Amphora por ALO

[mrarroyo]

Part III: The Morning of Sunday, April 12, 2009

As indicated earlier during this section I will be using the Rudistor Sistema NX-02 as a counterpoint for the Amphora by ALO. This Rudistor amp sold as a companion to the Ultrasone PROline 2500 and 750, and was available for $875 directly from Ultrasone. The source was a Meridian 506.20 and the electrical supply to the Meridian and the Rudistor was filtered via a Monster Power HTS 3500 MkII.



For music I chose three jazz compact discs, each with its own flavor in an attempt to "hear" different nuances between the two amps.

-   The Buster Williams Trio Live – 65 Roses
-   Madeleine Peyroux – Careless Love
-   Samantha Siva – Rhythm of the Voices



In an attempt to account for the starting loads and warm up of the gear I let the music play for over 60 minutes. Yes some may consider this as overkill, but some would have asked the question. Plus interesting enough I heard a difference in the Amphora yesterday, it presented the music with an added smoothness and clarity after being on for about an hour. By the way, this morning I used a Denon AH-D5000 that has had the MarkL mods and a pair of Bubinga V4 cups (see pic above).

This was a very interesting comparison; it took me a while to pin down the difference I was hearing. First off both are very musical, the Amphora has a more relaxed presentation perhaps due to it being less extended. The NX-02 comes across as being more detailed and immediate, in other words it demands more attention since it has more upper end detail, which for some reason presents itself towards the middle of the stage. I am not saying the NX-02 has a narrower soundstage; nothing could be further from the truth. Both the Amphora and the NX-02 have very nice and wide soundstages, it so happens that the treble in the NX-02 is a bit more extended and it shows up in the middle.

The bass is much closer in these two units, to the point that it is a nonissue. Both present the bass lines in a very tight and clear manner. The upright bass notes cut right through and were crystal clear in Related to One (4th song in the 65 Roses CD). Both units are very clear and airy, the NX-02 uncanny in the way you can pick up the opening and closing of the hi-hat in Nikara's Song (5th song in the 65 Roses CD).

If you had stopped reading at the end of the last paragrahp you would have thought the NX-02 was the slightly better sounding amp. Well, maybe so if you only used the 65 Roses as your basis of comparison. However when I swapped CD's to Madeleine Peyroux's Careless Love – KABOOM! What happened! The NX-02 continued with its very detailed, clear, and extended presentation, while the Amphora just EXPLODED (music wise) and Madeleine's voice was just lovely to the point I could hear vibrations in her voice when she articulates the word "of" in "Dance Me To The End Of Love".

I cannot find an explanation on why the Amphora "likes" Madeleine Peyroux voice so much, and frankly it does not matter. The Amphora just presents Madeleine in a very smooth and organic way. I could also make out Madeleine's rasp in the song "Don't Cry Baby"; at the same time I could also hear a bit better extension in the NX-02.

The recording of Rhythm of the Voices by Samantha Siva has more information (ie recorded music) in the upper treble and it is readily apparent when you transition between the Amphora and the NX-02. This album for some reason also had a wider soundstage as I could hear with the NX-02. Both of these of course are not something you would notice if you only had one of the amps, however when you go back and forth you cannot avoid noticing the differences.

For the next stage of the comparison I will use these same two amps as they are set-up but I will use the Grado RS-1 and music by Dianne Reeves and Renne Olstead.

[mrarroyo]

Part IV: The Afternoon of Sunday, April 12, 2009

For this section of the review I will use the same source, interconnects, amps (Amphora and NX-02), and same power filtering. For headphones I will use a Grado RS-1 and a Denon AH-D2000 which has been re-cabled by HiGHFLYiN9 (Brian) using 10 feet of his Xev featuring a hand braided litz of 24 gauge silver plated copper in teflon wire ( http://www.zynsonix.com/Recables.htm ).


As stated earlier I used Dianne Reeves' A Little Moonlight CD and Renee Olstead's CD by the same name.



It is really amazing the things that come out with extended comparisons which are done fairly close and for which you still have the rest of the gear available for comparison. It also validates the wide range of results obtained by so many on any given piece of gear. I say so because in the last 30+ hours I have heard three amps with 5 different headphones, two different sources, and eight different musicians; all have sounded differently and many are the arguments that could be made why one amp should be chosen over another. In my opinion all the arguments would be correct and yet wrong, depending on what you are looking for. To put it differently they all offer so much that you the end user will be very happy.

Back to the comparison! ... Listening to the two amps with the D2000 re-cabled by HiFlYiN9 (not fully burnt in, only about 180 hours out of 250 hours) and using Dianne Reeves validates all my previous observations yet it did so with an entirely different flavor than the earlier listening experience I had with the MarkL modded D5000.

As it stands the words that come to mind are smooth and clear, both amps exhibit a level of smoothness and clarity that makes for a very enjoyable listening experience. Interestingly enough the narrower soundstage of the Amphora works to its benefit by helping it bring Dianne's voice to the forefront. Almost as if they used a mixing board to bring her voice to the front and center of the soundstage, it is subtle but it sure "spices up" the presentation.

As I swapped the AH-D2000 to the RS-1 I felt the sound was more coherent with the Amphora than the Rudistor. There is an edge to Dianne's voice in the NX-02 not present with the Amphora, perhaps this is due to the NX-02 being more extended and the Grado's having a bit more treble energy. In short although the difference is very subtle that slight edge in sound makes me choose the Amphora when using the RS-1 and listening to Dianne Reeves' A Little Moonlight CD.

As I started listening to Renee Olstead's CD I felt the roller coast ride was in full swing. With this particular CD the presentation was almost a toss up, only in the extreme highs would I say the NX-O2 was on top due to not only being more extended but also because it has more air between the notes. Mind you these observations are with the RS-1, which just a few minutes earlier was not sounding this good.

When I listened to Renee Olstead using the re-cabled AH-2000 it was mostly a toss up between the two amps. On one side I preferred the NX-02's extension but on the other hand Renee's voice sounded less nasal on the Amphora. Once again these are minor differences that in my opinion could not be heard unless you had both amps side by side to do a comparison. Perhaps both amps would benefit from a pair of ALO's Jenna or better yet SXC IC's.

[mrarroyo]

Part V: The Evening of April 13, 2009

Today I decided on a different approach, instead of comparing the Amphora to other amps I decided to just sit back and enjoy the music. For source I used Apple Lossless files from my PC via the Chaintech AV710 to the Monarchy NM24 DAC terminating in the Amphora via a pair of Zu Gede IC's. The phone was a Denon AH-D5000 w/ MarkL mods and a pair of his Bubinga V4 wood cups. The intent was to just chill and just write what came to mind as I played varied music:

-   Melody Gardot – Worrisome Heart
-   Michael Bublé – Michael Bublé
-   Michael Franks – Abandoned Garden

 

So, how would I describe today's experience? The first word that comes to mind is enjoyable, just me and the music allows for a certain amount of freedom that liberates and allows pure unadulterated enjoyment without worrying about "hearing the differences". Nonetheless I would lie if I did not indicate that although I was in "listening mode" and not in "testing mode" I do have a few observations.

Three words come to mind: smooth, musical, and engaging. The amphora has all three in great abundance and those who end with one will be very happy. As I sat I had a feeling of being complete and satisfied, not many components achieve this status. I probably will stay in this mode for the next few days and revert to testing mode in two weeks or so, by then a Graham Slee Solo SRG should be burnt in.