Most dynamic, "Fast" sounding amps you have heard.

[Northwinds]

My White Oak'ed Phase Linear 400. I never heard an amp like this, not even my long sold Mark Levinson 333 can touch it

It will startle you, the dynamics hit so hard and tight. When your amp's VU meters are swinging at 30% power and suddenly jumps to 80-100% just to reproduce a highhat crash, you know you have something special

 

[Pio1980]

Going back a ways, but Electron Kenetics Eagle amps were lightning fast and dynamic. The Acoustic Imagery Atsah nCore amps I had in here for an audition were also fast and dynamic. Agree on the Jeff Rowland designs as well.

I'd agree on the Eagle 2, best overall I've had around. The Boulder I heard at a boutique was pretty good but very spendy.

 

[Daunia 70]

Technics SU-9600 pre-amp/SE-9600 power-amp combo,easily up there with the Sansui AU-X1 and Trio KA-907.

 

[powerman]

I think the term here that was missed is called rise time. For example the older crowns had rise times of 7 micro seconds the HK 16A was 3 micro seconds. There are a few out that are in nano seconds. Billionths of a second not millionths

 

[bibster]

My ME1400 power amp is pretty "quick".

 

[Spektre]

Naim's "house sound" is also known to be fast amongst other qualities.

Yeah the current Naim sound are probably the fastest sounding amps I've heard, plus they are relatively low wattage.

 

[BigElCat]

My ME1400 power amp is pretty "quick".

This is the first I've heard of ME. It looks impressive. 0 dB of headroom? That can't be good, can it? :scratch2:

 

[Vintagear]

The Sansui AU-X1 has already been mentioned a few times in this thread but now that I own one and have heard it for myself I can attest that it is an incredibly fast, dynamic amp that does not forgo musicality in the pursuit of speed. It has it all.

The sound this amp reproduces is sublime.

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[damacman]

Interesting thread revived ... Over the years I've owned a bunch of power amps - some that had simply marvelous specs and others not so much. Slew Rate and Damping Factor specs can be incredibly difficult to correlate to real world listening.

At times, I think we audiophiles ignore science in an effort to postulate and opine. The premise of this thread would be something that I think could be easily proved or disproved. So who wants to set up an A/B/X comparison to do so? Then we could learn something. I think the results would be illuminating.

 

[Dave_72]

FM Acoustics, easily. fmacoustics.com

 

[Dave_72]

Easy - a pair of these - D'Agostino amps

Those are really good too.

 

[Vintage999]

ME amps out of Australia are supurb products made by a quality individual. (a friend of mine has one) If you can hear one, do it! 0 db headroom can be a very good thing! That means the power supply is extremely well regulated - it's called a "stiff" supply. Power output generally doubles as speaker impedance is cut in half. I had a set of RE Designs mono amps that had zero headroom -it was dynamic and crazy fast.

Good listening...

 

[jblnut]

I have heard that Spectral amps are known for their super-fast response. I auditioned them with some huge Magicos and indeed, the sound was just amazing. Was it the speakers though that had the speed/dynamics, or the amp ? Or both together ? It's so hard to hear a large complex system and then pinpoint the component that is responsible for a particular quality.

jblnut

 

[N8Nagel]

Interesting thread revived ... Over the years I've owned a bunch of power amps - some that had simply marvelous specs and others not so much. Slew Rate and Damping Factor specs can be incredibly difficult to correlate to real world listening.

At times, I think we audiophiles ignore science in an effort to postulate and opine. The premise of this thread would be something that I think could be easily proved or disproved. So who wants to set up an A/B/X comparison to do so? Then we could learn something. I think the results would be illuminating.

If slew rate and damping factor *are* important for the purposes of this thread, I suppose my HK770 should really be something special. From TVK:

Frequency response : 1Hz...250Khz (-3dB)
Damping factor : > 50
Slew rate : 150V / us (8 Ohm, rated output)

I don't dislike it, it is pleasant enough to listen to, but perhaps I've never set it up in a situation where it really has the ability to shine. If anyone in DC-land actually wanted to follow through with this plan, I'd be happy to loan it for an afternoon.

 

[Splatter Pak]

Yes, I think so. :yes: I heard some w70s on a Deuce once that were so dynamic is seemed faster. Then I got to thinking, does this mean my 3:20 song is only going to last 3:00? IME Damping has always been more important to speakers than to amps. Old Rudy Bozak wrote in the instruction manuals for his speakers, to power them with a good quality SS amp with the highest damping factor you can find.

Jay, that makes me think the OP should have used "quick" rather than "fast." My amps are quick enough, but don't go anywhere, at least when I'm in the room...

 

[daveg3588]

I see minor references to Citation the amps, 16 and 19. These were the original "fast" amplifiers, dual mono, square wave specs. caps the size of beer cans.
This is my 19, 100 wpc, 50 lbs.

 

[daveg3588]

The Citation 16, 150 wpc