ampsandsound (aka Amps & Sound)

When I was using my BH Crack I bought several tubes from him. He never offered measurements but his tubes were usually good. On one occasion there was something wrong and he took them back. Since the crack takes single tubes I never needed a matched pair though. Maybe he made a mistake and responded to you instead of someone he was actually annoyed with

 

Luckbad hope you have fun listening this weekend.
I change the wood on the caseload of my personal units to make them special for me and to tell them apart.
The 1st input has the 2 input transformers (1 each ch). The 2nd doesn't. Zach suggested this idea and makes a ton of sense esp when demoing or increasing options for system matching.
The Mullard was kind of an accident. I had a new golden lion in there but was redoing my whole garage... new racks and alike. I was going to send him with a RCA 5U4 to roll with but stumbled on the Mullard in a box labeled GZ34... not extra description. I parked this beauty without telling myself how to find it. I ordered 5 Japanese 5AR4s last night as I thought I didn't have any NOS versions.
Caps are Wimma. Ive been using Wimma's for a long time, although I think the upgraded caps improve the sound, I seem to always spec my personal unit with input transformers and Wimmas.... again just a quick to tell it apart.
The stock tubes are JJ KT88s, JJ 6SL7 and new Mullard GZ34. Luckbad got it with my idea of a good time... with Tungsol 6L6GC STR... love the richness of that tube. It cut the power in 1/2 but for most choices the Mogwai has more than enough, even at half mast.

Anyone going to the meet up in Phoenix this weekend?

 

I'll see you there.

 

Going to try and make the meet. I've been wanting to check out some of your amps.

 

Has anyone compared the 1960 vintage Telefunken ECC801S to the later 1980's Siemens in the Kenzie? Pretty expensive I would be hesitant to buy the Telefunken without a recommendation. The Siemens ECC801S I am trying out right now is lacking soundstage depth and I would rather just use a good 12SL7GT unless the Telefunken is confirmed worth the $200 price. Thanks!

 

I spent a little more than the weekend with the ampsandsound Mogwai SE. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, its tube complement was a high end rectifier and the other 3 tubes were fairly common new production tubes. I didn't tube roll, so my experience is based exclusively on those.

I believe @gbeast has some nice NOS tubes in his and was able to compare it directly to the Eddie Current Aficionado.

After the weekend, I've come to the conclusion that I've never heard a better amp for the HD650s. It drove them with more authority than anything I've owned or encountered for any real period of time (no, I've never heard the Aficionado).

My limited memory of the pre-production DNA Stellaris (when it was the Super Stratus) is that it has similar tonal characteristics to that, which puts it in a similar playing field to the Stratus (which I haven't heard in good conditions, but I loved what I heard from that).

Compared to the Eddie Current Super 7--from memory but with the Liquid Crimson as reference and Orchid as a familiar DAC--it hits considerably harder. It has a similar wetness and musicality, but may very well outresolve it. Mine was minimally modified (decent but not great film capacitors, nicer wiring, good RCA jacks).

I noted this previously, but it's the sort of amp that makes you prone to hyperbole. It has an ineffable quality to it. It's euphonic, musical, and joyous. The Mogwai SE is an amplifier that you plug into and can't help but crack a smile. It's the warm fire and cocoa on a cool winter night. It wraps you up in the music.

Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to a piece of audio gear is that you just want to keep listening as you get lost the music. That's what the Mogwai Special Edition accomplishes.

It's not as clean as the Liquid Crimson. It doesn't manage the same level of microdetail and microdynamics. But it has a magical quality to its presentation that makes it more alluring a listen.

The unit I had here was equipped with two inputs. One had a pair of transformers (one per channel), and the other input did not. I preferred the transformer-coupled input without question. It was cleaner yet more authoritative. In fact, I'm really curious about the effect of inputs transformers on other amps and might ping Justin to see if I can get some outboard input transformers to find out.

High impedance dynamic headphones like the Sennheiser HD650 and ZMF Auteur were utterly outstanding from the 32 ohm output. I didn't love the Sennheisers from the 300 ohm output, as it crept some of the upper bass toward the mids and seemed to smear things a little more to my ears. The Auteurs fared a bit better at 300 ohms.

I also do not think it played nicely with the Audeze LCD2 Classics. You need a lower output impedance amp with those, it seems. They became a bit bloated and glossed over. I wish I had an adapter to try the 8 ohm speaker taps with the Audezes or Sennheisers.

With the Orchid, the Mogwai SE became too much of a good thing. It was too wet, too smooth, too bloomy. With the RME ADI-2 DAC using a filter without much rolloff (e.g. SD Sharp), it was outstanding. Folks like atomicbob espouse system synergy for a reason.

Compared to the original ampsandsound Mogwai, the Mogwai is basically a little better in every way. More moarness. Ergonomically, it's also considerably better. The headphones outs up front make things much less awkward.

This is very late in the comment to note this because for some reason I've been taking for granted that people know some things about the amp but...

General characteristics of the Mogwai Special Edition:

• Full, layered, impactful bass
• Rich, luscious mids
• Smooth yet somewhat airy treble
• Engagement is favored without sacrificing much detail, clarity, or dynamics
• Soundstage approaches "spooky" levels similar to Eddie Current (though EC still performs this magic slightly better)

So did I buy one? No, not yet.

Reasons? Sure...

• Price: It's above my self-imposed limit of $2000 for an amplifier. Maybe if one happens to show up used below that cutoff.
• Versatility: I have lower impedance headphones as well as IEMs. The Liquid Crimson does great with those, but the Mogwai is especially well-suited to high impedance dynamics.
• Tube Nervosa: Some of you saw what happened when I had 7 tubes to choose in the Super 7... it quickly gets stupid and I acquire a pile of tubes and stop enjoying the music.

If I had room in the budget for an amp to specifically pair with my modded Sennheiser HD650s, I'd already have an order in with ampsandsound.

 

Very nice review.

I'd really like to hear this amp and I hope one makes it to a meet. At the first headphone meet I attended here in San Diego, I spent most of the afternoon listening to a regular Mogwai running a pair of HD650s. I remember telling the owner that the synergy was amazing and he had the nicest sounding system in room.

Your system in this this review is like that system on methamphetamines.

 

I have been waiting for this comparison. Thanks Luckbad. Heard good things about the Mogwai and decided to pull the trigger.

Have you ever tried the Standard Mogwai with auricaps upgrade? I wonder how much improvement the Mogwai SE compared to it?

 

I have not heard the standard Mogwai with Auricaps so I can't compare it unfortunately.

 

In other news, I'm trying out a couple of transformers that @ampsandsound made and they're absolutely stellar. I have one that is XLR to RCA and one that is RCA to RCA.

These somehow manage to up the musicality of my Cavalli Liquid Crimson while simultaneously making it seem even cleaner? I don't get it.

I know for sure that I preferred the transformer coupled input on the Mogwai Special Edition, and that seems like it may very well hold true on the Liquid Crimson with an outboard transformer.

I'm still listening. The only thing I can say objectively is that the particular configuration I could get my setup into to cause a bit of buzz/hum with the Crimson and volume maxed out (basically, I make a ground loop happen)... well, that buzz is completely gone even in that wonky configuration, so the transformer is definitely providing isolation.

 

Xlr to rca transformers? Are these available on the website?

 

Nope. Justin does do some special orders on request here are the input transformers he made for my base Kenzie:



You would have to email Justin with your request and get a price quote.

 

Why we don't have a Kenzie or Mogwai out in the loaner program? Just curious. If it's this good...

Also @ampsandsound, can you try to described the differences between the two? Or... between the four? (Kenzie, Encore, Mog, MogSE.)

I've been very curious about your products for a long time, and one of the reasons why I haven't purchased yet is I don't know which one to get. I thought I had it figured out once, but then the Encore came out. So I thought I'd get that one, but now apparently the MogSE is here...

Some kind of clarity in the differences might bring a decision down the road. Right now though, I'm paralyzed by lack of info.

Thanks all.

 

XLR to RCA transformers? Might have to consider getting a quote on one of those. Ordered a fully upgraded Kenzie Encore with 32/300 taps earlier today. This is a blind buy and my first amp over $1000 so I'm pretty excited to see how things turn out. Aesthetically I love these amps more than anything else I've seen, and I'm hoping I like the sound just as much.

 

@Elnrik

To quote @gbeast:

The Kenzie Encore is just a better Kenzie, the Mogwai SE is just a better Mogwai. Same tonal qualities.

 

Question is.....which one do you prefer?

 

If you ordered the fully optioned Kenzie Encore you will have input transformers built in (and upgraded coupling caps) which is what I wish I had ordered in hindsight so well done. More versatile than the base Kenzie and better laid out. I think you are going to be very happy with your Kenzie Encore

 

I was curious about the XLR to RCA transformer box for potentially improved performance with balanced DACs.

 

Please don't think I'm ungrateful for the reply, because I am not, but it doesn't really answer the questions I have. To further my point:

For each amp, there seem to be 2 or 3 upgrades as well, so customer choices on what to buy between the four are even more complex. Does a fully upgraded Kenzie sound as good as an Encore? If not, why should I buy one? (Other than for the layout changes).

It's really not as simple to me as 3 colorful lines in a box.

 

Your best bet is to email then get on the phone with Justin (@ampsandsound). He won't BS you and knows his amps better than anyone.