One thing I forgot to mention clearly is the overall sound characteristics. First, it did not sound like SS. I have heard many solid state amps. Albeit, not in my system though. I have heard MBL, Ayre, Boulder, Jeff Rowland along with others. This amp sounded nothing like them. But it did not sound like tubes either. I have heard Pathos, BAT, AR, along with others and it did not have the "tube" sound. It just sounded clean and natural.

mikeduke August 13, 2007 12:34

Well, I had the chance to listen to the amp in my system. Let me first say that the build quality looks simply incredible. I happen to like the look of it.
Barry from Transparent Systems came over to do it for me. So first we listened to some music with my amp so we could get a base line. Basically I wanted him
To hear what my reference is. Then we switched amps and listened to the same music. There was a change :). I started to hear layers into the music I had not
Heard before. Also, the bass was very different. It sounded incredibly smooth and refined. Not what I was used to. The soundstage opened way up. There was even a bass line that I picked out that was muted before. And that was with a regular cd. Then we put on a Re-mastered version of Dire Straits Brothers in Arms. Now that sounded incredible. Again, the bass along with everything else sounded fantastic. But it also seemed less congested. It is like some one took a blanket off my speakers. The instruments sounded so good and real. Then we listened to a Verve recording of Diana Krall. Again, it sounded fantastic. Finally I wanted to see how an SACD would sound so we put on Buddy Guy. Well, from the very first not I could tell a difference. No doubt that this amp was taking me deep into the music. The better the recording, the better it sounded. IE:cd's had a big improvement, but the remastered and Verve had a bigger one. And the SACD had the biggest. As the quality of the disks improved, so did the overall SQ.

So after doing that listening Barry wanted to put the Bryston in again and listen to the Dire Straits. He had not heard that CD with the Bryston. So we put the amp back in and played the disk and my smile went away, it sounded incredibly congested. No sound stage. The bass was flabby. We could both tell the difference right away. In comparison, my amp seemed to mush everything together. It is a very very nice amp. I am going to try and get that in my system some day. It will just take awhile.

mikeduke August 13, 2007 11:50

I know I know. I would really like to do it. But there are other forces working against me :). One thing I am really considering is getting rid of the Monster AVS2000. At this point I only have two items plugged into it. My TV and cable box. I could put them into my HTPS7000 and that way I could at least put the amp directly on the wall unit. Something that is not shown in that picture is the fact that I now have SRA platforms under my amps. So they are not directly on the Monster stuff. It is a pretty solid and inert wall unit. If I could easily do it I would. But that may have to wait until later.

mikeduke July 26, 2007 16:35

Mikeduke,

I agree with DV on the GPA shelves. I would strongly recommend going for the upgraded shelf and footers.

elescher July 26, 2007 16:04

System edited: New sub added. The Seaton Sound SubMersive1 is a beast. It sounds incredible in my room. A great buy and I have no regrets.

mikeduke June 15, 2007 15:36

Thanks for the thoughts Dewald. It is something that I am thinking about very much. I have talked with a dealer and he is really sure that I should do this. The rack does sound very sophisticated. I have my new sub going in this weekend and then I am on vacation. But when I get back, this is something that I am going to look very hard at. I just needed to get it through my head that isolation is that important. I mean, I figured it would be for my cd player, but my amps are SS not tubes. I did not think it would really matter for them. But I guess I was wrong
Thanks again for the feedback.

mikeduke March 07, 2007 14:13

Mike,

I saw your tread on Mike Lavinge's systempost about the system rack... I can give you a few pointers.

The Grand Prix system racks are amazing. It is not just a rack but rather an isolation system. Each shelf is damped by shock-absorbers tuned to the weight of the component it supports. The posts can be filled with cromium-ore or sand. At the moment with your current setup vibration generated by the speakers (naturally) will be transmitted through the system cabinet and into the equipment. The can cause harmonic-smear, feedback distortion and a host of other problems. Youll definitly notice a difference if you place your CD/DVD machine, pre-amp, DAC and power-amps on a good isolation rack like a Grand Prix...

Best regards,
Dewald Visser

dewald_visser March 07, 2007 06:00

Thanks for the nice words. The picture may be deceiving. The speaker placement works out pretty well for music and movies as it is. It took me a while to get the placement just right with these speakers. It was important to me to put gear together that works well for music and movies. The power conditioning is an interesting topic. It works for me because I need many outlets for my gear. But I will one day change out the monster for some Audience gear. I have a new sub coming this weekend. It should be fun. The upgrade to these speakers was the best choice I made. The deal was just to insane to say no to. Now I want to get the absolute most out of them that I can.

mikeduke March 06, 2007 19:26

Certainly a system to enjoy for both music and movies. From your pics, do you find the placement of the left speaker off setting when watching movies or do you balance it out or just move the speaker? And have you found the power conditioning a truely worthwhile investment? Surely it was well to upgrade the speakers from your response to them. Cheers Glen

glenfihi March 06, 2007 18:32

I still don't know how to get a picture on the results page.
Will keep on trying

mikeduke August 18, 2006 15:05

Figured out pictures
YAY :)

mikeduke August 18, 2006 14:49

System edited: just added pictures

mikeduke August 04, 2006 15:48

Hey there! I was hoping to find someone who had gone from 927s to 1027s and here you are. I have 926s and would love to get the Be tweet so I have been eyeing these two models. I've been wondering if 1027s would be worth that much more money but I guess you find it to be so.

mbort July 24, 2006 02:30