Supremely neutral and quite powerful amp. Exceptional image focus and wonderful level of detail. Excellent at low and high volume (soundstage doesn't scale down at low volumes - things just get quieter). Near perfect resolution of pitch and timbre - you know what your listening to and if the performer is in tune. Wonderful side to side placement on stage. Modified version competes with the best of the best. Wide compatability with various speakers.

Soundstage depth is just slightly (slightly) less than some of the best tube amps. Break-in needed (though it's never offensive - even out of the box). Remote looks like it came out of a cereal box and is often unresponsive.

An outstanding product and an outstanding value. Truly demonstrates that the state of the art in Amp design has finally taken a leap forward. I have had this Amb for 3 months and it is finally broken in (although out of the box it sounded very good). This amp has a liquidity and 3-dimensionality that shocked me - just had a bias that those were the realms of tube designs only. It also has tremendous speed and drive. Did I say speed? Think BEL or Threshold - this amp controls bass extraordinarily well and yet it keeps it natural and doesn't overdo it. I found the soundstage nearly perfect with just the slightest amount of truncation front to back. Side to side it's unbelievable. Timbre is something this amp does well. Never again will there be confusion between an oboe in low register and an english horn. In fact, the differences between singers, violinists, etc. is all evident - even the same person playing different instruments presents no problem for this amp's discernment. I can tell when bassist Edgar Meyer leans into his bass and when he backs off - this is where the amp really excels. BUT it does it all naturally. No HiFi hyperdetail. A word about gain cells. I think that many amps (or preamps) tend to scale back the soundstage with the volume. Maybe it's the gain cell technology, but this doesn't happen with this amp - things just get quieter. Sources, speakers, and cables are easily compared using this amp. I have had a few very good amps and listened to a great many - this is a giant killer. I should note that I got the Cullen modified version - so I don't know what the stock version sounds like. I have no plan to change out this amp for many years. It can drive most anything, is "fast" and extended, and yet has that magical, musical sound (midrange) that used to be mostly the province of tubes. Now if they would just get a new remote (which looks like it was made by Bose and doesn't even function that well). They should have Jolida make their remotes (now that's a remote).

Customer Service

No experience - built so well and so simply I don't expect to have any contact with Customer Service.

Similar Products Used:

Various tube and solid state designs from Jadis, Herron, Quicksilver, Bel, YBA - but this is a new breed which competes with the best (yes, even the Jadis though the midrange is not as "romantic"). Reminds one of the YBA - just as liquid and extended but more focused and detailed.

The abilty to reproduce micro-detail. It's imaging is just outstanding. Just a tiny bit warm it's easy to listen for extended periods without fatigue. It's small but solidly built. I like the simple look and contoured front panel and top.

It has some faults. New out of the box, the sound was too edgy. (But not nearly as bad as my Panasonic SA-XR50 when new). It needs a good 100 hours of break-in. PS Audio recommends 300 hours which is a bit of over-kill. The soft touch plastic remote has some functions not relevant to the C-100. The remote response is hit or miss at times. It may be that the pickup is located just left of the volume knob which blocks the remote signal if you’re too far right. I don't like the remote much.

The PS Audio Trio C-100 is a 100w/ch (200w/ch @ 4 ohms) integrated ICE digital amp. This is a dual mono-design. The C-100 has an interesting method of volume control. It uses ‘Gain Cells’ which (PSA claims) has no volume attenuation or coloration to degrade the signal. Also it can take in very strong signals without distorting. http://www.psaudio.com/articles/gaincell.asp

I may experiment by using it as a power amp with a tube preamp at some point in the future.

It has a surprising amount of juice especially for such a small light-weight amp (8”Wx14”Dx3”H. about 9 lbs). It drives the current hungry Magneplane MMGs easily to loud levels. Layout is simple. On the contoured front panel there’s a volume control, a selector button and 3 blue source lights. On the back there are 3 sets of single-ended (RCA) inputs, 1 set of pre-outs, 1 set of high quality speaker connectors that accept spades or bananas and a power on-off switch. PSA recommends it be kept on 24/7.

After a break-in period of about 150 hours the overall sound strikes me as being very slightly warmer than dead neutral. It’s extremely quiet. With the volume max’ed and no signal from my PC, I hear no hiss, nothing at all. It delivers micro-detail and a tightly defined soundstage. It matches up very well with Magneplane MMGs. I recommend it highly.

Customer Service

None needed. PS Audio has its own forum at Audio Asylum and also one on their own Web page. From what I've read PS Audio invites phone calls for tech support of their products.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic SA-XR50 Digital HT Reciever, Jolida 1501RC hybrid Int Amp