Ok, hand squeezed pixie dust aside; I have now heard the Dude on three systems. Two of them sporting Dale Pitcher’s Intuitive Design Summits, and the third being my system. This tells me the Dude can sing no matter where his rug is placed.

The Dude has a very open, large-scale presentation. It is by far the most real representation of music I have heard on my system. Time, Tune, and Tone are represented accurately and provide a listening experience that is both immersive and enveloping, casting a shadow of music throughout the room, which dives beyond wall boundaries. It’s quite nice.

The Dude obviously isn’t a golfer. Its score is large and the volume knob proves it. With every click of the wheel the soundstage expands, growing in ebb and flow, and scale. It’s not a yappy dog or your lady friend that just get’s louder when you crank the volume, it gets bigger, badder, and grows a big bushy manly beard. And more importantly, it only takes 200-400 hours to become housebroken: shaving and tube rolling optional.

I have had some pretty nice gear travel through my system. They were shiny, but couldn’t quite hold their own.  Levinson 380S, ARC Ref 3, Ayre K5xeMP, and a few others from the likes of Bryston and Classe for example. Let me be frank, they’re no Dude. In light of concision, I will refrain from detailed comparisons, but feel free to email me for them.

I’ve obviously had that audiophile hankering for something new, something bold. I believe that I have now arrived at a destination that I will not be leaving any time soon. Wherever the deficiencies in my system, they are not from this preamplifier.

Like Paul, I have done a fair amount of recording and mixing both for film and two-channel audio. There is nothing that compares to the original master recording in the studio. This preamplifier is bringing me as close to that as I have ever heard in my system, but in a more enjoyable, less edgy, way

Paul and Brian Weitzel of Tube Research Labs have created a $3800 winner. It’s extremely musical, but relaxed and easeful. It casts a huge soundstage that is detailed and devoid of noise. It rocks and it rolls and is neutral among the best of them and at stolen rug prices!

ASIDE: What the heck does neutral mean anyways? Every person hears sounds differently. Every manufacturer has his or her own ideal for what musical reproduction should sound like. How can that possibly be neutral? For me, neutrality is the ability of a component to completely disappear, to become invisible to the music and the system. The Dude is truly neutral. You can tell when the Dude invades a system, because it’s a transformative experience. You cannot hear it once it’s there, but you know it’s there doing its job, bringing you in, tying the room together.

More often than not, marketing mumbo jumbo predisposes us to like certain equipment before even opening the box. As was perhaps my conception of the XPA-1s, and they certainly are wonderful. However, rather than being happy with that judgment, the child in me who is never satisfied decided to compare this unit to some other amps I was also playing with at the time.

Before the XPA-1 I had been powering my mains with the XPA-2. However, I had also recently brought home a Bryston BP-14SST, Linn Klimax, and Mark Levinson 433 to play with. Also, a note before I get carried away: the price points of these items are in the realm of 5 times that of the XPA-1.

One of my concerns when purchasing the XPA-1 was that I might ultimately be disappointed with the upgrade, wishing I had just forked over the extra cash for the Levinson or Linn pieces, which I was able to get a good deal on.

However, I pulled the plug and ordered a pair of XPA-1s, unpacked and plugged the heavy suckers right away and started doing what I do. They sounded great out of the box, and after about a 15-minute warm-up their initial edge faded.

I don’t generally do in depth listening tests before a component is broken in, especially when comparing it to other units. And so I gave the amp 300 hours before actually taking notes on what it sounded like. This unit does need about 150-200 hours of break-in time before it sounds its best.

For most review readers, you want to know how a component sounds. And while I could sit here and describe, in my audiophile vocabulary stuffed with confectionary treats, how exactly the component sounds on my system, I feel that unless you have my system the response will always vary. So my review will be merely a comparison of the amplifiers listed and the sound and enjoyment I experienced from each. Personally I think components, like cabling, are very system specific when it comes to the actual sound you get. To have a good component it should be a neutral conduit through which the music can flow. It should add little and take little away. However, musical listening is all about fun, and neutral is boring right? Certainly not! I would go as far to call this a very neutral amplifier. This amplifier, which is smart enough to get out of the way of the music, is effortlessly fun to listen to. The 1000watts pumping into my low sensitivity Aerial 10Ts was like a fresh glass of lemonade on a warm summer day. The speakers drank up every bit of power this amp had, and happily dished out something that could only be defined as truth. I found my toes tapping, the music moving organically throughout my room, and received more compliments on my system than ever before.

Okay that’s great, Ryan. Big deal, this amplifier sounds good, there are lots of good sounding amplifiers out there. BUT, how does it compare to the big guns? Honestly, it’s not as good as any of them, but that’s to be expected. That being said, it does come relatively close in a few areas. The Levinson could be classified as extremely neutral and detailed with very good extension and openness. On film soundtracks the Levinson made an expansive sound field that was broader than the speakers and added a sense of scale that is absolutely superb. I heard information in ways I’ve never experienced before, this Madrigal amplifier is truly reference.

The noise floor of the XPA-1 is quite low. It exhibited exceptional clarity and detail, but wasn’t as forward in its performance as the Levinson. While the scale and openness wasn’t anywhere close to the Levinson amp, it was a big leap up from the XPA-2.

The Linn, on the other hand, is a very different beast from the Levinson. It is the most musical amplifier I have ever had the chance to listen to. The swing and acceleration of the music is both refined and foot tapping. While the Levinson is probably more accurate, the Linn is more fun to listen to. Every piece of music I listened to seemed to dance around the room, up and down, back and forth, and throbbed in ways which left an emotional appeal that the Levinson lacked.

One of the reasons I am happy with the XPA is that while it is detailed and open like the Levinson, it also provides a sense of musical acceleration and swing. Nowhere near the grand scale of the Linn, however. The XPA-1 is smooth and extremely easy to listen to. It’s relaxing and mesmerizing.

The Bryston is one of those units that you either love or hate. Bryston has a slightly cold sound, but it’s a pleasant sound that is exceptionally clear and controlled. I preferred the Levinson to the Bryston for detail, but the base control on the Bryston was unrivaled in any of the units I played with. The base is tight on the XPA-1, but it has an airier sense to it. It’s more organic, but less solid than the Bryston. I preferred the fullness of the XPA-1 to the clarity of the Bryston. This is a slightly warm amplifier, but I would more so classify it on the warm side of neutral rather than plain warm.

I also had the chance to listen to some Levinson 33H monoblocks. These mammoths, retailing at $24k outclass anything and everything short of a DartZeel amplifier. The large price tag surely made the fat lady sing in the most pleasant way. These and the DartZeel amplifiers are the best of the best that I have had the chance to listen to. I was able to listen to a friend of mine’s system running DartZeel Preamp/amps powering Evolution Acoustics MMThrees with TARA Labs omega/Zero cabling. If you ever get the chance to listen to any of this equipment, please ruin your life by doing so.

While this verbiage is veering most verbose, I want to briefly mention that my dealer stopped by my place and was very much impressed with my XPA-1s. I was able to play these bad boys on some of the systems there, but rather than making this review endless, just message me and I can add to this review if necessary the details of that adventure.

While it lacks in a few of the areas that the high dollar amplifiers excel, it is only a 1% difference. If that 1% loss saves me $8-10k then I am by all means happy to accept that deal. The XPA-1s will be staying in my system until I can afford something Earth shattering… like a 5-dimensional music system.

Earl told me about his cables: they have fifty-nines pure solid core copper electro-cryo-servo-cooked on his time machine. Everyone says they’re the bee’s knees. Oh… you’ve heard that one before? So have I.

So what possibly could I have to say about these KCI Silkworm Plusses? Jeez! Ladies, be patient and let me take you on a bit of a journey! Close your eyes… OK, open them because if you don’t you can’t read my review. Your speakers are in the other room, people! Let’s be visual for a second and do some reading.

Let’s just say I have been around the block with cables. No really, I’ve probably had enough 1 meter interconnects and speaker cables to go all the way around the block. Twice.

Here are a few I’ve had in my system:

Cardas (golden reference ICs, golden cross speaker cables)
Transparent (super, ultra, reference mm2 in my system – through opus on other systems)
Tara Labs (The ONE),
Goertz (Boa MI-3, Tourmaline ICs)
Audioquest
Virtual Dynamics (Master, revelation, and Genesis),
Morrow Audio (MA3, MA4)
Speltz Anti-cables
Nordost (Valhalla)
KCI Silkworm+

The pile of green needed to pay for some of these cables is pretty mountainous. Some are more expensive than others obviously. All of them, however, are over priced. Don’t get me started about Transparent and their turtle cables.

So yes, all over priced. Except for one: The KCI Silkworm+. If I told you about the construction of any of the other cables you would understand what I mean, markup on some of those cables is ridiculous. Again, call me if you want to know more.

So finally WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH THESE EFFIN SILKWORMS?

I am not easily impressed with cables. I’ve used a lot of them. Some do things better than others. Ultimately it’s which cable does more of what is better. My reference has been Tara labs because they were extended and neutral, I didn’t feel like I was listening to the cable. They have excellent bass control, a wide/deep soundstage that is clear, solid and easily intelligible. Details are present and natural without roll-off. They WERE basically what a cable should be, and they did what a cable should do: get out of the freakin way! The Tara Labs were $3500 cables. Let me be frank: The KCIs are my new benchmark for interconnect performance.

The KCIs are the most beautiful-sounding cables I have ever listened to. John calls them warm, but I generally correlate warm cables with rolled-off highs. Highs are present, natural and beautifully articulate. The cable is fast without being forward. The soundstage is huge and breathes with uncompressed freedom. They have ebb and flow that is both engaging, relaxing, hefty, and emotionally involving. I have never, with all of the cables that I have listened to, been so emotionally charged by listening to my system. A cable has never made me smile, cry, or laugh quite like this relatively trivial upgrade has made me do. They are extremely lively, and capture the richness and vast harmonic structure of music unlike any other component I’ve had the privilege of listening to. They are clearer than my Tara Labs, and have a sound that I can only describe as “real”.

The Tara Labs may have a slightly deeper soundstage. But what is amazing is that I don’t feel like I am missing anything with the KCIs. Just getting more music.

I should probably make a comment about build quality. While I’m sure some of you will prefer Earl’s cables for their amazingness. I made that word up. It was needed to describe Earl’s cables. Good word. Anyways… The Silkworm+ build quality is superb. They come vacuum packed and in a nice set of overkill packaging. The cables themselves use the glorious Xhadow connectors, which in and of themselves are a work of audio art. The cables are solid and well built, not flimsy like Morrow cables. I was recommended not to move them once plugged in, as the solid 24karat gold tends to be finicky and hyper sensitive in terms of being moved.

John Prator, the genius behind the KCI curtain — or rather lackthereof — is a great guy, truly a good human being. He impressed me greatly with his kind heart and excellent service. When I purchased these cables he shipped them out and I got them a day later. He’s passionate and is too nice for his own good. I was offered no deals for writing this review. I was merely enamored by their performance and felt obligated to write something for him.

Any questions feel free to shoot me an email or give me a call. I will gladly describe the other cables I’ve used and give you both a technical and audible comparison of anything I mentioned.