Hi-Fi
NEWS & RECORD REVIEW, January'1996
Ken
Kessler
excerpts
...Just
looking at the LAMM tells you little, other than
that it's rather, uh, large. The precise amount
of cubic room space required, per channel, is not
inconsiderable 210x432x495mm (HWD). These are
Real Men's Amplifiers, if I may be so politically
incorrect. Looking it over reveals that the back
is filled with more hardware than you expect of a
power amplifier, the company having fitted the
following: two pairs of beefy binding gold-plated
brass posts (for easy bi-wiring), a gold-plated
XLR balanced input, and both inverting and
non-inverting gilded RCA single-ended inputs,
remote control facility, the mains switch, and
bias/impedance selector (1-6 Ohms; 8-16 Ohms)
with red LED indication of the chosen setting, a
separate earthing post, access to the AC mains
fuse, the IEC-style mains plug input, a 110-240V
voltage selector and a set of handles duplicating
those at the front. And you'll appreciate them
when you find out that a single M1.1 weighs
29.93Kg. Or 64.51Lb if you refuse to go metric...
The front is a thick panel bearing the handles
and a power on indicator.
...Built
like something designed to withstand combat, the
M1.1 houses droll-eliciting parts and its
internal finishing is as good as any. The weight
comes not from the case but what's inside.
The
M1.1 is neither fearsome nor fussy because it's
so well conceived. Accidents are avoided because
the unit has a soft-start circuit offering a
built-in delay indicated by the flashing of the
front panel indicator. When it stops flashing and
you hear a 'click', the output reaches the
speakers. Other safety features include the AC
fuse, various stages in the circuitry to protect
against overloads, shorts across the outputs, and
excessive DC at the inputs, a thermal resetting
fuse to monitor the temperature of the power
transformer and other hidden safeguards to allow
you to rest easy.
While
LAMM burns in the amplifiers for 72 hours at the
factory, the company suggests that further
burn-in will yield even better performance. And
it does cite 45 minutes as the minimum
recommended warm-up period from switch-on. In my
set-up, I left the M1.1s on from 8am and listened
in the afternoons. These beasts suck up 300W of
juice each while idling, so I'm expecting a
vicious electricity bill this quarter.
It's worth
mentioning here that the M1.1 comes with an
incredibly comprehensive owner's manual, and, as
they say on the Internet when you ask stupid
questions, 'RTFM' ('read the flipping manual' -
or words to that effect). It tells you everything
you need to know, including how to bridge two
pairs for headbanging idiots who want more grunt.
More important are the instructions regarding the
shorting plugs needed for single-ended operation,
where they go and when they shouldn't be used.
Again, RTFM.
Because
there are, at present, no solid-state
preamplifiers in my possession of any particular
distinction, I used the partially-tubed LAMM with
preamps from Unison Research, Dynaco, Graaf and
Trilogy. Source was the hot-rodded Marantz CD-12
(keep an eye on 'Headroom'), with Nirvana digital
cable and ART interconnect. The LAMM drove Sonus
Faber Extremas, Ruark Icons, Bolero Kompakts,
Rogers LS3/5As and Apogee Ribbon Monitors via
ART, XLO and Harmonix cables. I tried bi-wired
and single, inverted and non, and you'd better
believe that the LAMM prefers to see the correct
impedance selections, or as close as is possible
with oddball designs that very by as much as four
ohms from the nominal impedance. Maybe there's a
little guy inside this thing which, Woody
Allen-like, comments on the load to the rest of
the amplifier. "Guys, you're not going to
believe it, but some klutz has set this on the
low-impedance position and hooked up the LS3/5As.
Let's scare him." Which the amp proceeds to
do by not sounding quite as good as you know it
can sound. Which is bordering on the incredible.
In a
period pregnant with fine products -- the wee Ruark, the Wilson Benesch ACT Ones, the Mesa
Baron -- such successes are enough to fool me
that all is well with the world. So I didn't need
a stonker like the M1.1 to come along and mess up
my acidic world view. Even before you reach the
minimum warm-up period, the LAMM sings. It is
immediately and unmistakably recognisable as
'something special'. The LAMM delivers the kind
of sound which makes the concept of 'high end'
easier to explain, and easier to comprehend. It
is whole levels above the standards we accept for
serious listening. It is simply one of the most
close-to-flawless power amplifiers I've every
heard.
Over-used
and slightly vague words like 'coherent',
'tactile' and 'visceral' are all that we have in
our arsenal to describe certain aspects of a
sonic event. Sure, we know what they mean and
they allow us to communicate, but we need varying
degrees of each if we're to distinguish between
products which differ only in subtle details. And
the LAMM sets new standards in a couple of areas
where the competition is heavy, a superiority
evident regardless of the speakers or cables in
use. But they're almost peripheral qualities,
given that nearly all modern high-end amplifiers
are so damned good that choosing between them is
often down to price, size, styling or prejudices.
Starting
at the bottom, the LAMM impressed me nearly to
tears with the way it improves on extension and
slam without adding any artificial hardness or
edge. This is no plodder, no juggernaut which
impresses by sheer force or quantity. Every note
comes through unsullied, even in hyperactive
performances from thrash acts or over-eager
reggae artists with producers incapable of
reading the LEDs on their mixing desks. And the
sound is certainly free of nausea-inducing bass
bloom. The bottom octaves are so clean and
controlled that what I thought were listening
room deficiencies are nothing of the sort: I'd
been hearing other amps misbehaving.
Where
the 'tube-ness' of the LAMM comes in is at the
upper bass region and beyond. Indeed, if I hadn't
been told what was playing, I'd have guessed that
someone found a pair of Beard P100 monoblocks.
This is the kind of midband which balances
neutrality and air with the kind of power which
normally streamrollers delicacy in the process.
It's a curious experience, hearing something as
potentially fragile as a Keb' Mo' number
delivered with a force that blows you into your
chair. How you turn the Chordettes' 'Mr Sandman'
into 'fluff-with-mass' escapes me, but that's the
only way I can express it.
Never
does the top end grate, never does the sound turn
aggressive. It's the antithesis of the equally
admirable (and far less expensive) Mesa Baron,
which sounds like a guitar amp just itching to go
all Jimi. The LAMM is so polite, so well-behaved,
so genteel that it's almost self-effacing. This
is your perfectly obsequious, perfectly obedient
servant, like Luca Brazzi only not so ox-like.
The M1.1 does what's asked of it, without drama
and without complaint. It is a wonderful hybrid
indeed: part steam-hammer and part surgeon's
scalpel.
Too
bad there's no UK distributor. And too bad the
M1.1 isn't a piece of junk, so I could have
called this review "LAMM to The
Slaughter". Instead, I have to say that the
LAMM deserves a medallion...
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M1.2
Reference
