Quote:
Originally Posted by PHC1
Your Moab speakers (interesting speakers by the way) are 98dB efficient. As such and this is not always the case but....
Transistor power amp distortion characteristics are often dominated by harsh-sounding crossover notches at low power output settings. This effect disappears in class-A designs, which are well suited to driving high-efficiency speakers.
Transistors do have their "optimum range" of peak sound performance. Listening at a fraction of a watt is not something manufacturers of bigger solid state amps tune their amps for.
I would be very surprised if there is something wrong with your ML amp. But for the sake of peace of mind, I guess you should send it in if it is under warranty and all that.
Try a tube amp if you have that option on your speakers.  |
I am trying a tube preamp currently, BAT VK-30, and I have tried others. I am trying to decide if I like it more than my Axiom II Walker Mod passive pre (my favorite preamp design-lets not get into a discussion over the term "passive preamp"). I have liked the ML sound since I had a 331 a while back.
There might not be anything wrong with it, but at least I will know that for sure and then I will have no misgivings selling it. And with a fresh ML checkup, I can get more $ for it. But with 2 other amps, a Proceed BPA2 which should be fairly similar and a Nuforce STA-200 that shouldn't be anywhere near as good, The dynamics, bass and just energy of dynamic music is so much better. Hard to believe anything about the ML should be markedly worse than those other amps.
Also, it does have a real problem that I had lived with, because I thought it was more trouble than it was worth to have it addressed. If a source is playing when it is turned on, it shouldn't output anything until the relays trip after about 2-3 seconds. But it does, sound comes out right away, and actually then goes off for a few seconds when the relays trip, then comes back on again... Also, when turning off, it doesn't kill the output properly. If you leave a source going, you can hear it run until the capacitors drain. I never turn it on or off with a source playing to get around that issue.
I don't know if that is related to the other issue or not.