I've enjoyed high fidelity music and gear "seriously" for about 45 years, but I've never really paid much attention to amplification, focusing more on speakers and sources. Sure, I owned Aragon, Conrad Johnson, and even Krell back in the day, but I never really paid much attention to their individual sound characters, paying more attention to such questions as whether they could handle the load my speakers presented.
I took a hiatus from the high end while our kids grew and both my time and my budget had less "me-focused" priorities, but re-entered about ten years ago with a simple system consisting of a pair of KEF LS50s, a Peachtree Nova integrated amp, and a homebrew music server. Then I replaced my homebrew server with a NAD M50.2 digital player/vault, and eventually upgraded the amp to a NAD M32 digital integrated after reading John Atkinson's "Highly recommended" review conclusion and its ranking as a Stereophile A-Rated Recommended Component.
The pandemic lockdown coincided with my first months as a retiree, so I built a pair of CSS Audio Criton 2TD-X standmount speakers with the "superior" crossover component upgrades. They lived up to their "best-kept secret" reputation, so I soon had plans for the next step: the CSS Criton 2TD-X T-M-M Towers. I recruited a talented friend with a first-class woodworking shop to help me, and after a great deal of research (including conversations with Daedalus' Lou Hinkley), decided that solid hardwood speakers could work with sufficiently-careful material selection and good construction technique. I settled on solid 3/4" mahogany, which has great stability and is available in wide-enough boards that we could avoid side panel glue-ups. We used sophisticated joinery and added an inner Baltic birch baffle, thorough bracing, an additional birch ply inner lining, NoRez, solid silver interior wiring, and more. I am very happy with the outcome.
But after a couple of months, I was left with the feeling that the speakers needed more muscle behind them. I started looking at amplifiers, seeking a balance between an accurate, analytical, and honest grip on my music, the authority and control I felt was lacking in my NAD M32, and a non-fatiguing and musical presentation.
After being disappointed by a number of possibilities - both solid state and tube, Class A, A/B, and D - I found the Modwright KWH 225i. It was immediately apparent that the 225i delivered the authority and control I was looking for, and it didn't take long for me to discover that it is also far more musical than my NAD in my system.
Most systems can sound good with certain audiophile recordings, but the 225i manages to parse out the congestion that so much poorly-recorded music suffers from. There's nothing that causes me to change tracks as quickly as a melange of overcooked instrument sections in an orchestra, where the textures of the instruments (and/or voices) merge into a cheap vegetable soup with no differentiation between the ingredients and with an unappealing overall flavor. Fortunately, the Modwright KWH 225i does a spectacular job with good recordings, but even manages to make most of my less impressive library enjoyable.
I'm also thrilled with the realistic yet thoroughly-entertaining soundstage the 225i presents. HiRes recordings are usually stunning, with tracks like "Better Git It In Your Soul" from Charles Mingus' "Ah Um" causing first-time listeners to sit up and stare at the far end of my room. But even less pristine tracks, such as an MP3 I have of "Late In the Evening" from Paul Simon's "One-Trick Pony" and a CD rip of "Shiloh" from Neil Diamond's "Just for You" album come through with surprisingly realistic presence.
I'm also very happy with my 225i's integrated phono section. This was a big surprise to me, as I expected to continue to use my Moon 310LP phono stage. Nope. My Rega P6 with vintage Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridge loves to be plugged straight into the back of my 225i. Frankly, the best reproduced sound I have ever heard comes from the UHQR pressing of Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" via the P6, Virtuoso Wood, 225i, and custom CSS Criton 2TD-Xs. It's as real as I can imagine, and it makes me very happy indeed to have it available whenever I want.
If you haven't heard the Modwright KWH 225i, please make the effort to do so. I didn't really know that recorded music could be like this.
