Hmm... Well I love the sound of tubes, though I haven't heard the stingray. Personally I'm an EL34 kinda guy.
At any rate, what do you think of the two? Forget watts, and all the numbers on paper, and looks etc. If you had to do a blind 2 ch. taste test, which would you choose?
Do you suppose you'll do a review of the Stingray assuming you get rid of it?
I like the stingray a lot. Its colored...but its a very nice sounding coloration to my ears. Pleasing to listen to, images very well and just has a great tube sound.
But in a blind test, i'm positive i'd pick the Sony out. It is RAZOR sharp w/its imaging and spatial presentation. I dont have the means to do A/B tests between them, but i've been listening to the Stingray a lot recently, and just plugged the Sony back in the other day and was (again) blown away by the sound of it. Its like cleaning a window and really being able to see through it.
For my musical tastes, which seems to revolve heavily around things like subtle details, soundstage, imaging and making my giant ass speakers virtualy dissapear in my living room as any point source of sound, the Sony is a clear winner.
The Stingray has much better bass responce. Its a FAT TUBE sound, and its really nice. I've never heard such pounding bass out of a tube amp. If it were 100wpc, It might be my choice. And though its 50watts sound like much more, it will not drive my room to near concert volume, which is something I enjoy from time to time.
The Sony has a DSP module for the way it handles bass frequencies that you can adjust between 3 positions and off. DC Phase Linearlizing is the controll, and it allows you to adjust the phase polarity of bass signals. This can make the amps low freq. sound sort of of soft and fuzzy, but with solid punch to it (like tube bass), or lean and clean. i'm not sold on any particular setting at the moment.
As for a stingray review. There are a lot of them out there. The amp has been around for 5 years. I suppose I"ll type up a little something about it and take some more pictures. Its a fucking awesome piece, that is for sure.
So, who wants to buy it?
$1650 and its yours. Will not dissapoint!