Pink Noise

GATO AMP150 :

Amplificateur intégré 2 x 150/250 watts

1 entrée ligne XLR
4 entrées ligne RCA

Pré Out : XLR et RCA

Borniers WBT

Prix : 5.599 €

6 Moons Review :

The AMP-150 is an uncompromising amplifier in all meanings of the term - design, craftsmanship and sound. Its uncompromising character here resides in the fact that it does not try to shape the sound in any way (or its designers managed without making it apparent). So the first definition is by negation. It’s not a sound that is warmed up, softened, brightened, slowed down or voiced to mimic tubes or curry any other favors. And at least in the beginning one does not hear any of the usual giveaways of high power.
At first we’ll notice the treble. That I’ll get to in a moment. The midrange shows how high power, low distortion and low noise—all the usual attributes of a solid-state amplifier—can translate into a sound that’s usually reserved for tube amplifiers. Yet I am most assuredly not talking about warmth. Rather its the ability to exhibit a fleshy properly developed vocal band. This is where the Danish amp surprised me the most.
I listened to the trumpet of Donald Byrd from The Cat Walk and froze. The intensity of the warm midrange (which is how this instrument sounds in the reissue) combined with the ability to sustain sounds when no longer transient-impact loud but still requiring significant staying power was remarkable. The same occurred with otherwise calm keyboards and electronics instruments whose attacks can routinely clip amplifiers. All the virtual stage actors were very free surrounded by depths and breadth and though detail was well above average it never congealed into a wall of sound but remained a multitude of simultaneous events.
Such dynamics are usually easier achieved with tube amps which compress and clip softly to fool our ears into not noticing it. Once we compare such behavior with something as unrestrained as today's Gato amp we realize that while with tubes a given frequency band of an instrument will be very pleasing indeed, another area suffers veiling such as reduced treble clarity or outlines obscuring into the background and similar side effects. The AMP-150 was beyond any such power limits yet it didn't turn brutal as can often happen with muscle amps.
In tandem with high detail came the ability to differentiate. This amplifier will reveal more in a recording than we could imagine. Differences between various editions, pressings or performers will be clear as day. After Byrd I spun the Miles Davis Seven Steps To Heaven release in a splendid Analogue Production reissue and it was immediately clear that here we had a different musician with a different instrument playing a different venue. The AP crew converted the master tape without any compression and the resultant sound is far more violent and energetic in the top end than expected. Here the trumpet could really pierce which was also as a result of how differently David played the instrument but the Danish amp parlayed all of it without hesitation.
Yet it didn’t default into blatantly showing off any fixation on details. The effect was often amazing but after a few weeks of listening I began to think that this degree of resolution/magnification was merely a side effect of neutrality and concomitant refusal to manipulate the signal. Extra-musical elements like recorded piano pedal action, the squeak of a chair, the rustle of score sheets turned which are often lost in noise or covered up by louder signal were very clear. Yet they never intruded in the main event of the music itself. They simply attributed to the illusion that mechanical playback was in fact real.
This is a fundamentally ultra transparent clean presentation which resembled the Krell EVO222+EVO442 combo with slightly higher midrange saturation and superior differentiation power.
The Gato amp arrives at its vocal band saturation with linearity, phase coherence and a removal of distortion rather than contouring the bracketing bands by softening the treble or boosting the upper bass.
The AMP-150 is both physically beautiful and sonically uncompromised. Key traits here are openness, freedom from distortion, cleanliness and very high dynamics.