My Experience with Spectron Musician III Signature Edition
jaynewt1959 -- Sat, 12/01/2007 - 14:29
I've had the Spectron Musician III Signature Edition for just over two months now but have refrained from posting here lest I rush to judgement. Unlike some others, I came to this amplifier, not through curiosity, but through need. Let me explain. Over several years I had put together my 'best' system, consisting of Spectral electronics and the newest addition, Wilson Watt/Puppy 7's. The familiar story plays out, a chance visit to a local dealer had me listening to MBL speakers and I fell hard and fast, culminating in the purchase of a pair of MBL 101s. As you may appreciate, this was a big upgrade and I remained satisfied for almost a year until I finally had to admit that the Spectral power amp was just not powerful enough for the 101s, even though the listening room is of modest size.
Always interested in the opinions of others more experienced that myself I came across the reviews of the MBL101s on AudioReview.com and its there that I first heard mention of the Spectron. Turns out that several MBL owners have purchased the Spectron and have obtained very good results. These reviews convinced me to take a chance, so I bought the Spectron, unheard, directly from the manufacturer, John Ulrick.
I knew within the first two minutes of listening to the Spectron in my system that I had picked a winner, not only did the reportedly famous bass impress but the treble seemed absolutely magical. However, extended listening over the next two months revealed a bite to the upper frequencies on some recordings that made some of my discs just unlistenable. Convinced it wasn't the Spectron's fault by my faith in the reviews I had read I took my Spectral preamp along to my MBL dealer and compared that against the MBL5011 and the Aesthetix Calypso. Returning a week later with the Spectron in tow and an audition with an MBL cd player through MBL 121s with the Aesthetix pre-amp convinced me that that Aesthetix was a significant upgrade, so I went ahead and ordered the Calypso.
I soon managed to sell my Spectral pre-amp on Audiogon but had a two week wait before the Aesthetix was due to arrive. After 10 days I was desperate for something to listen to so I pressed an old Linn Magik-I into service as a pre-amp. What I heard was remarkable, the little Linn that I had been using with my iMac was fabulous through the Spectron, easily besting the Spectral pre-amp that I had just sold. I couldn't understand it, the Linn? How come it sounded so good?
Dreading the arrival of the Aesthetix now, I was relieved to find that when installed, the new tubed pre-amp truly brought a level of inner detail, pristine treble and bass slam to the system that I had previously not thought possible.
The point of the long story above is that the Spectron allowed me to hear VERY significant differences between the three pre-amps, the Spectral, the Linn and the Aesthetix, leading me to conclude that it is indeed an exceptionally transparent amplifier. It's clear that the Spectron takes on the signature of the source and therefore it probably can't be characterized on its own. This is a very good thing in my opinion. I strongly urge the class 'D' skeptics to give the new Spectron a listen. I'm very glad I did!
What is the bottom plate of the chassis made from?
If it is sheet steel, or even aluminum tooling plate, try providing some damping support directly beneath the power transformer. See if your bass improves.
I just joined the forum and saw your post on this board. No more spectral gear for you it seems! Glad to hear your new preamp is working out so well.
I too have used the Spectron (not Signature) with the mbl 101s. This is a good combination. That said, the mbl amplifiers (9008 and 9011) are another step forward, albeit at a huge increase in price. Class D can really deliver impressive sound/$.
Tom - rumor has it you ran the original Nu Force monoblock class D amps with the 101E's and had good results as well. How would you rank the Crestron against the Nu Force amps driving 101E's?
The nuForce's worked amazingly well. But, they don't really have enough power for the 101s and the Spectron HF will be preferred by many.
Interesting... what does the "HF" designation stand for in the term "Spectron HF" mentioned in your previous post?
sorry: "the Spectron high frequencies will be preferred by many".
Hi, I have owned for two consecutive years ICEpower based Acoustic Reality power amplifiers (ASP1000 modules with switch mode power supply). To me they sounded very clean, that means almost distortionless. But sometimes it was just too "clean". The music was somewhat lacking the rich harmonic structure as in the "live" situation. There was a large amount of details but they sounded a bit artificial, not very natural. The bass also sounded a bit separated from the midrange and treble. Although it went very deep, it sounded a bit artificial to me.
Chris
I've had my Gilmore Raptors for two years now, and continue to find improved sound by removing other sources of RF noise from my power wiring and other areas of sensitivity in my system. The amps are cleaner than I can detect. One reason is they use linear power supplies. Another is the low-pass output filter design.
Switching power supplies are very strong sources of RF noise. Placing them next to amplifier circuits may be convenient and cheap, but does not lead to good sound.
It's not surprising that Al found reducing the RF near the amplifiers improves the sound. Switching amplifiers essentially connect the DC power rails directly to the output terminals, so the purity of the power supply is even more crucial in a Class-D amplifier than in a linear amplifier. (The output devices are either fully turned on, connecting the rail to the output, or fully turned off, with the resulting pulse-width modulated signal representing the audio signal.)
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