A cold and snowy Saturday with Spectral Electronics

[Mdp632]

Background

My research and journey to possibly upgrading and replacing my fantastic integrated amplifier Pass Labs INT-60 with something different has brought me to consider what I’m looking for in an amplifier.

First, my preference leans towards solid state amplifiers. In addition, I prefer electronics made in the United States but, I am open to other brands from Europe. However, as much as I would to love hear some of the amazing Swiss electronics such as Soulution; they are at the current prices well without of my reach.

Second, I would like a different sound than my Pass. I’m looking for a faster, higher resolution and more neutral amplifier. I’d be willing to give up some of that amazing Class A Mid rage for a more open and transparent sound stage.

Third, I would like some more headroom to drive my speakers. My INT-60 is rated at 120W into my 4 ohm speakers but, would just like a little more power.

Finally, Spectral came across as meeting all of requirements which some of the factors I described above. The loyal Spectral owners on this forum and the history of the company for the past forty years.. The way they approach their design and engineering. Especially, the continually and passionate improvement for the refinement of solid state electronics.Their pedigree if you will put them in the forefront and the most anticipated electronics brand I wanted to personally demo.


The Journey

I’ve never had a private demo with Spectral electronics. My only prior experience was a public demonstration and the debut of the Magico S7 in a retail setting. In this setting I can’t recall the specific electronics but that were used but, I’m quite certain they were the current Reference Monoblocks, the SL CD Player and MIT Oracle MA-X cabling throughout.

From what I remember it was very impressive but, as with any public demo and especially playing material that I wasn’t familiar with with was hard to judge. Nevertheless, the sound stuck in my head for a while.

Fast forward to yesterday. On a cold and snow filled Saturday myself and a fellow audiophile made the trip from NJ to DE to check out the Spectral electronics. I made an appointment prior to storm and I appreciate Overture electronics staying open to accommodate us. We arrived at Noon and had two full hours by ourselves to listen and we certainly did.

The Front End

As per my wishes and request Overture had set up the DMC-30SC/DMA-240 connected to the Magico S1 MK2 loudspeakers.

In addition we only listened to digital only during this session. We had the Berkeley Alpha DAC 2 (NOT the Reference ) with the respective Berkeley USB Adaptor going into the DMC-30 SC Pre.

I was feeding the DAC with my Macbook Pro running the latest Audrivana software. This software allows the conversion of DSD to PCM as required for playback on the Berkeley.

I had numerous 24 Bit files stored locally on my laptop to test. I also was streaming High-Res and some of the MQA files off Tidal using the Tidal for Mac Desktop application.

Finally, it looks like the system was cabled with the Spectral branded MIT interconnects and speaker cables as well Cardas handling the digital side (USB and AES). Power was also MIT but, no conditioning was applied . The amplifier was plugged directly into the wall.


The Listening

I recall we started off with some of the new Tidal MQA Tracks. In particular, David Bowie’s “Young Americans”. As I’ve stated I prefer to audition audio gear with material and recording I enjoy and know well. Yes, I’ll play some go to audiophile recordings too but, in this case I don’t know why any particular reason that I picked this song but, I did.

And the it started with a drive, speed and presence that made me think he was there in the room with. The speakers vanished , the sound stage exploded and all that was left was the music.

As we progressed with various tracks my cousin who was with me as is a fellow audio enthusiast described the sound as nothing that stood out in his mind. This is a good way because nothing of the frequency spectrum was highlighted. Everything just sounded correct and faithful to the original recording. For the first for me personally I was actually able to hear the venue in which the recording was taking place. Precision location of the soundstage and spatial cues which were masked to me at least before in favorite songs were now heard.

Every recording was laid bare in front of us. If it was a good recording we heard it and if it wasn't’ so good we heard that too.


Conclusion

I prefer NOT to equate audio to wine or food in way that I’m looking for a particular subjective taste. My end game goal has always been I wanted my system to feel like the performance was right there in front of me. Regardless of the technology or manufacturer.

For the first time I think I’ve heard that . With all my personal audio experiences before I’ve always thought I was listening to a nice stereo and not a performance. This demo changed all of that In my personal opinion. Perhaps it was the incredible synergy of Spectral, Berkeley , MIT and Magico.

If so, I shudder to think about what the higher end of these respective brands sounds like.

 

[MadFloyd]

Yup, Spectral is pretty special. I keep thinking it's a brand that might satisfy me as well, but the MIT cabling makes it very difficult and expensive.

 

[ack]

Yup, Spectral is pretty special. I keep thinking it's a brand that might satisfy me as well, but the MIT cabling makes it very difficult and expensive.

Join me, and together, we can rule the galaxy .. it is your destiny

 

[MadFloyd]

Join me, and together, we can rule the galaxy .. it is your destiny

LOL, maybe...

 

[ack]

Great stuff mdp - it sounds like the 240 is superb, and the 30SC lives up to the 30SV's reputation. So which of the two pieces will you consider first; or will you get both

 

[Mdp632]

Great stuff mdp - it sounds like the 240 is superb, and the 30SC lives up to the 30SV's reputation. So which of the two pieces will you consider first; or will you get both

Thanks Ack,

I spoke with Spectral directly yesterday. I was hoping they would sorta give me a the go ahead to use the AMP with the DAC driving it as interim solution until I get the pre amp. But, I spoke with someone who was pretty technical and he really advised me not to do so as I indeed could run into problems and warranty issues. He understood that others have had similar situation , where they can't afford to buy both pieces at once. He suggested starting out the 30SC and running it with a non Spectral amp first then get the DMA-240.

Problem is all I have is an integrated amplifier currently.Ah decisions....

 

[MadFloyd]

Thanks Ack,

I spoke with Spectral directly yesterday. I was hoping they would sorta give me a the go ahead to use the AMP with the DAC driving it as interim solution until I get the pre amp. But, I spoke with someone who was pretty technical and he really advised me not to do so as I indeed could run into problems and warranty issues. He understood that others have had similar situation , where they can't afford to buy both pieces at once. He suggested starting out the 30SC and running it with a non Spectral amp first then get the DMA-240.

Problem is all I have is an integrated amplifier currently.Ah decisions....

Maybe you could borrow an amp?

 

[ack]

Thanks Ack,

I spoke with Spectral directly yesterday. I was hoping they would sorta give me a the go ahead to use the AMP with the DAC driving it as interim solution until I get the pre amp. But, I spoke with someone who was pretty technical and he really advised me not to do so as I indeed could run into problems and warranty issues. He understood that others have had similar situation , where they can't afford to buy both pieces at once. He suggested starting out the 30SC and running it with a non Spectral amp first then get the DMA-240.

Problem is all I have is an integrated amplifier currently.Ah decisions....

Typical company line, I did not expect any other response. The problem is that in the past, there was a period where they had relaxed the preamp requirement. Just bite the bullet and get both...

 

[marty]

Join me, and together, we can rule the galaxy .. it is your destiny

Best post of the week! LOL indeed!

On the serious side, I'm glad Mdp had a good experience at Ovation. I was there not too long ago and heard the mega Spectral system on S7's. I think the Magico S1 MkII is one of the absolute best buys in high end audio. Wonderful speaker, as is the S5 Mk II. Glad you were nicely Spectralized. There is certainly a great deal of brand loyalty among Spectral owners for reason.

 

[YashN]

It's going to be even better if you send the DSD to a native DSD DAC.

 

[Mdp632]

Typical company line, I did not expect any other response. The problem is that in the past, there was a period where they had relaxed the preamp requirement. Just bite the bullet and get both...

It's something I'm going to seriously consider.

 

[Mdp632]

Best post of the week! LOL indeed!

On the serious side, I'm glad Mdp had a good experience at Ovation. I was there not too long ago and heard the mega Spectral system on S7's. I think the Magico S1 MkII is one of the absolute best buys in high end audio. Wonderful speaker, as is the S5 Mk II. Glad you were nicely Spectralized. There is certainly a great deal of brand loyalty among Spectral owners for reason.

Marty,

Thanks. Yes, I can now understand why Spectral is so very special. Btw, looked like their reference Spectral Electronics were being paired up with the Magico M3s connected via those MIT Articulation Consoles. Wow...

 

[marty]

Marty,

Thanks. Yes, I can now understand why Spectral is so very special. Btw, looked like their reference Spectral Electronics were being paired up with the Magico M3s connected via those MIT Articulation Consoles. Wow...

Well this ought to get me in trouble with the MIT police but here goes. In my humble opinion, the ridiculously expensive articulation consoles are neither impressive or necessary. I did my experiment in the highly Spectralized demo room at Ovation during which I played a CD of a solo grand piano. In my mind, there as no question that the piano sounded far more natural in every way with all the Articulation Console controls turned off. That's right, off! The 2-3 CD control and the low, mid and high controls- turn them all off! If anyone thinks the sound of music is improved by turning those controls on, more power to them. I simply do not (I have a Steinway grand in my music room for reference). I should also add that I use MIT SHD interconnects in my own system which offer similar adjustability controls including an HD and SHD toggle switch. I leave them all off and use the other controls in the "neutral" settings (detent 3). I'm an MIT fan, but some of this is just marketing hype on top of an added coloration I simply do not like. After years of experience with MIT cables, I think many of these nuanced advances are simply a way to evergreen their products as "new and improved" when in truth they are anything but. Like angels, its almost pointless to ask how many "points of articulation" can fit in the head of pin? Get a good set of used MIT cables with a reasonable number of points of articulation and don't buy the hype you must have something more every time MIT decides to fart and adds another pointless bell and whistle to their otherwise excellent product line. Bruce Brisson is a superb engineer and has achieved great success with his interconnects and speaker cables. But he is also a first class marketeer. To his credit, he has built a superb business which is to be applauded. However, while I admire the engineer, I find the marketing hype unbearable at times. How many more incremental meaningless tweaks lie ahead? More importantly, don't you think he knows what they are now but will only roll them out when the time is right for a "new and improved" model? When we get to 400 points of articulation in any of his cables, or 10 new worthless adjustments in his modules, wake me up.

 

[steve williams]

Well this ought to get me in trouble with the MIT police but here goes. In my humble opinion, the ridiculously expensive articulation consoles are neither impressive or necessary. I did my experiment in the highly Spectralized demo room at Ovation during which I played a CD of a solo grand piano. In my mind, there as no question that the piano sounded far more natural in every way with all the Articulation Console controls turned off. That's right, off! The 2-3 CD control and the low, mid and high controls- turn them all off! If anyone thinks the sound of music is improved by turning those controls on, more power to them. I simply do not (I have a Steinway grand in my music room for reference). I should also add that I use MIT SHD interconnects in my own system which offer similar adjustability controls including an HD and SHD toggle switch. I leave them all off and use the other controls in the "neutral" settings (detent 3). I'm an MIT fan, but some of this is just marketing hype on top of an added coloration I simply do not like. After years of experience with MIT cables, I think many of these nuanced advances are simply a way to evergreen their products as "new and improved" when in truth they are anything but. Like angels, its almost pointless to ask how many "points of articulation" can fit in the head of pin? Get a good set of used MIT cables with a reasonable number of points of articulation and don't buy the hype you must have something more every time MIT decides to fart and adds another pointless bell and whistle to their otherwise excellent product line. Bruce Brisson is a superb engineer and has achieved great success with his interconnects and speaker cables. But he is also a first class marketeer. To his credit, he has built a superb business which is to be applauded. However, while I admire the engineer, I find the marketing hype unbearable at times. How many more incremental meaningless tweaks lie ahead? More importantly, don't you think he knows what they are now but will only roll them out when the time is right for a "new and improved" model? When we get to 400 points of articulation in any of his cables, or 10 new worthless adjustments in his modules, wake me up.

wow

 

[ack]

I scraped this picture from 6moons - I see capacitors and resistors as if they form RC or CR filters??? - and inductors

And here's Gavin Fish discussing what's in the box, and is an excellent reference on harmonics, overtones, inharmonics and other things, to boot.

 

[Mdp632]

Wonder if they also to an extent keep the time and phase in sync information throughout the frequency spectrum? The more "Poles" of articulation the greater the extent. That's what someone told me a while back. The reason why networked cables sound more spacious and dimensional than others.

 

[Gene 15352]

Hi Mdp. I too wish you a sincere positive experience in your Spectral journey. Interesting ph conversations I had recently with different Spectral dealers. By no means am I relying on their opinions as the absolute, just wanted to share my experiences. One salesperson commented that the new 240 amp in many ways is basically a 260 that's single ended. Yet when I read the bulletin on the 240, they claim they've eliminated thermal tails and shouldn't that translate to a different listening experience? I asked about the possibility of upgrading my 30SS to the other preamps and my Pass to the 240. The 30SV is definitely superior yet there was hesitation when describing the 30SC, stating that if I'm not moving up to the 30SV, I should hold on to my preamp. It was nice to hear another honest viewpoint that the series 2 on the 260 wasn't that much of a game changer from the series 1. Yet another dealer stated that anytime Spectral brings out a new generation it is vastly superior to their earlier version. In the end, as so many other have chimed in on our forum, trust your ears and everything is system dependent. Example to this philosophy is holding on the current MIT speaker cables I've had for decades. They are an older version of the Spectral cables but were custom made by MIT. They took the gauge that would be required for bi-wiring and combined it to make a lower gauge single wire version. I even took a day and compared it to a $6 000/pr of Nordost cables and the MIT had more texture and layering within my system. Btw, I completely agree with Marty's earlier post on MIT's marketing practices. Anyways, please keep us posted on your experiences. I have enjoyed your posts.

Thanks Ack,

I spoke with Spectral directly yesterday. I was hoping they would sorta give me a the go ahead to use the AMP with the DAC driving it as interim solution until I get the pre amp. But, I spoke with someone who was pretty technical and he really advised me not to do so as I indeed could run into problems and warranty issues. He understood that others have had similar situation , where they can't afford to buy both pieces at once. He suggested starting out the 30SC and running it with a non Spectral amp first then get the DMA-240.

Problem is all I have is an integrated amplifier currently.Ah decisions....

 

[Mdp632]

Hi Mdp. I too wish you a sincere positive experience in your Spectral journey. Interesting ph conversations I had recently with different Spectral dealers. By no means am I relying on their opinions as the absolute, just wanted to share my experiences. One salesperson commented that the new 240 amp in many ways is basically a 260 that's single ended. Yet when I read the bulletin on the 240, they claim they've eliminated thermal tails and shouldn't that translate to a different listening experience? I asked about the possibility of upgrading my 30SS to the other preamps and my Pass to the 240. The 30SV is definitely superior yet there was hesitation when describing the 30SC, stating that if I'm not moving up to the 30SV, I should hold on to my preamp. It was nice to hear another honest viewpoint that the series 2 on the 260 wasn't that much of a game changer from the series 1. Yet another dealer stated that anytime Spectral brings out a new generation it is vastly superior to their earlier version. In the end, as so many other have chimed in on our forum, trust your ears and everything is system dependent. Example to this philosophy is holding on the current MIT speaker cables I've had for decades. They are an older version of the Spectral cables but were custom made by MIT. They took the gauge that would be required for bi-wiring and combined it to make a lower gauge single wire version. I even took a day and compared it to a $6 000/pr of Nordost cables and the MIT had more texture and layering within my system. Btw, I completely agree with Marty's earlier post on MIT's marketing practices. Anyways, please keep us posted on your experiences. I have enjoyed your posts.

Thanks for your feedback. I'm not the Spectral expert but, maybe Ack can confirm. But, it is my understanding the DMC-30 SC is single ended but, it's based on the "SV" architecture of the flagship current pre amp.

 

[ack]

Thanks for your feedback. I'm not the Spectral expert but, maybe Ack can confirm. But, it is my understanding the DMC-30 SC is single ended but, it's based on the "SV" architecture of the flagship current pre amp.

The following is from their web site:

Spectral customers have clamored for a simplified preamplifier utilizing the new SV technology. To meet this challenge, Spectral engineers have devised a new ‘straight-line’ DMC-30 which utilizes single-ended operation for inputs and outputs. This single-ended DMC-30 is called the DMC-30SC. It offers the singular performance of the benchmark DMC-30SV in a new ultra high-value preamplifier.

If there are companies that accurately describe their products, word for word and to a very extensive degree, Spectral is one of them (as is Pass Labs). The language can be techie at times for both companies, but the problems they face and solutions they offer are extremely well described in the web pages and bulletins. Where they lack information - and have forever - is explaining in depth why their preamps are required, what exact role do MIT cables play in the overall design, which ones work best and why. All of these open questions have been the sole root cause for infinite number of misinterpretations, confusion, anger, disagreement and undue anguish. But the question raised wrt the 30SC vs 30SV is not one of them, and is duly explained on their website as well as their dealers'. So I am really curious who those dealers are who spread misinformation...

 

[slcaudiophile]

Yup, Spectral is pretty special. I keep thinking it's a brand that might satisfy me as well, but the MIT cabling makes it very difficult and expensive.

motto of the year.