Aria WT350's Compete With Amplifiers Costing Three, Four Times As Much!

In April 2002, a pair of WT350HS amplifiers were set up in Mr. Francis Yip's home in Chicago. Francis has an extraordinary sound system in a dedicated room built expressesly for audio. Francis has been searching for the perfect amplifiers for his system.

   
 
Accuphase electronics, Legacy Whisper speakers, dedicated electrical wiring and complete RPG acoustic treatment on all walls, including the ceiling. You can see one of the Aria WT350's just behind the right speaker.		  

After everything was set up, we settled in for an evening of some of the most spectacular and high-resolution sound we've ever experienced. We could have listened for hours and hours but had a early morning flight to catch the next day so we left Francis to continue his amplifier evaluation. Here is his report:

"I am not very good at describing things such as sound qualities in words. Musicality is more about a feel in whole rather than a checklist of character traits. For the past ten years, I have changed the amps in my system several times: Audio Research, Krell, Pass Labs, and now the Audio Aero Prestige Monos. Each one, in my opinion, is a big improvement over its predecessor. The price tag of equipment has never been an indication of its sound quality, as I have heard a lot very expensive junk out there, as well as some amazingly affordable gems. I must admit that I am spoiled by the Aero. It is a truly amazing amp. It has only 40 watts, but it is very fast and energetic.

"The Aria WT350 ($7,990 / pair) mono amp is quite good, with very good dynamics and soundstage, though in every aspect, it is just a little short of the Aero ($19,900 / pair).

"Comparing the Aria to the Pass Labs X1000 ($24,000 / pair), the Aria is definitely more musical. It has a much more fluent presentation of the music. That much is obvious. The X1000 does seem to have a small edge in the power department. It is more evident in a large listening area such as my music room (20' W x 30' D x13' H or 6 meters by 10 meters by 4 meters), with a somewhat more exciting sound, and a slightly deeper soundstage, but the music itself is not as engaging as with the Aria.

"If one is using a smaller music room, I think the Aria could easily beat the X1000. Now considering the price difference, this is a no-brainer.

"Last weekend, I also auditioned a pair of Tube Research GT 200 watt mono blocks in my house ($19,000 / pair), but the Aria is much better overall. If I were to grade all the amps I have heard recently in my room, I would give Audio Aero: A, Aria WT350HS: B, Pass Labs: B, Tube Research: B-. But in a room smaller than mine, I would give both Aero and Aria a grade of A, while the Pass X1000 and the Tube Research would both get a B-.

"And the Arias cost only about 1/3 of these amps. If price is a factor, the Aero and Aria are both exceptionally good values. You definitely have a winner on hand. I would highly recommend it to anyone I know who is in the market for a new amp. And I would tell them to contact you directly."

Francis Yip, Chicago

. . .

How do Aria WT350 Amplifiers Sound?

As listening tests demonstrate, Aria WT amplifiers are a fantastic value, while the XL version is for listeners to whom audio performance is paramount.
WT:

The first thing that strikes you when you listen to the WT 350 monoblock amps is power. These amplifiers have incredible headroom -- it's the kind of effortless power that allows you to play the system at realistically loud levels . . . without it sounding loud, just real. Usually, we turn up the music to the point where you start to hear the sound become strained. With 350 watts of zero negative-feedback power, it simply never sounds strained. Just real. In fact, it's fun. If there is one thing that sets the 350's apart from the 100's it is this sense of power.
These amplifiers image perfectly. The sound comes out of black space, with no grain whatsover and is presented with a real three-dimensional sense of space. Like with the 100's, you really do get a sense of the performers in the room with you with great front-to-back layering: singers are clearly in front of the band. Side-to-side imaging is precise.
The third impression is one of transparency. The sound is consummately transparent and sweet without any edge or glare. Completely silent between notes -- everything is audible: the damper mechanism of the piano, the buzz of the bass player's strings on the neck of his instrument, the swish and sizzle of the drummer's brushes and cymbals. It's a detailed, unsmeared sound that remains liquid and open. From the bass up through the mids and highs, the sound is totally coherent. And nothing controls a woofer better than a bridge amplifier like the WT350.
A consummately musical amplifier, designed for the person who want to listen to music, not sound.

 
XL:

When you step up to the XL amplifiers, the sound becomes strikingly more real-sounding. The XL version retains all the incredible virtues of the WT amp: the detail, the air and the imaging. But just like the 100-watt XL version, this amplifier does what lesser amps cannot: present the sound with the full-bodied richness of live music. Ordinary electronic components seem to strip some of the weight and fullness from music. But not the XL amps, which give you a far more powerful presentation of the bass and midbass. Combine this with the woofer control that this bridge design already possesses, you'll swaer your speakers have gone down another octave.
This means that iInstruments will be considerably fatter-sounding, vocalist's chest tones will be more audible; voices are simply more real-sounding. This amplifier's dynamics are frighteningly lifelike: when the piano player strikes a note, you hear not only the note, but the "thump" of the instrument's action; you can clearly hear the weight and size of large instruments, the "thud" of the bass player's fingers when he plucks the strings, while low drum tones resonate in your chest.
It's hard to describe what happens when a recording is played back with all this low bass power, the low bass power that you know your expensive speakers should be capable of but probably never heard before. It's a sound that tells you that you are in the presence of real musicians in a real space -- an amazingly involving experience.