Differences between the EVS1200 amp and the Mivera SE amp

The $1900 Mivera SE stereo amp was the first high performance version (and still the best IceEdge amp ever made except mine) using the IceEdge technology.  There were less than 100 of these made.  Mivera is no longer selling amps.  But some might want to know what I do that makes my $2000 dual mono amp sonically superior using the same modules.....so here goes:

1. The input wire I use is handmade and listened to for directionality.  I find this wire sonically superior to the silver/gold PCOCC Neotech used in the Mivera.

2. The input wire is soldered directly to my custom input stage.  There is no connector used on the board like the Mivera and no extra solder joints and signal traces on the board.  This is sonically more pure.

3. The output wire is the same handmade and listened to for directionality wire as the input but x4 for lower impedance.  Again, superior to Neotech.

4. The output wire is soldered directly to the connector pins on the module board....again no connector on this wire.  Again, more sonically pure.

5. The output jacks (binding posts) on my amp are not in the signal path.  My speaker wires are routed through grommets on the chassis to the outside and installed on the outside of the binding posts.  The binding posts act as a clamp only.  This is sonically superior to the Furutech connectors Mivera uses and even any other binding post in the world.  I invented this "binding post bypass system" and I am still the only one using it.

6. My AC wires are soldered to the Furutech AC receptacle so there is no steel screw and steel nut anywhere near the wire.  Mivera uses the jack normal and uses the magnetic screw and nut to secure the cable.  You don't want any magnetic steel near the AC cable.

7. The 10 gauge Furutech quad wire that I use on the AC inlet is soldered directly to the pins on the board.  Again, no connectors to mess up the sound.   More pure.

8.  I have developed a way of reducing the fuse distortion so that even an audiophile fuse does not sound as good.  The stock fuse that Mivera uses is very lossy and distorted.  You would have to by a $150-$225 Audiophile fuse and install it in the Mivera to even come close.

9. The IceEdge modules are mounted direcly onto a copper plate.  For some reason this sounds better than mounting onto an aluminum plate (as in the Mivera amp).  I have a quarter inch thick aluminum plate underneath the copper plate and under that is the chassis bottom. 

10.  The back panel, front panel, top panel and side panels are all covered with a constrained layer damping material.   Even thick panels sound better if damped.

Now we get to the biggies:

11. The EVS amps are dual mono.  The Mivera uses one stereo module.  I use two mono modules.  At this time, I believe, I am the only place to get a dual mono IceEdge amp.  The difference is big.  Faster, cleaner, more dynamic, and focued.  Once you hear dual mono, you cannot go back. You also get more power into 4 ohms when both channels are going full tilt (1200 watts per channel).

12. I have an option for running two power cords on the dual mono stereo amp.  If you have enough dedicated lines you can have a separate power cord on each dedicated line and you will get a sonic lift over just using one power cord on one dedicated line.  My Mono amps are, of course, run with separate power cords.

13.  My modules are not stock.  I use my own custom circuit on the input and do other mods to the module.  This allows much more pure sound to come out.  What I do does not affect reliability in any way.......just allows a more transparent, delicate and dynamic music to be heard.  The air, space, highs, purity are now to die for.

 

Details of listening test between EVS1200 and Mivera amps.

One Sat. 2-23-2019 I took my mono amps over to someones house to compare to his 2 Mivera amps (run as mono blocks).  His Mivera amps were the "standard" chassis.  The only difference between the Mivera standard and SE is the standard is one quarter inch thick aluminum and the SE is one half inch aluminum.  All wiring and jack options can be installed in either case.  These Mivera standard amps had all the options: Furutech input jacks, Furutech output jacks, all silver gold wires on input and output, Furutech NCFAC inlet and the super expensive Furutech DPS-4.1 AC wire.  The owner of the amps changed out the $40 Furutech NCFAC  jacks to the $110 NCF Furutech jacks (an upgrade over the best Mivera connector).  He had installed $225 Audio Magic fuses in each module.  If you had to buy these two amps with all the options it would be at least $3600.  My dual mono amps are $2700.

His stereo system is quite good!!!!!!!!  Custom rim drive turntable sitting on super Microscope isolating platform with super arm and cartridge.  Custom tubed phono stage,  Audo Research REF Aniversary Preamp, Tara Labs Zero interconnects and speaker wire, Triode labs best power cords, everything mounted on diamond tipped expensvie Shun Mook feet......and driving modified Acapella loudspeakers.......with addional subs driven by another Mivera SE amp.  The Acapella speakers have Ion tweeters with massless drive.  The tweeters retail for $10,000 each, if bought separately.  Midrange is horn loaded.  Pretty sweet sound.  We listened almost entirely to vinyl.

We listened fo a while on his Mivera amps (which had been on for 6 months straight and never put in standby) and it sounded lovely.  I commented that the system sounded kinda "tubey" and he agreed and that he liked it this way very much.  Me, I wanted to tweak it.  I like a more "clean real sound".   After about an hour of listening we installed my amps using the same wires.  My amps had AC wires with no time, AC recepticles with no time, input jacks with no time on them......the modules had been burned in for a long time but not those parts.  When we first turned on my amps the sound was completely different.  There was no longer any "tube sound".  What we heard was incredibly fast and tight bass, more high frequency detail but the sound was now what we would call "digital or solid state"  There was no upper bass or lower midrange and the upper midrange stood out and was screaming at us.  I was in despair.......he told me that those XLR jacks, etc. would take weeks to burn in........so I was thinking I would either leave the amps there for him to burn in more or take them home and hook them up on power resistors for a coupe of weeks...........but.....then......the magic started to happen.  After one half hour he says.....its filling in......and indeed you could hear it getting richer even during the same cut.  We listened more and more and then he had to feed his dogs and we had Ice cream....he he....having fun.  Then he played some cuts he had not played before.  Johnny cash was in the frickin room.....the guitars were in the room.  Then he played the Wayling Jennies......wow, these two acapella songs gave me goosebumps.  So, the amps had been on for about 3 hours now and now we went back to hear the cuts we first heard with the Mivera and my cold amps.  Oh my God, what a transformation.  The sound was to die for.  We finished with a cut with David Grisman playing mandolin on the right channel and Jerry Garcia playing guitar on the left channel with these castanets and drums in the middle.........simply sublime.  Way more information than the Mivera....way tighter bass, way more space, way more reality.  His system did not sound tubey, it did not sound transistory.....it sounded live.....I knew then that my amps did not really need much more burn in and that is was time to start taking orders.  What a great time it was.  This was one of the most fun listening sessions I have even done......very thankful for his hospitality.   I feel very blessed.  I hope you will feel the same when you receive these very nice amps.

What is really cool is what I have learned from another A/B with the Parasound JC-1 amps.  There was much more information and clarity from my amps from the get go.  I left the amps with the person (lives just 25 minutes away) so they could burn in more and then he could then go back to the Parasound to really hear the differences.  While I was there we tweaked his system some and got more musicality.  I called him a couple of days later to tell him about a tweak he could do to his Parasound JC2 preamp and asked him how the amp was sounding.  He said it was great (way more info, etc) but that the monster dynamic peaks sounded somewhat compressed to what he was used to on the Parasound (this guy plays loud dynamic music.....was fun).  I hung up the phone and started thinking.  We had the amps on the same 3 inch thick Maple platform, etc.......but the Parasound weighs at least 60lbs. while my mono blocks weigh 23 lbs. each (a fact he really likes).  So I immediately called him back and told him to try some damped weight on top of the amp.  I told hime to fold up a towel on top and then put weight on.  You do not want any resonant material (practically anything) to be against the chassis.  You want damped weight.  I get this email later that day showing towels on top of the amps and 6 boxes of shotgun shells on top of each amp......maybe 15-20lbs.?  He said is was clearer, less harsh and more dynamic.  I told him to double the weight.  The next day he sends me this email with a picture and I almost fell over laughing.  He put a Marantz amplifier on top of the shotgun shells on the left amp and a tool case full of tools on top of the shotgun shells on the right amps......maybe adding another 20 or more lbs.?  He said it was richer and fuller sounding.  40 years I have been doing this game and almost every week I learn something.  Yes, I had mass damped things before but I had been using amps at my place with no chassis for at least 10 years.  Now I realize I never heard them correctly.  What if we had massed loaded the amps when we were listening versus the Mivera amps?  Of course, the Mivera amps could probably use the mass loading as well.  3-11-2019....This morning talked to the guy with the Mivera amps and I told him about the mass damping thing and he told me the Mivera amps we listened to were mass damped.  His system is so crammed that you cannot see the Mivera amps down in his rack so I did not see the weight on top)   Maybe all our gear needs this treatment.  Have fun guys.  Let me know your tweaks.

There are many inexpensive and more expensive ways (crude to super elegant) to do what he did without resorting to shotgun shells and amps for damping.....he he.  I will be showing various ways to do this and I am sure some of you will figure out even more creative things.  For sure, you need to mass load the amps.  The cheapest way is to use stepping stones ($1-$4 at Lowes).  The $4 one weighs 36lbs.  More info to come.