Clones 55pm monoblock amps

vivek_r

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2014
Messages
391
Points
93
Location
Mumbai
Hi all,

After ownership of 6 months to make sure, and having a few friends to listen, here is my take on the Clones 55pm from Hong Kong - a lovely amplifier from Hong Kong, with great service by Funjoe, who owns the Company.

It is tough to buy into India - I got it hand carried. However, it mates well with the Harbeth Compact 7ES3 for my kind of sound! Of course there is bias of ownership, but read on, please!

(I can't get no) satisfaction

Playing with a budget and buying off reviews means lot of mistakes. Used low power amps or ones that exacerbated the warmth of the Harbeths. Fast clean and powerful was the order of the day, I came to the conclusion.

In any case beyond a point my terrible live room was going to be a bottleneck - yet I wanted something there so that I could hear music with the kids around.

You can't always get what you want

Given my history of not right matching Harbeth Compact 7, I keep ding donging between a budget diamond or going for really expensive equipment while I can afford it (just once, darling, last time and once). Then I think of customs duties shipping hassles and get cold feet.

Frankly, never been lucky at getting good second hand stuff. Or indecisive when time comes, in plonking sans listening. My music loving self says don't spend so much money on all this.

Tumbling dice

Finally, those self same reviews, and recommendations from a couple of reviewers whom I became friendly with got me to the Clones.

Gimme Shelter

I started off with the Clones 25i which sounded right finally. While it was underpowered for the room, a bit dry too,it had moments of the kind of sound that I liked. I ams sure it would have been great in a smaller room.

So I decided to make the sound a little wet and use an Elekit pre which worked. Then I messed up the Clones 25i while taking out the pre and make it just a power amp and caused all sorts of ground loops.

Have you seen your mother baby?

My sister was leaving Hong Kong for good, and was planning a trip and I took the decision and finally said "OK, now beyond 25W" and ordered the more powerful 55pm. Funjoe of Clones was very decent about the exchange with the 25i, and in fact, is a great guy to deal with.

So did the exchange for the larger mono block amps.

19th nervous breakdown

And the sound was bright. Funjoe recommended break in and not switching it off. I am a brightness hater ( I love BBC monitors - you know the types) and so it bothered me.

You got me rocking

Leave it on for 48 hours (a bit of a pain) and after few days of break in - Music! Magic! Great deal of transparency. Lovely voices, timbral separation, tonal correctness and decent soundstage. Great flow and PRAT. Transparency. Bass, wow, I could hear bass notes so wonderfully my feet move.

Happy

Yes I am. Reading less reviews and listening to more music (you can guess which group is playing surely, when I wrote this down). With Ratoc, Leben and Graham in the bedroom, just think I am lucky.

The Last Time

I am enjoying music a lot now. I don't feel the urge to go and listen to someone else's music system. I could live with this set up till something rots. In fact, I am trying to aim for an embargo from buying unless something breaks (hallelujah, my transport is on the blink - can still shop).

The Clones play very well in their budget category. Surely, you get more when you pay more (refinement, richness, blah blah), and yes, I could get seduced by more (who said that we are a sensible lot?. KT 120, KT 150, triode, midrange bloom, powerful mosfet amp which sounds like tubes....yeah well!), but in the six months I have owned it, I have derived great musical enjoyment.

For more details on the Clones including the pricing, please visit the website:

http://www.clonesaudio.com

The site has links to other professional reviews as well.

May the midrange be with you.

Regards,

Vivek

PS. Too lazy to take pics! But it looks like the ones on the website, no kidding!
 
Hey Vivek, Have you tried the Grahams with the clones ? Which is your primary speaker now ? Graham or the Compacts ?

Overall, how would you differentiate the 2 speakers ?
 
Hi my friend square_wave, how goes it?

I use both - during the weekend days, so that I don't cut myself off from my family, the Harbeths in the living room, and for late night listening, Graham in the bedroom.

I prefer Graham with tubes (Leben goes nicely - there is a write up in some review site about a Graham/Leben combination) and the Harbeths with solid state.

The Harbeths are warmer speakers than the Graham - the Graham have more clarity in my set up. I am happy with both actually - when I listen to one, its not I miss the other. The Graham tick more audiophile boxes, but there is something really engaging about the Harbeth Compact 7. I suspect the Harbeth Monitor 30.1 will be like the Graham 5/9.

A lot of my listening these days is on the iPhone! Long commutes and hours at work. I got on the Apple Music and got hooked. In the last 2 weeks, I have listened to Beachheads, New Order, Shelly Manne (live @ Manne Hole), Oberon Trio playing Mendelssohn and an amazing piece called "That Crazed Smile", Beethoven Arch Duke Trio (also comes in a Murakami novel) and rediscovered that I really love "When the Levee Breaks".

I think When the Levee Breaks is my favourite song from Led Zep IV. What is not to like about a backward echoed harmonica - how the instruments explode after the initial drum-lay-down-the-beat!

I like the Clones a lot. It sounds really good to me. Damn this audiophile habit - what great music it throws.

Vivek
 
Vivek,

Very interesting to hear your impression on the Clones 55pm.

The Grahams made an impression on me at the Bangalore HiFi show.
If you are getting sound anything like what I heard at the show you are in a great place!

Regards.
 
Vivek,

Very interesting to hear your impression on the Clones 55pm.

The Grahams made an impression on me at the Bangalore HiFi show.
If you are getting sound anything like what I heard at the show you are in a great place!

Regards.

The grahams were there :sad::sad:

How did I miss it ??
 
Hi, a request please. Let us keep it anchored around the Clones. If any forum member listens at my place, they can post.

Happy to set a separate group for the Ls 5-9 graham. An outstanding loudspeaker. Or perhaps jls001 who has heard it in more than one set up can give it impetus to this.

I hear the chartwell 3/5 is superb as well and a likely classic! So we can even set up a graham chat and keep adding on.

Vivek
 
Hi

paid a quick visit to Viveks place today. Thanks vivek for your time and hospitality.

Had taken along a few CD's with me and got to listening to viveks setup almost straightaway.

The Clones mono power amps are rather nicely proportioned and i kinda liked their looks and sound.

The source was an Oppo player feeding a RAL DAC and onward to the pre amp ( Elekit ) and onto the Clones amp and then onto the speakers ( Harbeth C7 )

So you see the sound from the CD has a few hurdles to cross and this was 1 thing i did mention - to shorten the chain as far as possible.

Maybe the addition of a nice CDP or a nice transport can be helpful.

I must say the music sounded quite lively and was resolving enough for Vivek.

I have heard the Harbeth C7's in other settings twice before and if i remember them correctly ... viveks setup is less "syrupy" than the others and thats good ... especially good...... as vivek likes them that way.

The clones amp did not sound stressed out in any way and i suppose they will work well for most folks who want the music and not the brand.

Maybe - a nice CDP will be good and maybe the Clones pre-amp may match well with the Clones amp.

I envisage this for Vivek

Nice CDP ( or current TT and a nice phono )
Clones pre amp ( or Elekit )
Clones Amp
Speakers
Good Sound

Maybe 1 experiment that can be tried out is to place the mono power amps at the base of the speakers and shorten the speaker cable length.... but thats dependent on the house and WAF etc.. i suppose.

Muchas Gracias :cheers: Vivek for your time.

As always - a visit to an FM's home is a great learning and i am very thankful for that.

#appreciate

best regards
 
Thanks MPW for the visit, and particularly enjoyed the variety of music that you brought and we listened to. It was nice to have another FM who was not interested in running through bits of various "audio", but happy to listen to music - whole songs, half albums!

Also, thank you for your honest opinion. Please do mention your inputs based on the TT as well which will give the sound without CD.

I am willing to experiment with a CDP as well, but generally now scared of buying on reputation - would rather buy on listening!

See you soon!

Vivek
 
Thanks MPW for the visit, and particularly enjoyed the variety of music that you brought and we listened to. It was nice to have another FM who was not interested in running through bits of various "audio", but happy to listen to music - whole songs, half albums!

Also, thank you for your honest opinion. Please do mention your inputs based on the TT as well which will give the sound without CD.

I am willing to experiment with a CDP as well, but generally now scared of buying on reputation - would rather buy on listening!

See you soon!

Vivek

The CD's i got were a mixed bag - some were nice pressings and some were average.

I did not get the "audiophile" discs - readers must note this.

When we switched to the TT ( played Peter Gabriel LP ) - the sound was quite nice. The sound ( with the elimination of the Oppo transport and the RAL dac ) was quite tuneful and " no flab " - within the boundaries of the record and the phono stage.

The clones amps do their jobs well in your setup and they are a good candidate for 80% of us with moderately sized living rooms

For the price they sell at - they do a lot of things well. I would have loved to hear them with their matched pre amp ( not that the Elekit is any less or any more - i cant comment either way )

The nice things about the Clones is that they show that to run a nice rig - one need not get into pricey stuff and thats an idea i like.

The setup you run and the one i have are alike but yet different.

Yes - we will meet again.

regards
 
Had the opportunity to hear the Clones again last Saturday. What has changed is the source is now a Macbook instead of the TEAC CD player. The Macbook is running JRiver 22.

And what a dramatic improvement this has wrought! Clear instrument/voice separation is discernible, resolution has taken a quantum leap, bass definition which was earlier a bit indifferent (to put it politely:)) has also improved. Bass lines and lyrics are so much easier to follow. In fact individual musical strands are getting highlighted better, making it a much more enjoyable musical experience.

All in all a very worthy change of source. Great work, Vivek!
 
Thanks jls001.

I like this sound a lot, but I miss putting on a cd or a lp.

Next time LPs, deal?!
 
Had the opportunity to hear the Clones again last Saturday. What has changed is the source is now a Macbook instead of the TEAC CD player. The Macbook is running JRiver 22.

And what a dramatic improvement this has wrought! Clear instrument/voice separation is discernible, resolution has taken a quantum leap, bass definition which was earlier a bit indifferent (to put it politely:)) has also improved. Bass lines and lyrics are so much easier to follow. In fact individual musical strands are getting highlighted better, making it a much more enjoyable musical experience.

All in all a very worthy change of source. Great work, Vivek!

Is the dac the line magnetic one ?
 
I have put the LM in storage and went R2R post my Japan holiday - bought a RATOC 24192 DAC. Uses the 1704 converter. Always wanted to try one of these and i love it.

In my place, with the Elekit pre and clones 55 pm, my LPs sounded much better than CDs. I finally changed the transport from a CD player to a MAC running J River. That's what jls001 alluded to as a change in source.
 
I made a visit to Vivek's place last week while on a quick trip to Mumbai. Vivek and I had exchanged notes and I was very keen to listen to his setup. His reviews and choice of gear had piqued my interest.

Vivek runs his setup in a living room space which I must say has been done with impeccable taste. Warm earthy tones accented with wooden furniture gives the room a nice warm atmosphere. The large living space has a dining area on one half and the sitting area on the other. The stereo rig is on the left side of the short wall of the sitting area. This creates a listening space with a wall on the left side with right side open to the dining area. The back wall opens out to a large window with fantastic greenery in the balcony. Floor is polished terracotta tiling. No carpets. All in all this is a pretty large room that is lively. The listening chair is placed about 8 feet back from the speaker line.

Listening started with some piano jazz by Brad Mehldau followed by some a sampling of different genres of music that included Michael Jacksons Billie Jean, Steely Dans Gaucho and some Shostakovich. Vivek listens to a wide variety of music but favors Western Classical. Not surprisingly his living room rig is tuned to listening to his favorite genre which makes serious demands on the gear. I have to say that my listening impressions can only be ascribed to the entire system as such and not just to the Clones amplifiers. The Macbook source running JRiver feeds the RATOC NOS DAC to the Elekit Pre and finally into the Clones 55PM amplifiers. Speakers are Harbeth Compact 7s. Yes he is a BBC monitor guy.

The sound was at once light and transparent. Completely different from what I hear in many other places including my own. Complete absence of heaviness. Bass is there but its fast and light. This was puzzling to me because Vivek has a tremendous second setup consisting of a Leben Integrated feeding his Graham Audio stand mounts. In comparison, the Leben is heavy handed giving solidity to the sound that most would like to have.

Fans of cricket hear commentators mention the use of heavy bats in modern cricket. I used to play at one point and I used to sometimes ask for a batsmans bat. Even back then batsmen were trending towards heavier bats because you really dont have to middle the ball. A ball struck a little away from the sweet spot will still crash the fence. Top edges fly all the way to ropes. However, every once in a while you came across a guy who played with a light bat. Not always, but typically this was a sign of a guy with game. In the right hands a light bat can be wielded like a sword to flay a bowling attack. Its really hard to do and thats why you only found a few of them. You need skill to use a light bat.

Switching back to Viveks main setup brings up this analogy. Vivek listens to classical music with a Critical Listening ear. He listens to the music by the chord (his own words not mine). A system with heavy hand would provide solid low end but would blur some details. A light system allows for transparent sound albeit with some compromise in the low end. Transients like snare drums are razor sharp. No bass bloat to muddy the mids. What you get is an intimate window into the sound that is open and delicate. The sound comes out in an unrestrained manner that is pleasing to those who know to appreciate it.

My listening session was short due to time restraints. I came away from my visit with an appreciation for a different approach to audio that is very rare to find. Viveks setup definitely has game.

Thanks again Vivek for your time and hospitality.
 
Last edited:
Nikhil was my pleasure to have you over.

Thank you for your comments and it well describes the sound I was aiming for - a relatively light, extended and slightly dry sound. For wetness, as you rightly pointed out, there is the Leben (and the liquor cabinet!) and the Graham.

See you soon..
 
I'd visited Vivek's place some weeks back. As always, enjoyed some impeccable hospitality and beautiful music. A special thanks for having me over.

This was my second experience with the Graham speakers. Had heard them with the Leben earlier but in a different room. Heard some western classical and jazz. As with all visits to Vivek's place, I got the names of a few more CDs for my wishlist

The entire system works very well together. Life-like tonality. No signs of harshness or hardness, which is something I was worried about given the chip amp nature is f the Clones. Imaging was decent but took a big step up when we put a couple cork mats on the floor. Overall the amps see to keep up with what is a very revealing chain. It would be interesting to try them with some other speakers as well.
 
The Marantz PM7000N offers big, spacious and insightful sound, class-leading clarity and a solid streaming platform in a award winning package.
Back
Top