ICEpower! BRRRR, I get a chill just thinking about it. I'm listening to my line arrays being driven by an $875 amplifier that's rated at 100w/ch into 8 ohms and 200w/ch into four, and it sounds really good. Excellent soundstage, good bass control, and no hint of the edginess that plagued some cheap solid state amps in the past. This one is a D-Sonic I borrowed from Dennis Deacon, the designer and manufacturer. Yesterday when I went to his place to pick it up I also heard his largest standard amp, a seven channel monster with three 525 watt (1KW into 4 ohms) modules for the front channels and four 250 watt modules for the surrounds (That one totals out to 5KW into four ohms - it comes standard with a 20 amp IEC socket). He can build custom versions with any combination of modules, and has built several four channel versions for biamping with two 250 watt modules and two 100 watt modules. Or if you prefer he can do two 525 watt modules and two 250 watt modules for Maggies or other low sensitivity speakers.Quite a few other amps based on the Bang and Olufsen ICEpower switching technology have emerged, including models by PS Audio, Jeff Rowland, plus several lesser known brands like the D-Sonic. Prices range from the $700's to quite a bit more, depending on whether the manufacturer is a Toyota-type seller or a Lexus-type. The insides of these amps are identical except that some manufacurers include either as standard or as optional a buffer stage to raise the 10k ohms input impedance to levels that are more acceptable for use with tube preamps. Of course the less expensive ones have more utilitarian enclosures while the more expensive ones have very high quality enclosures that can serve as a icon of the buyer's individuality and personal success (Oh Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz, or if that's too dear, then a Jeff Rowland amp).
With prices that are comparable to some popular class A/AB amp brands like Rotel it will be interesting to see how the ICepwoer amps stack up. Saturday at the Houston Audio Society meeting we plan to do just that by comparing the D-Sonic to a class A/AB Rotel. Should be a useful learning experience.
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