ICE technology vs. "tried and true"--your thoughts?

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. Read 11963 times.

art

  • Industry Participant
  • Posts: 845
    • Analog Research-Technology
Re: ICE technology vs. "tried and true"--your thoughts?
« Reply #20 on: 15 Feb 2008, 08:54 pm »
It might be important to point out that ICEpower-based amps are probably more system dependent that most other SS amps.

The same also could be said about most tube amps. So, when reading a review, keep in mind that it might not be an accurate portrayal of the performance in your system.

Pat

SET Man

Re: ICE technology vs. "tried and true"--your thoughts?
« Reply #21 on: 16 Feb 2008, 02:44 am »
It might be important to point out that ICEpower-based amps are probably more system dependent that most other SS amps.

The same also could be said about most tube amps. So, when reading a review, keep in mind that it might not be an accurate portrayal of the performance in your system.

Pat

Hey!

    OK, so what would be the perfect system or partner components for this type of amp? :D

Take care,
Buddy :thumb:

bummrush

Re: ICE technology vs. "tried and true"--your thoughts?
« Reply #22 on: 16 Feb 2008, 04:17 am »
For the guy who didnt like the ps audio in stock form is ridiculous.Why the heck cant it be made to sound halfway decent in the first place,having to do a mod on something that doesnt even sound good in the first place,are you kidding me?

Jonathan

Re: ICE technology vs. "tried and true"--your thoughts?
« Reply #23 on: 16 Feb 2008, 02:08 pm »
For the guy who didn't like the ps audio in stock form is ridiculous.Why the heck cant it be made to sound halfway decent in the first place,having to do a mod on something that doesn't even sound good in the first place,are you kidding me?

I'm not that guy--again, I thought that the amp sounded pretty good, just not ideal for a hard to drive, low impedance speaker like the CS 3.6. If you do some searching, you'll read lots of feedback from folks who loved the sound of the amp in its stock form (including the Stereophile reviewers who gave it a class A rating at one point).

That's the point I was making earlier: Some people will love the sound of a piece of gear, some people will hate it; some people trust that the manufacturer has made the best sounding piece he/she can; some people will insist that modding is the only way to get the most out of a piece of equipment.

 The bottom line is that opinions from others can point you in a direction, but (obviously) there's nothing that can replace hearing the gear in your system, in your room, and with your ears.

art

  • Industry Participant
  • Posts: 845
    • Analog Research-Technology
Re: ICE technology vs. "tried and true"--your thoughts?
« Reply #24 on: 16 Feb 2008, 06:38 pm »
Quote from: SET Man
Hey!

    OK, so what would be the perfect system or partner components for this type of amp? :D

Take care,
Buddy :thumb:

That is a damn good question. Unfortunately, there is not a good answer.

I can give you some feedback on what most owners of our stuff have:

A lot have Maggies. Nice, flat, predictable impedance. The strengths and weaknesses of each seem to go well together. Besides, in the case of our products. we tweak them to sound right (to our ears) on them.

A lot of guys think that they go better with tube preamps, or our (older and no longer produced) JFET preamps. Some "midrange magic" seems to be added in that way. (We think that is more a function of the distortion spectra of Class D amps is different enough that some extra 2nd order harmonics need to be added back in somewhere along the line in order to sound more in line with traditional expectations.)

Here is what I would say they might not go with:

Low-impedance speakers (2 ohms or so.)
High-impedance speakers (16 ohms or so.)
Horn loudspeakers.

Too much variation in FR for the first 2, when compared to our reference. Horns..........well, no one here likes horns, and so when we heard our amps on horns.......well, 2 wrongs didn't make a right!

Speaking of reviews in general...................

They all need to be taken with a grain of salt. Reviewers' taste in music and reproduction, as well as the quality of their system and room acoustics, is not likely to be yours. Add to that............if you ever take note........a lot of them don't keep the same system very long! While I have never personally done an exhaustive study of this, I do know that a lot of them have a way of getting cables and equipment into their systems that was reviewed somewhere along the way.

And then something new comes along to be reviewed, and guess what..........?........it somehow magically finds its way into their system. It is hard to accurately gauge performance of review components when the reference changes capriciously.

A lot of folks who buy our stuff often want to know what kind of cables and stuff that we use here at the shop. Tell the truth, it has been in there so long, I forget what it is and where it came from. The point is that our system is stable. We know what it sounds like. We can evaluate our designs better than way, because we really do know how it sounds. It may or not be the most accurate, but it is repeatable. And that is key to doing any serious evaluation.

Pat