Review: Orchard Audio's Starkrimson Stereo Ultra Power Amplifier

[@TT-eo2is]

Tom, On July 4th, 2022 (10 days before your review was published), I had ordered my fully optioned Starkrimson Stereo Ultra! After living with this GaNFET amp in my dedicated music room these past 6 months, thought I'd post My overall comments to it's sonic attributes! Extreme Accuracy in Transient Response is the reason I dumped my 12 year old 175wpc Class A/B stereo amp for a Class D GaNFET 750wpc stereo amp. Transient nuances, that were too often presented with questionable realism and aliveness, have taken quantum leaps forward in acoustic details that defy sound reproduction effects. Now in my music listening sessions, transient attacks are immediate, precise and carry longer reverberant decays...just as heard in live acoustical venue performances. Cymbals sound real in the huge soundstage presentation, Piano performance well defines the keyboard as a percussive melodic instrument, String bodies resonate with complex overtone structures, Brass have that edge bite that shimmers with brilliance, Woodwinds project a deep throaty/airy mixture of sonic beauty and Percussion give immediacy and drive to tempos and the musical pulse. Vocals lend the human voice as the ultimate complex instrument that can instantly induce heartfelt and emotional responses! Finger snaps, audience applause, musician breathing and background noises all sound...Natural! The music environment takes on a palatable space that allows the presentation to transport me into the recorded venue performance. Till now, system disappearance was sporadic and only happened 25% of listening sessions. These past 6 months, system/room divorce is now 100% during all genre listening sessions! I feel these above major improvements in transient sound reproduction are mainly attributable to the +6db of clean power headroom the new amp provides. Additionally, the newest GaNFET transistor designs are Fast, Efficient, Cool running and light (amp as built=18lbs)!! Ted

[@BobTrainor]

What’s your system? Preamp, Speakers?

[@ernestmeunier1401]

It took me a LONG time to consider replacing my old Nelson Pass Aleph 2 monos, as I thought their prodigious qualities offset any notions of "darkness". But 600W idle resulted in hanging them off basement rafters beneath my Parsifal Encores and STILL needing 2.5M cables, so I took a leap and demo'd the baby Stark monos. It didn't take me more than a few minutes of partially-single-blind (I'd forget when I'd swapped!) to decide that the increased clarity of the Starks came with NO top octave nor stage-fleshing downsides (which I had feared compared to pure Class A). This "upgrade" led to my making solid silver jumpers and short cables...and eventually balanced ICs, that, with a bit of upgrading of the Encores under Julien Pelchat's guidance (using sorbo and a butcherblock plinth to raise 'em 2"), has increased the performance of my ref system handsomely. This solid silver wiring experimentation has resulted in my now making solid silver/air/Teflon only ICs and speaker cables under the ArgentPur label (website coming soon...sorry if I'm misusing this forum!) The ULTRA has the convenience of internal power supplies and of course a few more dB output, but after long demos of both iterations I find the hot-wired baby monos to be more advantageous than the extra power and having to use traditional speaker cables. Users with ultralow sens speakers with low impedance may indeed state otherwise. Nice review, and again much gratitude to Leo for extremely fine products.

[@soundman2604]

Thank goodness for being able to speed things up, lol. Thank you for the input.

[@ronlevine8873]

Truly revolutionary for an amp and the Maggie to reproduce such high fidelity and both power and subtlety in such a cost effective package. Basically, a $5K view of high end audio performance that usually costs $50K or more. One suggestion: I know you are not a professional KZbinr but try to avoid the "aahhhs" as a way to fill in the dead air!

[@OrchardAudio]

Thank you very much for your time and effort.

[@TheTASmagazine]

Thank you!

[@Jonathan-ff4wo]

Nice review! Hoping to grab one for Christmas paired with my RME HDSPe Aio Pro on my computer.

[@SuperAudionut]

Great review. I have the Starkrimson mono block amps, 150 watts per side. Matches beautifully with old ProAc Response 2S. I would love to audition the Ultras to see if it adds noticeable improvements.

[@ernestmeunier1401]

Hi Al. I used the baby monos for a month and then the Ultra stereo for a month following. I did NOT notice ANY difference in performance with an 88dB/w, 4ohm load in bass performance at even loud levels. The advantage of the tiny monos is that I set them right behind my Parsifal Encores, hot-wiring off their output boards with my ArgentPur 12" pure silver jumpers directly into the speakers. The advantages of direct wiring trumps that of the Ultra's requirement of normal speaker cables, despite the greater power. Now if your speakers are lower in sens, or drop below 3ohms, and you want more bass slam, then I can imagine the bigger Ultra may benefit. If you take a peek inside the monos you'll see "normal" output leads to the connectors. The boards accept 14AWG wires. I managed to solder 12AWG Ag leads directly to the boards, eliminating the output jacks, and feeding the speakers. In my case putting some effort there is FAR more effective than "upgrading" to the Ultra. Not knowing the ProAc's sens and impedance curve offhand I can't predict whether you'll appreciate the Ultra's extra oomph.

[@SuperAudionut]

@@ernestmeunier1401 ProAc Response 2S are 86db and 8 ohm. I have plenty of slam in the bass with extensions into 30s Hz in my small home office. Replaced Topping D90/Pre90 combo with the PecanPi Working as DAC and preamp resulted in greater transparency, deeper/wider soundstage. No longer tempted by a ladder DAC. I will try using short speaker cables next.

[@notathang8087]

Ordered a Starkrimson Ultra (w/ dual mono/Cap Upgrade) during the sale. I'm hoping it supplants my Audiophonics Purifi Class D amplifiers (Measures great, beautiful chassis, great hardware, very nice people, sounds superb) (I have the unit equipped w/ Sparkos Discrete Opamps). I'll be auditioning it with both my mids/highs and my 4x15" by bypassing the built-in ICE amps that came with my Legacy Whispers speakers. Oh if you haven't tried Theoretica's BACCH-4-MAC 3D filtering software I can only say the results are the single greatest leap forward in audio reproduction since stereo sound. Full immersive 3D using only a pair of speakers and any ubiquitous stereo recording. It's revelatory. It's a total game changer!

[@HotSause]

When you have the time, Please post your comparison of the Starkrimson Ultra and Audiophonics Purify. I'm trying to differentiate all the class D offerings, including GaN.

[@milosdunjic8718]

Curious why do you need to replace your Audiophonics Purifi based class D power amp with this one, especially if your Purifi amp sounds superb?

[@jmccarty3]

Nice review. It's a shame that it's so difficult to get people whose only orientation is BestBuy to consider components like the Starkrimson and the Maggies.

[@richieg7828]

Excellent and thoughtful review. Thank you

[@davidgill2520]

Hello from Montreal, I just bought a used pair of the magnapan 1.7s as a second pair out of curiosity. They were only a 1000 bucks. Anyways watching your video got me thinking about find a class D amp and it’s efficiency and potential. Maybe I’m going to look at a dyi amp. Thank you for your expertise of everything audio. Very educational and thorough. Take care

[@mostirreverent]

How does it compare with the Bryson 3B cubed you liked so much?

[@barney6888]

I have listened to all kinds of music, western anyway, and have found myself in love with large orchestral classical (Mahler etc) I just want to hear those darn violas in ff passages. Even in Bach, the viola part gets muscled out of the way. The viola doesn't have enough volume to resonate so it loses sound. Anyway, any amp that can bring me that clarity, plus hear the woodwinds in the inner movements of Sibelius 6 chatter back and forth at each other is a winner for me. Hope to hear this unit someday. barney

[@riccitone]

Definitely convincing, and this would support the properties of Leo’s designs. Personally, I’m trying to see is the new Hypex Nilai power amp kit offerings could essentially render the same kind of thing 🙏🏼

[@vaejoviscarolinanus]

I am wondering how it would pair with my new Magnepan LRS +?

[@OrchardAudio]

It pairs very well with the LRS+ as well as the 1.7i and 0.7i, I have quite a number of customers with these speakers.

[@wric01]

It's alive once you combo it a i2s streamer like pi2design Mercury to a r2r DAC. As close as to reality instruments and voices as i put it. Kids go the headphone route: singxer sa1, musician draco, then preamp off sa1 to 2k GAN amp later without breaking the bank.

[@trubadyr99]

Unfortunately, your suggestions are not very clear and detailed to those among us who are not proficient in all things HI-Fi. I feel your post does make sense to those more knowledgeable than me.

[@n.lyndley.9889]

I agree with a previous comment. If you had a genuine blind A/B test of products at disparate price points I seriously doubt even longstanding audiophiles could accurately identify the individual products and would likely often score a much less expensive unit higher than a megabucks offering.

[@OrchardAudio]

Our annual holiday sale has started. Visit our website for details.

[@TeknoOrganicVirus]

How do I know if i need the capacitor upgrade? I'm going to buy this unit.

[@OrchardAudio]

Basically the more difficult your speaker is to drive, the more of a difference the capacitor upgrade is going to make.

[@pavlo687]

too many 'Ahs'...almost an 'Ah' between every (slowly) spoken word! Good review though and you got better with the 'ahs' as you got deeper in the review.

[@Nick2842]

I bought this because of you, sorry I’m returning it as my Hegel h360 out performs it greatly, I will never take your advice again kid- o

[@jimnagel5611]

I RAN INTO THE SAME ISSUE -- SET IT UP ON MY MODDED KLIPSCH LA SCALAS & WAS TOO BRIGHT FOR ME -- I'D BEEN LISTENING TO A QUIKSILVER TUBE AMP FOR OVER A YEAR -- GAVE IT TO MY SON TO DRIVE HIS BIG POLK SPEAKERS & IT SOUNDED WONDERFUL -- IT'S ALL SUBJECTIVE & ALL ABOUT SYNERGY - NOTHING REALLY WRONG WITH THE AMP - JUST DIDnT GO WITH MY GEAR

[@sean_heisler]

@@jimnagel5611THANKS FOR THE INFO!

[@milosdunjic8718]

LoL 😂

[@n.lyndley.9889]

Great knowledge, but another presenter who gesticulates a timeline from left to right (Eg a waveform) - so it’s exactly the wrong way ‘round for the audience/viewer. 99% of KZbinrs, presenters and even trainers make this fundamental error.

[@kenhiett5266]

I'd bet this guy a lot of money he couldn't pass a well conducted blind test of the Orchard vs. ultra expensive similarly voiced (unvoiced is a more accurate word in this example) amps at a level of scientific rigor. He'd guaranteely fall within a window that's commensurate with random guessing, because there simply isn't enough difference for the human brain to delineate once you get anywhere near this level of performance.

[@hennievangalen3789]

Did you take your meds today? Dont skip.

[@kenhiett5266]

@@hennievangalen3789 What an odd response to my op. In fact, it's such an out of context, emotional lash out as to expose your own issues. As if that was going to land on me and accomplish your suppressed shadows' goal of making me feel like you do...lol.

[@dukajoe]

He likes the amp what more do you want

[@pavlo687]

My O my! Country music seemingly grouped together with Rap? Hmmmm....

[@lawrencekennedy1123]

Presenter not for me