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Musical Paradise mp-301 mk3 review

Gregg 73

Gregg 73

Well-Known Member
Now this is just my opinion and observations about this amplifier after listening and playing with it for about a week. First off rolling the tubes does nothing to change the sound for the better or worse. I bought this amp from a local seller and it came with the stock Chinese tubes, I added GL K-88'S for the power side and Tung Sol NOS 6SD7'S for the preamp side. Not even the least bit of difference. Sounds like another donkey chasing the carrot scenario to me. Second there is absolutely no worthwhile bass coming from any set of speakers I hook it up to. Klipsch Heresy's series 1.5, Reel to Real tower speakers with incredibly high sensitivity, and Canton Karat 200's. The Cantons sound the best to me. The only way to get any bass is with an equalizer. I don't listen to bass heavy music either, no rap or Electronica etc. Now I will say that the highs and mids are very clear and occasionally I'll notice things in music that I've never noticed before. Mainly listening to Amazon Music HD and my IPOD as the source, did hook it up to my ES cd player and since there's isn't a treble or bass adjustment it sounded awful. Just my 2 cents.
 
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It sounds like a design shortcoming of the amp it's self. While no fan of either set of KT88's,
Whats the point of having a Kt88 amp with little Bass?
May as well have a smoother sounding El34 or 6L6 amp.
A qualified experienced tube amp expert can probably Tweak it for better Bass response.
Possibly slightly bigger coupling caps
 
Mine responds great to tube rolling. The stock Chinese tubes were incredibly bright. My favorite combo is the KT77 and the 717A doorknob shaped driver tubes. The RCA black can 6sj7 is almost as good. Another more linear power tube is the 7581A, good bass and top but less mid presence than the KT77 or a EL34. Do you have experience with tube amps?
i consider it a good sounding amp.

Here is some info to be found here-
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?search/63287417/&q=mp-301+mk3&o=date
 
Mine does as well. I've tried quite a few pair but right now I'm using Psvane KT88-T Ⅱ Mark Ⅱ Vacuum Tubes and Klipsch RP600Ms.
 
I've been using the red RCA 5693s along with a pair of Westinghouse 807s. And agree that it is a good sounding amp. It's in my bedroom system with Klipsch RP600Ms
 
I originally bought mine to use as a headphone amp for 250-600ohm headphones. I still use it as such and it does a great job in that regard. I've had a mixed experience with speaker usage. I cannot crank it where I live. In near field with some efficient bookshelves it sounds good. In my living room with my Klipsch KG2s the midrange is lacking at acceptable volume levels. The KG2s really want more power and their presentation is more balanced with the Yamaha R-S201 receiver I normally use with them. I suspect I need both more efficient speakers and a place without shared walls for this little amp to really shine on speakers.
 
just placed a bid to join the club, ordered a 2018 deluxe version. I have never owned a tube speaker amp before, but have owned a few tube headphone amps, one of which (SBAF SW51+) I still have on hand. I hope that MP-301 MK3 will allow me to consolidate my study setup and perhaps sell the SW51+. I have HD650 which, after initial period of dissatisfaction, I came to appreciate. I have ordered a low-impedance headphone adapter from Musical Paradise together with the amp so that perhaps I could try to drive my Drop x Fostex TR-X00 (25 Ohms), but I am not too hopeful, perhaps this will end up a trade off for an extra line in and the speaker amp functionality.
 
I just ordered an MP-301 MK3 Deluxe version myself and had planned to use mostly as a headphone amp, but I am now thinking of seeing how it works with a pair of vintage AR-17 speakers with 86 dB sensitivity rating and perhaps dropping a subwoofer into the setup. Does anyone have experience in using a sub with this or another tube amp. My sub is a Velodyne VX-11. It has speaker level inputs and output. I was told to attach in parallel the main speakers and the speaker input terminals on the sub to the amp, but leave the speaker output terminals on the sub empty. Does that make sense. Why would I not run the speaker cables from the amp speaker output terminals to the speaker level input terminals on the sub and then run a set of cable from the sub's speaker output terminals to the main speakers? Would I risk frying my tube amp if I did it that way?
 
Skip060 said:
I just ordered an MP-301 MK3 Deluxe version myself and had planned to use mostly as a headphone amp, but I am now thinking of seeing how it works with a pair of vintage AR-17 speakers with 86 dB sensitivity rating and perhaps dropping a subwoofer into the setup. Does anyone have experience in using a sub with this or another tube amp. My sub is a Velodyne VX-11. It has speaker level inputs and output. I was told to attach in parallel the main speakers and the speaker input terminals on the sub to the amp, but leave the speaker output terminals on the sub empty. Does that make sense. Why would I not run the speaker cables from the amp speaker output terminals to the speaker level input terminals on the sub and then run a set of cable from the sub's speaker output terminals to the main speakers? Would I risk frying my tube amp if I did it that way?
Click to expand...

A tube amp needs a load on the output terminals, without a load the output transformers can internally arc out, destroying them. I'm not sure if hooking your speakers up to the sub instead of the amp would still have the correct ohms of load on the amp. The safe way (without knowing for sure) is to hook the speakers to the amp and also hook the high level inputs of the sub to the to the amp.

And looking at that amp, there is no way with those tiny little output transformers will it have any bass. And honestly I would bet quite a bit of money it's another made in China amp lying about it's wattage output. 6.5W from those tiny little transformers sounds VERY optimistic. Out of the half dozen or so made in China amps I have reviewed and worked on, only one produced it's rated power and most didn't evcen make close to 1/2 their rated output. I don't doubt it would work OK with some 6L6 tubes as a headphone amp.
 
I get good bass response, especially with KT77.

it comes with an ALPS volume pot, a high-quality PCB board, a larger EI core made of Japanese silicon steel, Vishay military resistors, not to mention Rubycon and Nichicon capacitors! Needless to say, nothing being produced in North America or Europe can approach this amp at this price. For a comparable North American or European-made single-ended EL34 amp, the entry point is $1200 but you won’t get a headphone amp included.

https://wallofsound.ca/audioreviews...-mk3-integrated-tube-amp-2013-deluxe-version/
 
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