A tale of two amplifiers

[farflungstar]

Ok, so I've been happily going along listening to and loving my system which in brief is Allaerts cart, custom built sigwaan wooden arm, Technics SP10 feeding a Hashimoto sut, feeding a Vida phonostage feeding a The Truth line stage feeding Cary 805c monoblocks into audio note ane spx speakers.

The Cary's 300b and 845 tubes give out a ridiculous amount of heat and here in Spain in summer it's not pleasant or sensible to run them. So I bought a Hiraga amplifier from Jake aka lordmortlock with the intention of using it in summer. Here it is.



I really didn't want to swap amps and shillishallied for weeks before finally hooking up the Hiraga. Wow - jaw dropping moment after letting it play for a couple of hours before sitting down. Jaw dropping.

It beats the Cary's in bass dynamics to an astonishing degree, it's less refined in the top end but gosh does it play loud - way louder than the Cary's and without any breakup. It's less liquid but it's better controlled and although it has less depth the soundstage is wider and out of the speakers in a way the Carys just don't do. It truly sounds exceptionally good with a bottomless low end, sweet midrange and a top end that isn't the most refined. But gosh does it make you want to listen to music.

The Cary's are rated at 45-50rms in class A - the Hiraga 20 in class A - so how come it goes louder, has more balls? Are the Cary's in need of a service and total overhaul? This is my suspicion - but we're talking a lot of moolah.

I recently started a post about pimping up the Hiraga with better components - because I could quite happily live with what I'm hearing but I know that with it's age some components may be out of spec. If only I had a Jez living down the road!