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I regularly visit 6moons News Section that lately became quite good sources for audio news. It is same that Srajan not willing to share the news in RSS or compatible format, anyhow…

The today new is Elina Lamm announces that "we are extremely pleased to announce the commercial availability of our flagship model, the ML3 Signature power amplifier [$139,290/pair]. The ML3 Signature is a single-ended tube amplifier with a separate power supply using a powerful directly-heated triode called the GM-70 (125 watts plate dissipation). The ML3 Signature features 32 watts of zero overall feedback, pure class A power... Advanced technical solutions are used in the design of the ML3 Signature. Custom-made output transformer of the highest quality, unique front-end and output stages plus the sophisticated power supply let the ML3 Signature drive most real-world-load speakers yielding effortlessly dynamic sound."

My predication about the price of these amps was right spot on. Since Lamm announced last year the amp for $126K his spiritual and ideological brothers from W. Bush administration so fuck up US economy and so tear down our American dolor that Lamm need to ascend the price of the thing to $140K in order to be able to keep up with “today booming economy”.

What is unpleasant however is a very minor but completely unnecessary play of the BS words in this amusement. I would like habitually to blame Srajan The Reviewer but it was a quote from Elina Lamm, so Srajan is out of picture.

1)     “…Pure class A power…”. Hmmmmmmm, what that crap mean? Is any “un-pure” class A power in SET? For whatever it is worth a “pure” class A is operation in class A1 and ML3 does NOT do it. The GM70 deep in A2 with +30V on grid has very low grid currant, around 20mA -40mA and ML3’s second stage is designed to deal with it. The entire amp is designed to run itself into class A2 in order to “drive most real-world-load speakers yielding effortlessly dynamic sound" (means 9XdB- sensitive speakers). It is VERY far from being “pure” class A. I think Lamm had studied too much his White House press releases and he learned too much from them.

BTW, setting the ML3-like amp into a “Pure class A1” with the same or even more power would require to go for 1200V on GM70 plate. That would bring an involvement of higher voltage capacitors, probably 300-400 investment, and consequential incase the price of the overall amp for $273.430.28K . Sure that step Lamm did not take and he was really care about the customers do not pay more than necessary.

2)     “… zero overall feedback..”  Were this crap came from? The ML3 input stage use 12AX7 and that tube can’t work in input without feedback. The ML3 use most likely the very same input stage as ML2 used, with feedback. There is no problem with it, so why there is a need to spread fabrications about it. Is Lamm willing to stress the fact that in his in ML3 he applies feedback from second stage? So what and who cares? Why it is necessary to present the “zero overall feedback” as a virtue if the amp runs feedback two local close loops. No one say that feedbacks are bad. The ML2.0 had “overall feedback” and it was very fine amp. The virtue and the proud should be expresses if you managed to make a SET with no feedback if any kind and the amp still sound “serious” (that has own set of problems for low sensitive load). However, if you do use feedback in SET then juts shut up your mouth about the feedbacks.

I do not know how about you but I do monitor what Lamm does. I owned a lot of his equipment, I know the performance of his electronics as no one else and I do see some very interesting attempts in what Lamm is or at least was trying to undertake. Lamm did a number of less interesting models and made a number of “eastern eggs”-stapes but the stressing marketing idiocy is never was what Lamm did – it was what his idiots-reviewers did for him. Now the tide is looks like shifted and the marketing idiocy is coming directly from Lamm himself. Perhaps he butters up the ground for his boy Marc Mickelson to “brash the fields” with ML3 review but… does it all sounds too stinky?

I found it being a very troublesome symptom…

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