Tuberoller
Divorced an Orpheus to keep his wife.
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2001
- Posts
- 4,941
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- 15
It's rare that I'll feel guilty about something I've said or written but I felt bad about the negative things I said about the Gilmore V2 based on my impressions at the NY meet.I don't like to make judgements based on an audition performed under "meet conditions" and we all know those conditions to be less than ideal and I just wanted to give the V2 an opportunity to perform in the best conditions I could provide.For various reasons,that I won't get in to,I decided the best way to procure a review unit was to borrow one from a head-fi member.Gopher accepted my offer of a gear swap and is now playing with the Singlepower MPX3 as I write this about his Gimore V2,Thanks again Gopher.
I'm sure by now you all know my listening preferences.I like the tube sound but I'm not indifferent to well executed solid state amplification and preamplification.I happen to own several solid state head amps and have many others at my disposal.I have heard nearly all of the currently available headamps, most of them in my own systems.I prefer to audition amps in my system with my own phones and sources,as I'm sure we all do.I know the idea of the meets is to get an opportunity to hear a bunch of gear you don't own and want to hear but ultimate judgement must be reserved until the gear is auditioned properly.
I'll list all the gear used in this "review" as well as other amps that were on hand during my time with the Gilmore V2 and were used for comparison purposes.
Sources: -
VPI Extended Aries W/Sumiko Blackbird Cartridge
Musical Fidelity Trivista SACD Player(It's borrowed........I wish)
Philips DVD963SA
Musical Fidelity A324 DAC
Phones: -
HD600/Equinox 10 foot cable
Grado RS1
Beyer DT880
Beyer DT931
Grado RS80
Cables/Interconnects: -
Acoustic Zen WOW!
Meier Audio prototype 1 meter IC
Audioquest Diamondback
Amplification:
Headroom Max w/stepped attenuator
Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline HR2
Ray Samuels Audio Prototype Battery powered portable amp
Meier Audio Prehead LM version
Meier Audio HA-2
Meier Audio HA-1 MKII
Headroom Cosmic/reference module
Grado RA1
JMT Maxed META42
Wheatfield HA2
Singlepower Audio Supra
Singlepower Audio MPX3
SinglePower Audio PPX3
I listened to so much different music over the three weeks I had the Gilmore V2 I can't possibly list it all but I used music I am very familar with and the same music I use when listening critically.
When I first heard the V2 I was immediately turned off by what seemed to be a dry presentation lacking any depth or involvement.It seemed to be amplifying sound and not making music.This is what I find some loudspeaker amps,specifically Krell and Mark Levinson, guilty of.I had no idea the the amp's designer Kevin Gilmore uses a Krell and Wilson speaker based system.When I compared the V2 to a Krell amp I did so to convey my feeling that this amp mimicked the Krell sound to a great degree. At home the Gilmore V2 added a bit of dimension to it's presentation.The V2 certainly has punch and the ablity to drive just about any phone but I felt it lacked the ability to drive those phones with finesse' and agility.In my system the Gilmore further demonstrated the power and punch to drive all the phones I threw at it but still seemed to muscle the phones around.Bass is deep and punchy on most digital recordings I played but lacks good lower frequency seperation.This one-note bass causes poor instrument seperation, making drums and bass guitar sound the same.At lower levels the bass becomes completely muddy and the overlapping of instruments is so bad that you are forced to listen at higher volume levels to really distinguish the music in the lower frequencies.This just kills the low-level detail which I place a great emphasis on.The best amps,(Emmeline,Prehead,MPX3,Max) get the low level detail right and allow the listener to enjoy music without playing it at very high volume levels.
In the midrange,and especially with the analog recordings the V2 can get congested and causes slight overlapping of instruments,similar to the lower frequency congestion.The midrange opens up nicely on tracks that feature a lot of midbass and lower midrange percussions.There is no haze in the midrange and voices are rendered very nicely on most female vocal recordings.The problems become evident with husky-voiced singers which include most males and some females.On those recordings the V2 tends to blend the huskiness, or depth of that voice in with the instruments,instead of offering the vocals on their own.Piano tracks are reproduced nicely on most of the phones with the strange and very evident exception of both the Grados.On the RS1 piano notes sound sharp and very harsh,almost painful.With the RS80 the V2 makes piano music impossible.This harshness is present on all my sources except the Analog rig.On SACD recordings the V2 failed to hash out the midrange details that make the jump to higher resolution formats so obvious.With the Rolling Stones reissues the SACD layer sounded nearly the same as the redbook layer I listened a bunch and the V2 just made it difficult to hear.I asked my Dad to listen to this as well and he agreed that the V2 did not do a good job of serving up the SACD plate.The HR2,Supra and MPX3 seemed very well suited to high resoultion playback and switching between the redbook and SACD layers of those same discs made huge sonic differences.
The V2 has very good treble detail and accuracy.All music reproduced in the upper frequencies sounds like music.There is space and air up there and except for the upper piano notes all is well.There is no grainy texture and on the redbook digital recordings with a lot of treble extension, the V2 gets it right.It gets a little hairy sounding and can get harsh with some of the SACDs and bright sounding LPs I used but nothing uncomfortable or painful to speak of.Only with the Grados did things seem as dry as I remember at the NYC meet.The decay and extension is great up high but we all know that this is not where most of the music is.
See guys,this is what I mean when I describe and amp or CDP that just does'nt draw you in.I could have written this review in these same words two days after I got this amp.I fell asleep several times while listening to the V2 and I almost never do that.I'd put on a record and later wake up to the stylus hitting the margins.I don't know if we would call what I experienced "fatigue" but the V2 sure didn't do much to keep me awake.The Gilmore failed to involve me in the music like the great amps do and fell way short of giving me the feeling that something special was about to happen.I want to say that the very good treble performance was somehow capable of swaying my impressions of this amp but a bad midrange performance is a death sentence to me.Get that wrong and little else matters.The Gilmore V2 does not perform at the level of the best solid-sate amps that it tagets and at $500 faces some serious,very stiff competition from amps like the MPX3, the upcoming Emmeline battery amp or the Meier HA-1MKII.I doubt that offered upgrades such as stepped attenuators and power supplies would bring this amp to the level of performance of the HR2 or Meier HA2.Ultimately I'd have to say that the V2 was a disappointment for me.I know that many owners love and enjoy this amp but it just didn't suit my tastes.
I'm sure by now you all know my listening preferences.I like the tube sound but I'm not indifferent to well executed solid state amplification and preamplification.I happen to own several solid state head amps and have many others at my disposal.I have heard nearly all of the currently available headamps, most of them in my own systems.I prefer to audition amps in my system with my own phones and sources,as I'm sure we all do.I know the idea of the meets is to get an opportunity to hear a bunch of gear you don't own and want to hear but ultimate judgement must be reserved until the gear is auditioned properly.
I'll list all the gear used in this "review" as well as other amps that were on hand during my time with the Gilmore V2 and were used for comparison purposes.
Sources: -
VPI Extended Aries W/Sumiko Blackbird Cartridge
Musical Fidelity Trivista SACD Player(It's borrowed........I wish)
Philips DVD963SA
Musical Fidelity A324 DAC
Phones: -
HD600/Equinox 10 foot cable
Grado RS1
Beyer DT880
Beyer DT931
Grado RS80
Cables/Interconnects: -
Acoustic Zen WOW!
Meier Audio prototype 1 meter IC
Audioquest Diamondback
Amplification:
Headroom Max w/stepped attenuator
Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline HR2
Ray Samuels Audio Prototype Battery powered portable amp
Meier Audio Prehead LM version
Meier Audio HA-2
Meier Audio HA-1 MKII
Headroom Cosmic/reference module
Grado RA1
JMT Maxed META42
Wheatfield HA2
Singlepower Audio Supra
Singlepower Audio MPX3
SinglePower Audio PPX3
I listened to so much different music over the three weeks I had the Gilmore V2 I can't possibly list it all but I used music I am very familar with and the same music I use when listening critically.
When I first heard the V2 I was immediately turned off by what seemed to be a dry presentation lacking any depth or involvement.It seemed to be amplifying sound and not making music.This is what I find some loudspeaker amps,specifically Krell and Mark Levinson, guilty of.I had no idea the the amp's designer Kevin Gilmore uses a Krell and Wilson speaker based system.When I compared the V2 to a Krell amp I did so to convey my feeling that this amp mimicked the Krell sound to a great degree. At home the Gilmore V2 added a bit of dimension to it's presentation.The V2 certainly has punch and the ablity to drive just about any phone but I felt it lacked the ability to drive those phones with finesse' and agility.In my system the Gilmore further demonstrated the power and punch to drive all the phones I threw at it but still seemed to muscle the phones around.Bass is deep and punchy on most digital recordings I played but lacks good lower frequency seperation.This one-note bass causes poor instrument seperation, making drums and bass guitar sound the same.At lower levels the bass becomes completely muddy and the overlapping of instruments is so bad that you are forced to listen at higher volume levels to really distinguish the music in the lower frequencies.This just kills the low-level detail which I place a great emphasis on.The best amps,(Emmeline,Prehead,MPX3,Max) get the low level detail right and allow the listener to enjoy music without playing it at very high volume levels.
In the midrange,and especially with the analog recordings the V2 can get congested and causes slight overlapping of instruments,similar to the lower frequency congestion.The midrange opens up nicely on tracks that feature a lot of midbass and lower midrange percussions.There is no haze in the midrange and voices are rendered very nicely on most female vocal recordings.The problems become evident with husky-voiced singers which include most males and some females.On those recordings the V2 tends to blend the huskiness, or depth of that voice in with the instruments,instead of offering the vocals on their own.Piano tracks are reproduced nicely on most of the phones with the strange and very evident exception of both the Grados.On the RS1 piano notes sound sharp and very harsh,almost painful.With the RS80 the V2 makes piano music impossible.This harshness is present on all my sources except the Analog rig.On SACD recordings the V2 failed to hash out the midrange details that make the jump to higher resolution formats so obvious.With the Rolling Stones reissues the SACD layer sounded nearly the same as the redbook layer I listened a bunch and the V2 just made it difficult to hear.I asked my Dad to listen to this as well and he agreed that the V2 did not do a good job of serving up the SACD plate.The HR2,Supra and MPX3 seemed very well suited to high resoultion playback and switching between the redbook and SACD layers of those same discs made huge sonic differences.
The V2 has very good treble detail and accuracy.All music reproduced in the upper frequencies sounds like music.There is space and air up there and except for the upper piano notes all is well.There is no grainy texture and on the redbook digital recordings with a lot of treble extension, the V2 gets it right.It gets a little hairy sounding and can get harsh with some of the SACDs and bright sounding LPs I used but nothing uncomfortable or painful to speak of.Only with the Grados did things seem as dry as I remember at the NYC meet.The decay and extension is great up high but we all know that this is not where most of the music is.
See guys,this is what I mean when I describe and amp or CDP that just does'nt draw you in.I could have written this review in these same words two days after I got this amp.I fell asleep several times while listening to the V2 and I almost never do that.I'd put on a record and later wake up to the stylus hitting the margins.I don't know if we would call what I experienced "fatigue" but the V2 sure didn't do much to keep me awake.The Gilmore failed to involve me in the music like the great amps do and fell way short of giving me the feeling that something special was about to happen.I want to say that the very good treble performance was somehow capable of swaying my impressions of this amp but a bad midrange performance is a death sentence to me.Get that wrong and little else matters.The Gilmore V2 does not perform at the level of the best solid-sate amps that it tagets and at $500 faces some serious,very stiff competition from amps like the MPX3, the upcoming Emmeline battery amp or the Meier HA-1MKII.I doubt that offered upgrades such as stepped attenuators and power supplies would bring this amp to the level of performance of the HR2 or Meier HA2.Ultimately I'd have to say that the V2 was a disappointment for me.I know that many owners love and enjoy this amp but it just didn't suit my tastes.
