Micromega MyAmp

Vontage 15-ohm Rogers LS3/5A driven by Micromega MyAmp. AT Soundburger on silent display.

Letter from Hong Kong (24-17): Hard to Stomach

Dear Readers:

This is a letter to inform our Regular Readers of what's been happening to Me and the Blog. Even back a couple of months ago I'd not have thought I'd need to do this. It's been a busy few months, to be back in Hong Kong and living a "new/old" life.

What I had not informed readers is that long before we relocated I have been plagued by by health issues. It started with moderate gastric reflux almost two years ago. Proton Inhibitors (PPI) had not been effective in control. In the last few months, however, things have gotten worse. Now, I am plagued by increasing severity of symptoms, worse of all a nagging pain almost all day, and suffer from fatigue and insomnia (very rare for me). Amazingly, I don't even want to drink now. I have initiated work-up, which will take a bit of time. But it's hard to see this thing resolving soon.

What's amazing is that this nagging pain has managed to rob me of much drive to write, or edit. ELO has some articles in the pipeline, which he is re-organizing. I don't really have much to report myself as of this moment, save a snippet below.

So, you can expect less output here for a while. But hopefully there shall be moments of respite.

As Simple It Gets

Another amazing thing about the malaise is that for much of the time I am actually not in the mood for music. This is compounded by the fact that the apartment no longer has a "dedicated audio room", like I sort of did have in Shenzhen.

But we had lived in this same HK apartment for almost 6 years before returning to the US in 2018. In those years, I still experimented with a lot of stuff. It'd be instructive to re-visit some of my setups then (prototype here). Although I still have a lot of the equipment I had then, I'm not at all in a hurry or in the mood to re-build.

Part of the reason had to be that since the end of my NYC stay, from the beginning of the pandemic, I had gravitated to Streaming Music (simple USB and BT), and my setups have become simpler in general, certainly in my almost 4 years in Shenzhen. 

And now? In my old house I still play only CDs on tube equipment (like here) but that's not my regular abode. Think of that as my Reference. In this smaller apartment where I now stay, in one of my better moments I set up the simplest of system, certainly the simplest I've ever had:

(Old Samsung Galaxy S7 running Tidal and Bluetooth) Micromega MyAmp drives vintage Rogers 15-ohm  LS3/5A (SN 02631).

Micromega MyAmp In the same apartment I had used it before in a desktop system to great effect (basic info and my review see here). But I had never tested it in the larger living room, nor with LS3/5A. Although the MyAmp is full featured and can be hooked up to analog and digital sources, I only use the Bluetooth (spec AptX but my cellphone is not). The result was so musical it took this veteran of integrated amps by surprise. I played some of the tracks I played often in Shenzhen and came away with the impression that in some aspects of performance this simple system is just as good, if not better. Dvorak Symphonies 7-9 from Czech PO/Bychkov (Pentatone) are more taut and flowing than what I got in SZ (Bychkov is often too soft for me). This while preserving the timber of the massed strings very well. COE/Nezet-Sequin's Brahms (DG) also sounded more cogent and tonally integrated. That's surprising indeed.

The link I cited for MyAmp includes a reference to the HiFi Choice review by always reliable veteran David Price (used to write a lot for the old and quirky but fun HiFi World). I cannot do a better description of the MyAmp's abilities.

The most astonishing performance was Ural PO/Dimitry Liss' Shostakovich 15 (Fuga Libera). This most enigmatic last symphony has a super-coloristic score and the Russians here play it to perfection. You can just about forget most of the Western recordings. The soloists, from the concertmaster to the percussionists, make the notes just leap out from the loudspeakers. Even in my compromised state, I was thrilled and elated. Life affirming, yes.

My loudspeakers are not ideally positioned, but they sound very good. Bass is very respectable, perhaps positively aided a little by the IKEA racks. No smearing and rather taut and tuneful! Of course, the images are high but that's tolerable from a distance as long as the dispersed sound is musical. No doubt I shall tweak it from time to time. Adding a CDP (my venerable DVP-PR50P) shall be next I'd think.

The MyAmp surpassed my modest expectations. I expected a stop-gap but was instead rewarded by surprising competence and finesse. I think it's better than the same stable's more traditional IA-60 (here). Another example that a well-designed SMPS can bring superior results.

Caveats? Yes, the Bluetooth breaks off (and reconnects) occasionally (mind you, my cellphone is quite old). And once (only), I think it went into self-muting briefly (I think thermal protection) so, despite the reviews, I'd only use it with relatively efficient loudspeakers. The LS3/5A is not a perfect example but its impedance curve is benign.

There, my humble setup for now.