Review Bottom Line:

I purchased this amp to replace a Jeff Rowland Model 5 Balanced. I use it to drive inefficient, 4-ohm nominal electrostatic panel speakers in a large, damped room. I have used many comparable products. It has been driven by Anthem, Pass Labs and Mark Levinson preamplification. I use a variety of source components. There are several things to mention about this wonderful amp.

1) Power: This thing is a bottomless pit. Limitless reserves (although I don't spend a lot of time listening at ear bleeding levels).

2) It gets the midrange right. Human voice, acoustic piano, guitar and acoustic percussion are all handled superbly.

3) Background silence: this amp is dead quiet. I don't think I have had a more quiet amp (save a little ML 29 I used for years). In combination with the seemingly endless power reserves, this background silence contributes greatly to scary transient response. Well recorded percussion simply jumps down your throat. There is no background hash, haze, glaze or etch calling attention to itself. I think this also contributes to both the micro- and macro- dynamic response being so true to life.

4) Bass is killer: quick, authoritative, deep. Slam ->check. Congestion -> nope.

5) Harmonic overtones and decay are clean with a nearly perfect envelope (decay may be just a tiny bit quicker than the real deal, but this is very slight and most liklely related to:
6) It can be ever so slightly dark...although this may be related to my transducers/room more than the amp itself.
7) The casework is beautiful and the quality of the casework is without reproach.
8) The used market price makes this amp a huge bargain. If you are in the used market, you should seriously consider this bad boy (or girl if that's the way you go). For comparison, I paid over $3k for my little (but wonderful) 50 wpc ML No. 29 when I purchased it new ca. 1991.

I purchased this amp and I have been extrememly happy. We get our share of electrical surges in my semi-rural community and the amp has thus far tolerated these with aplumb.

The usual criticisms of really big amps apply with regard to being heavy (and a bit hard to maneuver due to the lack of front end handles). I think Jeff Rowland got it right with crates and flight cases...packing one of these behemoths in a cardboard box just seems...a bit chinsey and always unnerving. It does get warm when driven hard. Also, as I found out when changing some cables this past summer, the heat sink fins are quite sharp and they will produce a nice gouge in a clumsy lower leg. This would hardly be the amps fault, but it might have implications for those with small children. read less

Extended warranties are usually very inexpensive and can save you thousands in the future. It's simple and inexpensive to purchase extended warranties and one of the smartest ways to protect your investment.

Electronics can be large, heavy, and expensive and you probably don't have the special tools or expertise needed to fix them in a crisis. If you can spare a few thousand dollars without batting an eyelash for new electronics should they break tomorrow, don't buy a warranty. But if you're like most of us, protect yourself by purchasing inexpensive extended warranties when you buy a new product and save yourself big money in the long run.

Professional delivery and installation is available for every product we sell. We would be happy to coordinate delivery and installation for you.

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