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Gregm,

I do not think that to be reasonable is a tall order, in fact I would insist that I nothing but reasonable. 

Still, I feel that it is a huge distraction for people and a disappointment for me that others see juts an amplifier with a big price tag. I also was making jokes about it saying that Vladimir use caps that saved him $9 in order to keep the price under $126.000. Still, I hope people undusted it as sarcasm but not as reasoning. It is not abbot sales, marketing or the BS that Lamm (or any other manufacturer in his place) tells about his new product. I approach to the subject from a perspective of the OPPORTUNITIES THAT ML3 OFFERS IN CONTEXT OF AUDIO ADVANCEMENT.

ML3 is very, logical amp, Lamm had it for a long time and I remember in end of the 90s I have seen ML3 was sitting ready in Vladimir’s lab as a “maket”. GM70 is very popular tube in Russia and any more or less serious Russian audio person at one period or other made or own GM70 amp. (In Russian no one manufactured good audio equipment and people mostly built audio themselves of find somebody who built for them). There are many reasons why GM70 is so useful in there: it is a good tube, Russians never ever produce good loudspeaker or even drivers, high availability and low price of GM70 and many others reasons. So, when you talk with Russians high-enders it is very common subject for them: GM70 copper plate vs. graphite plate, GM70-type of sound vs. 6C33C-type of sound, GM70 at 800V vs. GM70 at 1200V and so on…

Consequently, when Vladimir introduced his ML2 I frankly speaking was less concern about it cost. I personally do not extend credibility to Vladimir anymore and therefore I am not looking to buy his products. However, as the person who had very high respect to the older version of ML2 and who learned a lot about audio form the ML2 I was interested to learn what other Sonic Opportunities (beside power) the Vladimir new amplifiers could offer.

Knowing for years that that ML3 will be coming I was anticipating that ML3 would be a succession in the Lamm declined quality of sound, but from this perspective where Lamm is different for any other manufactures in high-end? Any known to me company, existing or form the history of audio after they did something good in a few years were doing down with their demands, objective and eventually quality. BTW, do not take me wrong. I did not said that since ML3 might be a succession in the Lamm declined quality of sound then it means that ML3 might sound worst then ML2.1. What I meant to say was: L2 (came after ML2) did not perform as good as L1 did or as L2 could, The ML2.1 did not sound even remotely close to ML2 as to what ML2.2 could. LP2 was way underperforming very aggressively and eventually the ML3 might be performing at the fraction of quality as A PROPERLY MADE GM70 AMP BY VLADIMIR COULD PERFORM. Well, I have concerns about the entire idea of a “good amp on GM70” and I will elaborate it further in the coming post: “Further comments about the Lamm ML3 (part II)”  - I have no time now to write it up.

So, let do not analyze how expansive Lamm ML3 but rather looks if this amps offers and what Lamm meant to say with this amp sonically (if anything). Since the ML3 looks like it uses two pair of 500V-550V caps connected in series then it most likely that it has 900-1000V on the GM70’s plate. It would be interesting to learn why Vladimir went for that strong composite follower in the driving stage and why he dived into high grid currents (class A2 operation?). In the rest it looks like a very typical and very traditional GM70 amp, not different then any other amp with transmitting tube. It will sound as good as the output transformer would be. I hope Vladimir will do it with different attitude than the attitude that used in his ML2.1 amplifiers because if he did not then the ML3 used will be screwed as much as the Ml2.1 uses. Thankfully they all are deaf Morons and they will not notice it.

Nevertheless, even if everything in ML3 is made as good as it could be then still I have my apprehension about ANY full-range operating single ended amplifies with a high price tag as I find them FUNDAMENTALLY FAULTY BY DESIGN. I will be talking about my observations about it further on. Ironically those observations I have learned from… Lamm… learned by listening and educating myself with the sound of that becoming “vintage” ML2.

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