Time to chime in as the discussion goes wayyyy into the wrong direction here.....As for stereo vs. monos, that is completely depending on the designs.....No idea as to the Mac's or other companies, but in case with the Symphonic Line designs, and as such, very much so with our designs, monos are VASTLY superior to stereo amps....much, much better in every single regard, especially in terms of speed, (dynamics, micro areas), sound staging, presence, colors of timbre and on and on and on...mostly though because it also triples + the current delivery, which really, truly gives you a frickin' hammer in these velvet gloves. Much, much better, as it should be, because yup, it's twice the money...I always tell people that in layman's terms with the monos being 100 % of sq, the corresponding stereo unit is only 40 - 50 % thereof. As with everything else when comparing these two, one should also be aware of how to compare gear...always listen to the better (i.e. monos) first, and the "lesser" last, because physiologically, our brain and perception picks up missing quality much better than the other way around....
As for the Dual Mono amp, yes, I'm still doing a few here and there for special orders....main reasons why we discontinued them is because for one, they are a pain in the ass to make, and secondly, we really have to have the customer's voltage down as there are now 4 output stages putting heat into the chassis...when set up right, it gets quite warm, never hot, but considering that all of our gear is running pretty cool, I still don't like the idea as to a bias gone wrong with stepped up voltage...not a fan as correct bias is so dramatically important.
So, yes, monos are always better in our line, considerably so, (just look at the TAS reviews of the upgraded K. stereo and the 5 year old stock Stratos monos, with , when taking each board individually, the K. board was superior to the monos, and yes, it came damn close...I mean really close and near identical to the Soulutions), but again, that depends on each and every single design out there.......in general, one caveat in that I am NOT a fan of any designs that can be bridged into monos, not at all......and finally, as for the issue of short LS cables: yup, great when you want to place them next to the speakers for aesthetic or real estate reasons, but in general, I'd prefer shorter IC's and longer LS cables.....better information transfer especially with a high gain amp such as ours.....
Late,
Klaus
