Integrated amp under $10 K recommendations
- Thread starter thedudeabides
- Start date
I think Soulnote is owned by an ex-Marantz employee. Audio world is small
I’ll add Hegel, I had a parasound A21 driven by a very smooth Krell pre and a hegel h360 with virtually identical power ratings was so much better with the speakers, the first Revel ultima Salons that it was startling. Neither unit was defective and I’d never heard that dramatic of an audible difference before. The Hegel was double the price at $5500 but had the pre, pretty good dac for the time and a remote while the A21 was just a power amp, amazing build and power for the money, but not the last word in neutrality. Try as many as you can. The Pathos logos mk2 can be pretty special in the right system also well under $10k
I can vouch for soulnote, since i own A2 SE. For my taste:
-i listen lot of badly recorded music (like 80's italian progressive rock), so i want a gear that can sound great on good recordings, and also good on bad recordings. Showing their faults, but doing it smooth way so you can concentrate on music.
Soul note tonality is on A2 a slight side of warmth, it is smooth sounding and open & dynamic. I wanted it to have even more organic presentation, so i pared it with luxman cl38uc tube pre, and have been very happy with this combination.
Best part in soul Note is, that it has tube like flow and organic tone. (even more with tube pre)
I have wavac 300b, and i think they both have very similar "taste" and flow, so the short signal path & no negative feedback work here.
To give comparisons: personally i do not like moderrn accuphase gear, i would say they are bit of opposite from tonality of soundnote. (I have heard up to e5000, though not on same system) and i always get feeling when. have in my mind the feeling of organic flow from wavac & soulnote, that accuphase gear is very mechanical, tight, gray sounding. YMMV, but just reporting my listening experiences.
-i listen lot of badly recorded music (like 80's italian progressive rock), so i want a gear that can sound great on good recordings, and also good on bad recordings. Showing their faults, but doing it smooth way so you can concentrate on music.
Soul note tonality is on A2 a slight side of warmth, it is smooth sounding and open & dynamic. I wanted it to have even more organic presentation, so i pared it with luxman cl38uc tube pre, and have been very happy with this combination.
Best part in soul Note is, that it has tube like flow and organic tone. (even more with tube pre)
I have wavac 300b, and i think they both have very similar "taste" and flow, so the short signal path & no negative feedback work here.
To give comparisons: personally i do not like moderrn accuphase gear, i would say they are bit of opposite from tonality of soundnote. (I have heard up to e5000, though not on same system) and i always get feeling when. have in my mind the feeling of organic flow from wavac & soulnote, that accuphase gear is very mechanical, tight, gray sounding. YMMV, but just reporting my listening experiences.
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Based on our Award Winning KWA 150SE power amp, but with more power, tube preamp and full integrated functionality!
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