The Questyle CMA600i came very well packed, sandwiched between thick layers of foam and its attractive industrial design is heavier than its appearance and size would suggest. It is very versatile with preamp functions, balanced in and out connections and has it’s own built in DAC. I don't have any cans wired for balanced operation so having this amp without that might be somewhat of a waste just utilizing just the SE outputs? I am not sure of that never having experienced balanced driven cans and therefore have not experienced the claimed improvements thereof. Also, I was unable to get the DAC driver to work for most of my time with it until the last couple of days of my time with the unit due to, I think, operator error.
I was able to compare the CMA600i amp performance against my Icon Audio HP8 MkII (JAN-CHY-5692, Amperex 12ax7), and Lyr (Telefunken E88CC). I mostly used my Elear to compare, and briefly listened to the AH-D7000, LCD 2.2, HD650 and HD700, (listed in order of my preferred signatures).
The first thing I noticed was it had good deep black background, slightly warm but yet still retaining excellent crisp detail and having good detail and crispness, it excelled at separation, micro detail, air and it is lively sounding even with it being slightly warm. Rim shots were clean with good solid bass whacks and thumps and had good texture with bass notes. Even being a solid state design it compared well in depth, width and sound stage with my tubed amps, and it seemed to drive my cans effortlessly. Coherent, flat response and transparency come to mind listening to the Questyle.
It compared better with my HP MkII than with the Lyr, with the latter not being quite as rich and refined as either. Vocals were warm and rich, but as said before still with good highs and detail. The HP8 excels at being clear and detailed for a tubed design and I think the CMA600i may have even been a little warmer than it is. It certainly had good flow to it as well, and in the sense of warmth and flow it maybe had just a touch more bass slam, but my ears may have been playing tricks on me.
Like I said, I was unable to get the built in DAC driver to download and to work for me until later in my audition, so I only had a day to play with it. Once I was able to give it a brief listen comparing it to my PS Audio Perfectwave II in my system, to me it sounded a little bright and grainy.
I’m sure significant expense went into the CMA600i’s balanced operation, and built in DAC, so for my SE purposes, if I were to upgrade I would rather get an amp that put more of that expense into the SE design. Having said that, I would be happy with it as my main amp because it just had great timber, flow, dynamics, detail and naturalness for a SS design, and I enjoyed my time with this great amp.
