Melos Check-In: Who's got one, once had one, or even just heard one? - Page 2

You found the Melos a little slow shivohum?? Thats interesting, I find it extremely fast, of course I dont have your experience with amplifiers. My experience with the Creek, the XCanV2, and the JMT Cmoy have led me to see the Melos as extremely fast, detailed, punchy, and having an unusually strong sense of rythm. How does the bass on the Micro-Zotl compare to the Melos in your opinion? When I first heard the Melos I thougt of it as slightly bright. So by slightly rolled off do you mean lacking airyness, or a little dark?

Smooth vs. detailed -- the things that seem to be mutually exclusive simply aren't in the Melos. Somehow the Melos is both. The Max, in my opinion--and especially for a solid state amp, is overly smooth to the point of sacrificing detail. Other amps like the HA-1 take the other side of it.

The Melos doesn't misplace any of the information but somehow presents it in a more palettable way. And like Mark, I don't know which way is more "correct" either. In the end, I'm not sure it matters.

Interesting comments on the ZOTL. My next next amp may well be either the ZOTL or the Melos.

Kelly, aren't you getting the RKV? I agree with your "smooth and detailed" descripition of the Melos, but it depends on what it is being compared to. Aiotron is also correct that it is "fast and punchy". In jogging the memory back a couple of months, I seem to recollect that the RKV is just as dynamic, although a bit fuller in the midrange than the Melos. The Melos is more analytical than the RKV, and the latter more musical.

My SHA-1 has JJ tubes. It just doesn't have any faults. I use it as an amp for the CD player next to my desk and for my PC, when playing MP3 (too lazy to get up and fetch the CD) or DVDs.

My MA-333R has one big fault: no headphone socket :-(

Please take my comments with a grain of salt, because I have not compared the Melos to the ZOTL head-to-head. And my only experience with the SHA-1 is with the Grado HP-2 headphones.

What I remember with the Melos is that it had a kind of warm, glowing sound in mild quantity. I wouldn't call it dark, though. But I think it did "fatten up" the sound a little bit, which is why I call it slower than the ZOTL.

I remember being dissatisfied with the lean character of Stax Lambda Pros I used to own, and then I put the SHA-1 in as a preamp. Instantly I discerned the music got warmer, richer, thicker, and slower. Unfortunately, since the ZOTL is not normally a preamp, I couldn't perform the same experiment with it.

The micro-ZOTL seems about as neutral an amp as I can think of. In essence, I think both amps remove the glare that often accompanies solid-state amps. But the ZOTL adds less coloration and slows the music less; it is less obtrusive. It is more faithful to the recording, and I think that that makes it a better companion for the HD600s.

This isn't a perfectly fair comparison since I did not roll tubes on the SHA-1 but am using RCA 6SN7s and Telefunken 12AT7s on the ZOTL.

Honestly, I liked the Melos. But I was not impressed enough with the HP-2/SHA-1 combo to keep it, and by the time I wanted HD600s again, I decided to try the ZOTL.

It's funny how people hear things differently. I've never thought of the Melos as slow; if anything, I'd say that it's perhaps a hair too fast. It is smooth, though, which might be mistaken for slowness. (This may also have something to do with the choice of tubes.) I think we all pretty much agree that the sound of the Melos is special and unique.

I agree with that Markl

When I was using my Rshack portable as a source I felt like the Melos was a little too revealing of high frequencies... Horns would kind of pierce into the eardrum a little bit, I figured it was the recording at the time. But now that I have a new source I actually interpret the upper frequencies as more extended but more polite. A phenomenon that is something of a paradox from my point of view. The Melos will reveal bad sound, it will not warm it over the way my CMOY amp does, however given a good signal it's actually a *touch* polite. Just a touch. And the idea of the forward edge being a bit rounded is something I agree and disagree with at the same time and that's totally the fualt of the melos's unusual character IMO. The melos is soooo punchy sometimes I have to listen at very minimal volumes because the bass and drums are hitting just like a concert. However on other recordings, like acoustic guitar, it's so liquid and delicate, almost too delicate even, that I find myself listening at somewhat higher volumes and enjoying it immensely. I think that I am partially experiencing true revelation of the recording and the strange bi-polar character of the Melos.

Excellent, Shivo. Thank you for the much sought after comparrison.

I've now got a SHA-1. Initial impression, very favorable. I suspect that this will be my amp of choice with the HD-600. Presentation of music on the Senns has an authority that the ZOTL has never been able to attain. Anyone who thinks that the HD-600 doesn't have good bass needs to hear this combo. However, it does not fare as well with the CD3K. The Sony sounds dry and lifeless in the SHA, compared to the sound I was getting in the ZOTL (I started out not really enthused by the Sony, but the combo with the ZOTL has won me over). My guess is that ultimately things will settle out into two main systems, a Melos/Sennheiser system and a ZOTL/CD3K system...but I haven't even opened the hood on the Melos yet, and I've got 6DJ8/6922's from Amperex, Sylvania, RCA, JJ, Sovtek, Philips, and sets of Mullards and Amperex "A" frames inbound...so the story is only beginning.

Current tubes on ZOTL are Sylvania Gold Pin 12AT7's, and Brimar 6SN7GT's, which is the best combination I've been able to manage for the HD-600 so far, but the Melos is a match for it. It's a trade off...transparency and lightness is lost, but the authority and definition that are gained more than make up for it.

The CD3K lets me use my collection of 6SN7GTB's...a 6SN7 variant that for some reason tends to collapse the soundstage of the Senns. With Amperex Bugle Boys in front, almost any of the GTB's I've tried will make the Sony's sing if the tubes are matched well, while the Sennheiser's will struggle.