Where does this leave us? Well, it leaves us on slightly less firm ground when it comes to judging the original sound. There is an out here,…
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You may prefer a close seat because you hear more sonic detail from there. Somebody else will prefer a more distant one because the sound blends better farther out in the hall. Another may choose the balcony because, in that particular hall, the brasses or strings, or the woodwinds come through more clearly or more richly when heard from a high vantage point. In other words, your best seat is best for you, but not necessarily for everyone else.
How did Michael Jordan, talented as he was at the peak of his powers, always manage to impose his will on his teammates to push them to victory when it counted most? What made Sandy Koufax able to elevate his pitching to a superhuman level when the stakes were highest? A knowledgeable, hardcore sports fan can watch the performance of two players with nearly identical statistics and, after not too long, tell you which one is merely very good and which one is great. What makes a star are intangibles—those qualities you can't quantify or analyze, but can't help but recognize when you're in…
While the M2.1 is enormously solid, it's not so heavy that one person can't move it around with a minimum of grunts and groans. Multiple protection circuits guard against everything from transformer and heatsink overheating to shorts, line-voltage drops, and DC. For the home-theater set, remote turn-on is provided via 12V jacks. If there's another feature you might need, I can't imagine what it would be.
The Soul in the Machine
Setup was short and sweet. I plunked the M2.1s down on shot-filled Grand Prix Audio Monaco amplifier stands and plugged them in with Acoustic Zen Gargantua…
After the basics have been gotten right, it is careful attention to the little things that elevates the solidly workmanlike to the truly artisanal. Consider Bruno Walter's incomparable turn with Beethoven's Symphony 6, "Pastoral" (SACD, Sony Classical SS 6012). Walter was one of the last representatives of a conducting tradition that, sadly, is no more. The Lamms delivered the most subtle and important elements of that style—the gentlest of dynamic variances, the delicate shiftings of light and shade, of texture and balance—that made this Walter's Beethoven, not von Karajan's, Solti's, or…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Monoblock power amplifier with a solid-state input stage, tube driver stage, and MOSFET output stage; switch-selectable output-stage biasing to maintain optimal performance into loads between 1 and 16 ohms; and remote-control power on/off. Tube complement: one 6922/6DJ8. Rated output power: 200W minimum into 8 ohms (23dBW), High impedance setting, continuous sinewave drive, 20Hz-20kHz, with 0.3% THD at rated line voltage, (36W in class-A); 200W into 4 ohms (20dBW), same conditions (36W in class-A); 400W into 2 ohms (20dBW), Low impedance setting,…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: SOTA Cosmos, Clearaudio Champion Level 2 turntables; Graham 2.2, Clearaudio Unify tonearms; Dynavector XV-1, XV-1S, Benz L2, Grado Statement Reference phono cartridges.
Digital sources: Classé Omega CD/SACD and Ayre D-X1 CD/DVD players.
Preamplification: Manley Steelhead, Boulder 2080 phono stages; Jeff Rowland Design Group Synergy IIi, Ayre K-1x line stages.
Power amplifiers: Halcro dm58 monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Calix Phoenix Grand Signature, EgglestonWorks Andra II.
Cables: Interconnect: Acoustic Zen Silver Reference,…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Before I performed any measurements, I ran the Lamm M2.1 monoblock at one-third power into 8 ohms for an hour, with its output stage set to its High impedance parameters. Although the amplifier runs hot, I could keep my hands on the heatsinks at the end of that period, which implies a temperature below 60 degrees C. As an amplifier with a class-A output stage runs hottest when it isn't under load and coolest at maximum power, the Lamm's output MOSFETs do appear to have a significant level of class-A operation—36W into 8 ohms, according to the specification.
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Manufacturer's Comment
Editor: We are very pleased with Stereophile's M2.1 review and would like to thank Paul Bolin not only for approaching this product with seriousness and insight, but for expressing the essence of the design and his listening experience so eloquently. Perhaps, the most important aspect he brings up is the "intangibles—those qualities you can't quantify or analyze but can't help but recognize when you're in their presence." In the design of high-end audio equipment, each step that advances us closer to the essence of music is increasingly expensive in realization but is…
Paul Bolin wrote about the M2.2 in March 2005 (Vol.28 No.3):
When I reviewed it back in April 2003, I found the Lamm M2.1 hybrid monoblock amplifier to be one of the most thoroughly convincing and lifelike components I had ever heard. Just last month, I concluded that its revised, less powerful sibling, the M1.2 Reference, just might be the finest overall amplifier to be heard anywhere. Though the owner's manual doesn't go into details, I believe it safe to assume that the revisions embodied in the M2.2 are similar in extent to those that resulted in the M1.2. Which inevitably led me to…
"Without content, television is nothing more than lights in a box."
---Edward R. Murrow.
---Edward R. Murrow.
Steve Guttenberg---Con
Steve Guttenberg has been a projectionist for 21 years, working in movie theaters and (from 1984 to 88) at WPIX-TV in New York City. He has 15 years' high-end retail experience at Sound by Singer, also in New York, and since 1988 has served as a producer for Chesky Records.
The high-end community is a tiny, fragile island---albeit an influential one---in the vast consumer electronics/entertainment world. This island was left mostly undisturbed by the larger…