Another man's amp

Ricardo

Got today the Marsh A400s, after 3 or 4 months playing with the Marsh A200s (which replaced my first man's amp the Belles 350A ref.).
Some members here have or had these amps, although they are not normally seen as part of the "recommended" amps lists. The Marsh amps are incredibly musical and provide a tight bottom end.

Well, what I wanted to share is a picture of this HUGE amp; over 19 inches long, and with a toroidal that is, well, also huge.

First picture is the guts, second picture the front of the A400s, and third picture the front of the A200s for comparison.

Now to turn it on and start enjoying.
(Please avoid posting pictures of bigger amps...I know there are many out there; let me enjoy my 15 minutes )

george daniel

Congrats Ricardo,,now lemme' ask a question,all things consideres(same pre--source speakers) Belles or Marsh? If you have not had enough time to listen to it,I'll wait.

Ricardo

George, I don't need to wait. The answer, for me, is Marsh. I sold the Belles after listening for the Marsh A200 for a few hours. Of course I made $1,700 with that decision, which I am sure had some influence

I have not heard the A400, but it won the golden ears award and has had great reviews (I know...that's not important), so I am sure I won't be dissapointed with this one.

treitz3

Congratulations Ricardo! Sweet.

nikolas812

Congrats!!

What are the specs?


Nick

engtaz

Congrats Ricardo. Very nice amp


engtaz

heiney9

Me likey . Sending this around for demo too!! .

Let's see for me the Marsh makes my list, but only after hearing dkg999's A200s.

1) Pass Aleph 30 or Aleph J or X150
2) Monarchy SM70 Pro mono's
3) Classe
4) Marsh
5) Adcom 5802
6) Aragon
7) Belles
8) Forte (Pass design)
9) Threshold S-300

H9

disneyjoe7

Looks great... Gee don't see those TO3 transistor much any more.


You enjoy your 15 mins now.

ben62670

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Looks great... Gee don't see those TO3 transistor much any more.


You enjoy your 15 mins now.

Thats what I was drolling over. I love the T03 cases, big fat troid, and big fat caps.


Ricardo could you please tell me the numbers on the output trannies. Please:)

Early B.

Aw, man. Very nice.

A few days ago, I came very close to purchasing the A400 again. There's no way you're gonna find a sweeter amp anywhere near the price. The tonal quality of the A400 is outstanding.

leadfoot1

Wow! That is really nice! Always love looking at pictures like that

janmike

Congrats Ricardo. I love the clean look. Enjoy.

Ricardo

Thanks guys; 15 minutes are over, so you can post some Krell monoblocks now

The A400 is 200 WPC at 8 ohms; need to look up the rating at 4 ohms, and the rest of the specs.

Ben, I have no idea what a T03 or output trannie is....point me in the right direction and I'll look at it when I open it again.

disneyjoe7

Richard,

It should be a number on the transistor, I couldn't make it out with the picture you posted. Must likely 2 transistor number are used they may start with 2S or 2N or post another picture up close of those pretty transistors.


The Geeks need to know.

Systems

Very nicely put together.I see they wisely included an AC soft start circuit.

Ricardo wrote: »

Ben, I have no idea what a T03 or output trannie is....point me in the right direction and I'll look at it when I open it again.

The 6 chrome looking thingies attached to the heat sink bracket on each side.

They are likely Motorola or ON semi bi polars.or

ben62670

There are six on each side attached to the heat sinks. They are silver, and egg shaped. They look like Motorolla parts;)
What GV said:)

Ricardo

Oh, those I'll look them up. I did notice they have "Mexico" written......I can't say I was thrilled about that

Systems

Sorry ben,I guess I hit submit a milisecond ahead of you.:D

Systems

Ricardo wrote: »

Oh, those I did notice they have "Mexico" written......

Yep motorola has a plant there.Besides the # there should be an M or the word ON stamped on them.

BottomFeeder

Let us know, please, how the A400s compares w/its younger brother, the A200s!

Us little guys want to know!

dkg999

After hearing how good the Marsh A200s sounded driving LSi15's, especially compared to the over-grown Sunfire mega-watt thing of an amp that preceded it in the evaluation, most of the crowd was stunned when I informed them it was only 120 wpc. Well maybe not stunned, but there was a moment of silence

Ricardo

Yes, the A200s is an impressive little amp. Imagine how 200 of those watts sound

I listened last night for a couple of hours. I'm using the CRS+'s. Same tight botom end. No difference in the highs that I could notice. But the mids, there's some additional "magic" on the mids; they sound more alive, more liquid. And when I say more I don't mean exaggerated, just better. So far I'm happy. Need to try it with the Dynaudios which are a harder load.

And here's what those transistors have:

The front 3:

ON
MJ21193
MEXICO
BM0105

The back 3:

ON
MJ21194
MEXICO
BM0123

The little caps have the text to the back and I could not get a good read on brand, but they are 15,000 uF each.

ben62670

Thanks Ricardo. Those are the new replacements for the trannies found in the older Adcoms. They are an excellent tranny.
Ben

AndyGwis

Nice amp. Got a good write up in SoundStage, for what that's worth (not much).

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/marsh_a400s.htm

Looks like a hefty 330 into 4 ohms. Nice!

phipiper10

No kidding was looking at this very amp on Audiogon yesterday. It's on my "hot" list! Tell us more!

Ricardo

It's a great amp; both Marshs are. The more I listen, the more I think that the only noticeable difference in in the mids; very sweet difference. Piano, saxophone and vocals sound beautiful. I was reading the Soundstage link and was surprised to read that the reviewer thinks it "lacks a little force or power in the midrange". Oh well, if we all heard and liked the same things there would be only one brand

I would recommend both of these.

Early B.

Ricardo -- this may sound strange, but when I had the A400, I used a set of RCA/XLR adapters and there was a clear and distinct improvement. I stumbled across this trick by reading a couple of reviews of this amp. In the A400 the XLR uses a different circuit path than the RCA, and apparently it offers better sonics. If you're interested, I can send you the adapters to try out and see for yourself.

My impression of the differences between the A200 and the A400 was that the A400 had more power. This translated into a fuller sound, increased dynamics, slightly more bass, and a bit more detail.

Ricardo

I am waiting for my XLR cables; I've read all about the benefits of using the balanced inputs on these. I'll have balanced from source to pre and from pre to amp.

Ricardo

Oh, and thanks for offering the adaptors Brad

dudeinaroom

I need a paper towel now

george daniel

a sock will do nicely.