Apex Peak + Volcano

[blessingx]

Haven't had mine long, but first impressions are very positive. Until I get more time (and tubes) to post additional comments, here's a new Playback/AV Guide review:

http://tinyurl.com/peakvolc

Edited May 11, 2011 by blessingx

[Voltron]

Todd really highly recommends different tubes from the basic stock Tung Sol he sells, and I have numerous 6SN7s if you want to try some out...

[K3cT]

Keep us updated! The price puts it in direct competition with the new Eddie Current Super 7 which also looks damn interesting.

[Tyll Hertsens]

I had one here for a month and loved it. Very clean sounding. I shipped it off to Wes' last week for review.

[jp11801]

Glad to see this amp get some love!

[crappyjones123]

What is this super 7 you speak of? Nothing on the website.

[morphsci]

What is this super 7 you speak of? Nothing on the website.

Google is your friend

[blessingx]

I didn't know about the Super 7 either. What happened to his Hybrid?

Al, borrowing some tubes would be great. Thanks much. I had several 6SN7s just a few months back, but they went with the Singlepower because I was done with tubes.

Hesitant to say much while in honeymoon stage, but even with stock Tung Sol the Peak + Volc seems a nice step above the Luxman P-1u or two board B22. Really curious how it will grow with a different tube. Probably should have kept the LCD2 around long enough to test (though I doubt my issues with reverb would have disappeared), but the HD800s are mating very well.

[shellylh]

Good sounding impressions so far, thanks Ric!

[purrin]

Keep us updated! The price puts it in direct competition with the new Eddie Current Super 7 which also looks damn interesting.

The Super 7 will be less than the Peak/Volcano. I believe Craig said ~$1500 at the meet, though he mentioned he still needs to find a source the transformers. They are really different amps though. The Peak is all about transparency. That A/V Playback Review of Peak/Volcano describes the Shuguang BT tube more than anything else. Pop a different tube in there and the amp changes. That amp is so unrelenting in its transparency that I prefer to keep away from the cleaner tubes like the metal base Sylvania WGT/VT-231. As for the Super 7, I wouldn't call it ultra-transparent, although for the large part it could be a function of the output tubes I heard it with (the russian Tung Sols). But it is plenty of fun - everything sounded good on it (HD800, LCD1, LCD2, ATH-AD2000, HE6) except the Edition 9.

Edited May 12, 2011 by purrin

[blessingx]

Yeah, plus probably stating the obvious, but it does seem Pete and Craig have always been about slightly different house sounds (while both being usually successful in their targets). Maybe exaggerating a bit, but backing up your impressions (well, assuming a relationship between transparent design and eventual clarity in output - caveat of tube choice as you mentioned), know at least one member who prefers the richness of LCD2s with BA, but Tylls above clean focus of HD800s coupled with the Peak. Craig seems pretty taken with the LCD2s (though after current designs). Anyone know which phones Pete listens to primarily? Curious.

Edited May 12, 2011 by blessingx

[luvdunhill]

K1000 and Senns I believe

[blessingx]

Sorry, I haven't posted any comments. Wanted to wait for some other tubes to come in and three days before they arrived the amp started having a little issue where the signal cuts off after 20min to a couple hours. Love those 20min to 2 hours though. Great customer service from Todd and going back to Pete shortly for look.

Everyones favorite - 6moons - though had a look at the Peak/Volcano.

From what I know and purely speaking to sonics, the Peak belongs to the general class which includes the likes of the ModWright LS-100, Woo Audio Model 5 and Eddie Current Balancing Act.

[luvdunhill]

LOL

The Peak's thin sheet metal, overall dress code and even logo recall early Chinese Antique Sound Lab. That's fine if you're no metrosexual. It's a bit drab and chintzy however when the informed shopper knows how a made-in-Oz Burson HA160D for less dosh weighs in with 6mm clear-anodized better finished aluminum slabs for slick vault-like mass, engravure for identifiers and tiny pin-prick lights to bypass retina burn. The Peak is no fashion statement. From a brighter bigger green out of standby, the status indicators of the head unit go blue. The power LED of the optional Volcano power supply remains a smaller dimmer green. Its hue wouldn't match the top green even if that stayed on. I bet that the Mosfets and sundry performance parts were all very carefully matched. Why not the idiot lights? In my world paying customers deserve the whole-hog candy for the eyes, the ears and the hands.

[Asr]

I skimmed that 6moons review and caught an error on the last page, about halfway down. Doesn't Srajan proof-read his reviews before publishing them?

The Peak is a quiet as they come.

Make that 2 errors in the same paragraph for not capitalizing an acronym.

The Mosfets do the heavy lifting.

And this is too good to not copy. What does any of that fluff even mean?

With an inherently zippy can like the top-heavy HE-6 the Apex became a highly energetic incisive fast-fast-fast proposition. Transients were very incisive for upfront weighting but the inherent relaxation that comes with greater bloom had less matured richness. With languid fare like Ara Dinkjian's fabulous melodic work on his Night Ark's Treasures compilation or the lyrical numbers on Karim Baggili's equally enticing Douar, the Peak dug less deeply into the redolent aspects. This also applied less mass to the bass foundation. The peculiar chatter of sympathetic strings on sitar and sarod, the twang of an Indian slide guitar and such meanwhile became very teased out and sharply honed.

Edited June 6, 2011 by Asr

[mypasswordis]

shift+f7 + kettles of coffee

[blessingx]

It's nice to have them back home.

With optional DAC.

Edited June 29, 2011 by blessingx

[VPI]

Close to making the purchase of one of these as a HP amp/Preamp for my office. Just can't decide between this and a Woo WA-2 for that purpose. I wish I had spent time listening to this at CanJam but the big amp made it hard to listen to anything else in Todd's room.

[blessingx]

Didn't Pete say something like P/V was "90%" of that big amp? And there's that return policy. Know which I'd choose.

[monsieurguzel]

Get the Apex! I listened to it at Canjam extensively and was super impressed with it! Plus no worries with BS tube upgrades, balanced cables that is needed for WA22. Finally for office use the apex is a lot easier maintenance with less heat output.

[purrin]

And this is too good to not copy. What does any of that fluff even mean?

With an inherently zippy can like the top-heavy HE-6 the Apex became a highly energetic incisive fast-fast-fast proposition. Transients were very incisive for upfront weighting but the inherent relaxation that comes with greater bloom had less matured richness. With languid fare like Ara Dinkjian's fabulous melodic work on his Night Ark's Treasures compilation or the lyrical numbers on Karim Baggili's equally enticing Douar, the Peak dug less deeply into the redolent aspects. This also applied less mass to the bass foundation. The peculiar chatter of sympathetic strings on sitar and sarod, the twang of an Indian slide guitar and such meanwhile became very teased out and sharply honed.

It means the HE-6 sounds like shit on the Peak.

Edited July 17, 2011 by purrin

[blessingx]

We have a new fan. Another review to hopefully get the word out: http://t.co/UGq2Hqi

Edited September 10, 2011 by blessingx

[K3cT]

I took a listen of the Peak/Volcano at Mike's place and although it seemed to be impressive on a first listen, I felt that this amplifier is a little bit on the bright side. There is this slight bump at the upper midrange that can be distracting with less than optimal recordings. Curiously, this anomaly is not so present when paired with the HD800, more present with the LCD2 and worst with the Etymotic ER4P (used with the P-to-S adapter). The final combination was barely listenable.

It's a shame that it was an impromptu gathering so I didn't have the chance to bring my 3-channel Beta22 which would have made a very interesting comparison. On memories alone, I will note that the Beta22 is more neutral, probably less engaging and fuller-sounding in midrange but extends lower in sub-bass and hits harder there. I'm not sure about detail retrieval as I would need to A/B them side-by-side.

If I remember right, the Apex/Peak that I listened to had that Shuguang tube. I'm curious to see what other tubes would bring to the table.

[blessingx]

Interesting impressions K3cT. Almost all my time with the P/V is with the HD800, which may explain my somewhat opposite experience. The P/V(Shuguang)-HD800 can sound bright without a doubt, but I find the B22 (at least my build) and P-1u to be much more often so with that can. I almost always switch to HD580 with the B22 to add a little lower end and therefore balance and lessen the fatigue. That pairing I love... though not as much as P/V-HD800.

Edited September 10, 2011 by blessingx

[K3cT]

Interesting. What DAC you're using, blessingx? There are various Beta22s floating around in my local community for a while and it's interesting to note that the folk who say that the Beta22 is "bright" is the ones that own the 2-channel version. Mike used to have a balanced 4-channel and a 2-channel one at the same time and the 4-channel one seemed to be slightly less edgier and brighter sounding than the 2-channel version. I know the whole thing sounds exceedingly silly but I don't know what else could account for such differences.

Nevertheless, I quite like the HD800 and Peak/Volcano pairing. I also like how it doesn't take too much space. Well, in general I find that solid-state amplifier has a hard time replicating the midrange of a tube design... Do you still use that Shuguang tube in your Peak?