Woohoo! After a two month wait, my Apollon Purifi Stereo Mini showed up today. Here are my thoughts after a hour or two of play.
The Experience
As I've mentioned before, I had to wait quite a bit longer than expected. The package was "stuck in customs" for a long time, but that's confusing to me because UPS didn't even have the package. The amp itself was double boxed very well, even if the packaging wasn't as professional as a big name manufacturer. The amp is wrapped in black plastic, presumably to protect the finish, but it did leave some residue/marks on the glossy finish. Wiping it down with a microfiber cloth didn't seem to help. You have to be close to the amp to see it, but it is there. There are also quite a few fingerprints on the back, so you know this was assembled by hand. Despite it's small size, the unit is quite dense and feels like it's built like a tank. I would absolutely give the build quality an A+. I was a tad surprised that there seems to be no power button anywhere, it seems that I can only turn it on with the trigger.
The Sound
I compared this back-to-back with my other stereo amp, an Emotive DR-2. That amp is rated at double the power, as is less expensive to boot. How would they stack up...
I'll start off by saying, whoever says "amps don't change the sound, they just make it louder" is dead wrong. I started off with Fleetwood Mac Dreams. It's... actually a different song between the two different amps, but I'm not sure I can say who the "winner" is. The Purifi is clean, pure, and very articulate. Passages that seem to be "behind the music" really come out. The sound has a certain "airy" character to it. I think that, especially considering the package size, this amp sounds incredible. Switching back to the Emo is confusing. The song is instantly more veiled, and complex passages seem to get just a little more "crashy". At the same time, drums kick harder, bass guitar strings have real presence to them, and the music just seems to have a bit more "crank it up" energy to it. The Purifi is like listening to your favorite band play live in the park, while the Emo is like standing in the front row of a rock concert.
There are also tracks like Daft Punk's Solar Sailer that are quiet bassy tracks that can be turned way up (+0) on the Emo, but with the Purifi mini I start to experience clipping around -5.
My instant reaction is that the Purifi is a better amp overall, but needs a lot more power for these big speakers.
What's my next move? Given the ergonomics of having a huge, heavy amp in my rack, I think I'll hold onto the Purifi and ponder a future with either Hypex 2kW or wait for Purifi to release higher power modules. Or maybe those bridged Purifi would be an option, it's still not clear to me!
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