ME Sound Pty Ltd is a high end Australian electronics manufacturer with a range of amplifiers and a DAC. The ME 240 is an integrated amp based on the chassis of their ME 200 power amp with a passive line stage input. The ME 200 is their entry level power amp and the ME 240 is their entry level control plus amplification product. There is a range of active pre-amps as well.
The ME 240 is a low, slim unit with the spartan options of most passive pre-amp units. You get an on/off switch and led indicator, a source selection switch, a record selection switch which enables you to record from one source while listening to another, and a volume control. There are no balance or tone controls. Three options are available to extend the basic unit - a remote control option that provides remote volume control, a headphone amp option, and an option to include an additional amount of capacitance in the power supply. This last option is said by ME to provide improved bass and transient handling and imaging and is one they recommend. It takes the power supply from a bit over 40,000 uF to just over 100,000 uF. The amp is rated at 80 w/ch and runs in class A for the first 2 amps
Let me say at the outset that this is the best amp it has been my pleasure to have in my system, and though I抳e only had it a bit over a week we抮e talking a fair bit of pleasure. What that means is that my comments are highly favourable but I also don抰 have a yardstick to measure against. My dealer says there are better amps and I抦 prepared to believe him. I think the ME logo might be on a few of them.
I borrowed a demo unit - just the basic model - for several days. I picked it up late Saturday morning and took it home, connected it up, turned it on and threw on a disc without waiting for it to warm up. At the end of the first track I looked at my watch, turned to my wife and said 揑抳e got 5 minutes before the dealer closes - do I ring up and order one now??I hung off ringing up and around an hour later when the amp had warmed up and I threw on the second disc, I was thinking it was a lot better than I抎 thought after the first track.
I ordered one with the extra capacitance which duly arrived a few days later. I抦 glad I got the option - ME are right about the improvements, but I think it adds a bit more. Perhaps it抯 implicit in the improved transient response but there was a much greater sense of effortlessness in the way it handles music. My tastes are wide - rock, folk, country, world music, jazz, classical, and a lot of 20th century experimental composers. I抳e thrown a hell of a lot of different styles at the demo amp and at mine, and while the demo unit handled them all quite happily, mine seems to take ease of handling to a slightly higher plane. I would strongly recommend that anyone buying the 240, or the 200 power amp, spend the extra $320 Australian and get the extra capacitance.
So, how does it sound? I think the first word I would use is smooth, no grain or glare. At the same time it doesn抰 give an artificial gloss to the sound like some of the other amps I auditioned. Violins sound like horsehair grating over catgut, and voices have character. Shrill instruments like the reed instruments used by the Moroccan group, the Master Musicians of JouJouka, still sound shrill, but it抯 a shrillness without any added edge. It抯 simply that lack of added 揺dge?that contributes the smoothness and yet keeps everything sounding natural and very realistic.
It抯 good over the whole range. It抯 a wide band design specced at +/- 1 dB from DC to 199 kHz. Bass is firm and appropriately weighty and well defined while the high end is clean and open. The mid range is a joy on my KEFs which are at their best in that area, and I抦 finding voices - male, female, and groups - ravishing. In fact, I was walking through the room while I had some Peter, Paul and Mary on as background and there was a passage where Mary spoke. I spun around thinking my wife had come into the room behind me, the voice sounded so natural. It wasn抰 really like my wife抯 voice but I wasn抰 paying close attention just at that minute and the naturalness of the voice totally fooled me.
There抯 plenty of detail but it doesn抰 get in your face. If you want to listen to it, it抯 available, but it also has the habit of sneaking up on you unawares. I keep hearing things I hadn抰 noticed before, and so does my wife when she occasionally sits down to listen rather than using music as background.
Transients are handled brilliantly, especially with the high capacitance option. I like a lot of percussion music and when things go bang, they go bang fast and accurately. When things are going bang real fast - a drumstick volley for example - you get each impact still delivered with razor sharp timing and the very very brief sense of space between each individual strike - no hangover blurring the impacts. There抯 also no sense of compression in the dynamic range anywhere, either at the macro or micro-dynamic level. In fact I think it抯 the way it handles the micro-dynamics that contributes to the naturalness of the sound and helped to fool me with the spoken voice bit.
Imaging is clear and precise, and it抯 very easy to pinpoint performer抯 locations. The sound stage is wide, wider than the speakers, and deep WHEN the recording has it. I抦 more aware of those recordings with a constricted sound stage where everything sounds like it抯 just been dumped in an ill-defined clump in the centre than I was previously, simply because of the precision of the imaging. In addition, in material recorded in large, reverberant spaces such as cathedrals, the sense of the acoustic space is extremely good. I have a disc that was recorded in a large, cavernous water cistern with a 42 second reverb time (揇eep Listening?by Oliveros, Dempster and Panaiotis on New Albion) where the musicians are really performing on the reverb characteristics and the echo includes large phase changes as it moves around the space. I抳e always had the sense that I didn抰 know what it really sounded like and, while it抯 still impossible for me to characterise the music, with the 240 I feel that I抦 getting an idea of what it really sounded like if I抎 been there when it was being recorded. The relationship between source sound and reflection now makes sense, and this is apparent in music recorded in cathedrals as well.
That brings up the old one about whether you抮e there or the performers are here. I know what people are saying but I抦 undecided on this one. On material recorded in fairly normal sized spaces, I抎 probably lean to the 搕hey抮e here?option but on stuff like 揇eep Listening? there抯 no way you could fit that space into my room. It抯 very definitely 揑抦 there?on that sort of stuff. I think the bottom line is the degree of realism, either way, and it抯 very good. What is also apparent is that simple 2 mike recordings on location, where the engineer doesn抰 play with the recording afterwards, sound extremely real and natural. Multi-track studio recordings can still sound natural, but they don抰 give quite that sense of immediacy. I think it must have something to do with phase relationships. The amp is claimed to be non-inverting with 0 degrees phase shift and I抦 inclined to believe that given the imaging characteristics.
All in all, an extremely nice amplifier.
Re my room - the dimensions below are the listening area - the total space is really 22 ft long with a part wall half way dividing the room into living/dining areas. The speakers are set up along the long (22 ft) side of the living area. It's a difficult space that works much better with my DIY room lenses.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product Weakness: Simplicity - no phono stage, not all the features some people want
Product Strengths: Sound quality, simplicity (just the features I want)
