by Michael

RMAF 2013: PranaFidelity

We talked a long time ago about the path from silence to a perfect reproduction. Every point along the path has no bad behavior, the sound is imperfect only in that it lacks the ultimate resolution, bass response, and dynamics that the Real Thing requires. Everything off the path has nasty side-effects; the further from the ‘path’ the component lies, the worse the side-effects.

The sound in this room with the modestly priced $3950 PranaFidelity Fifty90 speakers was spot on The Path.

The sound in this room, these speakers, are only lacking those things that more money, a LOT more money, would provide. But all too often, in fact the vast majority of the time, those extra funds would bring along with several improvments the misery of unpleasant side-effects: a muddiness in the midrange or bass at soft volumes, perhaps, or a sharpness in the treble, or a myriad world of other audiophile speaker gotchas.

These do everything AOK, at ungodly SPLs [well, me, I rarely listen this loud], in terms of just presenting listenable and enjoyable music. Not too sweet, not too raw, not too warm, not too cold… these are Goldilocks speakers.

With a little gold trim, or mahogany inlay, these speakers could easily go for $10K, or $20K in today’s marketplace. And this is what I personally recommend that they do – so you might want to get your way-under-priced Fifty90s before then. Just sayin’.

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

RMAF 2013: NVS Sound, YG Acoustics, McCormack

NVS Sound makes cables.

They are also working with YG Acoustics to make a custom version of the YG Acoustics speaker. The modification I remember is the addition of silver binding posts, but there are others.
[neli]: Along with the binding posts, NVS re-wires the loudspeakers with their own internal cabling, paying an extreme amount of attention to the wiring connections. They also change the spikes.

They are also working with Steve McCormack to customize a McCormack amplifier for use with the NVS Sound-modified YG Acoustics speaker.

Both the speaker and amp were prototypes and under development.

The Notes

This is all of interest because the notes generated by this system were quite good and quite an advance for solid-state, in my opinion.

The attack was decent.

The peak was a bit flattened [I think this was a 160 watt amp. More power is required apparently].

The end of the note was the most surprising. The part after the maximum peak is reached but before the decay starts. It was rounded and controlled, ending like real notes end. This was shocking for a solid-state amp and seriously unbelievable on the supremely hard-to-drive YG Acoustics speakers.

And the decay? It was average.

So, two points:

1. This system drove the modded YG Acoustics better than any system I have heard them with, and

2. The note formation was better than I think I have ever heard from a solid-state amp

But there were also severe problems as well. When I got to play something familiar: Comfortably Numb – there were occasionally some issues with various resonance frequencies somewhere in the chain – creating way, way too much energy. There was also confusion during complex passages [not too many in that song, but some].

So as a finished product this failed. But as a research project this kicked ass.

Not sure exactly where the innovation is. I know a lot of people are fanatical about of Steve McCormack gear – but we did a shootout several years ago with a $10K Edge NL10 and the Edge was much better in every way except bass slam. So we are much more cautious in our assessment where the innovation is here – maybe it is the cables, which have been getting rave reviews in Japan. Who knows – but something was definitely happening that I hope gets developed further.

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

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