Finally!

Ken C. Pohlman got a chance to runs some testing on a Brax amp. I only skimmed through the article but he said the amp was incredible. But all the good things he said it still didn't translate to a world class King. It's in this months Car Stero Review. The numbers for McIntosh can be found in Mar/April '96. I tend to go by his numbers more than the manufacturer as Ken C. Pohlman measures them all consistently without any manufacturer "intervention" specs.

The numbers...
Brax S/N ratio 73db.
Brax Distortion 0.04%

Not bad.

McIntosh MC4000M
S/N 91.9 db.
Distortion 0.0068% at 1khz
Distortion 0.0072% at 20khz.

World record.

Percy

 

There is more to teh amp then specs. They all sound different and I am always more interested in the physical sounding opinions. Interesting numbers though!

 

Retro,

True, but I expected MUCH better numbers. From Peter Lufrano's website linking to Brax, Brax would have (according to Brax specs) at least wasted Mc on distortion ratings and are very comparable, if not better than the Mc on S/N ratio. Now why are these so VASTLY different?

When KCP tested Mc, the specs were pretty much as published. Distortion was almost dead on and S/N ratio was slightly low, but these are still the best numbers KCP has ever had. With Brax, I would have expected similar numbers but found the S/N ratio nearly 20 db off! That's VERY significant. It's like going from a FM radio to a good CD player.

I'll still have to thoroughly read KCP's writings on the Brax. Now there's a guy that doesn't miss a beat and has written several in depth books about audio. He knows his stuff.

Peter still hasn't gotten back to me on the Brax internals. He's still looking into it though.

Percy

 

I agree that the difference of 20 db is a lot and I did expect Brax to be better.

Looks like you are pretty sure about his competence; although, it is hard to accept something like that.