Time for Change: - Mola Mola Kaluga monoblocks vs Gryphon Essence Stereo power amp

[MarkusBarkus]

...eh, we're all on borrowed time, so strictly speaking...that's accurate. No need to get pigeon-holed on a time-frame.

 

[Urbinator]

Lol , best line on WBF period

Yup, she’s pretty tolerant, but the look on Rachel’s face when two guys scuttled in with a 2001 Space Oditty prop was scary. I’ll stick on a couple of the tracks from the who, she will smile when she hears Keith Moon smashing some drums.

 

[Urbinator]

yes it demonstrates that damn well. Look up Earl's Court 1975 on youtube, where starting mid-way into the song it becomes clear how they are feeding off each other and how in the end they keep pushing each other.

Dying time Brought tears to my eyes. This is what this hobby is about, a love of music and that emotion when a piece comes alive. A good system will reveal more and make that emotion so much stronger. Now find me a quality recording of that concert please so I can Babble like a Baby.

That loose guitar playing from Jimmy but everybody being tight in time, I can understand why Led Zeppelin disbanded when they lost their Kingpin John Bonham.

 

[Al M.]

yes it demonstrates that damn well. Look up Earl's Court 1975 on youtube, where starting mid-way into the song it becomes clear how they are feeding off each other and how in the end they keep pushing each other.

Mesmerizing performance.

 

[Lagonda]

Yup, she’s pretty tolerant, but the look on Rachel’s face when two guys scuttled in with a 2001 Space Oditty prop was scary. I’ll stick on a couple of the tracks from the who, she will smile when she hears Keith Moon smashing some drums.

I remember the first time i made a girl cry. I moved a pair of Martin Logan CLS speakers into our one bedroom apartment. She insisted it looked like 2 ekstra doors in the middle of the room.The relationship did not last long after that. Sweet memories of my first pair of electrostatic speakers and first girlfriend. I still have the speakers upstairs, they have aged well and are still beautiful !

 

[MarkusBarkus]

...true love is forever.

 

[LL21]

View attachment 152237

First impressions are, who needs two kidneys anyway!

It is really overkill for me, wife is looking really pissed, but tolerating and she thinks it’s on loan.
It is a real shock as to how much can be pulled out of those TAD speakers when the that amp squeezes tight their short and curlies. The bass is sublime, not overpowering but defined. For example I thought I could hear somebody’s engine on idle outside, bopping on occasion, very faint, but there. Put the track on pause and it had gone. I’ve never encountered bass with such detail, even with the essence.

Congratulations! As someone who owned Gryphon for 12 consecutive years (including the original Antileon)...I can say that the sound of pure Class A has stayed with me and our system. Welcome to it!

In fact, I created a very long Audiogon thread when I had the CJ MV60 mid-powered EL34 amp...a very affordable gem. The thread was about something to the effect of Super Powerful Tube Amps to drive SF Strads and then Wilson X1/Grand SLAMMS...and after the long excellent series of options, guidance, discussions, I discovered the Gryphon Antileon. Definitely not to be confused with tubes...but something that definitely grabbed me and has kept me all these many years. Then it was Colosseum, then Mephisto.

And now Robert Koda.

Enjoy...the Antileons are quite a special amp!

 

[godofwealth]

I have the Mola Mola Makua preamp — fully decked out with the internal Tambaqui DAC and Lupe phono preamp — with the Kaluga monoblocks. As someone who’s owned a lot of high priced solid state and tube gear over 35+ years, these two get my vote as the best designed solid state hifi gear I’ve yet owned. The Makua preamp is hands down the best user interface I’ve ever seen in a preamp. You can — and I have — hook up four different turntables to this preamp, besides full Roon streaming and a CD/SACD player. The Kaluga is also world class. Light and cool running.

My view is that if you hear consistently hear brightness through the Mola Mola, I would look elsewhere for the culprit. My general impression is that most “audiophile” speakers are way too bright. I prefer electrostatics and more natural sounding dynamic speakers like Harbeth or Spendor. Through these, the Mola Mola are not bright in the slightest. I listen primarily to classical and jazz, with some occasional rock. If you primarily listen to rock, well, these are generally very bright sounding to my ears.
If you are hearing brightness on well-recorded classical, it’s not the Mola Mola that’s at fault.

All that said, the Mola Mola are not tubes! I use an all-tube ARC based system with a pair of massive 9” tall Soundlab G9-7c. The ARC gear is more holographic sounding than the Mola Mola. But that’s tube gear compared to solid state. No solid state component is going to match tube gear at what they do best.

 

[Perfect sense Audio]

TAD needs two things - POWER and LOVE

Mola Mola makes great products, but they're certainly on the more leaner and analytical side which might not be the best choice for TAD speakers which do not add much or anything of their own.

We've had great results with amplification from Pilium, Ypsilon and Accuphase here. I can also imagine WestminsterLab Rei (Class A in chassis not much bigger than the Mola Mola Kaluga) to be a strong contender.

/ Marcus

 

[bonzo75]

I remember the first time i made a girl cry. I moved a pair of Martin Logan CLS speakers into our one bedroom apartment.

Ok I thought this was going to end like and the music from the speakers as she lay in your arms brought tears to her eyes

 

[Pokey77]

They have been a part of my journey, I had on loan the TAD M2500 for a month, wife did not like it, she described it as too revealing, which roughly translates to makes shit sound worse. I found them too defined, not musical enough.
I’ll be honest I did not explore further, and was tempted by the monoblocks. I love my speakers, but have never gelled with their amps.

@Urbinator

While I respect your opinion, it may be that the preamp you had the M2500 paired with was not a good match. I can honestly say that my setup sounds nothing like what you are saying you heard. You may want to check out the M2500/C2000 pairing, it works very musically for me. And you can probably get them at a great price now.

I've heard the older TAD monoblocks and reference preamp with the R1s and they were super good but out of my comfort zone financially. @Amir has a full TAD setup with the reference components and he speaks very highly of it. Maybe he'll come in here and comment.

Regards

 

[Amir]

@Urbinator

There are many things that change the sound so the subject is so complex.

I think TAD speaker is 100% OK (match) with TAD amplifier in proper setup. TAD systems are not bright and if you feel TAD is “too revealing” I think there is a problem in system setup.

Room acoustics, speaker position, ac polarity, low quality digital source, low quality ac power, low quality cd record, all can change the sound.

You can also listen to class A amplification and let me know what was your feeling.

 

[Urbinator]

@Urbinator

While I respect your opinion, it may be that the preamp you had the M2500 paired with was not a good match. I can honestly say that my setup sounds nothing like what you are saying you heard. You may want to check out the M2500/C2000 pairing, it works very musically for me. And you can probably get them at a great price now.

I've heard the older TAD monoblocks and reference preamp with the R1s and they were super good but out of my comfort zone financially. @Amir has a full TAD setup with the reference components and he speaks very highly of it. Maybe he'll come in here and comment.

Regards

Not so much of an opinion as experience, so appreciate your respect, but I’m a grown lad and can take it
Whole journey is experience and without having a deeper understanding mistakes are made, hopefully learning from them. If id had the opportunity to listen to M2500/C2000 pairing I'm sure it would have been a different path.

I am again at that point with the Makua, knowing it’s a weak point, but it is fully loaded and to replace, I will need a new phono stage and streamer/DAC. Another mistake in my journey, when I felt this was the last purchase I’d ever need.

I love the TAD CE1’s and I realised quite soon that the Mola Mola Kalugas were not getting the most out of these speakers. The Antelion is another level and also an opportunity to purchase something that would normally be out of my reach.

 

[Urbinator]

@Urbinator

There are many things that change the sound so the subject is so complex.

I think TAD speaker is 100% OK (match) with TAD amplifier in proper setup. TAD systems are not bright and if you feel TAD is “too revealing” I think there is a problem in system setup.

Room acoustics, speaker position, ac polarity, low quality digital source, low quality ac power, low quality cd record, all can change the sound.

You can also listen to class A amplification and let me know what was your feeling.

Agree, there have been a number of issues, partly to do with the room, which is now much better. I also feel that this Jorma Speaker and interconnect cables were compounding things.
The Makua has the Tambaqui DAC installed, so should be up to the job streaming wise.

The Essence was in the rights direction, but as it was able to drive the speakers better it also highlighted issues with cabling and room.

 

[godofwealth]

TAD needs two things - POWER and LOVE

Mola Mola makes great products, but they're certainly on the more leaner and analytical side which might not be the best choice for TAD speakers which do not add much or anything of their own.

We've had great results with amplification from Pilium, Ypsilon and Accuphase here. I can also imagine WestminsterLab Rei (Class A in chassis not much bigger than the Mola Mola Kaluga) to be a strong contender.

/ Marcus

Compared to tubes, I feel most solid state veers towards the brighter leaner side with threadbare harmonics. But that’s the trade off. If you want a richer sound with fleshed out instruments, tubes are unmatched. I’ve been comparing solid state and tubes for 40 years. It’s never been any different.

The Mola Mola DAC in the MAKUA preamp is fabulous, but it’s not going to sound like my Lampizator Pacific. Direct heated triodes give you a 3D sound that solid state is not going to do. HP said as much 40 years ago when I read TAS in my formative years. Nothing has changed since those days.

 

[Perfect sense Audio]

Compared to tubes, I feel most solid state veers towards the brighter leaner side with threadbare harmonics. But that’s the trade off. If you want a richer sound with fleshed out instruments, tubes are unmatched. I’ve been comparing solid state and tubes for 40 years. It’s never been any different.

The Mola Mola DAC in the MAKUA preamp is fabulous, but it’s not going to sound like my Lampizator Pacific. Direct heated triodes give you a 3D sound that solid state is not going to do. HP said as much 40 years ago when I read TAS in my formative years. Nothing has changed since those days.

I tend to agree. That being said, the very best SS electronics from some of the brands mentioned sounds more natural, organic and engaging than ever without any traces of being cold, hard, harsch or lean.

Triodes are triodes though, it's just how it is

/ Marcus

 

[mtemur]

I remember the first time i made a girl cry. I moved a pair of Martin Logan CLS speakers into our one bedroom apartment. She insisted it looked like 2 ekstra doors in the middle of the room.The relationship did not last long after that. Sweet memories of my first pair of electrostatic speakers and first girlfriend. I still have the speakers upstairs, they have aged well and are still beautiful !

She should’ve known better than to start a “me or the speakers” argument with an audiophile—some battles are already lost.

 

[Lagonda]

She should’ve known better than to start a “me or the speakers” argument with an audiophile—some battles are already lost.

She kicked me and my speakers out, as far as i remember. She became a fashion model right after, her first big campaign landed a very large billboard on the most exclusive square in Copenhagen. I had the pleasure of "seeing" my first love that way every day for about a year !

 

[mtemur]

She kicked me and my speakers out, as far as i remember. She became a fashion model right after, her first big campaign landed a very large billboard on the most exclusive square in Copenhagen. I had the pleasure of "seeing" my first love that way every day for about a year !

Your loss fashion’s gain.