Hey Nick, just let me know if you'd like some details specs of Le Monster's build.

Mani.

Hi Frank.

The biggest cost was the CPU and of course the RAM (64GB is of course totally crazy, but I just felt anything less would not be worthy of the 'Le Monster' name).

Thanks. The Quad 2905s use a 'concentric ring, time delay' system to create a point source effect. And as you say, they tend to 'beam' quite which means that they can indeed be placed fairly close to the side walls without any ill effect. But you need to have enough space behind them so that the sound reflected from the back wall remains benign. I like the big Quads and in a large enough room, with them placed near the side walls, they're not as imposing as their 'on paper' size might suggest.

Yep, even 40-50W of pure class A amplification requires reasonably large heat sinks. Fortunately they don't get stupidly hot - even after being on for a while, I can easily keep my hands on their heatsinks.

Mani.

I'm not sure if I can add anything useful to this thread, but using a standard USB2.0 cable, I hear a big difference between the USB2.0 and USB3.0 ports on my mobo. Unfortunately, I have no USB3.0 devices so I can't test if these ports are dedicated to USB3.0 only. But they are 'blue' and only have 'USB3' written on the mobo next to them (not USB3/USB2).

The USB3.0 ports sound much cleaner than the USB2.0 ports. They don't sound as if they're 'filtering' the sound at all. Quite the opposite - the USB2.0 ports sound thick and filtered in comparison. One thought I have is that the two ports may actually require different SFS settings. It might just be that my current SFS of 475 suits the USB3.0 ports but is simply too high for the USB2.0 ports. (I long for the day that the SFS no longer makes a difference. Until then, we just haven't cracked computer audio.)

Mani.

Hi Frank, well there's really not a lot to see, but here's a low-res pic taken with my phone. In the background you can see one of my totally silent Zalman TNN300 PCs. This itself is not a small machine, but is dwarfed by Le Monster.

To keep some semblance of being on-topic, notice the gorgeous Sauermann amps on the racks. I asked Gerd to finish them off in white to match my NOS1 ('The White Sheep'). Not even a high-res pic would do them justice - they are simply the best finished hifi components I've ever had.

Cheers, Mani.

A quick update on how I'm getting on with my Sauermann monoblock amps.


Well, I was wrong and right at the same time!

These are the most transparent amps I've ever heard. This is most obvious with complex music, especially large orchestral pieces. It's as if each instrument has it's own amplifier/speaker channel. Nothing gets muddled up - each instrument remains totally pure irrespective of what's happening around it. I've never heard this before. Actually, with the Sauermann, I think it's a case of 'you don't know what you don't know' - I didn't know that all the other amps I'd heard were 'distorting'... until now.

But I was right about something: the way I had things set up wasn't optimum. And I'm talking mainly about my PC(s) now. I've been a long-time advocate of totally silent PCs. And for good reason I think - I just abhor even the slightest background noise when I'm listening to music (usually late evening once the kids are asleep). So my music PCs have always used fanless cases, fanless PSs and also SSDs. But I did an experiment a short while back and although it pained me no end, I had to concur with Peter that HDDs sound better than SSDs. The music sounds more 'open' and full of life. All the SSDs I have really sound 'filtered' in comparison. So a few weeks ago I decided to build a 'monster' PC and stick it in my basement, as close under my listening room as possible. The PC ('Le Monster') was completed yesterday. It has a total of eight 120mm fans and although it is much, much quieter than I had expected, it certainly isn't something I would want in any domestic enviroment. Nevertheless, I temporarily placed it on the floor next to the NOS1 and connected everything up, just to take a listen. And my God, what a difference to my 'totally silent' PC. Actually, the sound was a bit too forward for my liking so I played around with the SFS and settled on 475 in the end. I'm only now hearing the gorgeous 'sweetness' of the Sauermann amps. They sound truly outstanding.

I suppose I should also mention the quality of the Quad 2905 speakers. They just seem to spit out what they were given. Oh the sound won't be to everyone's liking - the LF dynamics are still somewhat lacking - but hell, I can't imagine a faster and more cohesive sound from a pair of speakers. And now there's a beautiful 'sweetness' thrown into the mix which is intoxicating.

I remember writing a post here immediately after I'd heard the original NOS1, saying something like, "beg, borrow or steal the money for this DAC" - the first time I felt so sure about any component. Well here it is again. If you're in the market for an amplifier [and can cope with its class A operation], beg, borrow or steal the money for the Sauermann. It's on-par with the NOS1... and sorry Peter/Ciska, but much better looking and better built. But just like the NOS1, it's been born out of sheer passion for the perfect sound.

Mani.

(PS. Yes, I know this sounds like advertising. But just for the record, I'd like to say that I paid the full retail price for these amps. It's not because I have a vested interest that I started this thread... rather, it's because I share Gerd's passion for reproducing music faithfully, but just don't have the capability to create something like this myself.)

Oh there's plenty of detail... but no glaze now. And what's interesting is that this detail is throughout the whole bandwidth, not just in the treble.


Probably the best description of the sound I can give is of it being 'totally coherent'. Nothing, absolutely nothing 'jumps out'. Everything seems in it's place and is a pleasure to listen to. A great impulse response no doubt contributes towards this.


All I can say is that this is easily the 'quietest' amp I've ever heard. And I mean quiet through the speakers, not mechanically (although you can put your ears right next to the outboard power supplies and you won't hear a thing). The background really is totally black. This is best heard on classical music during really, really quiet pieces. The level of detail coming through even at these low volumes is very impressive.


Not sure which 'other speakers' you're talking about. My smaller Quad 2805s? Well they have a similar sonic character to my bigger 2905s, though it would be easy to set the amps up in my study/office and take a listen. The only other speakers I have here are my old Celestion SL600s - great speakers, but not really in the same league as my Quads, I'd say.


Yep, I'm sure there are a number of other things going on. Once I have some more time, I'll do some experimenting. Right now, I can certainly live with the sound I have.

What's interesting is that if anyone were to come and visit to take a listen to my system, I would be almost embarassed. There is nothing 'amazing' about the sound at all. But that's why I like it. The system gets out of the way and allows you to focus on the music.

Mani.

Well it's midnight here and I've just listened to 3 albums straight through. I think I'm getting used to the sound of the Sauermann with the Quads. I wouldn't say the sound is totally transparent, but I'm pretty certain this has more to do with the way I currently have things set up than anything the amplifier is doing. What's amazing though (for me at least) is the total elimination of a 'metalic glaze' that I think I've pretty much always had, and something I've always mistaken for 'clarity' and 'hyper-resolution'. This metalic glaze has now gone and been replaced by a much, much more pleasant sort of 'woody' sound. Again, I don't think this is a characteristic of the amp - perhaps this woody sound has always been there but just been obscured by the metalic glaze... who knows?

I've had loads of amps in the past, and I can see now that pretty much all of them have, to varying degrees, had this metalic glaze. It seems remarkable to me that they could all have sounded wrong. But maybe that really is the case. I mean, I now know that all the DACs I've had in the past sounded wrong.

I really am beginning to think that the Sauermann will prove as big a revelation in my system as the NOS1 did.

Mani.

WARNING: If anyone takes Gerd up on this, you're probably going to buy the amp. Just saying...

Mani.

Hey, great to 'see' you here Gerd!

I know you're busy, but if you have a few spare minutes could you share your thoughts as to why my mono amps sound so much 'fuller and extended' in the bass (and yet utterly taut, fast and tuneful) than even my 900W amp?

I'll be posting more of my purely subjective thoughts on the sound of the amplifier this evening...

Mani.

Hi Peter, thanks for the very insightful post.

I'm going to talk about the Sauermann's HF performance later, but you've summed it up well here.



The first thing that struck me on listening to the Sauermann was the lack of any 'lines' delineating the individual instruments. Edges have totally gone. Instruments that used to irritate me (like loud trumpets) now sound OK... pleasant even. The initial attack, the fine detail and pin-point spatial stability are all there, but the music comes to you as a coherent whole with no edges. When a guitarist plucks a string, it's the whole guitar you hear, and not predominantly the string with a bit of disjointed body thrown in. And I don't think I've ever heard this before.

It's taking me quite a while to get used to lack of 'freshness' that I'm so used to.

Mani.

Hi Paul, hi Coen, thanks for your thoughts. Well, what ever's happening, my feeling is that the Sauermann is accentuating the bass and attenuating the treble, compared to my Sanders Magtech amp (which was designed with electrostatics in mind). Let's see if we can work through this.


I think you may actually be right (sort of). If you look at the impedance curve of the Quads, you'll see that:
1. below 100Hz, they're 4 Ohms or so
2. between 100Hz and 10KHz, they're pretty much 8 Ohms
3. between 10-18KHz, they rise gradually to a peak of 20 Ohms or so
4. above 18KHz, they dip sharply to 2 Ohms or so

It really sounds like the Sauermann is accentuating region 1 and attenuating region 3. So my only 'correction' to your post would then be that there would be a rise in volume with an impedance decrease, as opposed to increase. Does this make sense?


Yep. But Gerd quotes the output impedance as 50 milliOhms across the whole audio bandwidth! Hmmm...

BTW, I'm not criticizing the Sauermann amp here - it makes music in a superb way. But at this point, I'm just trying to understand why/how it could sound so different to any other amp I've heard with my Quads, and especially my Sanders amp.

Mani.

The Sauermann shouldn't work well with my Quads. So how come it seems to?

Well firstly, let's consider its bass. It's fuller and more extended than I've ever heard from my large Quads (the 2905s). What's interesting is that there is a 'family resemblance' to the bass with my old Pass Aleph 4 amp and also my Berning 300B amp. If we look at the 'on paper' power outputs at 4 Ohms (the impedance of the Quads below 100Hz) of these class-A amps, they're approx the following:

- Pass Aleph 4: 100W
- Sauermann: 45W
- Berning 300B: 6W

Could it be that this 'full and extended' bass is actually due to distortion (harmonic, or whatever else)? I mean, how could these amps be better than my Sanders Magtech amp (900W into 4 Ohms) in the bass? If this 'full and extended bass' is caused by distortion of some kind, I don't understand why it remains, even at low listening volumes.

My hypothesis is that it has something to do with an amplifier's ability to 'keep phase'. In order of bass quality, I would put these three amps in this order:

1. Sauermann: single gain stage, zero feedback
2. Pass Aleph 4: double gain stage, no global feedback
3. Berning 300B: triple gain stage, zero feedback

And I would contend that all three amps have better 'quality' bass (though only at low listening volumes for the Berning) than any of the mega-power amps I've tried with my Quads.

Phase is important, and so too an amp's ability to maintain it. The Sauermann seems to excel in this respect.

Mani.

PS. There must have been a reason why Peter chose the name 'Phase Sure' for his audio company...

Hi Paul, my electronics knowledge is hazy at best but I agree, there seems to be some similarity between the two approaches. This isn't surprising as Gerd Sauermann is quite familiar with the designs of Nelson Pass.

Also, if I draw from my own experience of owning and listening to many different amplifiers, the closest I've gotten in the past to the sound I'm getting now is with my old Pass Labs Aleph 4 (now sadly no longer with me).

Mani.

I've just taken receipt of a pair of Sauermann class-A monoblocks.

You think you know what an amplifier should sound like? Well I did, until Gerd Sauermann (in person!) brought a pair of these over from Germany to my place in the UK.

My following posts in this thread will no doubt come across as unadulterated advertising for Sauermann. And you know what? I couldn't give a damn. When someone follows their passion and produces something like this (like someone else we all know), it needs to be shouted about. Loudly.

More later...

(Meanwhile you can read more here: http://www.sauermann-audio.eu/en/technologie.html)

Mani.

PS. Gerd, if you read this post, I hope you made it back to Germany OK.

This is weird. I've been using 0.9z-6-1 (with 0.9z-6-1c) since it came out. It's been working fine... absolutely no problems whatsoever. I tend to switch between 'Minimize OS' and 'normal' a lot for file management tasks. Again, no problems.

However yesterday I had an issue getting back into 'Minimize OS'. It just wouldn't work. Everything looked as if it were working fine - the PC restarted and the Minimize OS button in XX was red. But the PC clearly wasn't minimized - the LAN was still working, etc. So I tried a little hack that Peter showed me a while ago (rechecking BitLocker in MSConfig) and low and behold, Minimize OS worked. The music PC is now in Minimize OS... but now it won't come out of it (i.e. back to 'normal')! And I can't try the little hack because I'm in minimized mode.

It's weird because I haven't applied any updates on the PC (all updates switched off). Literally the only thing I've done is install the latest version of HQPlayer (for DSD replay with a Mytek DAC) in 'normal' mode. Could this have caused this issue???

Mani.