Background: I've been looking for an integrated amp that could serve double duty, drive my K1000's off the speaker taps and also drive regular cans off of a headphone jack. Well there are many integrated amps that could serve this task. But one caught my eye, the Portal Panache. This amp has been around for about 3 years and has received great reviews from Stereophile, Stereo Times, Audio Revolution and On hifi. The thing that caught my eye is the fact that the Panache was designed with headphone users in mind.
The headphone jack runs off of the speaker taps with only a safety device in between. This amp is rumored to be a Nelson Pass design. This amp puts out 100 W/ch into 8 ohms and 200 W/ch into 4 ohms. The fact that this amp doubles its output into 4 ohms indicated to me that it is very stable into various loads. For me, that was important because I believe that the K1000's require a very stable amp that has a good power supply. The preamp section is passive. Its basically an amp with a volume control.
About 2 weeks ago, I finally pulled the trigger and bought this amp. The manufacturer, Portal Audio, regularly features an ad on Audiogon selling manufacturer's demos for $1295 with a 60 day return policy. The regular price is $1795. I bought one of the demos and I took delivery last Friday.
I tried running the K1000 off the speaker taps of this amp and the sound is great.
With the Panache driving the K1000's, the sound is warm and involving and the bass is deep and powerful. It is much better than my Raptor driving the K1000's, which sounded lean and it did not have much bass. The Panache also sounds very very good out of its headphone jack. So far, I've only tried the Sony CD3K's out of the headphone jack but it sounds the best I've ever heard the CD3K's sound. With many amps, the CD3K's can sound lean and exhibit little bass. Through the Panache, the 3K's sound warm and the bass is very deep. The 3K's can also sound sibilant without proper amplification, well absolutely no sibilance with the Panache. I can't wait to try my Sennheiser HD650/Zu cable, AKG K340's and Sony SA5000's later this week.
To say that I'm pleased with this amp is an understatement. BTW, my reference amps are my Raptor and Grace 901. I used Sony's flagship SACD/CD player, the XA9000-ES, for these impressions. The interconnect between the source and the amp was the Acoustic Zen Reference Matrix. I plugged the amp directly into the wall and the CD player into my MIT line conditioner.
I think for anyone looking for a great all in one headphone and integrated speaker amp, the Portal Panache is a must listen. IMO, at the MSRP of $1795, it's a great bargain, at the $1295 demo price, it's an absolute steal!
The headphone jack runs off of the speaker taps with only a safety device in between. This amp is rumored to be a Nelson Pass design. This amp puts out 100 W/ch into 8 ohms and 200 W/ch into 4 ohms. The fact that this amp doubles its output into 4 ohms indicated to me that it is very stable into various loads. For me, that was important because I believe that the K1000's require a very stable amp that has a good power supply. The preamp section is passive. Its basically an amp with a volume control.
About 2 weeks ago, I finally pulled the trigger and bought this amp. The manufacturer, Portal Audio, regularly features an ad on Audiogon selling manufacturer's demos for $1295 with a 60 day return policy. The regular price is $1795. I bought one of the demos and I took delivery last Friday.
I tried running the K1000 off the speaker taps of this amp and the sound is great.
To say that I'm pleased with this amp is an understatement. BTW, my reference amps are my Raptor and Grace 901. I used Sony's flagship SACD/CD player, the XA9000-ES, for these impressions. The interconnect between the source and the amp was the Acoustic Zen Reference Matrix. I plugged the amp directly into the wall and the CD player into my MIT line conditioner.
I think for anyone looking for a great all in one headphone and integrated speaker amp, the Portal Panache is a must listen. IMO, at the MSRP of $1795, it's a great bargain, at the $1295 demo price, it's an absolute steal!
