has anyone seen detailed benchtop spec measurements on the Music Hall a70.2?

[lusich]

Hi everyone,

I like the audioholics amp reviews, because the reviewers take the time and the effort to do some real benchtop performance measurements.

I had recently been looking at buying a new integrated amp. I like the design and look of the Music Hall gear. They are also very reasonably priced. But I had not been able to find a detailed review showing performance measurements anywhere on the web for any of the Music Hall integrated amps. I have pretty demanding 4-ohm speakers and I wouldn't want the amp to struggle.

Has anyone perchance seen such a review for the Music Hall a70.2 amp? If so, could you please post a link below, or maybe a pdf scan if it is out of a magazine?

Thanks for your help.

 

[lusich]

Well, if anyone is interested, I found these German reviews at Home: STEREO | Zeitschrift für HiFi, High End & Musik (magazine issue 01/2013) and steroplay.de - st ero play Resources and Information. (magazine issue 05/2012).

It looks like the a70.2 performs quite well, it has good (flat) frequency response into both 8 and 4 ohms accross the spectrum, and decently low distortion values, especially up to 40W per channel.
THD at 50 mW | 5 Watt | Pmax -1dB = 0,05 | 0,01| 0,3 %.
Intermodulation at 50 mW | 5 Watt | Pmax -1dB = 0,008| 0,006 | 0,2 %.

It also seems to deliver plenty of sustained power into both 8 and 4 ohms (126W and 191W respectively), or at a different review RMS power 1 kHz, 1% THD at 8/4 Ω = 139/212 W. It also has no problems delivering plenty of power into 2 ohm loads.

However, the signal to noise ratio (Rauschabstand) seems quite a bit lower than the manufacturer specified claims of ">100 dB". Here are some measurements:
Line noise ratio = 89 dB
Phono MM-System/MC = 75 /-dB
SNR CD at 50 mW | 5 W = 63 | 82 dB
Noise ratio Phono MM at 5 watts = 74 dB

Also, I was expecting better channel separation than a 49 dB (Kanaltrennung) value for a supposed dual-mono design amplifier.
The damping factor at 4 ohms is 63, which while lower than some other amps, should be sufficient.

Here are some other measured values:
Upper cut-off frequency (-3 dB, 4 Ω) = > 80kHz
Crosstalk tuner/CD (10 kHz / 5 ohms) = 80 dB
Tracking error volume control to -60 dB = 0.6 dB

If someone can tell me how, I could post pdf or screenshots of the reviews.