as appeared in audioMUSINGS
Issue No. 1 1998
by Francisco DuranWhen I first listened to the
Alternate Audio CA35 amplifier in my system, I
thought to myself, what's the big deal? The tonal
balance, bass and soundstaging capabilities were
OK. It had a warm, sweet sound, but not much
ambience. Then a call from fellow audioMusings
reviewer Sherman Hong informed me that I had to
reverse the plarity at either the amplifier or
speakers. After doing so, the sound really
snapped into place. But before we get too far
into the sound of this amplifier, let's check out
some of its features.
The CA35 is a stereo, high-bias, class A power
amplifier which puts out 25 single-ended watts
per channel. There are only two MOSFET
transistors in the signal path. A standby circuit
keeps the amp warm without excessive power
consumption. There is full monitoring of DC
offset and temperature conditions, indicated by
LEDs on the front panel. By the way, the CA35
does run very hot!
The CA35 is your basic black, low-profile,
rectangular amplifier with heatsinks on the
sides. The most striking features of the
amplifier's back side are the beautiful five-way
binding posts made by TIF. The inputs are
standard unbalanced RCAs. Also on the back is the
main power switch, alongside the left and right
channel fuses and the IEC connector for the power
cord.
I threw an eclectic set of discs at the little
guy, and for the most part it came through in
good shape. With the amplifier in my system, I no
longer cringed at cymbal crashes, snare drums, or
dynamic peaks of any kind. The Eagle's Hell
Freezes Over was gorgeous. The music sounded
smooth, with an overall golden sheen. Even the
clapping of the audience sounded natural. The
depth of the hall was also very apparent.
Then I put on a disc which is not bright, sharp
or steely in sound, but the music sure
is-Metallica's And Justice For All. I came across
this baby through my guitar slingin' nephew,
because I told him I liked the song,
"One." This song is a musical version
of a film called Johnny Got His Gun, which deals
with a guy who comes back from the war with no
appendages and deaf, dumb, and blind. He
communicated by using his head to tap out Morse
Code messages. Very powerful, and transferred
well to music by Metallica. For the most part,
this disc is straight-ahead, gut wrenching, loud,
hard rock. I feel this disc should be run through
a stereo system now and then instead of the usual
wimpy audiophile test disc, and played real loud,
just to see if your speakers can still hang. Mine
sure did.
How did it sound? The guitars rang out as clear
and sweet as I've ever heard electric guitars
through my system. Guitars, drums, and James
Hatfield's gravelly vocals all came together very
coherently. Metallica? Sweet? Coherent? Am I
losing it? OK, let's turn the Mortal Kombat disc,
same deal-tight, clean, and slightly warm. If
anything, I had a problem with dynamics on these
discs, but more on that later.
So I thought, what the heck, let's switch gears,
and put on the Anonymous 4 Yools Night Disc. As
the Dice Man would put it, "You know, the
CDE of four chicks in a church singing their
hearts out." I wasn't really in the mood for
this kind of music, but I wanted to throw
everything at the little CA35. Once again, the
vocals were very natural sounding, and sibilance
was very well controlled. I did notice that when
all four women hit the louder passages, a slight
excess of energy came through, but since I hear
this on my Classe amplifier as well, it must be
in the recording. It also seemed that I had to
turn up the volume quite high on this disc to get
a better sense of the recording space, but I
still think this is due to the way the CD is
recorded. However, after a few moments of
listening I pretty much forgot about being
critical, and just enjoyed the singing. Music to
soothe the savage beast.
One thing leads to another, so on went
Corelli-Conceti Grossi Opus 6, with Nicholas
McGegan conducting the Philharmonic Baroque
Orchestra on Harmonia Mundi France. The music
just seemed to blossom from the instruments. This
to me is the strong point of the CA35. String
sounds of all kinds, whether strummed, plucked,
or struck with a bow, from the lower midrange to
the lower treble, sound ever so sweet and
coherent. Vocals sound real, and there is a
layering and depth to the soundstage that is
uncanny.
But alas, in life there always seems to be
something out there to spoil the party, and in
this case it was dynamics. I first noticed this
on the Eagles disc. The guitars opening track
six, "Hotel California," sounded great,
but as soon as the bass and drums kicked in,
things seemed to wimp out. It sounded like Don
Henley was holding back every time he hit the
drums because he didn't want to disturb anyone.
There didn't seem to be as much impact on the
drums as I'm used to hearing through the Classe.
Also, the bass guitar had plenty of body, but not
as much impact or snap. The pace and rhythm
sounded slightly lazy and lackluster, as if the
Eagles were tired. The same was true of the
Mortal Kombat soundtrack. The bass reached down
pretty far, but it didn't have that
gut-wrenching, chest-hitting slam. The pace
seemed a bit slow and lacking in immediacy and
life with the Corelli disc, also.
If it sounds like I'm picking on the little CA35,
perhaps a comparison with my Classe CA2000
amplifier is in order. Both amplifiers are in the
same price bracket. With the Classe amplifier
back in the system, the Eagles' disc sounded
faster and slightly leaner. It still sounded
smooth, but not as ruck and warm as with the
Alternate Audio. Vocals were more open-sounding
and more effortless, if a touch lighter. On the
Anonymous 4 disc, even though the vocals didn't
sound as golden or sweet through the Classe, they
were still very good. I could also hear the
vocalists drawing breath at the ends of phrases
more easily. More resolution, perhaps? Cymbals
and high hat sounded sharper and gutsier and more
prominent. When electric guitars were being
picked on the Eagles or Metallica discs, they
sounded sharper, and not as rounded and sweet as
with the Alternate Audio amplifier, with a
slightly noticeable distortion and grunge. The
sound smoothed out quite a bit when I switched
the Classe to balanced mode, the background
became more silent, and the noise floor dropped.
As far as reproducing the sound of electric
guitars, the Classe sounded more real, if not as
sweet as the Alternate Audio.
The CA35 is no slouch in the bass department, but
it couldn't compete in this area with my Classe
CA200. This is where system matching might come
into play. In talking with one of my fellow
auioMusings cohorts after we had both finished
our reviews of the amplifier, I discovered he
totally disagreed with me about the bass
performance of the CA35. In his system, which
includes a pair of ProAc Response 3.5's he found
the bass fast, dynamic, and clean. He also had
the Alternate Audio preamplifier in his system,
which makes me think that maybe my Classe CP60
preamplifier is a mismatch with the CA35.
I really enjoyed listening to music through the
CA35. The seductive sweetness and warmth of this
amp kept overcoming my critical listening and
letting the music flow through me. If you're
interested in a single-ended solid state design,
take the Alternate Audio CA35 for a spin and see
what you find.
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