As hard as we try to garner real data from any review, the only way to know for sure is to try a product. Problem is, there are so many products out there to choose from, that it is impossible to try them all. This is where the reviews come in handy, they can point the way to products that are worthy of auditioning. I've been following Dusty's products with great interest for quite some time now. Having owned and loved a Spectron Musician II digital amp, it was only natural to have some interest in other digital amps.
Things I loved about the Spectron:
SupremeTransparency, Soundstaging, Detail & Resolution, Bass control, and Dynamics. The Spectron also seemed to have a touch of warmth that hinted at the sound of tubes. These were areas that I found the Spectron to be head and shoulders above all other amps (especially solid state amps) I had owned or auditioned to this point.
Things I didn't like about the Spectron:
There was a lack of liquidity and smoothness in the mid range and treble compared to best solid state amps, and definitely most tube amps. Also the character of the amp would change with an increase in volume. The sound would become increasingly brittle and strident. Finally, and this was in comparing the Spectron to the best tubes amps; the amp lacked harmonic richness and had a limited palette of tonal colors of which to choose from.
This brings us to the D200's. Like I had mentioned before, I had an interest in other digital amps, this combined with Greg Weaver's review on Positive Feedback, brought me to the door of Channel Islands Audio. Interesting enough, Greg's previous reference amp was the Spectron Musician II. So I read his review with great interest and anticipation of him comparing the two amps. To my surprise, there was no mention of the Spectron. So I fired off an email to Greg. His reply along with my initial email was posted at the end of the review. The conclusion of that response was, the D200's were in a different league altogether. Well to say that my interest was extremely peaked at this point, would be an understatement! I than did something I had never done before, I sold my Spectron and ordered a pair of D200's, sight on heard. Yeah I was a little nervous! It didn't help either when the UPS guy shows up at my door holding both mono blocks in a small box, under one arm. These little things are never going to drive my large line array speakers to good affect. It also doesn't help when you wire things up incorrectly.
(That arrow should be pointing at me)All through the break-in period, and even afterwards, the bass never seemed very extended and voices and instruments seemed to lack proper mass and weight. Now I was feeling really nervous, what have I done?! I bought something based on a review, how stupid could I be?! In a panic I placed the D200's up for sale on Audiogon and started auditioning other amps. After shuffling a few amps in and out of my system, I reinserted the D200's. I then popped a disk in the tray and hit play, my jaw hit the floor and remained there for the entire length of the cd! At this point it became very obvious to me that I had miss wired something, or hadn't made a good connection somewhere in my system, the first time I hooked the amps up. I remained stunned and slack jawed as I popped disk after disk into my cd player and reveled in my musical bliss! From the lowest notes up through the highest peaks, these amps exhibited an organic and harmonically rich musical experience like I've never heard from my system before. I'm hear to say that Greg Weaver's review was spot on! These amps almost defy any kind of critical analysis, instead I found myself immersed in the music, with no critical chatter going on upstairs. Perhaps I'll try to put together a blow by blow description of these amps at a later date. But for now I'm just too stunned and amazed to put together any kind of critical analysis.
