Interesting that the Phase Linear 400 and 700 made the list so many times. It makes me feel better that I like my Phase Linear 400 Series 2 as much as I do.
Good to see the diminutive Hafler DH-200 make Harley's list even though they didn't grab the correct picture. I still own two of them and they still sound great.
I owned a DH-220 for years and it gave me many years of listening pleasure and rock-solid reliability. Tomex is still running two of them in his system. I did sell mine after I acquired an ST-70 which made every list I believe. The midrange was much the better.
mep, strange how this hobby can have such divergent opinions..
I too owned a Hafler DH-220, I thought it was on of the worst amps I have ever heard..
Harsh, brittle, two dimensional and generally non-resolving, IMHO.
I was very pleased to see it go Replaced with a Melos tube amp, that wasn't
great, but it was like a ray of sunshine compared to the Hafler.
To add to the list of ten-most-significant amps, I would say the ARC D70mk2/D115mk2, the David Berning ZOTL amps, The Jeff Rowland model 8 and 9 and the
Tenor 75.
Dave-I have no idea what you had the Hafler amp lashed to, but I can assure you that it was not harsh or brittle sounding. Like I said, the ST-70 simply smoked it in the vital midrange which is why I sold my DH-220. But the fact remains that it was the first "high-end" amp I owned and I did get years of pleasure out of it. I did have the Frank VA power supply mod in my amp for whatever that's worth. I bought my amp as a kit from Q Audio in MA and then bought the Frank VA power supply mod and built it and installed it. It was never a world-beater, but when you are broke and in your twentys, I was damn glad to have it.
I know you love the ARC D-70MKII. I owned one too and have commented many times on its criminal bias scheme. It is a good sounding amp though. Not in the same league as a Quicksilver MS-190 which is still one of the best sounding amps I have ever owned. I sold my D-70 MKII with no regrets. I have never once wished I had it back. If the Quicksilver MS-190 wasn't designed around the real Mullard EL-34 which was the most robust EL-34 ever made and could operate far outside of the design maximum for EL-34 tubes, I would still own it. It runs EL-34 tubes at their maximum rated plate dissipation and modern EL-34s don't tolerate this for long periods before they give up the ghost. Real Mullards don't break a sweat.
mep, I used the DH-220 with a pair of Maggies. NOT a good match-up, but I never heard the DH-220's
sound good with other speakers either. With a friend's Shahinian's the DH-220 was just as bad
BTW, I do agree that the D70Mk2 biasing scheme is bordering on criminal, but I don't think that has anything to do with sound.
I would also add the CAT amps to the fold of ten-most-significant. The JL-1 and later versions are IMHO magnificent.
I have a DH-200 in the basement, in its box. I modified it somewhat. I always thought it was a nice-sounding amp but lacking a bit in bass. I helped a friend modify his same as mine, then we added a massive bank of capacitors in a sub-chassis with additional heavy-duty buss bars to the outputs and that really helped the bass. I tried various other improvements with only limited success. It was a nice amp, just never made it in my main system for any length of time.
Of course, in addition to my main amp (ARC D-79 at the time, replacing a Phase Linear 700 that had gobs of power but little else), I was listening to a demo pair of Krell monoblocks, so the difference in bass was pretty large... Still, I ended up sticking with my D-79, ultimately adding a Counterpoint SA-220 (another great amp not on the list -- one of the few hybrids, IIRC).
I have owned the Hafler and I found it harsh and lacking for my taste. The first high end tube amp I ever heard was the Futterman,very nice. Harry Pearson did not list the VAC 140 and when he reviewed it originally,he thought it was the best amp he ever heard. There's not really a consensus,but there are many fine amps listed here. Looks like tube amps are slightly favored over sold state types,surprising that there are quite a few SS amps listed?? No not really.
The term is most sgnificant not best.
Bob Carver- Take your pick.
Carver corp.
Phase Linear
Silver Seven
Carver t mod.
Sunfire
Just about everthing he did was tour de force.
Atma-sphere take your pick
Krell anything pre-Compact disc.
Moscode take your pick. mosfets fulfilled thier promise
VTL you want power and bass in in a tube amp?
LAMM Direct heated triodes. hideously expensive. Harvey Rosenberg was right. DHT is the holy grail.
Mark Levinson (the company not the man)when they were owned by Madrigal not Harmon. After the domination of CD ML took over where Krell left off.
Spectral. The thinking mans amp.
The TacT digital amp made the list. If TAS thinks this is what kicked of Class D, they are mistaken. The fact there are no class D amps on board doesn't surprise me. Class D is bad for business, as my system attests to.
The TacT digital amp made the list. If TAS thinks this is what kicked of Class D, they are mistaken. The fact there are no class D amps on board doesn't surprise me. Class D is bad for business, as my system attests to.
Tact Millennium
Digital amplification in some form or another was bound to show up eventually and there were earlier tries at something like “digital” amplification. The Tact Millennium was the first digital amplifier to realize the full sonic promise of keeping the signal in digital form almost up to the last instant. The future had arrived, or at least one version of the future.
