Emm Labs MTRX Amps LIVE – and we are already learning a lot about music, sound and what we have been missing.
We all know solid-state amps have lots of power – but typically sound not so much like music but like ‘hifi’.
Well, we already learned one reason why that is…
Who knew solid-state amps were so sloppy with the sound, petering out on notes all the time, making what now sound like half-hearted attempts at each note – some attempts getting closer to where the note is supposed to be, some fumbled all together..
And those background notes! Geez.
Not anymore.
Until you hear it, it is hard to believe.
We’ll have a lot more to say, and about how the 93dB Acapella Atlas speakers, with 2 10in woofers and one isobaric 10in woofer, can tell us some things right away about these amps.
Previously we had on the Atlas speakers an older pair of Edge amps, 200 watts, and to our ears one of the best solid-state amps made [probably worth $50K to $60K in today’s inflated market if that company still existed and did some marketing and hadn’t keep shooting themselves in the foot. You can get this old pair for $8K here. These are WAY better than most of your $120K amps that have been all the fad lately, in our opinion, with more resolution, micro-dynamics, linearity, etc. but somewhat less bass slam].
Currently playing: the famous $25K Emm Labs XDS1 CD / SACD player, the legendary $130K Audio Note M9 Phono preamplifier [lots sold, but have NEVER seen one on the used market], the $130K Emm Labs 750 watts/channel amps, and the $99K Acapella Atlas speakers with ION tweeter [our demos need a new home before CES]. Mostly Nordost Odin cables and power cords. HRS SXR equipment rack. Oh, and Kimber Model 10 PowerKords on the amps.
Radiohead – In Rainbows
Can hear amps warming up minute by minute
Kings College Choir – Nelson Mass
Voices much more distinct and legible [we’ve heard this CD on a LOT of different systems, some quite good]. Hear more emotion and modulation and the power of the lead vocal’s voice.
Radiohead – Kid A
More complex and innovative than In Rainbows. The MTRX really showed how this album is a spectacle of sound . Massive amounts of separation – can hear Everything. Changes in tone more accurate a the amps were able to keep up with all the weird changes. The cacophony near the end of track 3 was actually understandable as about 5 to 7 different ‘instruments’ making sound at the same time [some purposely obnoxious. You know. Radiohead.]
Amps still warming up. Been on about 4 hours. With only about 150 hours on them, they still need breaking in as well.
Silly me, but you know how you hear a song on the car radio, and then go home to hear it on your system – you know, to hear what it REALLY sounds like? This is like that, except all over again.
Ha! You think I exaggerate.
…..
All significantly better systems make you want to hear this album on it, and that album…
… but here there is so much more accuracy, so much more information [because the amp does not allow the speaker to slack off on any of the sound, which tends to muddy things up a lot, and which obscures lots of what we hear, ordinarily] … it really is a case of ‘great sound’ [which we had before with some of the best solid-state amps around] or ‘great sound with none of the music removed’ [of which there is, apparently, a LOT.], and which is what, with the MTRX, we are hearing now.
A lot more later… and over the forthcoming days and weeks.
