- Joined
- Mar 10, 2012
- Messages
- 14,293
- Location
- Independence, MO
- Tagline
- I'm the Red Knight, by grant of the Black
Well, of my best amps, they fell out like so:
Luxman A-007 - a distant third, mediocre sound, seeing current service for computer audio. The remote volume control just did not offset the SQ.
Cyrus Two + PSX - for those who don't know, this is a "shoebox" British integrated amp, pushing 50 watts when "normally aspirated," but with the PSX taking over power supply duties to the power amp section (leaving the amp's own power supply for the preamp section), it can put out 70 high-current watts. This makes for two chassis and two power cords. At this point it is a close second. The bass slam was awesome, and overall I thought it sounded a LOT like the recently-departed loaner WOPL. Shortcomings were a noisy source selector (I had to jiggle it too often) and something in the SQ which was hard to pin down. Popping the bonnet after replacement by the Arcam, I found at least three caps needing replacing. This amp may yet be capable of greatness, but we shall see.
Arcam Delta 60 - within a few songs of powering this up, I knew it had won the shootout. It was not as impressive in the deep bass, compared to the Cyrus, but its sound was smooth, clear and coherent, so much so that the Cyrus seems clunky. The only thing I can think of is that the Arcam has a passive preamp section. To think that this amp sat unused for YEARS because I thought the volume pot was shot...
Luxman A-007 - a distant third, mediocre sound, seeing current service for computer audio. The remote volume control just did not offset the SQ.
Cyrus Two + PSX - for those who don't know, this is a "shoebox" British integrated amp, pushing 50 watts when "normally aspirated," but with the PSX taking over power supply duties to the power amp section (leaving the amp's own power supply for the preamp section), it can put out 70 high-current watts. This makes for two chassis and two power cords. At this point it is a close second. The bass slam was awesome, and overall I thought it sounded a LOT like the recently-departed loaner WOPL. Shortcomings were a noisy source selector (I had to jiggle it too often) and something in the SQ which was hard to pin down. Popping the bonnet after replacement by the Arcam, I found at least three caps needing replacing. This amp may yet be capable of greatness, but we shall see.
Arcam Delta 60 - within a few songs of powering this up, I knew it had won the shootout. It was not as impressive in the deep bass, compared to the Cyrus, but its sound was smooth, clear and coherent, so much so that the Cyrus seems clunky. The only thing I can think of is that the Arcam has a passive preamp section. To think that this amp sat unused for YEARS because I thought the volume pot was shot...