| Amplifiers/Receivers: John Shearne Phase 2 & 3 pre/power combo | |||
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| A lot of people have never heard of John Shearne audio, in fact until a few months ago i hadn't either. Following a speaker upgrade i decided to upgrade my main amp (a NAD C320 acting as a pre-amp to a MF P140). I was browsing ebay and happened to see the JS phase 2 integrated, having never heard of JS before i looked around the net to find very glowing reviews. So i took a chance and offered the guy £100 if he would end the auction, which he was happy to do (original price was £800 in 1995) Upon arrival i was a bit annoyed to find a loose power knob, but as it turns out the switch located directly behind the face plate had come loose, a bit of super glue and all was rosey again. The amp looks amazing, very simple design with only four chrome knobs on the front (power,volume,input selector and record selector) and a unique blue marbel finish to the front face, other than that the rest of the amp is plain black. As it turns out John Shearne is a bit of an audio legend, having worked freelance for many high end manufactures designing valve amp topologies etc. In 1990 he decided to try and produce an amp that had all the plus points of a valve amp (natural midrange mainly) but none of the weaknesses (slow pace, sloppy bass control). So the JS Phase 1 was born, eventually leading to the Phase 2 in 1995 having already placed his amps firmly at the high end of audio products. The amp is of minimalist design using the bear minimum components, so no amp protection or fancy controls here. The design is actually based on valve amp topology, so its a single end solid state amp with a straight signal path through the PCB. Each amp that was made was tested and setup but John Shearne himself, not many manufacturers can claim that! The amp is only rated at 50w into 8ohms per channel, but i think this is very modest (or very accurate and honest) as it seems to have bags of power, though its design does mean that it is not suited to inefficient or reactive speakers. So the sound........ I honestly don't know how to describe the sound, it really is unlike anything i have heard before, its extremely musical and quite laid back which are traits of a good valve amp, but the bass is superb (freq range is 5hz-28khz, yes thats right 5hz) very deep and warm and never sounds flappy or coloured. The amp using op-amps and has a push pull output stage, this leads to a bizarre experience where the sound seems to be projected right round the room, if i close my eyes when listening to acoustic music its hard to tell exactly where the sound is coming from, its very strange indeed. The tonal balance is superb, things like applause in live sets really stand out and sound very realistic, the treble is clear but not harsh (Also helped by my CD4SE)and given my ecclectic taste in music the amp behaves well with any genre. I then went on the hunt for the 2x50w phase 3 power amp to partner the phase 2, and fate bought me to ebay, as if some strange force was at work there was one for sale on ebay with 11 people trying to get it (i have never seen just the power amp for sale, these are rare), after some sweat and panick i won the auction at £165 (not bad for a 5 year old amp that cost £625 new) So i am now bi-amping my new Monitor Audio RS6 floorstanders, with extra clarity in the bass department and a much sweeter midrange, i haven't really noticed any improvement in the treble department. Honestly peeps, if you can manage to find any of the JS amps buy one, i promise you will not be dissapointed. Kev |
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