I personally don’t believe that Lamm is rolled off and I don’t think that’s what’s happening with the Wilson tweeter. I think Lamm has a certain character that deals with overly bright speakers. I also heard this with the Karma and the Varity speakers (which I always find bright and fatiguing) when paired with Lamm.
Ron’s New System
- Thread starter Ron Resnick
- Start date
Except that Peter said that "the term natural is in a sense simplistic". That is not what I said in the post he replied to. My statement was:
Reducing everything to the descriptor "natural" seems quite simplistic.
Very different ballgame. I like the term "natural" -- in the context of other additional descriptors.
I agree there is some thing about the highs with Lamm SETs, but IMO, the really extraordinary thing about them is how they present bass. After living with them for a couple years, that is what I find to be very special, and the overall balance.
Agreed about the bass. When I had Lamm amps the bass was definitely the standout attribute - very organic and textured.
over the years my take on the Lamm presentation is a slight darkness, but not closed in or particularly warm, caramel colored or rolled off. and great bass for sure. this compared to a few other tube amps i've had in my system over the years; starting with the Tenor 75 Watt OTL's, later the Berning 211/845, then the VAC 450 Statements.....which (the VAC's) were more lit but also caramel and more rolled off.
the best analogy would be how my Transparent Opus MM speaker cables sounded compared to my Evolution Acoustics TRSC (triple run speaker cables). my EA cables presented a well lit soundstage, the TA a bit dark. but not soft or rolled off. just the degree of light. the Opus MM is an awesome sounding speaker cable.
i hold the Lamm amps in very high regard and hope this not taken as any criticism, as it's not my intent. i do think this slight darkness does seem to synergize with naturalizing some bright leaning tweeters. i hear that too.
obviously my reference for a naturally lit presentation is not only the tube amps i had, but also my darTZeel. i'm sure i'll get a bit of flack, but i do think this is what is going on.
the best analogy would be how my Transparent Opus MM speaker cables sounded compared to my Evolution Acoustics TRSC (triple run speaker cables). my EA cables presented a well lit soundstage, the TA a bit dark. but not soft or rolled off. just the degree of light. the Opus MM is an awesome sounding speaker cable.
i hold the Lamm amps in very high regard and hope this not taken as any criticism, as it's not my intent. i do think this slight darkness does seem to synergize with naturalizing some bright leaning tweeters. i hear that too.
obviously my reference for a naturally lit presentation is not only the tube amps i had, but also my darTZeel. i'm sure i'll get a bit of flack, but i do think this is what is going on.
Last edited:
This is like the very interesting recent comments in a different thread from an engineer who is analyzing turntable performance. He said he thought the build quality was high and that he was sure the turntable sounds great, bit there is just this little problem with speed stability.
well, i actually listened to the Lamm amps. a few dozen times including twice in my system once for 4 months.
Amplifiers need the right speaker match so their qualities can be properly judged and appreciated. This is what Ron is now learning and it is leading to this interesting discussion about trade offs.
Note the comments about Lamm taming Wilson’s metal tweeter. Did anyone mention the Lamm Wilson bass performance?
agree, i've heard Lamm's with multiple different speakers. not just mine.
i did in my first post above very specifically.
love Steve's bass in his small room, excellent no doubt. great weight and authority.
Lamm is among my favorite amps.
Last edited:
Why don't y'all take the discussion of Peter's amplifiers over to Peter's system thread, as Peter suggested in Post #4209?
This is a reasonable characterization.
Comparisons can be relative to what you know and where you're coming from in making the comparison. For example, let's say you are using one of the bigger ARC tube monos (which I like) then bring in a Lamm hybrid or SET. On first hearing the word 'darker' may come to mind in the case of the Lamm. Then, imagine the reverse where you have the Lamms and the ARC amps are brought in. On first hearing would your thought be the Lamms are darker? That wasn't the case for me. Describing the ARC sound in contrast, the antonym of 'darker' was not 'lighter' but 'leaner'.
It is Lamm's preservation of music's harmonic structure and spectral balance in the lower midrange through the bass that leads some to the darker/darkness characterization. I find Lamm amps whole within themselves, able to present rich harmonic information across the frequency spectrum -- in accordance with how we hear. This is a big part of their balanced presentation.
In what way is Mike's comment about Lamm amplifiers "like" an unrelated person's unrelated comment about a turntable?
It’s called lack of high frequency distortion and/high order harmonics exacerbating a tendency. X1s with KR also sounded very nice from top to bottom.
lamm set amp produces uniform distortion k2 across the entire audio band. That leads to this impression. If he were to create more or less distortion in the treble, the impression would disappear. It is probably intended to keep K2 high in order to create the sound character. Blue 16ohm/ 8ohm magenta/4 ohm red tap.
If you need more control over the speaker, you should use the 4 ohm tap dampingfactor high.
From here the whole light-dark thing only makes sense when making comparisons.