great picture! thanks for sharing. magnifying glass eh?
Yes, I just wanted to see what was inside the Amp on the PCB boards
Dear Sir,
thank you very much indeed for posting your valuable opinion and uploading those nice pictures.
I see you mention an amp I own, the Samson Servo 260.
While I am finding it quite musical I cannot get a satisfactory bass response from my speakers using it to drive them.
I like solid bass (i.e. deep, powerful and tight).
I think this is due mainly to a too weak transformer.
And the Behringer A500 is high on my most wanted list, in order to improve the impact in the bass.
I would like to ask you two things:
1) which are your main speakers?
2) have you compared the Behringer and the Samson in a full-range use?
From your pictures of the internals of the A500 it seems that the toroid is more powerful than the transformer inside the Samson.
Actually I am undecided between the A500 and the much more powerful EP1500, but I still wonder if the A500 could give me that strong bass I am looking for.
Thank you very much anyway and best regards,
beppe
italy
Hi Beppe
My One and only pair of speakers i use are for Hifi, are the Tannoy MX4M,s. no ones really heard of them, they werent reviewed at all, and were thought of as cinema speakers, and nothing much more. I previously had a pair of Acoustic Energy AE120's which were highly rated by what hifi at £500, 5 stars but the Tannoys for £350 RRP, (I paid £200), had everything i wanted, clear midrange, and very fast deep bass.
I have heard some almighty speakers in my time. Magneplanar, Quad ESL63,s , Harbeths and Castle to name but a few(freind in local village owned a hifi shop, i was like a kid in a candy shop) . But unless £1500 drops into my lap, i will keep these for a long time. I opened these up one time, and saw the bracing inside was very impressed for a "budget" speaker. The lack of colouration, and transparency is second to none for the price.
I always said the only significant step up for my headphones from my HD 580,s would be a pair of Stax. And the same with my speakers. The Acoustic energys were Shut in and a bit wooly in the bass. and very Annoyingly the drivers werent up to being driven loud. I have gone back for 2 drivers to AE, because the cone surrounds, are weak. And disentergrated through intense monitoring.
The Tannoys can be driven loud, and show real control. As well as wonderful focus and detail.
When i first had the Samson to drive my Rotel RC960 BX, I used the Samson,alone in a biwired setup, it all sounded very clean and crisp. I was (before searching for the A500), going to maybe get another Samson 260, but then i found out about the EP1500, and subsequently the A500. If i had the money i would have bought the EP1500.
Instead i thought i would try the A500, and if it was that good, sell the Samson 260 to pay for another A500 and do the monobloc thing.
So anyway After buying the A500, i ran it in for 2 days left it on all the time, and then started listening. Sounded a bit cold at first but even after 2 days then 3 it bloomed. Sounded weighty, rich, and had great depth. Pleasently surprised
Then i tried the Amp with the Samson, changing the Samson for the treble and midrange, and the A500 for the bass dutys, Focus was immediate and the depth of the soundstage opened up, the bass end of the A500 had weight, but well under control. I was listening to the usual mixture of Hifi testing music, Bill Frisell, Pink floyd, BT, Prodigy, Beck, Holst, Dvorak, Ozric tentacles. I played it loud and softly, the prodigy and BT, Ozrics stuff was played very loud, bordeline clipping. At All times was the Bass intact, and nothing seemed to be pushed too hard on either Amp. Thinking because the A500 was the cheaper less regarded Amp, I thought I would change the amps round, using the Samson for the bass dutys and the A500 for the mid/treble.
Wow, I kind of forgot, this cost me £116 and it sounded as good as my memory of the Audiolab 8000SX,s and Quad 405 2. Impossible??, you would have thought so. A few years back i had 3 8000SX's in triamped setup with the AE 120,s. And not so long back, Biamped with the current Tannoys, then after seeling them a pair of Quad 4052s, (that had, been modified at nett audio). Huntingdon
It does Sound exceptionally powerful, but musical. I dont, and did not expect to ever pay this money and get nowhere near the performance of my much more expensive former eqpt. The A500 sounded clearer, and so much more refined, and less cold and analitical as the Samson,(and, beppe had more weight) it was very musical. The extremist CD by Joe Satriani, has a great vast soundstage, and listening to Becks, "Mutations", which has a fantastic sound, you can reach into the depth and here the performers all before you with fantastic presence. I know that a few of the acoustic tracks were recorded live , bass, drums, vocals, guitars, altogether. the soundstage is excellenty presented. On the BT CD, you have something to test out the frequency extremes and bass control, the pace sometimes curdles the guts of bigger woofered creatures, but this was spot on. All the breakbeats and stereo effects faithfully reproduced. The Prodigys "Diesel power", on Fat of the land CD, has an awesome woofer killing bass, going deep into the 30HZ region.
This was handled extremely well, I didnt want to go higher as the cones were blasting out quite far. Then at night i played classical for a while. Its here, when paying out all that money on high end pays off, your not trying to faithfully reproduce the frequency spectrum of a harp or a violin when your listening to linkin park. ( i never would)
But that said, this gave a wonderful feeling of scale and defenition, that you would expect from, what had shown itself before.
Suffice to say that if the recording is good, this will reproduce it, as well as your source.
Elvin jones Drum kit was shimmering in my room, with all the subtle nuances and timbres of high hats, crashes, ride cymbals, sounding crisp and airy off the Bill Frissel CD. I know i have a tube CD player, but i felt that the sound was very tubesque. But i am yet to play any other CD, and have only heard my tubed CD player and the Rega planar 3. so perceived warmth might be just my sources. All the same It sounded excellent
I know so many people buy things and , even if they dont go mad on it, stick by their purchase, and say its so wonderful. Taking away the value factor, it sounds as good as my 8000SX,s. That is high praise indeed. Also considering i had an Audiolab 8000C pre Amp at the time, and now have a Rotel RC960BX, which is brilliant value. For your money, you cant go wrong.
The downsides are minimal, build quality, for the front fascia is poor and it looks ugly. I dont like the Blue led light, its brighter than a floodlight. I have changed the knobs (few photos of new knobs below), to some I had spare, the insides however look really impressive, the heatsinks, sides and back casing are very solid and well built, the circuit boards look well finished I just hope it lasts way beyond the warranty.
When buying this I saw on the box, "For use with Hifi components", alongside its PA capabilities, and "reference Amp". for once It all adds up.
My Ah Njoe tjoebe sings through this system quite happily, and i dont miss the More expensive hifi of old, I think it would cost a lot of money, to get that next significant stepup in quality. I do wonder if i bought a better CD player/Vinyl source, and an excellent preamp, how good it could get.
http://groups.msn.com/Spiritsoffreedomandfun/virus.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=62
http://groups.msn.com/Spiritsoffreedomandfun/virus.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=64
I know it doesnt look much better, its just those stock grey knobs are cheap and plastic, these ones are cheap and aluminium, i think they look marginally betterish
http://groups.msn.com/Spiritsoffreedomandfun/virus.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=67
and a pic of the stock knobs,
http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/shop_image/product/8422011e12b4ac98ad14bcbc46708b5e.jpg