They don't do much to inspire, even the Competition series at non afordable prices have gold plated nothing lol ! SQ ? ummmmmmmmmm Not worth the money, not available in OZ, But if there as good as there asking price, I should be able to hear & enjoy yours from here !!!!!!!!
the symbilink connectors and RCAs are gold plated, which only means they won't oxidize. the 16 volt phantom powered balanced line inputs are great when used with their signal processing.
Graeme, have you ever seen a Zapco amp in person? There are a LOT of things you can't get in Australia or New Zealand. By no means does this make the product any better or worse. It simply demonstrates the crappy importation taxation for your country.
I agree they are expensive, but no more so than most audiophile quality gear. You're paying a little over $1 per watt for power, which is what Orion and RF amplifiers cost when they were top rated as well. Same with McIntosh and Arc Audio currently.
Keep in mind one reason Zapco amps are so expensive is that up to the 9.0X and 4KW, all amps are class AB, NOT class D. the 9.0XD and 4KW are one of the only audiophile full range class D amps on the market, able to run more than just subs.
I hate to say it but if you think $2,500 is a lot for an amplifier, never get into home audio. a 250 watt x 2 @ 8 ohm Krell class A amplifier for the home runs about $15,000. That's US, not Kiwi.
Sorry GlassWolf just a bit of humour, My home system consists of Mark Levinson mono blocks $10,000, Martin Logan full range electrostatic speakers $13,000, etc and my Dedicated Theater room consists Pioneer VSX-AX10i (VSX-49TXi)AV amp $6,000 Colin Whatmought Sig Monitors 502 $ 7,000 overhead projector & 112" screen twin B&W Subs etc quality def does not come cheap, much to the disgust of my wife ! I am only just getting into car audio and have found that its such a lousy environment to try and achieve good SQ. It just may take me a while to accept that there are people out thier that will spend big $$ on car audio and make it their passion like I have with my home audio.
I'm learning very quickly though !
Regards GK
ps You are right about imported products in to australia, if we do get them here, they come with a huge price tag.
yup. I have a friend trying to find a car, and was looking to import one. the taxation is horrendous to bring a car into AU. I have other friends who buy computer parts and build their own PCs in AU as well and they pay at least half again more than I do. ugh.
which ML ESLs are you using? I'm using Odysseys with Krell amplification.
I also have a pair of KEF 104/2 Reference mains I like a lot. Old stuff but one of the only non ESL speakers I'm really fond of.
The Odyssey are a mighty fine transducer and with Krell amplification, nice. I have the 1998 Quest, (Traded in the Infinity Kappa 9's on them and an ME 750 on the Mark Livinson's) I dont get to listen to them much any more as the Home Theater system entertains the whole family and when I listen to my Jazz (port in hand)its usually on my own. The ESL'S have such nice transparency & openness, instruments like the sax and female voices are just incredibly open & fluid. just sucks u in
I was in the Melb Audio club for about 9 years and in that time, looking for that proverbial perfect sound, some very nice equipment passed thru, but now I'm married with 2 kids & Hi Fi equipment has taken a back seat.
But there are ways of getting around the wife, move out to the car ! can you get 12 volt Krell's ? HAHAHA
yeah most of my listening at home is female vocalists, jazz, or stuff like pink floyd. It works very well with the ESLs. When I auditioned them, I listened to some jazz, and it was difficult to separate from being in a live club with my eyes closed. I could pick out each musician, and which way the person was facing by listening to the music. That's not an easy feat from any speaker system. The ESLs seem to help a lot in eliminating point sourcing and pinpointing where the speaker is actually sitting, which is great for non-studio recordings of live performances.