Mirror Image Amps anyone?

by aze06 on Ever Evolving
View from listening position

Description

Though I'd dabbled in many systems over the past 10 years, I was never able to have dedicated space till I got married 3 years ago and have my own place.

This began my journey for the trial-and-errors of system matching with various products. CD Player - Arcam CDP 7, Teac VRDS 10. Pre-amp - Sima P2001 (predecessor or Sim Audio), Power Amps - Sima W2002, MF F15 hybrid power amp. Speakers - Epos 11, Epos 30, Spendor 3/5, I listen mainly to vocals and the current set-up supports it well. Strong mids and good sound staging. Will need to improve on the imaging going forward. Looking into improving speaker cables to MIT Shotgun 750
Read more...

Components Toggle details

    • Mirror Image Audio 1.1SB
    I'd picked up this amplifier after doing an AB comparison against my MF F15 hybrid power amplifier. Power rating for 1.1SB is class A, 150w and it show its ability to handle my Epos 30 (previous speaker) better. The bass became tighter and the dynamics improved dramatically. The depth was more obvious. Playing Rebecca Pigeon's Spanish Harlem, I could hear the instruments in the background more precisely too.

    There seems to be very little write-ups and reviews on this company's products. Will appreciate if anyone there has similar product (or had used them before) offer their comments.
    • Mirror Image 0.2P
    Little known American company that produced great products for a very limited period of time only. Picked it up as a matching pre to the power amplifier of the same brand I own. Comes with HUGE separate power supply. Very clean and quiet sounding pre-amp.
    • TDL Monitor M
    This is the 2nd top model from TDL. Not many speakers were built using the Transmission Line technology as I understand that it's expensive to develop. My previous speaker was an Epos ES30 which delivers excellent vocals. However, it lack punch and dynamics (could be due to my previous amps - MF F15 + DIY tube pre) and made listening to live concert music a tad uninvolving. The TDL provided the a very good mids (though admittedly not as good as the Epos), but deeper bass and wider sound stage. The imaging could be better with some room treatment but overall, I felt it offered more than the Epos.
    • Enlightened Audio Design T-1000
    Picked it up used from a dealer here. Main reason is the excellent build quality and of course it's cheap too. Paid 300 quid for it. Overall it's a very competent transport with good mid-range and sound staging
    • Aragon D2A2
    Surprising analog sound from an American DAC. Great build quality and top quality parts too. Uses a mini toroidal transformer and jewel-like capacitors on the motherboard. 2 20-bit Burr-brown PCM63P monolithic DAC chipsets and partnered with the famous Pacific Microsonics HDCD PMD100 digital filter.

Comments 3

Showing all comments by dilly.

View all comments

Sign in to comment
Hi, you have a wonderful pair of speakers. They are very rare & I too am lucky to own a pair. Many things have come & gone but the TDL Reference Monitors still have a special place, now relegated to front channels of my HT. The TDL Ref. monitors have huge potential. If you get a chance try auditioning them with a McIntosh amplifier. A MC252,MC352 or MC402 would be ideal. The other option is Class A amplifiers. I also liked the Plinius SA102.

I see that you like to improve on the imaging. Actually with my Supratek Chardonnay pre + MC352 + Tranparent speaker wires, this was one of their strong suits!!!

Enjoy!

P.S.- hope you have heard "Chinese Drums - Poems of Thunder" on them.

dilly

  • 12.6K
  • 3
  •  0
© 2024 Audiogon.com