Skylab
Reviewerus Prolificus
I went to Ray Samuels shop yesterday. I've been there once before, and it's a LOT of fun to talk to Ray, and to listen to music at his place. He's a great guy.
Well, yesterday Ray had designed a little test for me. He had me take a blind, level matched test between the Tomahawk and another manufacturer's $500 home SS amp, and then the TH versus a $1,500 home tube amp. The source was a high end Meridian CD player, and Ray has a switchbox allowing me to switch between amps, although I did not know which amp was which, nor did I know what amps the TH was being compared to. Headphones were HD600.
I was able to detect only VERY slight differences in each case, and they were not only very slight differences, but they were NOT pure preferences. In both cases, I was able to correctly identify the Tomahawk, but in both cases, although I had the TH identified, it was NOT clear to me that the TH sounded better or worse. There was a little less treble energy on the SS Home amp (which turned out to be a Meier Audio Aria), and the midreange was a tiny bit more forward on the TH than the tube amp (which was an AudioValve amp), but the differences were SO hard to to detect that I had to switch back literally dozens of times to get a handle on them, and even then, the differences were very ellusive.
Ray will tell you that he designs all of his amps to sound similar, and does HOURS of research and listening work to achieve this. Ray believes they sound almost identical once broken in, and based on a little test he did for me yesterday, I am inclined to believe him. He doesn't like calling it a "house sound", and his amps are very transparent, but he works hard to get all of his amps to sound as good as a $1,500 home tube amp, I can say that the Tomahawk did in fact sound as good. In fact it was shocking similar. Ray's amp sounded more like the Audiovalve amp that the Meier amp, but in both cases the TH was so good it was not a question of which was "better".
I was pretty surprised I couldn't tell them apart more easily, but that is a tribute to Ray's amp design skills. Ray was actually a little surprised I could detect any difference at all, regardless of how slight. I have always thought highly of Ray's amps - and this proves they really are VERY good, even down to the very smallest.
Well, yesterday Ray had designed a little test for me. He had me take a blind, level matched test between the Tomahawk and another manufacturer's $500 home SS amp, and then the TH versus a $1,500 home tube amp. The source was a high end Meridian CD player, and Ray has a switchbox allowing me to switch between amps, although I did not know which amp was which, nor did I know what amps the TH was being compared to. Headphones were HD600.
I was able to detect only VERY slight differences in each case, and they were not only very slight differences, but they were NOT pure preferences. In both cases, I was able to correctly identify the Tomahawk, but in both cases, although I had the TH identified, it was NOT clear to me that the TH sounded better or worse. There was a little less treble energy on the SS Home amp (which turned out to be a Meier Audio Aria), and the midreange was a tiny bit more forward on the TH than the tube amp (which was an AudioValve amp), but the differences were SO hard to to detect that I had to switch back literally dozens of times to get a handle on them, and even then, the differences were very ellusive.
Ray will tell you that he designs all of his amps to sound similar, and does HOURS of research and listening work to achieve this. Ray believes they sound almost identical once broken in, and based on a little test he did for me yesterday, I am inclined to believe him. He doesn't like calling it a "house sound", and his amps are very transparent, but he works hard to get all of his amps to sound as good as a $1,500 home tube amp, I can say that the Tomahawk did in fact sound as good. In fact it was shocking similar. Ray's amp sounded more like the Audiovalve amp that the Meier amp, but in both cases the TH was so good it was not a question of which was "better".
I was pretty surprised I couldn't tell them apart more easily, but that is a tribute to Ray's amp design skills. Ray was actually a little surprised I could detect any difference at all, regardless of how slight. I have always thought highly of Ray's amps - and this proves they really are VERY good, even down to the very smallest.
