[James Romeyn]

My Star Fleet uniform is at the cleaners preparing for the Ambrosia's arrival...

[PLMONROE]

Is there a word for a speaker that can use 20 amplifiers at once?

 Sure !!!  One wonders how many interesting combinations John could come up with twenty largers? 

[James Romeyn]

Bongiorno should just call the Ambrosia a low-power integrated w/ pre-outs...perfect for powering the high-sensitivity speakers targeted for the SET crowd...Just put the speaker binding posts parallel w/ the line-outs...

[John Casler]

Yes, Jim's new Pre is surely the best preamp for the money out there.

I was talking to a new dealer yesterday back East who just got one in, and I think he said it weighed like almost 60# shipping weight. aa

I did get to spend some time with it alone, a couple mornings at THE Show, and I'd be hard pressed to think of anything sounding better.

While $5900 might sound "up there", if you consider that it has probably the best phono section of any preamp on the planet, it brings it into perspective, since a good Phono Pre and the extra cables can be $1500 easy.

[PLMONROE]

I have tried to log on to ampzilla2000.com for the past couple of days with no success so I presume James is temporarily down. The last time I looked, his info on the Ambrosia was scant. As I recall he listed the price as $5900  and up depending on options. So what options and at what cost. Anybody have more information?

[John Casler]

I have tried to log on to ampzilla2000.com for the past couple of days with no success so I presume James is temporarily down. The last time I looked, his info on the Ambrosia was scant. As I recall he listed the price as $5900  and up depending on options. So what options and at what cost. Anybody have more information?

Hi Paul,

All I have is the $5900 list price.  I'll check on the options.  He has no DAC, or didn't the last I spoke to him, so that wouldn't be it.

There does seem to be something slowing the site.  The manual is up and while not the best, gives a little more insight into the workings of the unit.

[James Romeyn]

John/Brian
Send this to the wastebin if it's innapropriate. 

Just for the record, I listened long, carefully, & multiple times to all if not most of the best (read exhorbitantly expensive) demos at CES & THE Show the last two years; system prices range up to $315k (Kimber/Sound Lab), others possibly higher.

The following is a reasonable analysis (to me) even though there were no A-B tests performed.  The only preamp that might compete w/ the Ambrosia is the $15k Krell Evolution 202 (no phono). 

W/ SE or XLR interconnects I'd bet on the Ambrosia.  For even a chance at beating the Ambrosia, the 202 must be connected w/ Krell's $500 proprietary CAST interconnects into the $15k Evo #402 stereo amp, or more costly Evo ($30k for the pair). 

Even if you could afford the Krell (it does look nice), why not get the Ambrosia w/ your favorite amp, & put the extra money aside for the next $7k tune-up for the Ferrari? 

[Brian Cheney]

Ambrosia weighs 50 lbs and ships at 60lbs.  It's a fully balanced design input to output and sounds best with balanced connections.  It continues to amaze me with its sound quality. It runs very warm.

The display is too bright, I'm going to cover the readout with some smoky acrylic.

[JoshK]

Brian,

You were running the Wadia directly into the SOA's right?  So how does the Ambrosia compare to direct?  I guess that is the real test, as opposed to comparing to other preamps.

Jim,
How can you isolate what you believe the preamp is adding to each of those dramatically different systems (different speakers, diff amps, diff cables, sources, room treatments/lack thereof)?  Especially when the rooms are so crappy? 

[Brian Cheney]

Ambrosia provides the first improvement (over direct from the Wadia to the power amp) I have experienced in my system.  I can only speculate why.

[James Romeyn]

Josh
I can't justify it to any one else.  Take it w/ a huge grain of salt. 

I can only say that it's the result of listening to the specific equipment in many venues over a stretch of time...both individual pieces in matched systems & the same pieces in mismatched systems.

Over the years, esp as a result of reading posts in this forum, I started thinking my ears are not such a good judge & that this whole thing is really too subjective.  I started to have tremendous self-doubt & started believing everyone hears so differently & there's a lot of danger in expecting us to hear the same thing.   

I still think that's true to quite a degree.

But something very interesting happened less than a year ago.  I was w/ Harry Pearson's ex-equipment & setup mgr.  We did an A-B test of a component.  It was a good system, far less than the best I've been exposed to at the last 2 CES, but good (Usher $15k speakers, 60W high-current tube amp).  The CD was the best Stevie Ray Vaughn disc I've heard, well recorded.  I verbalized in my head a list of specific differences between the 2 components.  But I decided to say not one syllable.  I sat there very very patiently while Harry's ex-mgr listened for a few minutes before he enthusistically shared his opinions of the differences.  The words that came out of his mouth were virtually word for word what I had verbalized in my head.

Boy was I relieved!  Finally I heard some real validation.  Even though only one person, I don't think anyone would disagree the source must be at least well above average in hearing, unless Harry's sound in Sea Cliff sucks, which I don't know to the be the case.  I've had similar experiences w/ the wife & other audiophiles at my place, including when we had the $18k Meitner CDP & when Bruno B of this forum was nice enough to visit. 

I've also had my pre-exisiting expectations of equipment validated more often than not, after getting to hear stuff at my place or Brians.

So, I'm back on my horse, thinking I can make pronouncments like I did.  The advice is worth what was paid. 

Not to overstate the point.  But I walked into a room at THE Show this year.  I had good familiarity w/ all or most of the gear being auditioned.  After about 1/2 of one song I thought it sounded less good than it should.  I remembered the preamp inverts, & asked the vendor to confirm & also if he had inverted the speakers for proper polarity?  He looked at the gear, (dumb ass me didn't know it was the preamp designer), he thought, he said yes it does, & no the speakers weren't inverted.  He inverted the speaker wire, the sound went from moderately mediocre to quite good (the speakers are in-phase 1st-order xo).  I looked at the name tag & apologized profusely for being so forward.  Thanks goodness he's such a nice & forgiving person...There was no foul on the part of the designer. It was early the first day.  I know personally the amount of work that goes into doing a show is enough to put someone in the nut house. 

My 2c.

PS: I just found out after the last post that Krell won the Innovations Award at CES this year, presumably for the CAST interconnect circuitry (inverted source/load relationship between components, only one gain stage from source to speaker output vs. about 9, totally unique, my vote for the best components in existence & maybe not by a small margin but only in an all-Krell-CAST system).  BEWARE: If you do audition this Krell gear it will almost certainly be w/ Krell speakers, which to me (in many venues, many models) are voiced too hot.  Remove the hot tonal balance & be prepared to be shocked at the speed, noise floor, transparency, & absolute lack of grain.  D'Agostino is no slouch.  If the opportunity arises request to hear it w/ less hotly balanced speakers.  (I'd place the Krell speakers as hotter than even the latest Wilson WP 8.0)  The reason I think it's the speakers & not the more recent Krell components is because I heard a recent Krell on 626R & they were extremely smooth, totally kicked butt. 

 

[Brian Cheney]

Things happen at shows, as anyone who read my four part CES report now knows.  And that was just events in our booth, and one other.

Still, I heard a goodly amount of good sound at this CES and was happy our booth got so many favorable mentions in the press and online.

I like Krell gear.  With one exception it has sounded great in every system in which I have heard it.  The exception was one of their small, cheaper integrateds which did not produce Krell-quality sound.  Sorry, I'm unsure about the model number.