AMPED AMERICA Amp 2400 FIRST REVIEW ~ The Sound Advocate

From Russia with Love ~ The Amped America Amp 2400 is analyzed by Frank Peraino in this premiere review!

INTRODUCTION.

Any of you that have read my first three reviews for “The Sound Advocate” know that I was under the impression that my editor, Howard Milstein, an amiable and knowledgeable guy, having attended audio shows together in the past and spoken at length on the phone, must be secretly related to my 12^th-grade high school English Literature teacher who tormented me relentlessly in high school (and seemed to enjoy making my life miserable).

With 17 years of part-time audio equipment reviewing for other hard copy and e-zine audio rags before coming to The Sound Advocate before a three-year sabbatical, I thought I was signing on to review some cutting-edge sophisticated electronics. Howard apparently, had other ideas. It seems he wanted to “haze” me like a frat-boy with not one, not two, but three straight cable reviews!!!!! OK, truth be told, I enjoyed doing each of those reviews and was delighted to be able to pen the first review of the incredible new speaker cable design by Silversmith Audio, the Fidelium, which I submit is the audio “steal-of-the-century!”

So, you can imagine my surprise when Howard asks me to review what, to me, was a completely unknown product by a completely unknown manufacturer! But at LEAST it wasn’t another set of cables, right? And what shows up at my door? A box of size and weight I’d expect Amazon to deliver my new 18-volt, hand-held, drill-driver in. And it says “AMPED” on it! HUH? Has Howard hazed me again?

Given my description of the size and weight of the box, you’ve likely deduced that the Amped America 2400 is a Class D design. Well, if history is an accurate indicator of the future, one thing is guaranteed before I ever sit down and listen to it – the Amp 2400 will again likely have both emphatic and die-hard fans and detractors from the get-go!. Just the mention of “Class D” amplification“ (and no, Class “D” does NOT stand for “digital”) usually produces heated and, at times, downright acrimonious comments on the audio discussion forums.

The product under review is the Amp 2400, a new Class “D”, two-channel amplifier by a small New Jersey-based company called Amped America owned by the designer, Boris Meltsner. Boris, originally from Russia, an electrical engineer and a respected audio technician by trade, has been servicing and repairing many different audio brands for 45 years and was an authorized technician for such companies as McIntosh and Adcom before starting Amped America. (NOTE: Boris has had to put up with a somewhat inordinate delay with the publication of this review due to some health issues I had to address in the middle of the review period. Boris, thank you for being both patient and gracious!!)

The Amp 2400, the company’s latest (and most powerful) of the company’s 2-channel amplifiers, is a Class D stereo power amplifier (made in the USA), producing a stated 400 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 800 watts per channel into 4 ohms. The Amped America website is not exactly brimming with loads of information on the switching or power module technology under the hood and there was no Owner’s Manual in the box. When I asked Boris if there was any design or technology information not on the Amped America website that he wanted readers or prospective buyers to know about, other than a few paragraphs, Boris emailed me about his attitude toward amplifier design, stating that it was all on the website. However, what he DID send me was so priceless, unique, and simple that I thought it was worth telling the reader in Boris’s own words:

“In Russia, where I am from, we have said, ‘Ваш локоть близко, но вы не можете его укусить” English: “Your elbow is close, yet you can’t bite it.” “This is how I think about amplifier design. Superb performance is close but elusive. Perfect on paper; nothing special in sound, and often bad reliability. Pretty chassis, maybe, but who cares if it doesn’t work and the sound is bad. There are many ways of design and many specifications. In the real world, most glitter, but no gold”.

What Boris does pronounce is that the Amp 2400 features Amped America’s proprietary input stage designed from the ground up called “Audiophile Ultra Sonic Performance” (AUSP) technology, delivering ‘unmatched’ performance with “Fully Protected High-Efficiency Power Supply and Auto Selectable Mains” (EPS). Boris also said the Amp 2400’s 50-Ohm input impedance ensures it will work with any preamp – tubed or solid-state – analog or digital. It appears to me that Boris would rather just let his Amp 2400 do the talking and not get bogged down into the inevitable debate about whether the internal modules are OEM and/or were sourced and rebranded Hypex or NCore or PuriFi vs. ICEpower or [fill in the blank] and then modified by the manufacturer.

Speaking to Boris on the phone with his heavy accent reminds me of talking to one of my all-time favorite and most respected audio designers also from Russia, Vladimir Lamm (f/k/a Vladimir Shushurin before he became a U.S. citizen). Vladimir, as you likely know if you have been around this hobby at all for the last 2 decades is the designer and owner of Lamm Industries. Vladimir is the architect behind the highly acclaimed line of power amplifiers and line stage and phono preamps including my long-time reference amps, the Lamm M1.2 Reference mono-blocks that have served me faithfully for 16 years.

Aesthetically, the Lamm M1.2 Reference amps are like the beefier, Class A equivalent of Boris’s Amp 2400. The Lamm, like the Amp 2400, isn’t about fancy face plates or pretty machined knobs or meters and the chassis are all business and no fluff. When I mentioned to Boris that the only amplifier, I had in house to compare his Amp 2400 to were my Lamm mono-blocks – which I told him our readers might think unfair – Boris welcomed the comparison and boldly predicted his Amp 2400 would better the much more expensive Lamm. (Boris must be eating the same brand of spinach that Jeff Smith has been eating – who made a similar prediction in my last review – claims of which Jeff backed up!)

As alluded to above, the Amp 2400 is not what anyone would call “eye candy” or appeal to the discriminating audiophile that places equal emphasis on both the electronics and the “audio jewelry” factor or demands the chassis be on par, both visually or weight-wise, with such SOTA designs by CH-Precision, Ypsilon, Soulution, D’Agostino or Boulder to name a few.

The Amp 2400 weighs a mere 17.5 pounds, measuring 19” X 3.5” X 12.25” in a plain black anodized aluminum chassis that would be at home in any home theater system. The only operational part of the front faceplate is a Stand-By power button. On the rear of the Amp 2400, there are two XLR input connectors and two gold-plated RCA input connectors (with a toggle switch to select between balanced and unbalanced inputs); an input connector and toggle switch for a 12-volt In/Out Remote Trigger; two pair of speaker binding posts (more on these later); the IEC AC power inlet; and the mains power switch.

Connecting the Amp 2400 to my speakers presented a challenge and caused a delay that is not necessarily the fault of the Amp 2400 — but for those who use ribbon cables with wide connectors or beefy spade lugs, the binding posts are extremely close together and may present connectivity challenges. (See my DiDiT review – editor).

Not only are the + and the – binding posts for each channel extremely close together but the two channels are right next to each other. That factor combined with clear plastic connectors over the metal contact point in the binding post made it impossible for me to connect my Fidelium speaker cables. Thankfully, Jeff Smith at Silversmith Audio is as creative as he is accommodating, and he designed and built a pair of adapters and sent them to me to help connect my Fidelium speaker cables to the Amp 2400. [NOTE: to anyone who owns the Silversmith Fidelium and runs into this issue, Silversmith is now making these adapters available to the public).

IS BIGGER AND HEAVIER ALWAYS BETTER?

Before describing the sound of the Amp 2400 right out of the box, let me admit that no matter how hard I try or claim to be unbiased and objective, in my life I have been, like many others, shaped by my life experiences and may see life influenced by or though that prism of experiences (which some might call biases). I am also a bit older than some of the readers who have grown up with many of the latest advancements who may not have the same earlier influences I do. (That makes two of us-! editor).

What I am referring to here is the inescapable propensity to think that bigger and heavier is better. After all, the audio world that shaped my earlier impressions pounded into my head that separates were better – many times because a big beefy transformer-based power supply produced better sound. Just look at my system! My CD player weighs 64 pounds, my phono stage is a three-chassis design with two separate power supplies with the entire package tipping the scale at over 100 pounds and my mono-blocks weigh 64 pounds each (which, today, is relatively light when compared to other Class A designs) and my turntable weighs 100 pounds! Hell, my unloaded audio rack even weighs in at over 600 pounds!

Having been around this hobby for a long time, what I find fascinating is that, with so many other aspects of our society embracing inclusivity and breaking down gender barriers, my “observation” is that the pursuit or enjoyment of high-end audio equipment (not music) may be the last and most male-dominated hobby in the world. As a top-ranked competitive amateur bodybuilder in the 80s and 90s, I had the pleasure and privilege of training many world-class female bodybuilders in the early 80s when female bodybuilding was still in its early stages.

Like those amazing athletes and many other female athletes from Danica Patrick and Rhonda Rousey to, just recently, Sarah Fuller, the first female athlete to play and score in men’s college football at Vanderbilt, we have seen amazing female competitors in what were formerly thought to be “male-only” endeavors that would have been unheard of just decades earlier. Yet, in my 40+ years in this hobby, I have never personally talked to any of my female friends that had any interest whatsoever in the “high-end audio equipment” side of audio/music. Look at the audio forums or, better yet, look at the attendance at audio shows since the 1990s.

Sure, there has been a female audio reviewer or two here and there (Sue Kraft comes to mind) and you do see some females at Audio shows (assuming those women haven’t just decided to put up with their significant other’s OCD indulgences. Assuming they are not using screen names that purposely obfuscate their gender, 99% of the people I have dealt with or chatted with and ultimately met through the audio forums, at audio shows or stores, or as a reviewer has been men.

My take on this phenomenon is that women can and do connect with the music regardless of what gear is delivering it while many of us men cannot escape that inherent or subconscious Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor testosterone-induced belief that bigger and more powerful is better when it comes to audio equipment. And, as mentioned above, there is a decent and, many would say, the scientifically justified basis for this belief has given traditional class A or A/B or even push-pull amplifier designs where better power supplies (which mean bigger, heavier transformers and heat sinks) can and do at times produce better sound. But we audiophiles can be resistant to change – whether it’s tubes to transistors, LPs to CDs or transformer and heat sink based power supplies to pulse-width modulated, switching power supplies.

I will not, nor could I do justice, to a white paper or technical explanation on Class D or their switching power supplies. Suffice it to say that when a new technology is introduced in this hobby, like so many new ideas in audio, it has to “earn its stipes” and expect to be being battered and critiqued and then remain standing when the bell rings in the 15^th round if it wants to remain around in high-end audio. Although Class D amplification has been around since the 1950s, it was not until the development of MOSFET technology that, in 1978, allowed Sony to introduce the TA-N88, the first class-D unit to employ power MOSFETs and a switched-mode power supply. The first class-D amplifier based integrated circuit was released by Tripath in 1996. As most audio devotees know, Class D amplification has the advantage of being light and more efficient than a linear amplifier with less power dissipated as heat in the active devices. Because of these attributes, Class D amplification has been in commercial use with regularity in live music applications (PA devises), portable sound implication, bass amplifiers, subwoofer amplification, hearing aids, powered speakers, and home theater applications

As I recall (feel free to correct me on this), Class D amplification was introduced to “high-end audio” around 15-20 years ago. Back in the early 2000s, I owned two different models of high-end speakers by respected speaker manufacturer Kharma International (I reviewed their Midi-Grands). In 2005, Kharma’s U.S. Distributor sent me a pair of Kharma’s Matrix MP150 Class D mono-block amplifiers to audition with my Kharma Midi-Grands. The MP150s retailed then for $6,800.00. Bruno Putzeys, who developed the patent on which the MP150s were based, worked for Kharma back then and headed up the MP150 design team. The MP150s weighed in at whopping 7 pounds and were rated at 100 watts into 8 ohms and 150 watts into 4 ohms. While I remember being impressed with their power rating for such a relatively diminutive amplifier and their even-handed sound, I also remember them as having a relatively unexciting, tactile yet pleasant sound.

At that time, I had moved up from my Lamm M1.1s Monos to the updated Lamm M1.2 References amps and a set of OTL mono-blocks that, to me, were one of the best sounding amplifiers whose amazing performance was exceeded only by its propensity to break down. Perhaps because the MP150s were up against that level of competition, I also remember me thinking the MP150s had shown promise but were not quite ready to challenge the Class A reference amplifiers of the day. Over the ensuing years, I heard several much less expensive Class D amplifiers and my general impression was that driving sub-woofers were excellent but the main speakers were not yet quite ready for prime time in high-end applications.

Since that time a slew of Class D amplifiers have been offered to the audiophile community ranging from reasonably priced (e.g., from hundreds of dollars to low four-figure price tags) offerings from companies such as Lyngdorf, Wyred 4 Sound, NAD, Peachtree Audio, Jeff Rowland, and PS Audio to the current and very much higher priced designs by Merrill Audio, Mola-Mola (a collaboration between Bruno Putzeys and his old partner at Hypex, Jan-Peter van Amerongen) and Aavik Acoustics to name just a few.

AND NOW; THE AMP 2400 SOUND

After getting my speaker cable connection issue resolved, I sat down to just listen and relish the music. As it happens, I was quite pleasantly surprised and these first impressions were quite positive. Could I have been pre-judging this plain little diminutive black box – especially sitting between two big reference mono-blocks? The music was conveyed with drive and energy. It wasn’t sterile or uninvolving. It was neither polite or rolled off nor unduly analytical or bright. As the evening progressed, I just kept listening and very much enjoying the music trying to refrain from evaluating or trying to nit-pick, I could go down that road starting the next night – but the point being that I did very much find this little amplifier bringing a smile to my face as it drove my system.

On day two, I started to listen to several albums that I both enjoy and know extremely well. Here is where I had to confront my biases and preconceived notions. As I threw away any preconceived biases based on price, size, and weight, let alone any Class D bias, it became apparent that you can teach this old horse some new tricks! For the second time in just my 4^th review for The Sound Advocate, I was being forced to admit that my “Doubting Thomas” attitude based on preconceived notions was being put to the test. I started with a 1998 album by Max Carl and Big Dance featuring Glenn Fry One Planet, One Groove [1998 Mission Records MSN-2001-2]. This upbeat album has an excellent mix of soulful vocals, in-the-groove bass and drums, an excellent horn section and features one of my favorite instruments, the Hammond B-3. I was immediately impressed with the size and depth of the soundstage. No shrunken “between the speakers” sound stage here. The Amp 2400 gave up nothing to the Lamms in this area.

What also immediately struck me was both how the music sprang forth from a black, dead silent background and just how balanced the sound was. No one part of the frequency spectrum seemed hyped up or overemphasized nor was any part weak, thin, or recessed. On “Everything Old is New Again” Max Carl’s B-3 solo was rendered with that rich, robust distinctive tone and soulful bite that only a Hammond B-3 can produce. The marching drum sequence at the end had sufficient whack, thud, and that resonating skin effect that lets you know it’s a marching drum and not tom-tom or tympani.

The Amp 2400 graciously offered up a front-row presentation and the midrange was as fleshed out as I have heard it in my system with good tonal color and texture, On “I Qualify” from the same CD, the Amp 2400 reproduced a pace-setting bass line with its emphasis on the “1” with sufficient visceral presence and impact without sounding bloated or thin. Then, on the driving rendition of the great Delta Blues song “Rollin N’ Tumblin”, drummers Glen Caruba and David Johnson join Carl in a trio of rollicking drum cadences that was so realistically reproduced anyone not tapping their feet would have to be either deaf or have no sense of rhythm. So much for bland Class D amplification!!

On its1998 self-titled debut album CPR (also billed as Crosby, Pevar & Raymond) [1998 Samson Music GC-0145] was a jazz-rock band consisting of legendary singer-songwriter David Crosby (founding member of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), session guitarist Jeff Pevar, and Crosby’s son and keyboardist James Raymond.

The band reminds one of CS&N with poignant lyrics, delicate and vibrant acoustic and electric instrumentation, and, as you’d expect from David Crosby, excellent vocals with three-part harmonies. On “Morrison” the haunting melody about the Doors’ lead singer, Jim Morrison’s, life and death, both the guitar and piano had excellent body and tone and Crosby’s voice sounded as we have come to know it, distinctive, soulful and, at times, properly gruff and biting.

The treble response was very rewarding, quite extended and commensurate with the Amp 2400’s full-bodied and fleshed out midrange. The bass was also sufficiently impactful and not out of balance with the rest of the frequency spectrum – also without purposely overemphasizing the mid-bass as with many other designs (which, I admit, at times, can tend to give music more drive and energy and make the music more enjoyable with source material). Macro-dynamics and macro-detail were also notably good through the Amp 2400. Crescendos were reproduced with relative ease while quieter passages were also rendered proportionately with good stereo image positioning and the musicians laid out across the stage with realistic size and placement.

COMPARISONS: DAVID VS. GOLIATH? (Or Just An Unfair Comparison?)

Comparing Lamm and Amped America — **Lamm M1.2 monoblocks**

AMP 2400 by Amped America! — **Amped America Amp 2400**

In This Corner, in Black, Weighing in at 137 Pounds, the Current Heavyweight Champion – it’s the 110 Watt, Class A, Lamm M1.2 Reference Monos – – – And In this Corner, Also in Black, Weighing in at 17 pounds – it’s the Flyweight Contender, the 400 Watt, Stereo, Class D, AMP 2400 by Amped America!!!

In this prizefight, the only similarities between the two components are they are both power amplifiers housed in non-descript black boxes designed by knowledgeable and experienced Russian-born designers. However, it’s 137 lbs. of mono-blocks vs. 17 lbs. of stereo amp; pure Class A vs.Class D; and an MSRP of $32,490 vs. $5,000 – will blatantly show how quickly the similarities end. If that is patently unfair, so be it – because Boris welcomed the challenge — so here we go.

Moving on to the fourth cut of the CPR CD entitled “At the Edge”, through the Amp 2400, as I listened to this song I have heard so many times over the past 20 years I was impressed at the overall excellent presentation through the Amp 2400. I did detect a relaxed yet ever so slightly muted sound to the leading-edge transients of the guitars that my memory told me I had not heard through my reference Lamms. After the Lamms were reinserted in my system, this impression was accurate. The Lamms simply rendered leading edge and trailing transients with more finesse and, to my ears, were “a bit” closer to the real sound of the instrument.

The best analogy I can make of this slightly more blunted or rounded leading edge transient difference would be to think of the sound of a drummer’s stick with normal nylon or wooden tips striking the snare versus the sound of that same stick hitting the snare with duct tape on the tips. The former will produce a tighter, sharper, faster sound versus the latter’s slightly slower or blunted initial attack. Similarly, the overall micro-dynamics of the gently plucked guitar strings and trailing decay were more fully developed, and their metallic sheen rendered “a tad” more realistically through the Lamms. These sonic differences were confirmed when I pulled out another turn of the century fav – Patricia Barber’s Verse [2002, Blue Note 7243 5 39856 2 2] which, in my book, is her best effort.

In a completely fortuitous happenstance, in early 2003, I had listed a set of speakers for sale on one of the widely-used audio websites and had an interested party from the Chicago area who took me up on my offer to listen to the speakers at my home. A very amiable and musically knowledgeable guy named Mike showed up at my home for the audition and we listened for a while before he told me his last name was Arnopol and that he played bass in Patricia Barber’s band. So, being a Patricia Barber fan, I broke out this CD and he liked what he heard and we closed the sale. I then made it a point to go hear Mike and Patricia Barber’s band live many times and they are as good as advertised.

The second track on Verse, “Lost in This Love,” features a series of witty word-play questions resulting from newfound infatuation. Its offbeat meter is catchy and a great backdrop for Neal Algers’ wonderful guitar work. His acoustic solo on this tune fits the tune perfectly and the natural sound of his nylon strings was produced nicely through the Amp 2400.

However, through the Lamms, Algers’ distinctive tone was now accompanied by a slightly quicker transient attack, natural and believable decay and the right amount of air and space to show this amazing guitar player’s chops. This track also allowed me to hear Mike Arnopol’s excellent acoustic bass work that sets the foundation for this song. There was no mistaking Mike’s instrument for electric bass and his percussive finger-work through the Lamms was more palpably “acoustic,” yet not too anemic, and with more nuance, than you get through an acoustic bass that makes live jazz so spontaneous and exciting.

Next, on the fifth cut of the Verse CD, “I Could Eat Your Words,” an intensely sensual love song (have you ever had a crush on a professor?) the Amp 2400 again did a commendable job with imaging, soundstage, and overall balanced and expanded frequency response that kept my interest throughout the tune. However, when compared to the much more expensive Lamms, as a trumpet player, Dave Douglas’s solo was breathtakingly reproduced with all of the soul, breath, bite and growl of this immensely talented artist. When that kind of realism comes though, when Douglas’s purposeful cracked notes and melodic lines are so real you worry his spit valve might be emptied on you, music connects with you in the most intimate way. The Amp 2400 got me 80-90% of the way to sonic nirvana on this intense song, but the Lamms hit me full tilt.

Finally, on Steely Dan’s turn of the Millennium album, Two Against Nature, [2000,Giant Records 9 24719-2], I queued up “What A Shame About Me.” This self-effacing, lament is consummate Fagen and Becker showing why they’ve stayed relevant for decades. The song is driven by Becker’s deep bass lines and excellent solo guitar work. The Amp 2400 infused the music with energy, drive and it threw a huge stage with a copious amount of detail. The tonal balance was on the weighty side and the Amp 2400 wasn’t fazed by higher decibels. With truly impressive resolving power the Class D Amp 2400 took me on a surprisingly joyous ride as this song usually does when reproduced well – all in all, the Amp 2400 was a sheer joy to listen to on this tune.

The Amp 2400 sound stage was just as wide as the Lamms. However, the bigger, more costly Monoblock’s threw a slightly deeper soundstage – helped, in large part, by that clearer delineation of each instrument on that stage. This is not disjointed, artificial detail, or intentionally hyped-up audio pyrotechnics I am talking about here. Fagen’s piano tone was spot on as it was through the Amp2400. However, the development of the note as the hammer hits the piano string was more natural, quicker, and clearer. Again, the attack, sustain, and decay was more realistic because this quicker attack is followed by the proper development of the notes.

For me, the more natural sound of an instrument depends on how the note starts and ultimately stops. With some instruments that process is shorter with the start and stop occurring quickly. If I blow a short staccato note through a wind instrument, the sound starts and stops quicker than if I strike a cymbal with a nylon tipped drumstick or pluck an acoustic bass string without muting the string afterward. What’s in between those starts and stops is just as important if you want to realistically reproduce the sound of that instrument. This is not accomplished by making the attack louder, brighter, or rousing up any part of the frequency spectrum. It just requires an amp with not just excellent resolving power, but also one that can minimize any hint of graininess or abrasiveness and produce the instrument with the requite micro-textures or detail. This is where the Lamms separate themselves from the Amp 2400 as well as many other amplifiers I have auditioned throughout the years.

Although the Amp 2400 supplies the tunes with a great deal of energy and drive, part of that drive may be the result of a slight bump in the mid-bass region and the weightiness of the sound. That somewhat “thicker” transient attack and the mid-bass emphasis is gone with the Lamms.

What struck me as I penned this comparison section of the Amp 2400 and the Lamm M1.2 Reference mono-blocks and what I think the reader should take away from this review is the following: the manufacturer welcomed the comparison of its product with a component costing many multiples of review component; (2) these noted differences did not materially adversely impact my enjoyment of the Amp 2400’s overall presentation and, at six times the retail price, you should expect to get sonic improvements, not just hernia-inducing bragging rights.

Yes, for many a music-lover those slight improvements, those “a bit” or “a tad” better qualities may justify the price increase in this hobby where “the law of diminishing returns” is a given. That said, when $$$ do matter and you can produce close to 90% of the sound of a much higher-priced Component X with Component Y at only 20-25% of the price, that’s a win-win-win for anyone wanting to get the biggest and best bang for their audio buck!

FINAL THOUGHTS

After so much time enjoying this hobby, I still get a kick out of hearing a new reasonably priced component that can not only give the mega-priced components a run for their money but also a component that someone with those mega-priced components could revel in and live with. The diminutive Amp 2400 by Amped America and its designer. Boris Meltsner, the new King of One-Liners (“Your elbow is close, yet you can’t bite it”) have proven to this author yet again that good things come in small packages and that cost is, in so many instances, not necessarily always a factor in getting exceptional sound quality.

In this case, Amped America has delivered a huge 1-2 punch.! Do not be fooled into thinking the comparison to the Lamm M1.2 mono-blocks was me damming the Amp 2400 with faint praise. Instead, think of just what that comparison says. The $33K Lamm M.1.2 Reference amps (and its predecessor the M1.1) may be the most positively reviewed and praised solid-state amp ever – and yet, this Class D Amp 2400 with an MSRP of $5,000.00 weighing just 17 pounds stood up to that challenge admirably. The Amp 2400 made me a believer not just that Class D has the potential to deliver great sound but that it already does.!

The best praise I can honestly give the Amp 2400 is that, notwithstanding having owned, heard, or reviewed some of the finest and most expensive amplifier designs over the years, I could live with the Amp 2400 driving my current system any day of the week– and be happy with the sound it produces. When it comes to the majority of characteristics, I value in reproducing music and making it exciting to listen to, tonal naturalness, frequency balance, soundstage size, imaging, and sheer musicality, the Amp 2400 delivers just about all the sonic goods. While admittedly, it was never meant to be a Lamm… it certainly gets pretty darn close at a pittance of the price and is undoubtedly, among the most enjoyable sounding amplifiers I’ve heard; regardless of price and type. Now if I could ONLY bite my damn elbow!!!!!

REVIEW SYSTEM

^{Speakers: Rockport Aquila} ^{Amplification}^{: Lamm M1.2 Reference Monoblocks} ^{Preamplification:} ^{Line Stage}^{: conrad-johnson ART III w/ Telefunken CCa’s} ^{Phono Stage: Aesthetix Io Eclipse w/ Dual Power Supplies} ^{Digital Sources}^{: Esoteric K-01; Esoteric K-03; Reimyo 777 and AMR CD-77 DAC: Bricasti M1 SE} ^{Analog Sources: SME 30 Turntable w/ SME V Tonearm, and Dynavector XV-1s} ^{Rack: Silent Running Audio Triple Wide CRAZ Rack (main system); TimberNation Maple Audio Racks Cables: Silversmith Palladium speaker cables and interconnects;}^{Power Cables} ^{Conditioning:}^{Reimyo ALS-777 power conditioner (DAC and Reimyo only); 20 amp dedicated AC lines}.