Timbre. It really was shocking how far the sound in some rooms has regressed.

Far fewer show goers this year – and I, for one [not being an exhibitor this year], liked it. Calmer. More focused listening. More couples. Fewer young people unfortunately. Most rooms had people in them most of the time [as subjectively calculated from my traversal of all the rooms] as opposed to the other extreme in previous years where the hallways and a few rooms, lemming fashion, would be quite crowded and some rooms would be completely empty. Why is this? Brand name penetration dilution due to the internet being a more level playing ground than magazine advertisements? Smarter audiophiles willing to look beyond the major brands? Audiophiles who had already heard the major brands at local dealers and want to see what else is out there? More fit audiophiles who are willing to walk a ways to see what else is happening? [I do think people are more fit this year, now that I think about it].

Fewer photographers / reporters – I saw Albert Porter [thanks Albert! He loaned me a memory card the first day] taking official photos for the show. And maybe one other photographer who looked serious [he seemed to be taking as many photos as I was. Although this year, I myself was keeping a handle on things]. I saw Mike Fremer, JA, Clement Perry, Larry Borden, Constantine Soo and JV, but few other reporters. Usually they are all over the place, and every other person I look at their badge and see they are from Positive Feedback, Enjoy the Music etc.

Lots of new / unknown gear out there – I see this all the time on the front page of Ultimist. New brand after new brand goes by. Some top gear. Some affordable gear. Some imported, some domestic. This year’s show had a number of new brands showing their stuff. This is a golden age for high-end audio – too bad the economy isn’t better.

We can’t think of too many more trends. Continuing reduction in of the major manufacturers [which gives the show a more homey, down-home feel, which I like. But fewer attempts are exceptional sound, unfortunately]. Perhaps a few more importers than last year. Neli mentioned that there was more heterogeneity / diversity of gear: very few brands had gear in more than two rooms.

OK. This is long enough.

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / RMAF 2013 / Show Reports 0 comments