Anyone heard the Octave MRE 220 amps?

[bebop86]

Guys- Have an opportunity to get a new pair of these amps at a great price-Have read good things about them but have never heard them- anyone have any feedback on overall sonic quality- thanks

 

[flyer]

Guys- Have an opportunity to get a new pair of these amps at a great price-Have read good things about them but have never heard them- anyone have any feedback on overall sonic quality- thanks

I had them, driving the Rockport Avior speakers and with the SBB connected. It was finally a disaster... the output impedance of the octave amps is very high, causing the very erratic impedance of the aviors and thus their demanding mastery on the amps to be a bad match. It even caused a (well audible) 5dB bump between 500 and 2700 Hz which was measured extensively.

after quite some back and forths with the dealer and he with the manufacturer, the dealer was first in denial, they admitted that high output impedance was a big issue for the brand. But, they were working on a solution which was going to consist of adding a second outside box to these amps (that are really not worth their money without the optional SBB installed in the first place). I didn't wait for that as one needed to add two outside boxes per channel to have the amp to behave as advertised...
I sold them off. Don't know if they did something to the amps meanwhile to remedy.

 

[andromedaaudio]

In Amsterdam i had a dealer nearby where i heard the Octave jubilee on kharma and horns, and smaller monos on magico s 5 , i think it was the mre 220, it was around 2 years ago , i thought they sound really good.
But as stated Above you might wanna look at your Ls impedance curve

 

[Al M.]

I can't say anything about the MRE 220 monoblocks, but I have the RE 320 stereo amp with Super Black Box and couldn't be happier. I have 8 Ohm monitors, and the amp behaves very linearly on my speakers. Superior resolution of tone colors and timbral micro-detail, great separation of instruments and transparency, fantastic dynamics, transient energy and rhythmic drive. No 'warm' sound, great high frequency extension. Quite neutral as far as I can tell, with neutral meant in the best sense of the word, more like natural.

Interestingly, many reviewers have stated that unlike many tube amps the Octave amps can drive diffcult loads, with the Super Black Box connected, including Magnepans. But obviously, it does depend on the speaker.

A friend has heard te MRE 220 monoblocks on Magico M3 speakers and thought they sounded great. A bit richer in tonal color than the Spectral DMA-500 (or 400?) that he also heard in the same session, but apparently no anomaly of frequency response that would have been sticking out.