The CH Paradox
The history of CH here on WBF had a rocky start. One that involved accusations that a member touting the brand so enthusiastically was a US dealer from the east coast in disguise. I was a mod here back then and IP checks done by Steve and myself showed that the accused was in a city far away from New York. Over two hours by plane far. The animosity came and went and it would be a couple of years before I got the fateful message from Double O Gary Kho.
Through the years however, a trend began to develop. While members explored as usual, those landing in the CH camp were switching over from tube land. Guy with vaccum tube bomb avatar (see left) has own theory and here it is.
I think that there are fundamentally two kinds of tube guys. There are those that prize the linearity of triodes most highly and those that prize the warmth some tube designs offer most highly. It shows in the preferences in tube types and tubes within those types too. Are you a Telefunker or a Mullardator? LOL Okay obviously I am oversimplifying this. Hey it's just a theory ok? In any case, I have gathered that those switching to CH are the Telefunkers for lack of a better descriptor. OTLers and 2a3-ers doesn't have the same ring to it. Anyways...........the guys that like speed and delicacy because rough edges drive us nuts and overhang puts us to sleep really quickly.
In the past when it was said that a solid state amp sounded tube like it meant that it was smooth and perhaps warm. You never heard from anybody that a solid state amp sounded tubelike in terms of articulation particularly when it comes to ambience. These amps were almost always zero feedback pure class A designs. The bias indeed reduces the zero crossing distortion or eliminates it altogether. Such was my love for my Aleph 0 and my other love, the age defying M1.2 Reference.
So here are the funkers and the mullardy guys are saying we're nuts. NOT tubelike they yell! Peace out bros, my theory is we aren't talking about the same aspects. No CH will not give you the hot chocolate with marshmallows feeling..........unless it's on the recording
With all this talk of traits, I'll get right to it. The M1s are a technological marvel IMO. It does the very difficult space thing. It is so flexible and expandable that if you really put the work in optimizing your amp settings to go with your room and loudspeakers, I am confident that you will not just get good sound out of the box, you just may well hit it out of the park. I feel I have and there are things I haven't tried yet. Still, the trait I appreciate most might seem the most mundane on the surface.
I love the M1 because it is predictable. If you've ever witnessed a presentation handled by Allen or Nishikawa-san, yeah sure it can get scary loud but be painless as it goes about it. That is still not the most impressive part. I've heard the M1s bang on four different makes of loudspeakers and in every instance I've never, never seen them flinch as the crescendos start to roll in. This is what I am experiencing at home too. I know now that break-in is largely over that the amp will resolve through any signal passed through it without exhibiting typical IM and Thermal distortion. I know it will just do its job from the lowest sounds to beyond levels I wish to go. Best of all, I know that it will play softly beautifully which is how I actually listen most of the time.