purity, resolution and control

not much - perhaps some more sexy bindingposts...

I have had mySpectron for over a year. Before purchasing the specton I had listened to ML 331 and 332 as well as Audio Research and Krell. The choise was very simple. Non of them where even close enough. For the sake of fairness I think that making a comparison with ML 33 series products is not totally correct. In sweden at least the 33H costs almost 10 times more than specron! Yes, I am an PS audio Power plant user and I do agree that a good power supply is very important as mentioned by the norwegian reviewer. But we should keep a perspective when making a comparison. I still think that the Spectron is an outstanding product when carefully matched, and having looked inside (at least in the edition that I have) the build quality is outstanding, with exeption of the binding post. sevice given to me by Tony and John was exeptional. Kudos to John fo his expertise and service mindedness.
p.s. A note on Thomas review. Sorry that your sample failed. It always feels frustrating when that happens, no matter what the product is. My friend in stockholm had his ML CD-drive and the 32 pre go down as well as the control board on the 33H. it does happen even to the best. But i am sure that once you return from your travel the folks at Spectron will sort it out, at least that is my experience with them. (my amp has been going now for more than a year, no hickups, no probs what so ever.)

Similar Products Used:

TACT, ML, AR

some

some

This is my follow-up to my review in January. I can say
the amp is a decent value at the Musician 1 price.But I do
have some reserve about the product now. It uses very cheap parts and John Ullrich does not seem to be interested
in trying any better parts. I modified my Spectron for much improved sound. The amp will sound pretty good in an average hifi system. In a high resolution system the amp falls way short. It lacks refinement and purity and does not compete with state of the art amps- I now find the spectron lacked the you are there feeling - low palp factor.
I contribute this to cheap parts. I now use a modded Perreaux amp that stomps all over the spectron in all areas.
Sorry to ruin the streak but I simply call it like I hear it.

Similar Products Used:

TACT

Transparency, pace ,vivid and lively,power,clarity,etc....

NONE

I have owned the Musician 1 amplifier for about 3 months and I must say it is incredible. As always though proper system matching is essential to get the amp to really shine. My review is based on only what I have heard, which is only a few other amps. First, The Monarchy SE-100 monos at 2400.00 a pair(can be found much cheaper on the net though). Compared to the spectron these amps are veiled and lack dynamics overall sound a bit slow or lack of pace. Second, Pass Aleph 2's.(7000.00) These amps sound pretty good but compared to the spectron sound a bit tired and sleepy. Seem to lack dynamics and pace with a slightly veiled sound. Both of these amps seemed grainy and colored.
Third, TACT Millennium II.(10,400) This amp is also a class D amp but has digital inputs unlike the spectron having analog inputs. It sounds very very good. Compared to the Spectron it has 1/2 the power and tends to lack in dynamic slam. clarity, transparency, pace, are all on par with the spectron-maybe perceived as a little cleaner since a dac and interconnect is eliminated from the chain. However, I find the Spectron to be more musical and involving to my ears. Also, a better value at only 2200.00( a recent price increase for the Musician II with 200 watts more of power at 3000.00). I phoned the Spectron company and they said sonically there is no difference between the former and latter. 6 stars if possible

Perfect pitch

Few

This pertians to Musician II. Used many amps over a career spanning 38 years. Other than the fact that it requires a slightly higher gain setting when using large Sound Lab speakers, this amp excels at everything. Seems to have an almost undefinable ability to make instruments and voices sound just a little more real. Does a supurb job of driving Acoustic Energy AE2 speakers. Very pleased overall, and considering the purchase of a second one for biamping. Had some problems with original Digital 1's power supply, but so far no problems with this one. Can't imagine getting much better. Highly recommended.

Similar Products Used:

Innersound ESL, Futterman OTL

All the things you can imagine

Style is not beatiful

Mine is Model one Professional, which is basically same as Audiophile model except that this one has a cooler at front.
This power amp is based on digital technology. But you don't have to have any preconception that it will sounds like another digital equipment. Soundstage is enormous. Very detailed and clean. Powerful but not cocky bass. No matching problem with any loudspeaker available.
Maybe satisfactory upgrade from this amp would be some reference models over ten grands.

Similar Products Used:

AR Vt200, Mark Levinson, etc.

Tonal precision, coherence and believability of the soundstage, bass (in all respects), limitless power delivered with the speed that complex and dynamic forms of music require. You deal with a dedicated and visionary staff in a small company.

Deservedly bad rap on reliability -- IN EARLIER MODELS. THe "batch" manufacture of outsourced components has lead to delays in production and repair of previous models. You deal with the resource restrictions of a small company.

The Digital 1 & Musician II have redefined (for me) what an amplifier can achieve in reproducing the:
1) tonal accuracy of musical instruments & voices
2) clarity of each individual sound source in a complex musical passage
3) precise location of individual audio sources within a 3-dimensional soundscape.

Now to other things...
Upon listening to them, if at first they sound "odd" don't doubt the Spectron. Let it burn in and listen again. If your music still sounds odd, take a look at your supporting gear. Fresh air always smells strange to a person who has lived his life in smog...

As to Spectron's Customer Service, Toni and John are as honest as the day is long. A repair on my old Digital I Pro was awfully slow but they were re-designing and re-tooling for the Musician line and resources were tight. They did not tell me to bug-off when I hounded them and returned calls promptly. I believe that CS is not an issue when deciding whether to purchase a Spectron.

As to one fellow who wrote about the sound being poor, I guess that could happen in some systems. But bettered by a Perraux? I can say that is a real stretch as my Perrault was dark and lacked the Spectron's coherency through complex orchestral passages.

As to the other fellow who said that cheap parts were the reason that his Spectron loaner sounded poor, yeah...right. The audiophile community is plagued with "diodes" who feel qualified to analyse professional designs because they spend their weekends poring through parts catalogues. Many "Diodes I know have built an audio kit or two. Most of them tweak everything they have in an effort to find that one capacitor, transistor or op-amp that can create magic. Many of them don't know the to any existing audio design. That's not engineering or design. It's alchemy (or wishful thinking).

I don't believe the Spectron amp is a fertile field for tweakers -- unlike tube-amps or some simple Class A or A/B amps. The innards of a Spectron are complex and the circuitry components are very small. I doubt many audiophiles (no matter how much general electronics training they had) could thoroughly understand all the systems, sub-systems and parts relationships there are.

To close, these amps have done more to increase my enjoyment of well-recorded music than any other product since 1979. Their sound reproduction is pure, precise and powerful. My advice? Buy one and take a chance on it making a profoundly positive change to your system.

Similar Products Used:

Jadis, Exposure, Quad, Bryston, Crown, Hafler, Conrad Johnson, Perraux and McCormack,

abundance of unforced detail, natural timbres, seemingly unlimited power

not quite as lucid/palpable as the best tube amps in the mid range

This is a review of a mildly modified Digital One. This is THE most nuetral and natural sounding amp I've heard. The sound is neither forward or laid back. There is plenty of detail, without it being pushed in your face. Timbres are right on. Strings sound wonderful - and I'm a professional string player. The Spectron stomps all the above mentioned amps. I had a Bel Canto digital amp here for awhile. The same modifications were done to the Bel Canto as the Spectron to make the comparisons as fair as possible. There simply was no comparison to make. The Evo has been getting great press, but I feel it's a bit overrated. To my ears it sounded rather electronic and mechanical. The treble was detailed, but a little dry and the mids were a bit recessed. The bass was also a little restrained. I've heard the Evo matched with Bel Canto (tubed) preamp, and the sound was much better. I don't use a preamp in my system (use EVS atenuators), so the character of the amp is much more eveident. The Spectron, on the other hand, has much less character tonally. It also sounds more relaxed yet more powerful. The most complimentary thing I can say about my experience with the Spectron is that I stop worrying about the sound of the system and just relax and enjoy the music.

Similar Products Used:

bel canto Evo (modified), aragon, adcom, golden tube (modified), Pass Aleph ? (the little one), Forte

greatly improved sound because of higher sampling rate

digital modules have tendency to fail

Just to respond to the last review. Reliability IS a problem with Spectron's amps. Maybe not a huge problem, but
one of my internal modules went down. The amp had to go back to the factory and stayed there a long time. Since that time it has played flawlessly and wonderfully. I own both the original D-1 and the Musician. The Musician doubles or triples the sampling rate of the D-1 and sounds
radically better than the D-1. The D-1 is now an obsolete design but still makes a remarkable subwoofer drive. Mine is hooked up to bass transducers that shake the floor and has never shown any sign of malfunction. The Musician is simply a freakishly good amplifier that benefits from some t.l.c. to get it performing up to its potential. For a scientific experiment I took out the transformer and sent it in for cryogenic freezing. With the cryo transformer back in place the Musician opens up two or three more notches and fairly thoroughly blows away everything else on the market with the exception of the best tube designs. It is hard to convince yourself that so much power and quality is coming from an unspectacular black box. Most manufacturers put their money in the fancy looks of their cases. They should follow Spectron's example and put it into engineering expertise instead.

Similar Products Used:

wide range of amplifiers

Transparency, Soundstaging, Detail & Resolution, Bass control, dynamics and Musicality.

None

Right out of the box this amp was very impressive and that was after having the Accuphase P450 ($7,000) in the system and warmed up for a week. The first thing I noticed was how much more neutral and transparent the Spectron was. It was as if the Accuphase was honey coating all music that passed though it. Next up was speed and detail. Nothing seemed to escape the Spectron. I was hearing so much more detail than before and not at the expense of musicality!! In fact, this amp has an almost tube-like quailty to it. Now some people might prefer the sound of a good tube amp in some systems, but with the Newform R645's, I thought the Spectron was superior than my beloved Air Tight ATM-2 tube amp. It was faster, more neutral and better controlled on the bottom end than the Air Tight. Image specificity was better than any of the above mentioned amps. Voices and instruments were so well placed within a deep and layered soundstage. Bass was another area where the Spectron supremely ruled. It was tighter, faster and more articulate than any other amp I tried.
So, does the Spectron have any weaknesses? The only thing that I can nit pick was a slight dryness in the upper mid range and treble region. But this problem was solved by using a Audio Magic Sorcerer power cord. This not only made the treble sweeter, and mid range smoother, but tightened up the bass and improved dynamics.
I would advise anyone looking at spending $3,500 or more on an amp to check out the Spectron!!

Equipment:
Newform Research R645 speakers
Accuphase DP 65 CD player, using digital volume control
Balanced XLO Signature interconnect
Bi-wired XLO type 5.1 speaker cable

Similar Products Used:

Auditioned:Classe Audio CA101,151,201/Bryston 4Bst , 7B st/ CJ MF2500/ Accuphase P450/ Lived with Air Tight ATM-2/ Coda 10.5

Dynamics, detail and low end

I have not found any

The Musician II is clearly one of the best power amps I have ever heard. It has characteristics of only the finest amps for a fraction of the price. The folks at Spectron are to be commended for producing such a fine musically honest product.

The things I noticed right away were it's low end resolution, dynamics for percussive instruments, and it's over all warm balanced sound. Tha Musician II strikes me as a "Gentle Giant." It is small, unassuming in appearence, but seems to have unlimited amounts of power. I have not been able to detect any audible distortion or breakup at even very loud listening levels.

The amp has nice binding posts, input connectors and power switch on the rear of the unit. (I'm sure they use quality components on the inside as well.) "Build Quality" gets used alot - This unit is well made, with out alot of emphasis on the appearence.

I'm using the amp with a pair of Dunlavy III's, an Adcom GFP-750 preamp, Rega Planet CD player; and Vampire wire through out the system. I upgraded from a McCormack DNA 0.5 Deluxe, which (like the newer DNA-225) are considered good amps for the money. The Spectron is much better and more refined in every category one would use to judge an amplifier.

I would highly recommend this amp to anyone who is intereted in highly accurate (and enjoyable) music reproduction.

Similar Products Used:

McCormack