Firstwatt F7 mini review

roncagg

roncagg

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Apr 13, 2013
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Tuckahoe, NY
Got my new Firstwatt F7 from Reno on Thursday. I’ve been intrigued by Nelson Pass’s approach to achieving the best sound quality from the simplest of solid state circuits. With only 20 Watts, speaker matching is important and since my Gallo 3.1s are 88db (albeit with no crossovers) I was concerned. But the sixmoons review reported great pairings with even less efficient examples so I was optimistic that the design (incorporating positive feedback that increases damping factor among other things) could be well suited to my setup.

Long story short - I was right to be optimistic! I had only my Pass DIY B-1 buffer at hand for the first go-around, even so (past 3 on the volume dial) I could hear what the fuss was about - it had great resolution/clarity without being lean or thin sounding, plenty of drive, and the soundstage extended further out front to back and side to side than I am used to (job 225 and Pass Aleph 30 are my points of comparison). Hearing each instrument in its precise location in space allowed the fully formed sound of each to stand out - voices had great character and realism, saxophone timbres were easily distinguished from one another, guitar was rounded yet crisp at the same time (jazz CDs from Scofield, Hancock, Antonio Sanchez were among the first crop I played). Bass was taut, but not as forceful as I like (a shortcoming of the buffer preamp I would soon discover).

I was at the limit of the B-1 volume-wise and was feeling the need to crank it up, so I swapped it for a Manley Shrimp tube preamp that arrived yesterday (thanks audiogon!). The F7 has a low 10kohm input impedance, not a challenge for most SS preamps but more so for tubes, however the Shrimp has a very low output impedance and not too much gain, perfect for what I was after. It was ideal, preserving the wonderful characteristics of the F7 I outlined above, while adding some bass slam and more volume range with perhaps a touch of tube warmth (subtle if there, I may be imagining it because I know it's a tube pre!). Interestingly the soundstage didn't change to my ears with the swap, seems to all come from the amp. The F7 is pretty awesome, kudos Nelson Pass! Does anyone else have one?
 
Excellent Ron! Congratulations !

I read another review/preview from Six Moons and they loved it. I'd love to hear one myself.
 
I have one at home right . Didnt have the time to fire it up though. Looking for the right speakers.
 
Suffice it to say that it makes me want to listen to music I haven't heard in ages, to see what I may have missed last time around! Maybe it's my memory, but almost always it sounds better than I remembered. This amp is a keeper. Thanks for asking!
 
Congratulations Ron, I'd love to get an F7.
 
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This also sounds intriguing to me. I am so curious if one of these would sound better than the Goldmund Job 225 :)...
 
Different yes. Better is relative to speakers used. Our LS50 are not very efficient so proceed with caution, you have more juice on tap with the Job. Given more efficient speakers like my Klipsch bookshelf or possibly even my Strads, could be an amazing amp.


Randy Myers said:
This also sounds intriguing to me. I am so curious if one of these would sound better than the Goldmund Job 225 :)...
Click to expand...
 
Joe is right the speakers are key, I asked Srajan of six moons if he thought the F7 would be a match to my Gallos and he answered "are you a gambling man?"! (you can read the thread in his feedback section) He and co-reviewer David had such good results with such a wide variety of speakers (high and lower efficiency) that I thought it worth a shot and I'm glad I did. David said separately that he didn't think his LS50s brought out the best from the F7 however, at least in his setup. Would love to hear your thoughts if you do take a listen!
 
I am still considering although I would feel a ton better if I could try the amplifier with my LS50s prior to buying one. I have corresponded with Nelson Pass and he said he thinks he would be able to live with the F7 and LS50s, but he does not listen at high volumes any more (neither do I). He said he has not heard the Job so he really could not give a comparison, but did mention that he knows AS talks very highly about it :)....
 
I have to think a little more about this. I am thinking about doing an in home demo on the amp.
 
Just do it Randy. If you don't like it I'll buy it for 50% off your price. Problem solved.
 
Pssssst... retail is $3k :)..... so easy peasy.... :).... have been speaking with Nelson and he contacted the folks at Renohifi. Might take them up on the offer for an in home demo....
 
Dick Olsher sure likes this amp, his review is in the current edition of The Absolute Sound, check it out. Mark@Reno is great to deal with, I am sure he'll fix you up.
 
I read the review. He seem to very much like the amplifier. I still have many questions.

His review was as much about technical as about the listening experience. I came away thinking that he likes the amp but I also believe he was not blown away. The final line was I think the most important because throughout the article he did a lot of comparisons to previous models, which is all fine and good; but I did not get the feeling that he did much in comparisons to other amplifiers in this price level. "Simply put: one of the best low-power amps money can buy." But, how does it compare against higher powered amplifiers in this price level?

BTW- I am waiting to hear back from Mark to my e-mail reply to his where I had a few questions.
 
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