High Power Mono Amps

Classe is alive and well. Sound United bought them.

Classé Audio - Home Page

 

Tull, Thank you so much for your recommendation, knowing you from this forum, I will try to reconsider CAT. I was scared off of CAT at AXPONA this spring by the CAT people themselves. Both Magico and CAT were at AXPONA. Also I knew that Myles Astor (of Positive Feedback - who I happened to have a one-on-one with on an elevator at AXPONA) has Magico's and uses c-j gear (a click or to above mine) to drive them. I first visited the Magico room and talk with Alon Wolf (Magico owner) about my S7's. I had learned from something I read in TAS that Alon uses CAT in some of his systems. I next went to the CAT room where they were using Magico S5's to demo their gear. When I told them that I was a new S7 owner it was like piranha with fresh meat in the water. They bad mouth my c-j gear and told me I had to make a decision about buying CAT gear in the next two weeks if I wanted to get their current pricing before the price goes up almost double. The hard sell just scared me off. Does CAT have dealer's?

 

Jeff, I agree with what you are saying and maybe I am being overly concerned about power usage, however, I am thinking about two big mono amps and a listening room that is more than 9 times the volume of yours. I at least want to understand what it would take to beef up my power delivery system.

 

A lot of different recommendations here but unless I overlooked one there isn't a dud in the bunch. You guys have good taste and money!

 

Yeah, Ken Stevens is an acquired taste, he likes to talk, but his equipment is brilliant. Like most companies, they do have price increases, especially this time of year. Here is a link again to a dealer.Convergent Audio Technology JL-7 Black Path Edition Monoblock Tube Amplifiers | Galen Carol Audio | Galen Carol Audio I know that you can get some discounts.

 

Vitus Audio

 

What about Spectral?

 

I downsized from Mcintosh Mc1000s to the Mc2301s and there is no looking back,they are that good.
Aaron

 

In my experience, not all good amps can double their power into halving impedance. Whether this is an issue, or not, depends on the impedance response of the speaker.

Speaking of which, do you know how the impedance varies with frequency? I cannot find a measurement online, and Magico does not have much info on their website. I assume that the efficiency is quoted for a 2.83 V input, which equates to 2 W for a 4 ohm speaker, so the efficiency is more like 86 dB for 1 W. However, this all depends on how much of the frequency band the speaker is at or below 4 ohms.

Is it known to be a tough load?

Digital amps like those from Mola-Mola will save you the cost of an electrician!

This is not the case for all high-power Classe amplifiers.

Don't know if things have changed at BAT in recent years, but I tried their large power amps years ago with Sony SS-M9ED speakers (a very tough load), and they could not effectively drive the speakers like the Pass X-600 amps I ended up buying (this was for work). Hence my question above about how tricky a load these Magicos are.

Wow! I must have missed that news. Does this mean that they are now decoupled from B&W Group?

Tony: you may be interested in this brief report from CES:

Stars of CES 2019: The best audio products of CES

Classe was demonstrating with Magico speakers.

In one online report it seems that Magico uses Soulution and Vitus in their own listening room.

With regard to what companies use at shows. Be careful, they may not be demo'ing with what they think is best, but what they got the best accommodation deal on!

 

Indeed it does.

 

Black Elk,
I heard the wilsons with Bat and they had no issues. This was the BAT VK-655SE they were using. They also were used to drive the new Magnepan 30.7's and from what I told, the system was fantastic. I wish I could have heard it myself. It would have been a 2.5 drive for the demo. The guy to talk to is Geoff Poor at Glen Poor audio.

Tim

 

I would not recommend changing from tube to SS. I never heard SS sound as good as tube amps with the best preamp tubes.

 

Congrats on the S7s!

My experience is that the Pass Labs or Ref160 monos from ARC would be a good match, at least going from show combinations.

Also: A friend has mono Levinson reference amps driving S3s to good effect.

 

I have Bryston 7B SST2 (600 W) mono-blocks driving Magic S5’s and like that setup. I’d recommend the Bryston 28B3 (1000 W) mono-blocks with your S7’s.

 

As you say, not all have it. Of current models, the Class AB amps (e.g., CAM-600, CA-2300) use the fan system ("ICTunnel"). AFAICS, the switching amps (e.g., CAD-200) do not (and why would they?). I'm not sure when the ICTunnel was introduced, but presumably older Classé amps don't have it, either.

I'm told that the new Delta-series units will continue with the fan -- apparently most users don't find it problematic. Having worked hard to get an extremely quiet listening environment, I did.

 

Indeed, older amps like the CAM-400, Omega and Omicron did not have fans, and they were not switching amps either.

I think the fan system was introduced with the Delta units which were intended for AV-systems, and which were likely to be hidden.

 

I’ll throw out a couple of thoughts. I too run 86db efficiant and the more power the better for suttle bass speed and crisper recovery. First I’ll throw out the idea of power supply. Big Manley watts are very helpful but honestly sometimes the power supply adds what your looking for even if the watts aren’t there.

Running verticle bi-amped can do a great deal to add the bass and speed. The articulation can improve and the sound stage in my opinion can become more specific with instrument placement. With two large power supplies the lesser watts still do the trick. Sometimes what we “think” watts did was just a bigger power supply. So maybe a couple 200 watt ampswith obnoxious power supplies might be the ticket.

Another thought is if budget is an issue the Outlaw Audio 200 watt per channel amps are absolutely fantastic. I bought a Brysten b4 to try and it was zero improvement to the Outlaw amps. It’s also the same as the monoprice monolith.

 

Here's a good one spoken of very highly on AudioAsylum

Ampzilla 2000 Second Edition

 

Hi Tony. Just saw your post.

I have some thoughts:

1. The Magico S7s are wonderful speakers but will never be considered bass heavy. They will definitely produce more bass with powerful solid state amps than with powerful tube amps. (My Wilsons also produce much more bass with solid state power amps than tube power amps.)

2. You are already getting a lot of tube warmth from your CJ pre-amp, so you should still have a musical, tubey sounding system if you go the solid state route with the power amps.

3. There are a lot of fine solid state mono amps on the market. I'm still using my good ol' Halcros, but I've heard great sound from D'Agostino, Moon, Soulution, Bryston, Lamm, Pass, etc. I've had reliability issues with Classe. It would be best if you could hear some alternatives playing Magico speakers.

All the best.

 

Tony,

Not sure where you are with your amp search. But FYI, I also own the Magico S7's and recently acquired the CAT JL7's. It is a great combination and together with a good power cord really helps to dig out excellent quality and quantity of bass from the speaker!

By the way, I'm a little perplexed by your comment on the hard-sell CAT gave you at AXPONA. My understanding is most manufacturers force you to make a decision on a show price at the show itself; whereas I believe CAT gives you 2 weeks to make a decision. That seems very fair relative to others.

Anyway, enjoy your speakers! They are extremely transparent and will be able to relay upstream changes (good or bad) quite clearly.

 

Ken Stevens is a brilliant guy, but he likes to talk. I believe Tony didn't like that Ken put down his c-j amps. I believe if Tony heard the JL7's with his Magico's he may end up agreeing with Ken.

 

I use The Essence Reference II power cord with my JL5 that works well.

 

Congrats on the S7's!! Ive been looking into monoblocks myself recently and I heard the Lamm Industries M 2.2's and fell in love. My set up will be ARC Ref 2 mkI pre that Ive had for a few years now with the M2.2's and Spatial Audio M3 speakers. The M2.2's are very neutral but have the tube warmth and sound. I really think they maybe worth a listen.

 

And dedicated 20 amp 10 gauge power lines back to the CB panel.

 

Did you mean 10 gauge? The NEC (National Electric Code) requires 12 gauge for 20 amp lines.