would be a better alternative. Even so, the INT-30A made both speakers sound a
whole lot better than I thought they were.
The INT-30A seems, well,
quieter
than most amps I've tried. Not that there's less
audible noise per-se, but the spaces between instruments seem "blacker" and
deeper so the sound is more three-dimensional. I don't usually comment on
amplifiers imaging capabilities, but the INT-30A was among the best I've heard. The
amp revealed spatial details, like the layers of depth on the Moody Blues'
To Our
Children's Children's Children
CD. The music floated like a cloud in my living room,
and within the trippy haze specific details hovered in crystalline focus. The
soundstage simultaneously projected far forward of the speakers and extended
beyond the wall
behind
the speakers.
The amp's way with rhythm is also remarkable: I've never been more aware of the
way Tony Williams' drums lit up Miles Davis'
Filles de Kilimanjaro
CD. The pulse
fueled Davis and company, so the kinetic energy was truly palpable, they way it is on
a really good night in a jazz club. I've played this CD on dozens of systems, but never
felt that level of sonic and musical intensity before.
To finish up I put the INT-30A in my two-channel home theater with the Zu speakers.
I've used the
Black Hawk Down
Blu-ray to test the dynamic stamina of many a home
theater system, and even through the worst of the hellish gunfire exchanges,
explosions and helicopter crash the INT-30A never cried uncle. Thirty watts indeed!
Nelson Pass is still trying to design amplifiers that sound like nothing at all. That's
probably impossible, but the greatness of the INT-30A lies in what it doesn't do
—it
lets the music speak for itself.