On his customary Avantgarde Duos, our critic's overall assessment of the 300B NeoClassics in 2dB NFB/SE guise thought of them as the triode equivalent of his feisty, ass-kickin' synthetic marble wonders from Thailand - the nOrh SM6.9. Endowed with the same startling degree of rhythmic elan, punchiness and sock-em fortitude that flies in the face of small two-way monitors as well as power-challenged triode amps, both completely disparate products seemed clearly designed by folks who like their music crunchy like fresh salad, robust, energetic and endowed with tangible verve. As PRATty as P/P mode was, SE operation added a further small but appreciable degree of timing accuracy. Perhaps this acknowledged in more universal terms that single-ended designs done right excel at beat accuracy and micro-to-mid-level dynamics. Truly large-scale voltage swings are ultimately owned by the powerful brigade which, nearly by definition, leaves out all but those rarest of single-ended thermionic output devices - such as the 833A transmitter triode employed in Wavac's 100-watt SET.


Where EveAnna's amps gave up a bit of ground to so-called purist triode amps was in the arena of tonal purity, the kind of completely non-textured suchness that I hear in the Audiopax amps, and, to a degree slightly less lucid but harmonically a bit richer, the Art Audio PX-25. If we were talking personality, the Manleys' would fall into the domain of the just-reviewed Odyssey Lorelei speakers - very present, just a tad thick, not obscuring the finest inner detail so much as clumping the musical molecules together a bit tighter. That's neither here nor there but just is, and as such was distinct from the peculiar micro-power flavor of 2AE or 45-based amps. The Manleys also lacked that tacit lit-up-from-within behavior which, on a whole, tends to strike me as little more than a pleasant coloration which operates in a similar fashion to skewed sharpness and contrast controls on a television.
An interesting side effect of playing with the feedback control was what one might think of as focusing action. Adding NFB focused on subjects but away from the space they inhabited. Hence overdoing this effect flattened out the spatial perception of soundstage dimensionality for a much drier, less involving, perhaps 'tighter' but also more constricted, less swaggering sound. A poster child for this sort of experiment was Fortuna's Cælestia [World Music 136, Brazil], an unusual worldly/transcendental hybrid, with the Benedictine monks of Sao Paulo's São Bento monastery on the otherworldly side and Fortuna plus ensemble on the sensual. There's plenty of audible space surrounding the solo vocals, plenty of distance between her and the male chorus, more space again around all of them and the physical boundaries of the venue.
Trigger-happy feedback choked off ambient visibility and, equally unsatisfactory, hardened Fortuna's upper register to sacrifice some luster and sparkle. This entropy of space was tellingly obvious also on the audience applause, how it first lit up the deeper recesses of the hall, then progressively 'turned off the lights' when feedback was increased. A clearly strong suit of the Manley recipe to 300B glory was the linearity of transients throughout the frequency spectrum, retaining the realistic bite in vocal peaks when the singer's vocal chords were completely liberated from any restraint or tension. Couching realistic edge is what many 300B amps do, producing a tamed-down version of realism. Not so the Neos - when vocals or strings danced on the edge of stridency, to occasionally step across, you'd hear it; not emphasized but simply not squashed; not nasty as in electronic glare, but spirited as in artistic accent.


The pelting rain, thunderstorm, explosive timpani strikes, tribal shouts and operatic soprano solos of "Crucificus" on David Fanshawe's highly visual African Sanctus [Proprius 9984] had all the scrotum-tightening telltale markings of realism, feeling sheltered by a house in Uganda while waiting out the fierce assault of an elemental downpour. It's often these mundane sounds -- rain, applause, hand claps, foot stomps, spoken voice -- that tell you all you need to know about realism. Whenever you're momentarily unsure whether that was on the recording or somebody knocking on your door, stepping on a pebble outside your window or performing whatever action corresponded with your 'damn where did that come from' reflex; that's when you know that your rig is getting the fundamentals right: Transient fidelity and dynamic speed.


At the end of the day when all the audiophile obsessions over minutiae have been exhausted, you're either left with a booby prize or the afterglow of an emotionally compelling musical encounter. Suffice to say that these 300B monos unequivocally stimulated the latter response, likely because they focused first and foremost on timing, on fast, uncluttered while not hyped leading edges and that slightly shelved-up midbass region. What they might have given up in ultimate refinement was more than made up for in excitement and spunk.


Here's the kicker - in P/P mode, with about 6-7dB NFB, these narrow-shouldered but deep amplification gents manhandled the hyper-expensive ceramic Thiele & Partners Accuton mid/woofer of the Marten Design towers such as to unceremoniously outmuscle my 30-watt Audiopax Model 88s. It gave these -- on my amps otherwise a mite lean -- Scandinavian marvels the kind of bass weight and scale I lusted after; more importantly, which I knew they were capable of since distributor Dan Meinwald, during his visit to verify my ability and system compatibility, had temporarily installed his personal 100wpc E.A.R. amp. Unlike fellow scribe Chip Stern who extols the mantra of "power is not always necessary but always welcome", I tend to feel that power often giveth while it taketh away, too - unless you truly needed it, in which case knowing how much you really need becomes salient.
However, in this instance, it wasn't raw power - after all, my KT-88 SEP monos offered an extra 6 watts over the Neos [left in current livery]. While I can't be certain, I'm suspecting instead the higher damping factor of feedback, and, additionally perhaps, some push/pull over single-ended power transfer characteristics [nice term eh? - but I'm fishing]. Whatever technical explanation accurately describes the reason for the Neos' superior drive in this case, it was clear as daylight. These Mingus III speakers are like Arabian race horses and very different from the Odyssey Loreleis : Hotblooded, temperamental, supremely calibrated, capable of truly stunning performance but also in need of a firm hand and strong thighs to stay focused on winning rather than galloping down side roads. While Dan's visit had assured him that the sonics chez Ebaen would do his Swedish babies proud, I'm planning to mate 'em up primarily not to my customary tube monos but Acoustic Reality's 250wpc IcePower amp. Time to find out whether Chip's power maxim has more behind it than deliberately poking fun at my low-power triode proclivities. The point of this little detour was simply to frame another strength of the Manley Labs' 300B PP/SE monos - drive. Granted, 24 watts of 300B-powered juice sound like so much hyperbolic horse power up yer kilt. But as our own John Potis discovered to his surprise with the 16wpc Art Audio Carissa, and Candy-man Paul with the puny 4wpc EL-34 triode integrated by Song Audio, there's more to this equation than hard and fast paper figures.


Think torque versus sheer horse power and you're staring at the other important variable. And the Manleys have torque, likely a benefit of their professional heritage where sagging power supplies are seriously frowned upon. What we have here then is a pair of $7,200 monoblocks -- with that most famous of direct-heated bottles, the venerable 300B -- which doesn't quite act the venerable part but is altogether hipper and more contemporary. This make-over of expectations is accomplished without such pricey exotica as the high-current KR Audio 274VHD, making one wonder what a VV32 or Vaic/EAT equivalent would accomplish. The unique bisexual orientation of output type operation turned out to not be an exercise in ultimately merely curious lab work for the sake of the never-attempted. Rather, think of the Neos as two amps in one, each fully competitive with 'dedicated' versions.


Don't think about the Neos, however, if you're fond of the older, pre HipHop style of voluptuous, saturated, always pretty tube sound. While these amps can do pretty when the materials demands -- such as the gorgeous Casa by the Morelenbaum/Sakamoto ensemble [Universal 325912003942] -- they're more pratty instead and thus equally at home with Kruder & Dorfmeister's K&D Sessions and close-miked, briskly whacked drum kit. Fast, rhythmically astute, very dynamic -- and not just 'for tube amps' -- capable of far more testicular fortitude than their power rating and tube type would suggest, the Neo-Classic PP/SE 300B monos are great fun, formidably flexible and -- more than the ultimately rather colored Mesa Baron of yore -- bona fide High-End products.


In the end, they defy not just one preconception but quite a bushel - safe the one that negative feedback, except in very modest single-digit dosage, really is not musically benign. All of that makes these amps rather the handful!
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