Different Amps have Different Stamps

I've just agreed to buy a pair of amps from Tenson, and he was curious why I had earlier bought a pair of Williams Hart monoblocs, as it says in my sig. I have the Bel Canto Evo4 in my system.

The W.Hart monos are well regarded in DIY-land but they first came to my notice from GaryG. As he was the one who put me onto the AS Dax Decade a long time back, and as I had almost bought a pair about 3 years ago, I had always wondered what they would have been like.

I decided instead to go Bel Canto Evo4. I now have a fairly complete AS balanced front end, and these like to reach through to the speakers with the Evo4 in bridged mode. The grip on the epos es22 floorstanders is total and effortless, with lots of PRaT but perhaps a restricted and recessed soundstage that passes as 'intimate' - especially beguiling for the small pieces, of vocals, folk, jazz, quartets etc, that I tend to listen to

Now that's my take but others (from ZG and Hifiwigwam) who visit might say the same thing. There signal from the AS Transcend/Ncode/DaxDecade is detailed and organic and the speakers the epos 22s (which I do not bi/tri-amp but 'bridge'), altho probably the weakest part of the system - certainly the least expensive, push air with minimum of fuss.

I've had the WHarts in the system for just over a week and have left them always on. IMO, they are slightly more forward than I'm used to with the Evo4 but are more liquid. They seem to handle the bigger music better than the smaller sets but I am getting used to the smaller sets.

I have put the Evo4 to AV frontstage (centre bridged) duties and the quality of music as well as AV coming from the Sky has improved immeasurably.

Clearly, the next step is to swap the Evo4 back into service in the music system, and try to establish a preference wrt the Williams Hart monoblocs.

My thinking with the Alesis pair is to try them for HiFi in bridged mode, and then to consider them for the AV frontstage (centre bridged), and then sell on the Evo4 or the WHs depending on my eventual choice.

Any of this make sense to you? Comments welcome.

... and yes, I was tempted by the pair of Tony-tweaked Evo2s

 

I wouldn't disagree with anything said, other than to say that if you've heard differences between SS amps it will be solely related to measurable differnces, ie , the distortion level and spectrum, output impedance, frequency response deviations from flat, PSU stability under varying load etc.

IMO, good solid state amp sound essentially the same - small differences exist but these are generally not important in relation to the differences between analogue components and changes to the room and system set up within it. In other words, there are far bigger fish to fry.

Tube amps are often an entirely different kettle of fish IMO.


.....sorry about all the fish

 

..........Rich in Omega 3