I revised my listing to include free shipping, depending on the price. This is many an Audiophiles pick for their stereo music amplifier. Has a really nice sound, very detailed, you can hear every musical note, every rhythmical beat of the percussion, even the the timbre of the piano. This particular unit is very clean. While not perfect, it comes very close to being that. The face-plate is just about perfect. Buy now and get it before Christmas. This would make a great Christmas gift, because it is a stunning piece of audio-phonics. When you hear it, you will know what all the fuss is about. Here are a couple of articles that will help to express what I mean. Edited From \"Audiogon\" :Been wanting to get a hold of one of these for a long time now, just to satisfy my own curosity. Over the years there have been a few reviews of this amp in Stereophile and other publications. I am not going into what was said by Corey Greenberg and Robert Hartley, but both of them were suitable impressed with the Muse 100.
Actually a few years back a pair on the Muse 150 mono blocks as well as a 100 passed through here so quickly I did not have the chance to evaluate. In one day in through the back door and out the front some four hours later. That should have told me something about Muse products straight up. Plus a friend of mine scored a Muse 160 and he continually raves about this amplifier and he has had many high end amplifiers, but he seems to be keeping the 160 though.
So when one of these came in again, I was able to put it aside for if you will a meet and greet session. First of all this is one of the most unassuming amplifiers you will come across. Finished in black, plain jane face plate with the Muse logo in the upper left corner bottom in the middle says Model One Hundred and to the left the power on red illuminated switch, and thats all the fanfare on the front. Back panel is all business as well with an IEC connector in the bottom middle, speaker posts are first rate and appear to be from Cardas and the RCA inputs. No glitz or fanfare. Heavy duty steel chassis, black crinkle finish on top and moderate size heat sinks to the side, which are very sharp. Yep, you can cut yourself easily on the heatsinks. Amp weighs 28 pounds, but feels heavier than that, or I am getting a wee bit weak at 68 now.Installation is as straight forward as it gets. Just make sure it has enough room for cooling. The Muse 100 is a passive convection cooled amplifier and does get very warm to the touch. Sits on three low profile chassis feet, look a little bit pedestrian, but are indeed quite substantial, looks can be deceiving.
The rest of the hook up is a Emotiva USP-1 preamp, later on will drag out a high end preamp for further evaluation. Used Discovery Interconnect Cable their signature series with locking RCA\'s. Speaker wire is the Alon Black Orpheus connected to Alon Model 1 speakers. The turntable is a VPI HW19 MKIV with Audioquest tonearm with a Denon 301 MKII cartridge. The phono cables are Discovery Plus 4. Finally the Audio Analogue Paganini CDP used with Musical Design Interconnects and the Polk Satellite XM tuner connected with Musical Design interconnects. The Sony MDP is connected with Audioquest interconnects. So that rounds out the installation.
This is day eight of continious operation. I leave solid state powered on as opposed to switching them through a on/off cycle. This seems to add to their signature and their service life. Over the years have never had a problem with leaving solid state components in 24 hour operation.
Over the years many of the reviewers of this amp have been tube guys. However most have commented that the Muse 100 has the mids and highs of a good tube amp with the bass end of a very good solid state amp. Gad - how many times have we all read that. Seems as if they are trying to appease both camps. There is no holy grail here regarding tube gear or solid state both have their pluses and minuses in their execution. Quite frankly if the Muse 100 had sounded like a tube amp, I would have been quite jaded. From 1957 to 1978 was into tubes, because solid state had not come of age until the late seventies, with such companies as Threshold and Levinson. When solid state finally got right I was out of the tube gear in a flash and haven\'t looked back, totally burned out with tube gear at that time and to this day have no fond memories of any tube gear.
So lets examine the Muse 100 for what it is, and that being a solid musical performer, that is a solid state amplifier of exraordinary sonic signature with a solid build quality.
As you can read by the above music list, many genres of music was used in the evaluation. My bag is jazz and in particular Jazz Trio, such as Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Bill Charlap, etc.
The overall signature in my opinion the Muse 100 errs on the warm side of neutral with its current preamp. After 54 years in this hobby, it takes a lot to put a grin on this old face. The Muse did exactly that. Its ability to resolve complex passages with ease and definition, while not being harsh and over analytical is not easily accomplished in solid state design. The Muse is a class A/AB amplifier, although due to the size of the heat sinks, not much Class A bias can de dialed in. Although the unit does get very warm to the touch, but not hot enough to burn you like a Pure Class A amp, still have some scars from those units.
I have no problem with ranking the Muse 100 with the likes of Coda 10 & 10.5, Threshold S150, S200 and S300 or the early Mark Levinson ML 9 and ML 11 power amps. As far as more current amps it excels most anything I have heard from Parasound, Bryston,Classe given the same output. But falls short of Spectral, Pass Labs and Goldmund, but to name a few. The Muse 100 falls into the mid level of high end amplifiers and sounds vastly better than most in this category.
As I compose this interview Ron Carters album Stardust is playing in the background. The bass sounds are tight, not soft and his finger work on the upright bass comes through as it should, well defined. Benny Golson on Tenor Sax has that air of depth and transparency not often encountered. While Lenny White on drums pushed the music ahead, the Muse 100 here offers a solid rendering of the drums, no bloat here just solid drum work that the Muse 100 handles with ease. Roland Hanna on piano sounds as if he is in the room with you, great action on the keys and at times you can hear the hammers hitting the strings on the piano. Vibe work is handled by Joe Locke and a lot of amplifiers just don;t get vibes right due to the complexity of the frequency of the instrument. This was a major surprise point as the vibes come through on pitch and lush in texture. This is great Ron Carter that the Muse 100 handle with a delicacy not often found in amplifiers in this price/performance category.
With Classical in particular full scale symphony orchestras the Muse 100 has zero difficulty in bringing forth this music from the quietest passages to the thunderous crescendos. At times its presentations have raised the hair on my neck and sent a chill down my back in its ability to deliver a full symphonic signature. Damn few amps have ever done that to me.
If their is a weakness in what this amplifier can deliver it has yet to reveal itself. From the thunder of a kettle drum to the shimmer of brushes on cymbals, the amp can and does deliver. This is an amp that is not in your face. It precisely delivers the music as it was recorded, and does so effortlessly. Now I get the picture on why this amp has the following that audiophiles go after.
Muse 100 had a long production run as far as amplifiers go. It was discontinued once, but due to audiophile demand it was put into production once again. That does not happen all that often. And who knows Kevin may yet put the Muse 100 into production again sometime in the future. There is always room in the market for an amplifier of this caliber.
Is this the best amp I have ever heard? In a word no, in 54 years in this hobby have heard a boat load of amplifiers. From 30K amps to $200.00 amplifiers. For a Class A/AB amplifier the Muse 100 is a pure gem, in a field crowded by pretenders and contenders.
It has been noted by other reviewers of the Muse 100, that in some cases there is a hum emitted from the amplifier or through the speakers. I did not encounter any hum or anamolies with the Muse 100, it was and remains dead solid quiet in its operation.
If your looking for a sculptured work of art, this is not the Muse 100. Cosmeticaly it is an unassuming black box, that has in my opinion an understated elegance in its presentation physically. In this area it will not put to shame Rowland, Pass Labs, Krell and the like. However if you interest lies in performance the Muse 100 gets it all so very right. There is so little to fault with the Muse 100 in the area of musical reproduction, given of course it has like components to work with.
Regardless if planning an upgrade or downgrade for that matter to something less expensive. The Muse 100 should be on that short list of consideration. Buying products from now defunct manufacturers is always problematic. Should service ever be required where does one go,the same holds true for some mass market consumer manufacturers such as HK,Denon,Kenwood, etc.,who only stock parts for less than three years on most models. Muse remains in business so service should it ever be needed will not be an issue to deal with. And that is a very important consideration in ones purchase.
The Muse 100 is a thoroughly modern ampifier of robust construction with far better than average parts used in its build. If your a first timer putting together a separates system, the Muse 100 should at the top of your consideration, it will not dissappoint. One can do far worse by not selecting the Muse 100 as the heart of a system.
In 54 years in this hobby/business I can without reservations totally recommend this very fine amplifier from Muse. It ranks in very lofty company indeed and stands on its own merit without any excuses. Nuff said.
Similar products
Threshold,Krell,Levinson, Musical Concepts,Pass Labs,Bryston,Classe, Parasound, etc
byFerrarion 03-09-11
Also:Muse Model One Hundred power amplifierByCorey Greenberg• Posted: Apr 8, 2007 •Published: Apr 8, 1991\"I\'veknowI\'ve seen this amp before,\" I thought to myself when I lifted the $1200 Muse Model One Hundred out of the box, and I wasn\'t thinking ofRobert Harley\'s reviewof the identical-looking Muse Model One Hundred Fifty reviewed in January 1990, either. No, I\'d seen this amp before, somewhere else, in some other magazine, but with a different manufacturer\'s name.
I knew it! It was in an issue ofHome & Studio Recording, but I\'d just thrown it out with a bunch of other old magazines. And trash pickup was today! I threw open the door to watch the garbage truck blunder down the street, my trashcan lid still rolling across the front lawn. As luck would have it, I was wearing my Nike hightops; \"Just do it,\" they seemed to sing like the sirens who had lured so many brave sailors to their watery graves. But my name\'s not Popeye.
I sprinted down the street after the truck, shouting, \"Stop! Please! Stop!\" The driver saw me in his rearview mirror and slowed down. Just as I reached the back of the truck, he gave it the gas and the truck lurched forward, the driver\'s leering face framed in the rearview like some abstract work calledEarly Hominid in Grey Overalls. Panting like a dog, I chased after him again, and this time when he slowed I sped up, and before he realized what happened I was right alongside the driver\'s seat, with a head like a caveman\'s glaring at me from under a dirty maroon baseball cap with the message, \"Muscatel: It\'s Not Just For Breakfast Anymore.\"
I went back around the garbage truck and peered inside; there was the issue ofH&SRI was looking for, nestled comfortably between a pair of size 72 men\'s underpants and what I will swear on a stack ofRadio Shack Electronic Bibleswas a human skull with a bit of hair still on it. Holding my nose with one hand, I reached in with the other and slowly extracted my magazine, a little damp and stained but still in one piece. I walked back to the front of the truck to thank the garbage man, but he just grunted something that sounded like \"Truckfluidyeti\" and drove off.
I got the mag home and there it was, a picture of the Muse\'s identical twin: Sound Code Systems. And, as I often find out later, the information I just busted my ass for had been right under my nose the whole time, in the letter from Muse\'s Kevin Halverson. Aw hell, it\'s not every day you get to meet Piltdown Man.
RH covered the Muse/Sound Code Systems story in his review of the Model One Hundred Fifty, so I won\'t repeat it in detail here; in short, SCS builds rugged, conventional amps for sound reinforcement and recording studio monitor systems, and Muse builds more refined, high-end amps for the audiophile market. And while the two companies are indeed separate entities, Muse is able to take advantage of their shared lineage (and manufacturing site) in several important ways. For starters, both amp lines use the same chassis, so this part of the design cost for the Muse amps was nil. Also, their combined purchasing power allows Muse to obtain higher-quality components at the same prices most other two-year-old companies pay for run\'o\'the mill parts. Kevin stresses, though, that while the two amp lines maylookalike, their designs reflect their very different markets.
Now wait a minute, I hear you saying; why don\'t recording studios use audiophile amplifiers? (footnote 1) Shouldn\'t they use the best, so they can better judge what their mixes sound like? And whydon\'tdogs dance the rhumba with cats?
One word:reliability. For various reasons, most broadcast and recording studio engineers feel that audiophile amplifiers a) break down, and b) don\'t sound any different from the Crown and Peavey amplifiers most of them swear by. I happen to disagree on both counts. While therehavebeen certain audiophile amps that have had poor reputations for reliability, I would say that this has been an area of great improvement. And quite frankly, I\'ve never heard a pro audio amplifier that I could ever call \"musical\"; most are rather hard-sounding, with an overly bright high end and glassy mids. Ironically, it\'s this kind of \"golden-ear\" nonsensical babble that makes most recording-studio engineers chortle into their copies ofMixmagazine (footnote 2). Monitor amplifiers used in pro environments need to beabsolutelyreliable; failures translate to expensive downtime, resulting in blown sessions and irate producers and performers.
Pro amps tend to be built to a tougher standard than most audiophile units; these amps have to work even after falling out of a moving truck, sitting under water in a flooded facility, orworse. Additionally, most pro amps have elaborate protection circuits that guard against dead shorts in the outputs, overheating, and continuous overload. Unfortunately, most of these circuits degrade the sound, but the pro user is more than willing to make that tradeoff as he doesn\'t believe in audible differences between amps anyway! I feel that the reliability of many high-end amps is in the same class as the \"ol\' faithful\" pro monitor amps; the Muse Model One Hundred certainly looks as rugged and reliable as any Crown I\'ve seen, and soundssubstantiallycleaner and less fatiguing.
The Model One Hundred (henceforth called the 100) reviewed here is actually a redesign of Muse\'s original amplifier of the same name. The engineers at Muse, after extensive listening with electrostatic speakers revealed serious limitations in the older amp, decided that two areas needed improvement: the number of output MOSFETs and the response scheme. The results of this rethinking were the Model One Hundred Fifty monoblocks which so impressed RH. After hearing the improvements in the mono 150s, Muse decided to go back and implement these changes in the stereo 100 as well. The number of output MOSFETs was doubled to six per channel (three complementary pairs of Hitachi J50s/K135s), but perhaps even more interesting was the change in response topology.
In the original 100, Muse used global negative response exclusively. With global response, the entire amplifier is treated as a single gain stage, with a portion of the output fed back to the input to cancel distortion and lower output impedance. While it does both well (at least on steady-state signals like sinewaves), global response tends to make for a less-stable circuit, especially when driving reactive loads like electrostatic speakers. The alternative to global response islocalresponse; that is, each individual stage of the circuit is given its own separate negative response loop, the result being better sonics and increased stability.
The downside to purely local response, however, is a higher output impedance; Muse discovered they could combine the superior sonics of local response with the lower output impedance of global response by usingboth. response from three separate points in the circuit is sent to a simple resistive mixer, which allows Muse to vary the ratio of globalvslocal response to achieve the best of both worlds. Muse calls this approach \"Mixed-Mode\" response, and Kevin feels it\'s largely responsible for the sound of the new 100.
Muse Model One Hundred power amplifier Page 2If there\'s one word that sums up both the external and internal construction of the Muse 100, it\'s \"clean.\" The internal parts, what few there are, include high-quality metal-film resistors and film capacitors. Interestingly, the film caps bear the \"SCS-Muse\" name, and appear identical to the excellent Rel Caps. The brushed aluminum front panel, with its eight shiny hexbolts, exudes a feeling of understated solidity. I have only two complaints, one practical and one personal. On the practical side, Muse should have provided the 100 with binding posts that could be tightened with a nut-driver; the round, ridged posts on the 100 are difficult to really tighten down by hand, and will most certainly be disfigured if a wrench is taken to them. On the personal side, the red lighted on-off switch on the front panel was too bright and distracting for my tastes; I stuck a piece of black electrician\'s tape over it, and decided not to invite Mr. Blackwell over to hear the new Iggy Pop.
Sound
I hooked up the Muse right after finishing up with theVTL Tiny Triodes, and suddenly there was bass!And this was good.Now I could haul out all the dynamic music that had given the smaller VTLs so much trouble and roll up the rug!And this was even better.
The Muse 100 immediately made a good impression, with an effortless sense of dynamics that would delight in any circumstance; coming as it did directly after the 25W VTLs, listening to music with the Muse was like finally filing off too-tight handcuffs (footnote 3). Coupled with theSpica TC50s, the 100 sounded fast, accurate, and highly musical.
Just to make sure I wasn\'t overly enthusiastic over the Muse\'s bass after listening to the smaller VTLs, I compared it with theAdcom GFA-555 II. While this amp is mostly pleasant but not exactly stirring to my ears, its bass isawesome. Listening to both amps, I felt the new Adcom to have the slightest of edges in the bass. While the Muse sounded extended and tight, the 555 II wassotight it was almost anal-retentive! The overdamped bass of theSpica Angeluswas perfect for this comparison; while the Adcom locked the woofers in a full-nelson, the Muse\'s presentation tended to be slightly warmer, and actually more realistic overall. The tympani rolls on the first movement of Hanson\'s Symphony 1 in e on the fine-sounding Mercury Living Presence CD (Mercury 432 008-2) came across as weighty and taut on the Muse, while the cellos were reproduced with appropriately satisfying \"growl.\"
On recordings with strong electric bass, the 100 fared exceptionally well: Flea Balzary\'s thumb-slapped intro to \"Behind The Sun\" (Red Hot Chili Peppers,The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, EMI/Manhattan CDP 7 48036 2) pulsing deep and true, with excellent pitch definition as he slides down the neck toward the tonic E. In addition, the finger-squeaks and fret rattles are reproduced as part of the bassline, not disassociated spuriae. As I mentioned before, the Adcom hadmarginallytighter bass, but it was only in the bass that the Adcom was a real challenger; the twice-as-expensive Muse 100 bettered it in every other area of music reproduction.
While the 100 didn\'t quite have the vivid sense of \"there\" of the VTL Tiny Triodes, it came much closer to them than the other amps reviewed. The music, while not quite in my lap as with the Triodes, was slightly forward and alive; definitely akin to the better tube amplifiers I\'ve heard. The Muse acquitted itself brilliantly with recordings that depend on low-frequency weight and definition to recreate the original acoustic. On the Cowboy Junkies\'Trinity Session, the first track begins with nothing save for the ambient noise of the church: there\'s somemassivelow-frequency noise accompanied by some random tapping in the distance, and the 100 decoded this information in a 3-D manner that made it very easy to hear the rear wall of the church. The Muse\'s excellent soundstaging capabilities were also demonstrated on this recording, as well as on the Chesky Test CD; the ever-funky Bob Enders could clearly be heard both behind and beyond the speaker positions. And during the guitar solo on theTrinity Session\'s \"Blue Moon Revisited (Song For Elvis),\" the reverb of the softly amplified guitar can be clearly heard bouncing off the rear and side walls of the church, creating ahugesense of depth well behind the plane of the speakers. This sense of depth is accompanied by what I feel is the Muse\'s strongest suit: itsincredibledetail.
Now, I have to admit to rereading RH\'s review of the Muse 150s after my listening sessions but before hunkering down to write this review; I didn\'t want to cover the same technical ground, and Idefinitelydidn\'t want to sound like I was merely repeating his sentiments on the sonic characteristics. But reading his review in Vol.13 No.1, I saw that he\'d heard from the 150 monoblocks exactly what I was hearing from the 100: an extraordinary sense of detail, but thankfully devoid of the hardness and sterility that usually go hand in hand with this trait. In fact, the high end is quite open and smooth, again more like a good tube amp than solid-state.
Listening to music on the 100, I was hearing thingsburiedin mixes that I\'d never been aware of before. On the Vaughan Brothers\'Family Style(footnote 4) (Epic CD ZK-46225), the aptly-named \"Hillbillies From Outer Space\" features Jimmie Vaughan playing a too-cool Bob-Wills-meets-Jimmy-Smith riff on a lap-steel played through a Leslie rotating-speaker cabinet, over a loping groove both Spade CooleyandBooker T. and the MGs would\'ve been proud of. Since purchasing this killer disc, I must have listened to it hundreds of times; It\'sthatgood. But until I played it with the Muse 100, I never,everheard the \"Whew, ha!\" at 1:44 into the song! At first I thought, as is usually the case, it was my next-door neighbor finally getting a question on \"Jeopardy\" with his doors and windows open. Playing the track again confirmed that the shout was indeed buriedwaydown in the mix, but easily heard with the Muse. Also, I went next door and saw that he was instead watching \"Hollywood Squares,\" and was thus thoroughly stumped into silence.
This sense of detail was extraordinary. The easy clarity of the Muse consistently revealed nuances and tidbits heretofore hidden. Another CD that\'s seen it\'s share of time in my player andthensome is the Neville Brothers\'Yellow Moon(A&M CD 5240), by far my favorite of their post-Meters output. On the beginning of Sam Cooke\'s \"A Change Is Gonna Come,\" Aaron Neville can be heard counting off the song, \"One, two, three...\" all by himself. Listening with the Muse revealed what sounds like a very faint electric fan in the studio, probably there to cool off the not-insubstantial singer from the not-insubstantial Louisiana humidity. Again, the Muse was able to reveal detail that had been obscured by the other amps, and this exciting aspect of the 100\'s performance was noticeable even during casual listening, inviting the listener to focus in on the music and get \"lost in the I have no complaints with the Muse; it bonded synergistically with the Angeluses, offering a detailed and neutral sound that changed character completely with each new recording. All too often, a component\'s signature can be gleaned, after a few hours\' listening, from the \"samey\" sound heard when many different recordings are played. The Muse is one of those rare products that\'s difficult to fault; the excellent performance across the board makes it very easy to forget about it and concentrate on the music; a higher compliment I can\'t pay.
Up till now, I haven\'t heard a solid-state amp I could live with for under $3000; I definitely prefer tube amplifiers for their more natural presentation and lack of hardness in the midrange and high end. I\'ve heard solid-state amps with fantastic bass but ragged highs, sweet highs but depressed midrange, tubey midrange but flabby bass, etc., and it seemed like you couldn\'t have it all for under three grand or so. The Muse Model One Hundred is an amp that I could not only live with, but do so very happily. I\'mextraordinarilypicky when it comes to amps, especially solid-state, but the Muse never failed to enthrall and involve me in the music without a hint of strain or coloration. Perhaps in the company of superamps like the Krells, Levinsons, and Thresholds, the Muse 100 might sound more limited; I can\'t say. But Icansay that in its heavily populated price range, the Muse is the most impressive I\'ve heard by a wide margin. Highly recommended.
