"Lex, I have switched my brand," I was telling out benevolent benefactor last night. I spent most of yesterday at a store in Kansas City called Audioport, a wonderful store with great staff. I was there with the purpose of improving the 2-channel dynamics of my Sonus Faber Concerto Grand Pianos. Through these speakers I've heard Denons, Adcoms, Citations, Plinius, and Aragon amplifiers. Up till now, I thought the Aragon 8008 was the best I'd ever heard. Stereophile agrees with me, they give it a 'AAA'.
They had a set of GPs for me to listen with, so we started running various amplifiers. 2K was my threshold for spending pain. So we worked through a grouple consisting Classe, Rotel, Thule, and Proceed. It was easily apparent that the Proceed BPA-2 was the class of the crowd. It was more dynamic with a larger soundstage. At 2 large, it was right where I wanted it.
We started talking about the Proceed line when the salesguy proclaims, "Holy shit, I have an HPA-2 demo in there for $2200." Well, hook it up.
This amp was huge. Normally retailing around $3500, this is Proceed's top 2-channel amp. This was a solid piece of steel; evidenced buy that massiver internal heat-sinks showing through the top panel. After pulling the panel, the foundation of the desing was evident. The massive heatsinks were compliment by two monstrous power supplies. This lends to the dual mono theory: If all your channels have independent power supplies, then your speakers will be able to perform independantly without competing with each other.
I'll close quickly. The sound was phenomenal. The BPA-2 didn't hold a flame to the HPA. In comparison the to baseline Levinson 334 ($5K) in the same room on the GPs, the Proceed sounded more dynamic and clean. The soundstage was precise, wide, and imaginative. Bass was phenomally tight and up front. There was nothing subtle about this amp. Simply put, it rocks.
Ken
They had a set of GPs for me to listen with, so we started running various amplifiers. 2K was my threshold for spending pain. So we worked through a grouple consisting Classe, Rotel, Thule, and Proceed. It was easily apparent that the Proceed BPA-2 was the class of the crowd. It was more dynamic with a larger soundstage. At 2 large, it was right where I wanted it.
We started talking about the Proceed line when the salesguy proclaims, "Holy shit, I have an HPA-2 demo in there for $2200." Well, hook it up.
This amp was huge. Normally retailing around $3500, this is Proceed's top 2-channel amp. This was a solid piece of steel; evidenced buy that massiver internal heat-sinks showing through the top panel. After pulling the panel, the foundation of the desing was evident. The massive heatsinks were compliment by two monstrous power supplies. This lends to the dual mono theory: If all your channels have independent power supplies, then your speakers will be able to perform independantly without competing with each other.
I'll close quickly. The sound was phenomenal. The BPA-2 didn't hold a flame to the HPA. In comparison the to baseline Levinson 334 ($5K) in the same room on the GPs, the Proceed sounded more dynamic and clean. The soundstage was precise, wide, and imaginative. Bass was phenomally tight and up front. There was nothing subtle about this amp. Simply put, it rocks.
Ken
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