Search the Community

I am a long-time Arcam fan, I have to say, with my current Alpha 10 having formed the central hub of my system for almost 15 years now; prior to that it was an Arcam Delta 290. For the most part, the AA10 has been happily driving a pair of B&W P4 speakers and producing a lovely sound. A couple of years ago, the upgrade bug bit courtesy of Pete Chew's PMC OB1 speakers. They were a huge improvement in sound and the Arcam handles them well enough - for most purposes. I have always wanted a pair of monoblocks, long-since figuring that would be my own personal audio nirvana. I almost picked up a pair about 15 months ago, class D, very efficient (rings my bell) and putting out some crazy amount of power, but the vendor packed them up to take with him to the States before I got in. Thinking that was my chance for reasonably-priced monoblocks gone, I investigated standard class A/B amps. I tested out a 3rd-hand power amp from a guy in these forums. High end, with price to almost match what I paid for the speakers, it gave a nice, detailed sound with the PMCs, but too rich a price for my blood compared with the sound improvement. It was not better than the Arcam alone for sure, but not *that* much better with the power amp than without it; the Arcam was good enough on my price-performance balance. Then I found a few ME power amps up for sale and picked up the ME85 last August or so, I think. In fact, it was. Good workhorse, sounds lovely, matches the sound (and price) of the Arcam well and supplies ooomph - what's not to love? That it matched the Arcam sound was important but not a deal breaker - I still have the Arcam to fall back on after all. As it happens, the ME powered the bass- and mid drivers well and the Arcam still handled the HF; the overall sound was very nice - not too different to the Arcam sound on its own but with an octave or so lower. Bonus! Arcam still gets a (minor) workout and acts as pre- to the ME. No worries, all is well; money well spent. Only slight problem - its trigger is 12V but the Arcam pre- only puts out 5V. But of a pain, I (more importantly, my other half and I) have to bend over every night to put it into stand-by and every day to power it on - see here for the layout of the system. Not insurmountable but makes my other half look askance and wonder if the power amp is worth it, really. She indulged me a little, I feel... So then a pair of Wyred 4 Sound mono-blocks came up for sale. Digital, shed-loads of power, efficient and... mono-blocks! Good price, too, not dissimilar to that I paid for the ME85. Even better I could leave these beasts on all the time as the efficiency means not much heat output and not much power usage. They might just be better than the ME85 for the power amp needs I have. Ok, they were in ACT and I had to pay to get them here; a bit of a risk - I might not like them. Having looked at class D amps before and into people's opinions of them I know they aren't for everyone. But then, nothing to stop me moving them on and keeping what I have if I *really* didn't like the sound. Raw specs, I think the ME are (possibly conservatively rated at about 125W and the W4S 500s at 230W into 8 ohm speakers. On paper at least, they should be better if more power is better. Two weeks ago tomorrow, they arrived and I put them into action last weekend to see what they were like. Did I like them? I should coco! The vendor was right - big sound stage (high and wide) and lots of bass. More controlled bass than the ME gave, but the sound as a whole was more open and detailed. Drums sounded more drum-like; movie soundtracks have bass slam. Vocals were set apart from the other sounds and the instruments in acoustic recordings were distinct and in place on the 'stage'. The mid was clearer, I suspect, and possibly less overpowered by the bass? Whatever the reason, there is bass and there is detail. Win-win! The most obvious factor, though, was this new sound had much more treble evident. Even my other half noticed that. It was not unbearable - I have heard oil-can tweeter sounds and did not like it one bit! - but this HF was possibly a little out of balance. it wasn't horribly out of place but it was a noticeable change, akin to the a colour appearing to differ depending on what colour is put next to it is the only way I can think of describing the effect. Anyway, I lived with it for a few days and still enjoyed the better bass and extra detail with a whole range of audio and audio-visual soundtracks pounding through the system. I could leave it as it was but I made a mental note to just try letting the W4S handle all speaker duties and have the Arcam acting as a pure pre-amp. Surely a power amp was not going to alter the treble that much though? So on Friday evening I reconfigured the cables and, while I was there, removed the Arcam speaker cable and put in the external contacts that came with the speakers to connect the tweeters to the mid-range cones. I wasn't expecting a huge difference in sound so I threw in my Farscape DVD and continued watching while getting the dinner going. As soon as I powered it all up, though, the music for the series sounded far less prominent. The tweeters were working, weren't they? Yes, no duff contacts, the HF was there, just less in-your-face than with the Arcam handling the tweeters. The sibilants were clear and present, that open sound seemed a little more, errrrr, open and that deep, controlled bass is still there. This is getting better all the time! That wide sound stage seemed to have widened a little more: Farscape's soundtrack is, for the most part, well engineered for a surround sound and the effects come out of the wall, across the TV and out into the hallway now. Anyway, AV duties for the rest of the evening gave me more confidence that this pair of amps had really exceeded my expectations. Still, I had to try my reference audio tracks before making any firm decisions. That was Saturday morning's job. All the usual suspects put the new system through its paces. "Season of Hollow Soul" had that double bass there, to the right on my wall, just by the cat tea light holders. The vocals were clearly centre-stage as kd should be. "So What" from "Kind of Blue" had each instrument in its place, but that wider sound-stage could have been a problem: greater separation of instruments is fine as long as the whole is not compromised. No worries there, that separation just seems to provide a more coherent whole. It makes little logical sense to me, but it is definitely so; the extra width has not torn down the sound image in its joyous presentation of individual instruments. A Chinese drum poem next... Man, those drums sound real! Again, the separation is in evidence, that big central drum is steadfast in the middle and you can feel its power. The lighter drums around it were easily positioned in my mind's eye. The stick and drum-edge hits had attack and that woody quality to them, with resonance appropriate. And so-on through the rest of the test tracks... Classical music sounded more like an orchestra, "Night on a Bare Mountain" pinned my ears back to the side of my head... Complex Yes music was nicely defined with Howe's guitar sounding live in my room and Squire's bass nicely positioned on the right side of the stage... REM's "Try not to breathe" had those lovely tinkling bells at the start and the rest of the production has not sounded better in my room... Something I just noticed as I type this: silence is, well, silent. No stray whispers or resonances creeping into the ears from unruly cones, the amps are keeping tight hold of the PMC speakers. If there is attack, they attack, decay is well-behaved and a dead stop in the music - eg "Beds Are Burning" or similar staccato effects - results in a black lack of sound. Whether it is coal-black, jet-black or, as LHH would have it, obsidian I don't feel qualified to comment. I do know that it is blacker than the ME gave and that is all I need. That extra mid clarity and wide sound stage only adds to the enjoyment. So here are the little beauties and in my set up. I could easily power them down if I want to but I am currently leaving them on. They don't get hot and they are often in use, definitely for several hours daily. All in all, do I love them? Absolutely! A good deal? Definitely (thank you LHH). Am I keeping them? I should coco! The ME85 is still in place, but it is only acting as a cat deterrent at the moment, as the younger cat will lie in any available cosy wooden hole she can find. One day I will find something else to do that as the ME 85 is likely to be put up for sale. For now, though, I am off to enjoy the W4S sound some more. Bbs...

Hey Guys, I have a few power amps for sale, I still have to get my act together and get the photos done. 1) Item: ME85 Location: Sydney Item Condition:Good Reason for selling:Too Many Power Amps Price: $1400 Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, DD Extra Info: * The ME85 uses the same output stage as that used in the ME850. * The ME85 uses a 1,800VA power transformer. (i think its this or the 1200VA) * The ME85 has 130,00uF capacitance. * The ME85 employs 4 Watts Class A bias current. Trevor Wilson from Rage Audio told me this about some of the amps i had:- " If I had to describe the sound quality, I would suggest that the ME85 is closer to the sound of the ME850 than it is to the ME75 / ME750. The ME85 is superior in almost every way to the ME750. The ME85 is, except for the power supply and the amount of Class A, identical to the ME850. The ME85 has the same amount of filter capacitance as the ME750. " It has been recently serviced plus has had some upgrades done to it (ie new set of front end transistors etc)... I cant quite remember all that was upgraded. I dont have any pictures of it at the moment. Looks like a ME75 but with a Gold Plate in the front like the ME850. 2) Item: ME 150 Location: Sydney Item Condition:Good Reason for selling:Too Many Power Amps Price: $1800 Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, DD Extra Info: I will get more information to add. It has a 5000Va Power Transformer. It weighs around 35+ kgs. It is the earlier model of the ME 1400 / 1500 i believe. Was serviced about 5 years ago i believe. 3) Item: ME 850 Location: Sydney Item Condition:Good Reason for selling:Too Many Power Amps Price: $2300 Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, DD Extra Info: the ME850 uses a 2,500VA transformer. It has 260,000uF filter capacitance. It employs 16 Watts Class A bias current. It was serviced last year and had a replacement of the fan support system, new electrolytic caps in the control module and both output modules. It also had installed new thermal sensors. It also weighs around 35-40kgs i believe. 4) Item: ME 1200 Location: Sydney Item Condition:Good Reason for selling:Too Many Power Amps Price: $2900 Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, DD Extra Info: I dont have much info on this yet, Its just a beast. Looks a lot like the ME1400,1500 from what i remember on how they look. Its MASSIVE, weighs around 50-60kgs i believe. Was serviced around 2 years ago. I think it is meant to have a 5000 Va Power transformer. It is just meant to be a Beast in every sense of the word. I am unsure if i even want to get rid of it still....