Thanks all for your input, much appreciated. I ordered a pair of M1200s yesterday. I had contemplated this a few times before and now is the time. May lose some sweetness for convenience factors, maybe not. With summer coming and redecorating the listening room this will really help. Still intrigued by Atma-Sphere and ADG but I wanted to give PS Audio first shot. And thank all previous posters regarding BHK vs M1200 experiences. Took note but nothing scared me.
How do you PM someone in this forum? I canāt see how to do so. Thanks.
Hi Chuck, I am from Baltimore also now in Westminster. Good luck with the M1200ās great amps, I moved on to the Orchard Audio GaNFET Ultra which I like better, I wanted to get away from tubes in my system. I have a long history with Class D, maybe I will send you my write up
Jay compares them favorably to the AGD class D amps. Says theyāre close to the mid and upper range of the AGD amps but have a more muscular bass presentation.
I own the Atma-Sphere Class D amps and auditioned the Starkrimson amps in my system for over a week. Both are excellent performers and somewhat similar in character. The difference: If you lean more toward detail in your system then the Starkrimson amps would be your choice. I found them very engaging in that they lay everything bare without being shrill or harsh. The Atma-Spere, OTH, belie the tube heritage of their designer where they are a bit more organic in sound. I kept the Atma-Spheres, because I found with the Starkrimsons I was focusing more on the details rather than than the whole of the music.
Which Starkrimson amps did you audition alongside the Atma-Sphere amps? The new 25s are the only Starkrimson model I have heard but have friends that either have owned them and older models or own an older model and heard the 25s on the tour. All of indicated that the sound of the 25s were a bit different than the other models for the good.
I have a pair of Atma-Sphere MA-1 tube amplifiers. These amplifiers, unlike nearly every other tube amplifier, donāt incorporate output transformers and instead use fourteen output tubes per channel to feed current directly to the speakers. They have not an iota of the ātube soundā normally associated with tube amplifiers, but sound very much like solid-state amplifiers albeit with much faster rise times and no etched brittleness. Their downfall is less current availability for feeding deep bass, a symptom ameliorated by the in-line crossovers to the built-in class D-powered subwoofers in my Vandersteen 5A Carbon speakers. The Atma-Spheres run very hot, though, and consistently draw ~450W, even at idle.
I doubt Iāll ever replace them, and they keep me very cozy during Pennsylvania wintertime.
I should have qualified what I meant. In this case itās a sound that is often lacking in most SS and Class D designs but not in good tube amplifiers: a three dimensionality, a palpability that closer resembles live musicians. I did not mean syrupy, rolled off, or tubby, and certainly not slow.
Took delivery of the M1200 monoblocks about 10 days ago to possibly replace my BHK250. They look great in the rack, run cool, plenty of power and my RELs donāt hum when amps are in standby!
I really want to like and keep these, but if I had to decide today, they would go back. They are more forward and shouty than Iād like. Two days ago, seemed like they were settling down, last night just too much in my face. They have run in only about 150 hours. I am really hoping that they do settle down and mellow out. I ordered a pair of Gold Lion tubes based on other forum userās comments that addressed exactly what Iām saying.
After upgrading to the full PMG stack it was magical with the BHK250. I was never displeased with that amp but moving away from the 90lb. space heater is a must for my 2nd floor Florida listening room.
Talk me off the ledge here. I still have three weeks to decide. As I mentioned earlier I am considering ADG, Atma-Sphere and possibly Orchard class D. But my hope is the M1200s fit the bill for me. I know on paper this is a lateral move at best but a heavy hot amp is what Iām looking to move away from.
I agree. The BHK 250 doesnāt get all that hot, then again I donāt live in Florida. As far as the weight, Itās not like Iām moving this beast around all the time. Itās been sitting on bottom shelf of my rack since I purchased it. It is a little bit of a struggle swapping out tubes every once in a while though, but not a big deal.
If I found a class D amp that had the same liquidity, I might be tempted to move on.
With another week of burn in the soundstage may improve a little, but not to the level of depth you were hoping for to be frank. I owned a pair so I know. I have tried quite a few tubes. Some really sounded better than stock, but I do not remember they changed the soundstage depth by a lot. This maybe one weakness of M1200. But I love the sound and was able to find a solution. My remedy was to move the speaker deeper into the room to achieve adequate depth. If you do not have this option, do not throw away your packings.
I had a pair of M1200ās paired with a GCD for a year or so. There was a lot to like about the combo but in the end they were just too in the face high energy for every day me.
Iām curious if the only difference in your experience of settling down one day and in your face the next is the M1200. Everything else was the same other than the day ie same song, time of day, how you were feeling etc?
The BHK is truly a fine amplifier. Historically starting decades ago I was convinced that if you ordered your amplifiers by the pound you would usually do well. My early investment into āusedā Levison amps sure made me happy. But alas, times change.
We have customers with $50k+++ Class D amps that are fiercely loyal to their choices. Years ago I purchased a Crown class-D amp to drive the dual voice coils on my homemade sub with an enclosure the size of a Volkswagen. I loved this amp since it had high/low pass filters, was light, super powerful and generated almost zero heat. It did an incredible job driving the 45LB motor on the driver able to start and stop on a dime.
A couple of years ago I joined the dark side and went to an integrated with wireless streaming, the world of simplified components. Life and age made what I considered at the time to be downsizing concessions.
Say what you will, Iām extraordinarily happy with class-D power. My own component utilizes an Eigentakt designed module.
If PS Audio offers a class-D power amp then what do you have to fear. Just like with Iconoclast cables, with PS Audio, you can return it if for any reason you are not 100% happy! Whereās the risk. Like always, I just offer that you should listen for yourself in your own home. Iāll predict that class D amplifiers are not only here to stay but might eventually own the lions share of the market.
