I mentioned these were on order for a 15 day trial on the thread, Your Next Upgrade?
I thought I would dedicate a thread to my (probably) new amplifiers for those that might be interested in these. Here is a start with some pictures (unboxing first).
Here are a few pictures of the amps., freshly “deployed”.
I’ll post some more on these later, after I have had a chance to spend some time listening.
Cheers.
Well they certainly look cool 
Is that glow natural heater, or is there an LED in there too?
Edit - Google is my friend.
What an odd idea, still looks cool though
Yeah, the glow is just for show, as is the tube “encasement” as far as I can tell.
OTOH, having the circuitry in a tube and having a tube socket to plug the circuitry into will ostensibly allow for simple, future hardware upgrades as the design improves.
I got about one hour of listening in and they sound pretty good so far.
Cheers.
Aye if it is a module then so were valves, and it keeps the dust out
That GAn stuff has been a while in coming. Be interested to know how it works out. How is the QOL? That’s another interestin’ box.
The QOL is very, very subtle in its effect – never deleterious, but not an “Oh my!” impact either.
Some recordings benefit more than others. It sounds good and makes for a good preamplifier/switch box with all of its quality balanced inputs and outputs, but it offers no gain.
My struggle right now is that I have no pre-amp in the system, so the AGD amplifiers are not getting a fair shake yet. I can only listen to music via Qobuz and Tidal over Bluetooth via my bluMe HD receiver w/ toslink connection to my tube DAC using my iPhone as the controller because my CD/SACD - DAC combo offers no gain control.
That said, the AGD’s still sound pretty darn good, even with the limitations of the sources I am feeding it at the moment. Much cleaner and more resolving than the low watt, budget integrated tube amplifier they are vying to replace.
More to come…
I have owned the AGD Audion amps for several months now. They are absolutely spectacular and I continue to be amazed at the sonic picture which these render in my system. I have been an audiophile for nearly 50 years and have owned and heard dozens of high end amps most of which cost a lot more than these beauties. None of the other amps that I have owned can compete with these. Take a look at my system picture. I run these direct from my dac which has a superb lossless volume control. I would expect that anyone who has a Directstream dac would find that these run direct from it would require a very expensive preamp to better the sound of these run direct.
How about a shortcut link to a picture of your current system…?
Sweet. Love the Rockna’s. Is the transport as good as the DAC?
The “transport” is the Wavedream NET which while it has a cd drive, it is a server with an internal 1 TB ssd. I do not stream but have about 1400 cd’s on the internal ssd. From what I have heard, the sound quality is better from the ssd than streaming. It is a Roon endpoint and is set up for Qobuz and Tidal though I have not used either one.
IME, my downloaded and ripped files on my iMac also sound better than streaming from internet sourced files. I use Roon and have Qobuz and Tidal accounts piggybacked/running through the Roon software, which resides on the same iMac. JRiver Media Center edges out Roon’s playing of my hard-drive stored files. Roon and JRMC both sound better than streamed (internet) files in my system, generally.
I was tempted by these amps but went with M1200s for cost reasons and the desire for lots and lots of power. Would really like to borrow a pair some day.
Nearly everyone (in this forum anyway) absolutely raves about the M1200’s.
They seem like great amps.
At some point soon, I am going to have to bring the AGD’s home and give them a spin in the “Big Rig”. For now, they are getting some hours on them in the office system, where I think their nominal 85 wpc output will ultimately prove to be more than enough for my Anthony Gallo Acoustics Reference Strada (MK I) speakers, which are supplemented with a stereo pari of REL Acoustic’s Tzero (MK II) powered subwoofers.
More to come…
Hey, Doc. Are you using the power cords that shipped with the amps or something else?
If the latter, pray tell.
TIA.
Hey Scott,
Those power cords are excellent. I am using them. I suppose that you could put some nice $5k cords on them and see what happens.
Let me know if you try it. I would guess that you would need to spend at least a $1000 per cord to better those. Thanks.
Bob
No plans to do so, no sir!
A mini update:
I have about 16 hours of combined background and concerted listening time under my belt and the amplifiers have been powered up for 4+ days.
So far, I have noted that they are pretty resolving and will play quite a bit louder without strain as compared to the low wattage integrated amplifier they replaced.
One interesting observation is that I had to turn down the levels on my pair of REL Acoustics Tzero subs two notches to tame some bass overloading. There is a lot more energy in the lower frequencies with these amps coupled to the RELs. The office system is in a pretty small room that is nearly square shaped. Getting good snap that is properly integrated within the sound stage has been a bit of a challenge. More level and crossover adjustments may be in order.
Given the limitations and size of the room, I think I won’t get a good sense of the overall capabilities of the amps until I have had a chance to:
Insert a preamp or active volume control into the system so I can get a good gain match with my SACD/CD player; and
Pull these out of the office system and give them a spin in the Big Rig at home.
Both of these actions are on the to-do list.
Thanks for reading.
More to come.
Semi-hot off the presses:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0421/AGD_The_Audion_MkII_Review.htm
