I agree Marv, you didn't even really talk like this about the 445. How is this thing compared to the top of the line EC tube amps? You admitted it has tube like qualities, is it close at plankton retrieval and micro dynamics?

So, speaker amp aside, where does this fall in the world of SS amps? How does it stack up the the venerable GS-X MK2?

Balanced dynalo in a fancy case for near $3000. Ridiculous wait times. Design from since the beginning of this century. There is bound to be progress.

I agree Marv, you didn't even really talk like this about the 445. How is this thing compared to the top of the line EC tube amps? You admitted it has tube like qualities, is it close at plankton retrieval and micro dynamics?

It was a matter of expectations. The 4-45, 2A3 custom / Levi, were incremental improvements to existing designs 2A3, BA, etc. where the sum of those increments lead to a significant jump into a higher league. In other words, the improvements were expected. Like asian parents expecting their children to graduate from Stanford, CalTech, Bezerkley.

Having heard the Rag at the last OC meet, where Greed, OJ, ultrabike, and I traded pained grimace expressions with each other, I did not expect this at all. I kind of got a hint of the potential at the big Changstar Bay Area before that; but the Rag at the OC meet sounded harsh. But then again, everything at that meet sounded harsh and nasty, I know from my experience in my house that the power supplies in the circlotron amps are very sensitive to the power line.

The Rag simply exceeded expectations - and in a big way. There's a reason why I never had any solid-state amps for serious listening in the house. (Correction: SS was regulated to sub or bass duties.)

Compared to the best tube amps I've heard, does the Rag resolve as well. I'd say no. But it's really not a straight comparison. The issue with tubes is that while they commit less sins of omission, they commit more sins of comission. So the 4-45 or Levi or whatever does all this plankton and microdynamic shit, but it's not as clean and precise. The Rag actually does get very close, but it does it in a very clean way on a blacker canvas.

Think of it kind of like ghosting on monitors. The Rag doesn't do the last few gradients of the dark shades better than 4-45 (or Levi or whatever), but it has a faster reaction time with less ghosting.

All this keeping in mind that the Rag is still #1 or #2 in terms of resolution of all SS amps I've heard including, some of the big boy two channel audio stuff (then again it's hard to say since I don't think highly of speaker designs with complex crossovers - which is pretty much 99% of what's commercially out there.) To borrow a phrase from Anax: "it's the most resolving SS amp I've ever heard".

This is all based on speaker listening against an EC Levi development amp I heard last night. The Rag kind of has unfair advantage because it so much more power (60 vs 6 in 8 ohms, and with a much better damping factor).

Speakers = real stage in front vs. headphones = "head-stage".

With real stage in front, more depth. Differences in stage, layering, separation, are even more apparent. Sound comes out from space on the stage and travels toward you. The ability of gear to be able to do this is more crucial with speaker than it is with headphones, not that it isn't important on headphones, just that it becomes an evem more important factor in the overall scheme of things for speakers.

Integrated amp = less crap in the signal chain - usually. Less amplification devices or buffers is better. In general, less crap better. This is why speakers with metal cones and 55 piece crossover networks sound dead.

Not if the integrated doesn't have a separate preamp stage inside but is switcher / volume control. The fact that the Rag uses a relay controlled resistors from volume control is even better.

The problem with pre-amps is that they are active devices - intended to drive cables of who knows what length to power amps. Reducing the space to a few cms from several meters without the need for active buffers will be more transparent; although some people do like a preamp to color the sound.

Not the same as putting a DAC inside an amp.