[kelly]

tone,

Very high end tube amps can do amazing things. Nick said something to me today to the effect of, "The differences between solid state and tube amplification decrease as you spend more money on them" and I believe that to be generally true--good tube amps borrow some strengths of solid states and good solid states borrow some strengths of tube amps.

Melos Vs RKV (without AB, by memory only)
RKV - Incredible lower mids and bass, slightly elevated noise floor
Melos - sweeter upper mids and highs, lower noise floor

The Melos is a hybrid amp and will drive a greater variety of headphones more easily. The RKV excels at high impedance headphones.

The missing bass of the 831 may not be apparent to you on the MG Head because the MG Head is missing bass too.

On a different amp, an AB comparrison with the HD600 or DT931 or Etymotic will clearly demonstrate to you what is missing. The 831 is a good headphone though, if you do require a closed headphone.

 

[tone]

kelly,

i'm perfectly happy with the bass i have right now on the mg/dt831 combo (that is until i hear a better combo) . my only problem is the sluggishness and separation issues. hopefully when headroom comes around they'll have a pair of hd600 and dt931s to listen too so i can compare them against what i have.

based on your first hand experience do you think that the melos or the rkv are suitable amps for very busy classical music? or am i better off with ss?

its nice being able to ask somebody who's been thru various amps/headphones. hopefully it'll save me some of the trouble in finding my ideal setup!

 

[kelly]

You have to understand that when you're talking about the Melos and RKV, you're talking about tubes that originally sold for $1300 compared to the MG Head's $329. At 400% of the price, certain generalities about the sound, however true "in general" begin to dissappate. Both the Melos and RKV are fast. Are they as fast and tonally accurate as the best $1300 solid state amps? I can't say in general. Ask me again after my RKV comes back, Nick gets his Melos and we do some face offs. Without ABing, I doubt most people could ever find themselves disappointed in the performance of the Melos and RKV. They're both incredible for driving headphones. I'm hopeful about a couple of other amps besting them, notably the MID and Sugden, in a couple of aspects, but we'll have to see.