Quote:
Originally Posted by turntable
Thank you for the review, very informative. One man question is. The cj350sa was a very high gain amp and in my experience just a little to noisy and that noise could be seen as a_bit of edge and that was it biggest fault IMO.
How is the new amp as far as noise for and overall noise floor. It seems that the new amp is a little tighter in the bass, more neutral through the MIDs anspd has that classic ck upper frequency sweetness and extension. I could be reading that wrong?
BTW, as a owner of the ART1, ART3, GAt and 350 twice, the overall impression of the Teflon calls being lean or similar is incorrect. Yes they take an age to break in. But once they do, they sound like or running water. The non Teflon cap versions soud grainy in comparison.
|
First, let me preface by saying that while comparisons with the PR350 are interesting and inevitable, the more I have listened to my MF2550 (non-SE), the less I think it should be compared with the PR-350 in important respects. It does have many of the strengths of the 350, particularly the sense of effortless power, pulse, and grace on even the most challenging musical passages, but it's more traditionally CJ voiced, and for that reason, easier to live with (for me!!!). Both are great in their own right with a wonderful sense of open, airy, unconstrained sound. That said, I've never had any issues with the noise floor of the 2550 in my system, the gain seems normal to me. The design is so different from that of the 350, I wouldn't expect the same issues to arise in that regard. I also found that "edge" in the 350 a bit too much for me, but whether it's because of the gain or the Teflon, I can't say. For sure, it's not there in the standard MF2550, which is a very sweet, lush amp, and indeed, more "neutral" in the midrange. I find it highly detailed nonetheless.
The real question for anyone shopping the new amp is whether to spring for the extra 50% for the SE model of the 2550. For sure, doing so is a no-brainer for the ET3 preamp and for my Classic SE pre-amp, where the Teflon caps added major bass and high freq extension, which both of those products sorely lacked in their standard version. But, I don't see any such deficit in that regard in the standard MF2550. BTW, while I agree that the earlier SS CJ amps (eg, the MF2250) could get a little grainy, the MF2550, being a totally different design, is totally grain-free in both of its iterations, with or without the Teflon caps. It's simply a great amp for the money, and maybe that's the best way to look at it, rather than as a piece of exotica, which the rather temperamental (and great) PR-350 most surely was.