Makes music sound really life like and totally balanced from top to bottom.
Most amps that I have owned paid more attention to the mid/treble areas only
(I called them PA amps)
Build quility is in par with all the other top manufactures who fits large front handle bars on their 50 lbs faceplate which does nothing for the music.
Easy for me to lift up without any help from someone else, runs cool and is mechanically dead quiet. Physical size is easy to work with.
Price is a real deal for the music you are getting.

I have now finished my time spent with conventional Class A/B amps and feel that thses amps have reached their limits.
All Class D amps are not equal and should not be judged as for this, but by listening to the Spectron music played.

There are no weakness that I can find.

Spectron Musician III MKII Signature Edition is truly an oustanding audio amplifier whith sonic presentation that I have never heard before.
There are many owners who have placed detailed reviews here that I am in complete agreement and no need for me to replicate the sonic details.
I operate a pair in mono to feed left and right woofers, single stereo unit to feed mid/treble for both left and right panels. Speakers are large planars Analysis Audio Amphitryons.
My 3 pcs are fitted with the V-Cap and Byee Bee upgrades and I will eventually get a fourth Spectron MIII KII SE.
There are many other amps that I have owned in the past - solid state, tubes and hybrid designs none of which could really make severals planars for the past 30 years, realy sings. Bass presentations always lacked what I was looking for.
With my Spectrons NOT SO.
Magnepan MG 20.1(which I also own) along with the Amphitryons generates bass like no othe amps that I have owned. Deep, taut and loud distortion free a close sense of live music being played.

Customer Service

Phone calls are answered on the first call, email is the same day and delivery of my 3 amps were as scheduled.

Similar Products Used:

I have compared my Pass Labs line up with the Spectrons.
2 pcs X350.5 stereo, mono pair X600.5 and mono pair XA200.5, enough metal here to build a small war tank and heating up a 2000 square feet home.
No matter what type of config I used with the Pass Labs, the Spectrons are far ahead playing music through my planars.
Even at identical low level listening between the Passes and Spectrons, the Spectrons are more superior.
In my set up the Spectrons are really something else playing music extremely loud without increased distortion.
As far as I can remember here are some amps that I have used with planars in the past, but not a fair comparison to the Spectrons, since these are older manufactured amps.
Roberston 4010, Dr Tim Ref, Moscode, Radford Renaissance, Crown Macro Ref, Bryston 4 B, Classe 25, Simaudio W5 and W10, Sonic Frontiers 3, BAT 150 SE, ARC M300, Rogue Audio Zeus.

Mentioned above.

All the reviews I read here before purchasing the Musician III SE MK2 are absolutley correct. Spectron has made steady and evolutionary changes to their earlier products and each step forward to a new product made it what it is today.

I belive this will be their stable and futue production model for some time.

V-Cap Option for those who want the ultimate in finesse and liqudity in sound from the amp.

Just the run-in time but you can hear the improvements in sound quality every 100 hours until you reach 400 hours.

Of course, I would suggest a premium aftermarket power cord for this (or any) high quality amp.

I have a B&W system consiting of all 800 series speakers. The Spectron Musician III SE MK2 drives my 803Ds. They are nominally rated at 8 ohms but can dip to slightly below 3 ohms and their recommended power is 500 watts/channel.

I had listened to the speakers when I bough them with the McIntosh 402 and Classe CAM 350 and 400 mono-blocks and thought they sounded best with the Classe mono-blocks and began saving for them. In the interim I had them running off a Rotel RB-1090 (380 watts/channel) and knew the speakers could sound their best with better amplication. I was set to buy the Classe mono-blocks when I read some reviews of the Spectron. They were so overwhemling here and on other audio forums that in a leap of faith, I bought the Spectron and went through the 400 hour burn in process. In a word, WOW! I never heard my speakers sound so good.

I wan't sure where to post this review but I am using a single amp, not mono-blocks and I can't imagine what two of them would sound like since just the one has ended my quest for the amplifier I have been searching for.

My speakers produced sound with amazing headroom extention but without any harshness at all. It was like the Classe without the 'veil'. The midrange is sweet, detailed and musical while the bass in all ranges in very tight, rich and powerful but in complete balance with the other hormonics. Soundstage and other audio characteristics were simply outstanding.

Had I bought the Classe I would have had to rearrange my entire audio sytem and bought new interconnects and speaker cable. The Spectron in this small 52 lb package does it all without having 300 lbs to arrange; it can fit anywhere. You leave it on 24/7, draws only 40 watts, and only gets slightly warm.

I don't know what else to say other than I wholeheatedly recommend this amp.

Customer Service

Very Good. I talked extensively with the Spectron people before buying the amp and they answered all my questions to my satisfaction.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel RB-1090
Classe CAM-350 and 400 mono-blocks auditioned.
MacIntosh 402 and 501 mono-blocks auditioned

Immense musicality yet truthfull to real life music, combined with more then modest price

None worth mentioning

I've listened to a lot of amps over the years, and built a few, too: mostly triode tube amps. As the years passed, my audio budget became more ample, and I have been able to try just about all the "killer" amps out there, tube and solid state. The good news is that the art form is actually improving. The bad news is that audio mags and their advertisers have done a great job pushing the price of amplification skyward. But I was prepared to suck that up, and just get the "killer amp" that would make it unnecessary to wring hands again about amplification. At least for several years.

Hearing the Spectron Musician III Signature has put an end to my amp questing. There just is no amp out there that combines the authority, tonal rightness and delicacy of this amp. It will drive anything, and laughs at tough loads that send a lot of amps into deep depression. {I've used it with the Shahinian Diapasons (19K), which are notoriously tough to drive, and also with the new Fried Reference (25K) which are not) But what really blew me away is how the M3 Sig does so with utter transparency and tonal accuracy. Its treble reproduces the almost-impossible-to-reproduce sound of massed violins with no haze, no glare and enough vividness that you feel you can hear the rosin on the bow. Voices have the kind of immediacy that many associate with single ended tube amps. And when it is time for the kettle drums in Malher, or the juicy bass of, say, Charlie Haden, the amp controls the speaker with complete authority. Not just firm bass; rock solid, clean, REAL bass. [NB I was a symphony musician for several years. Sitting in the middle of an orchestra really teaches what real instruments in real space sound like.]

All of this performance for so few dollars, comparatively, and with complete reliablility and no furnace effect. Yikes!

I was prepared to spend up to 30K for amplification, and end the quest. I was thrilled to spend less. But I am even more thrilled to be out of the amp-comparing business. Its just not as good as listening to the music

Customer Service

Superb

Similar Products Used:

Mostly tube triode amplifiers

Attractive, reasonably priced, unlimited power, world-class bass and treble reporduction and uncolored and spacious mid-range. Plus, customer service is the best! The really do bend over backward to please.

The only weakness is that we "perceive" moderately priced gear and digital amps to be less than serious high end products. That is a mistake, in this case, as it is a very high end product indeed.

I have owned the Musician III Signature amp for 3 weeks and it has been breaking in continually for some 500 hours now. I recently purchased a pair of MBL 101 speakers and the review is of the Spectron driving the MBLs. The MBLs are blessed with some of the finest treble and bass performance that is possible. And their staging is extraordinary. Upfront, I can state with no reservations, that the Musician III Signature is fully up to the task! The strength's of the speaker are beautifully complimented by the Spectron. In addition to the above, dynamics, resolution, clarity and speed abound.

I guess the biggest surprise is how good it is. I am used to owning very expensive amps and used to the musicality of single ended triodes. How can an ultra-high-powered digital amp sound this good? The Spectron is truly an open window to the sound of what precedes it. It does not editorialize. The sound of my MBL-based system changed dramatically when I changed my line stage from the wonderful Connoisseur to the even-more-wonderful sounding BAT REX. It was literally as if I had changed amps
I have a high quality XRCA of female vocals. Until this latest change, I could not stand to play it. Voices were just plain wrong (12 different female vocals). Now they sound wonderful.
I have been listening to two of my all-time favorite jazz records; only two musicians on each, a saxophone and piano. One record is all blues, the other all gospel. Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan are the musicians. I have enjoyed these treasures since the early 90's. Never have they sounded so wonderful as they do now. The richness and fullness and absolute musicality is stunning. This stuff can bring one to tears, if you have any "soul," that is, and I do. I really do not know where to heap praise, since this level of excellence did not appear until the REX joined the parade, yet it is the Spectron that is passing it through. The Spectron adds no amusical coloration, which our ears percieve as "steely or piercing" sound nor any euphonic coloration - It's just a huge open window to "live" music.

Last night, my wife and I spent an evening with a friend of hers who also played piano for us for an hour. We sat 3-10' away (2 different positions) and I was reminded, once again, of the amazing power and dynamics of a live piano. What I would consider to be "bright, "hard," or "peaky" on my stereo system was in fact the sound of the live piano. Oh well, live and learn.
With the Spectron and MBLs, I can virtually replicate the sound we heard live last night
For the first time in my audio life I am hearing full orchestral music reproduced properly. The power, majesty and scale is beyond words. Organ shakes the walls. The 1812 overture with cannon shots are just unbelievable. Everything I thought I knew about what is possible has been trashed. I think that even John Ulrick do not know what his amp is capable of.
As a point of reference, I am using $50k speakers, $25k line stage, $25k phono stage, $30k phono, $30k digital AND an amp that cost me under $6500. It seems incongruous, but the amp is that good. My very high expectations have been exceeded!

Customer Service

The best!!!

See Review

None

I purchased my Musician III in December 2004, after six years of experience with the original Spectron Class D amplifier -- the Digital One. My original impressions can be found in a review I posted in this forum via the following link:

http:www.audioasylum.com/forums/amp/messages/69081.html

Compared to the earlier Digital One (and other similarly priced amps I auditioned at the time), the Musician III was incrementally better in mid-range tonality, bass extention and clarity, micro-dynamics and detail. Even more dramatic improvements were evident in presence of a wide, deep soundstage, a sense of deminsionality and imaging, and a high degree of transparency, space and "air". Most important, the MIII proved to be an excellent match for my rather inefficient B & W Nautilus 802 speakers.

After two years as a very satisified user, John Ulrick of Spectron convinced me that moving to his new Signature Edition was well worth the price of the upgrade ($1250.00). And although I have currently less than 200 hours burn-in, it's clear that John was not exaggerating. Specifically, tonal accuracy in the mid-range and treble is dramatically improved (natural and totally uncolored); the bass is even more extended and muscular; and the sound stage more spacious, especially in depth, with greater imaging and delineation. The Signature Edition is a result of major improvements made by John which take the Musician III well beyond its prior level of performance, which was reviewed so favorably in Absolute Sound last November.

Having said all this, let me offer two pieces of anecdotal evidence:

First of all, after somewhere between 100 and 200 hours of casual listening, I was playing a ten year old classical CD that I am very familiar with, and it suddenly occurred to me -- the music was far more alive with a liquid, silky sound that I had never heard before. It made me feel like I was actually in the presence of live music. Quite an amazing reaction!

Secondly, at a listening session involving a few others from the local audio society, one knowledgeable member observed that he had never heard my Nautilus 802's sound so good. Most of the participants had never been that impressed with B & W speakers (having other personal favorites), but the consensus of the group was that the 802s had obviously come into their own and really sounded good! Obviously, the muscle and speed of the Specton with the Signature Edition had finally gotten my hard-to-drive behemoths to really blossom.

Finally, let me say that their are two configuration changes that I have made to my system over the last year or so that I consider absolutely essential to getting the best performance out of a Spectron amp: 1) I added an Exact Power 1000 power regenerator to my system solely to support the amp. As John Ulrick says, the Spectron Class D architecture "loves constant, pure power with very low distortion". And 2) I have connected my universal player (a APL Denon 3910 with digital volume control) directly to the Spectron, dropping my pre-amp entirely. The synergy between the CDP, the Spectron and my speakers seems to really cook!

Pete

Customer Service

Spectron

Similar Products Used:

Numerous

Treble is first on my list. The best I have heard. Bass is probably as good. Deep, controlled, powerful bass in abundance. This amp does not give you over-emphasized boom-box bass. Nor is it to dry. Just about right, for my taste.

The midrange is neutral. For many, it will be perfect. For those that love tube colorations, it may be a touch on the lean side. But actully, it is very faithful to the sound of the human voice and the guitar. My favorite reference LP is a male vocal by Little Hatch with harmonica and guitar and very, very beautifully recorded. It could bring tears to your eyes through the wonderful British amp, the Tron 300B, but I believe it is ever better with the Spectron. I was very surprised, indeed.

Go ahead and spend several times as much as this amp will cost you. It will be good for your ego, but bad for your check book. If you need hgih power and don't audition this amp before you make a purchase, it will be your loss.

The folks at Spectron (especially Simon) are extremely friendly and helpful. In high end audio, that is not always the case.

It takes a long, long time to break-in. It is so high in resolution that any change in power cords or speaker cables will noticably alter the presentation. These are really not weaknesses, but it does mean you will have to play around a bit with the amp to get its full merit.

The only other weakness is the price: They charge way to little for the gem. If they sold it for $15k no one would complain and more people would check it out because high price products automatically get credibility.

Throw out all of your pre-conceived notions about what a class-D digital amplifier sounds like. This amp breaks the mold. It does not sound like tubes. It does not sound like solid state. It sounds like music, without the usual electronic colorations that we have become so accustomed to in our electronics.

The Spectron Musician III Signature does many things well, but the first thing that you will notice is the upper mid-range and treble. I am driving a pair of MBL speakers with the Spectron and the upper frequencies are the strength of the speaker and the Spectron does not disappoint. No brightness, hardness, shrillness or amusicality of any kind. The amount of air and detail and the clarity and precision in the upper frequencies is simply the best I have eve experienced.

The bass is equally outstanding. Power, control, great projection of energy. I love it!

But it is in the mid-range where the real surprise lies. I am accustomed to the sound of single ended triode tube amps and favor the 300B presentation of voices. When the Spectron is fully broken-in (around 500 hours) and properly cabled, it presents a midrange that at first seems a bit "light" or less "warm" than the triode sound. But upon further listening, it is apparent that what I am hearing is a neutral sound, one without the "colorations" of the tubes - which I happen to like, coloration or not.

The amps are very transparent, very high resolution and very neutral. Surround them with high quality neutral gear and you will get a wonderfully natural presentation in return.

.

Customer Service

The best I have yet experienced. No problems here at all.

Similar Products Used:

None, really. Most of my listening over the years has been with the finest in tube amps (over 2 dozen) and I have recently owned an absolutely world-class solid state amp ($25k) that put out 130wpc, but that is not enough to drive the power hungry MBLs. That said, the Spectron does not disappoint.

Exposive power! Immensely transparent and true life-like music reproduction!
- Probably most important, its PRICE!!!! Its so low for if not the best amplifier in the world (overall i.e. taken all areas together) then at very least one of the best, regardless be it solid state or tube

I agree with one of the other reviewers: no stock rack mount options

I noted that other reviewers descriibe ther imression while they listen to this amplifier only for a few days when amp is not broken-in yet. I have the Musician III Signature for a month: the sound, excellent to begin with, dramatically changed for the better. The highs became something magical, I never heard such in any solid state or tube amplifier. Totally silky and extended to heaven!!!! The "see thru" soundstage became immensely three-dimensional, truly, I feel sometimes that I can touch musician, go around him or her, and soundstage huge to begin with became even more specious! Midrange became "alive" like in the best tube amplifiers I ever owned or even auditioned, its magic feeling!!!! Base have now both: more authority and startling clarity - so different from one-note solid state and mushy tube base. I can play it quietly and I can play it loudly - no slightest strain. Additionally, black background became even blacker again as never in any other amplifier I listed in the past. It adds to the overall "magic". I think I understand why they placed square wave on front page of their web site (spectronaudio.com).

I love this amplifier!!!!!

Customer Service

Excellent

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ARC Refrence 110
Bel Canto Ev2 - monoblocks
Plinius SB-300
Edge NL-10
VTL-450

One of the most "complete" and balanced amps I have ever heard or owned.

Won't jack up your electric bill or over-heat your room!

A true reference amplifier for the audiophile with less than bottomless pockets.

It's not a tube amp, so might not give you that last .0001% of "therness" that only tube amps can deliver. But it does everything else so much better that you will never feel deprived.

Well, I'm not sure that i can add much that the excellent review from the first poster didn't already say, but I can at least verify that everything he said is true. This is a PHENOMANAL amplifier, at ANY price, let alone one for under $6k retail. I had been searching high and low for an amp that could power my Martin-Logan Summits and with their amp-crushing below 1ohm (at upper freq.) impedance, with the finesse and authority that these ultra-transparent speakers demand. Well i think i have found it in the Musician III. Let me break the reproduction down into segments so I can better describe the character of this incredible amp;

High frequencies: Absolutely the most natural and extended high frequency reproduction i have heard, to date, from any amplifier i have owned. It has all of the delicacy and sweetness of the many tube amps I have owned, but wth MUCH better extension. It also has the ability to "flesh out" the upper harmonics so that you can hear "more" of say the sound of a tamborine or almost even distinguish what type (Zildjian, Paiste, etc.) cymbal is played. (Most other amps I have tried treated the upper octaves with the same generic "white-ish" quality, which didn't allow for this type of resolution).

Midrange: Here's the toughest area of ANY amp to get right, especially with a speaker as revealing as the Summits. The MIII has just the right balance of harmonic texture and liquidity to make vocals (and everything else that falls in that range) sound utterly lifelike and "present" in my room. Some much more expensive tube amps might give you a smidge more "wetness" in this area, but the MIII comes darn close, and without direct comparisions you would never be left wanting more.

Bass; Obviously a forte for digital amps, but I cannot comment too much in this area as my Summits have thier own amps powering the woofers for low freq., but what I can ascertain is that it is as clean & quick as anything I have ever owned.

Imaging: Very very good, but perhaps the only area i would rate this amp a 9 out of 10 with something like the ASl Hurricane mono blocks or the NuForce 9SE's being slightly wider. Stage depth however, is as good as it gets. Plenty of "layering" and holographics going on here.

Dynamics: Again, the best I have ever heard from a solid state amp, with only the ASL Hurricanes perhaps edging it out in macro dynamic slam. Micro dynamic shadings are exemplar and macro dynamics such as explosive rim shots, trumpet blasts, etc. are reproduced fully intact. Very lively sounding without ever sounding strained or harsh in any way (something I complained about with the earlier Musicain II).

Overall, if you are looking for sonic colorations or euphony, look elsewhere. The Musican III sees the emperor naked, and will tell it like it is. If you hear brighness, darkness, or any other negative aspect, look elsewhere in the reproduction chain as it is not coming from the MIII.

It is one of the most "neutral" and honest pcs. of gear I have owned.

Also i should point out that while the MII sounds great out-of-the-box, it continues to become even more refined as hours begin to get logged. I have had mine on 24/7 for the last 3 months and am still hearing small incremental improvements, so the true break-in time is very long.

Similar Products Used:

NuForce 9SE
Nuforce 9.0
Pass x250.5
Bel Canto Evo 200.2
TAD 1000 monos
Parasound JC-1 monos
Spectron Musician II
Antique Sound Lab Hurricanes
Llano 400s
Innersound ESL
Classe 301
Adcom 5802
AMC 2100s monos
Conrad Johnson Evo 2000
OCM 500
McCormick DNA-1
B & K Sonota monos
Perreaux PMF-3150
Carver M1.5T

Tight, controlled, detailed bass

Tremendous Dynamics

Outstanding quality across the full range of musical performers.

Not as sweet as some high-end tube amplifiers on blues. jazz and female vocalist recordings

I upgraded ($1300.00 + Musician II) from a Spectron Musician II to a Musician III amplifier to drive my new Amphitryon Planar/Ribbon loudspeakers. The Amphitryon's require tremendous control on the panels to achieve the A-level bass and low frequency performances they are capable of producing. The Musician III amplifiers have slightly better bass than Musician II's but are significantly better in providing clean, and dynamic midrange and high frequency details. Some exotic high end amplifiers only excel on selected or niche musical pieces but the Spectron Musician III's provide outstanding overall performance across the full range of rock, classical, jazz, blues, chamber, country, pop and vocal performers. An overall price/performance bargain compared to most other amplifiers priced under $8000.00. If you enjoy a wide range of musical performers the Spectron Musician III may be the right amplifier for your overall listening tastes.

Similar Products Used:

Bryston, Threshold, ASL, Atma-Sphere, Muse, Krell, VTL, Spectral, Levinson, Art Audio

POWERFUL, accurate, dynamic, totally transparent. Natural sounding and non-fatiguing.

PRICE!

Runs cool as a cucumber.

No stock rack mount options at time of this review.

This review is of the recently released Spectron Musician III "Signature Edition" MSRP $5995. The signature edition has improvements over the $4995 standard version (which is an exceptional amplifier as-is) that improve the specs and sound to the degree of making it a strong competitor to $20K-40K reference monoblocks.

John Ulrick (former co-founder of Infinity and creator of the first digital amp in 1974) has really outdone himself with this new design. The Musician III Signature version is one of the most natural, detailed, robust and transparent amplifiers I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. The soundstage is so vast that when I closed my eyes, my once constricted sounding listening room sounded like someone snuck into my new home and added an extra room behind the speakers! Ok, I may be exaggerating about the stage a little bit but not about the clarity, detail and bass authority. This amp is POWERFUL and difficult loads do not even phase it. I have MBL 111E Omnidirectional speakers connected to it.

I originally focused my attention on the ship anchor sized MBL 9011 monoblocks and fell in love with them at CES 2005. The Spectron was purchased to be a temporary place holder until I could afford the MBL giants. After purchasing this tiny, less than 60 lb. digital powerhouse, I have no desire to shell out for Monoblocks that cost as much as my new BMW 5.

Audiophiles recognize that the new digital designs are powerful and efficient but there exists an industry wide stigma about the musicality of most digital designs. Many inexpensively or poorly implemented digital chip based designs simply do not have the warmth and natural sound of the finest tube and class A solid state amps. The Spectron Musician III Signature is in a category all by itself.

I enjoy listening to cello and piano. I ran through about 2 hours of "The Essential Yo Yo Ma" and was shocked. The Spectron revealed nuances and micro details that I never noticed previously on tracks that I listen to frequently. The bass is robust, strong and very controlled. The Spectron sounds nothing like many of the digital ice-power or tripath or othe chip based designs. The Spectron is very transparent. What comes out of it is exactly what you put into it. Use a great power cord and exceptional source equipment and you cannot lose with this amp.

Other Spectron owners tell me that tube preamps such as BAT are a perfect companion for the Spectron. If you are considering purchasing a new amplifier in the $10000+ category, you owe it to yourself, and your wallet, to give the Musician III Signature a listen.

Be sure to have a pair of well respected tube or solid state amps that cost at least twice as much in the same room for A/B comparison. You will be amazed! The manufacturer burns in the amps for a week or so at the factory and informed me that I need to give it at least a week of burn-in at home to fully appreciate it. After a few hours of warm up, right out of the box, it sounded great. I am on day 4 of listening and it just keeps getting better.

Customer Service

In my opinion, the best customer service departments for high end gear are Pass Labs, Theta Digital and Spectron. All of these companies have founders/engineers who are truly passionate and care about customers.

John, Toni and Simon at Spectron are amazing people and customer service/customer relations are exceptional.

Similar Products Used:

Anthem MCA
Pass X-600 Monos
Theta Enterprise Monos
Mark Levinson 331 x2 (Mono Bridged)