Icon Audio MB90 MkIIm-150 (Part 2)

Icon Audio MB90 MkIIm-150 (Part 2)

Getting high

It was fascinating first of all to compare the sound on its Triode and Ultralinear mode settings. I found that the triode mode was often just more atmospheric-sounding, and ultralinear was generally just not quite so sweet. With Marta Gomez and Entre Cada Palabra the vocals could appear to be more focused, as, with the ultralinear, the singer seemed almost to be splashed across the stage rather than placed clearly. In triode mode, the bass was seemingly not so deep and at the same time perhaps less well-controlled, but somehow with a coherent connection to the upper registers that made it satisfying. Experimenting with the High and Low sensitivity settings (allowing for the change in level of course) I did find myself preferring the ‘low feedback sound’ of the High position. With the amplifier set to Low, there was still depth in the soundstage, but it lost some of the great overall sense of freedom and perspective you got with High. There was just a bit more ambience, a bit more air around each of the instruments. On the ‘Maria Mulata’ track, for example, you really got more of the quick slapping and cracking sounds of the various percussion instruments. Conversely, the Low position was fine on the voice and smoother on the bright, sharp solo flute sound, which on the High setting seemed to be on the verge of spitting at you. But overall, it was the High setting for me, and I continued to listen that way…

Icon audio MB90 MKllm-150

For me a good system is one that gets the best out of all material, not just the fi nest recordings. So I put on Elmore James’s ‘Dust My Blues’, recorded in mono in the 1950s and remastered much later by Ted Carroll of Ace Records It was loud, exciting and vibrant, just as I’d hoped. But then again, the amplifiers did sound great on more obviously audiophile selections. With Patricia Barber’s The Cole Porter Mix it seemed that the voice, piano and guitar each had a glossy perfection of their own. On Barber’s song ‘Snow’, which nestles unintimidated among the Porter standards, the timbral correctness and fi ne yet unexaggerated detail of the vocal made this a gripping performance.

Tung-Sol's new, egg-shaped KT 150 tubes are said to give better heat dissipation, superior vacuum and freedom from microphony. They can be run in ultralinear or triode modes

Divine Indeed                                                                    

In classical music, I always felt that the Icon really did justice to recordings where there is delicacy, space and subtlety. It was delightful in Les Nuits d’été with Dame Janet Baker, with just the right sensation of height in a slightly distant but appropriate perspective that gave a real feeling of performers on a stage. On familiar rock tracks, it seemed that the Icon could always give the music a lively bounce, rather than the effect of a weighty grind. With Kings Of Leon and Come Around Sundown the Icons gave you the power of the drums and bass, even though the bass weight was moderate, and seemed to revel in the over-the-top guitar sounds too. And the amplifier could convey real joy in music.

Rear socketry includes the usual 4 and 8ohm speaker connections, plus a switch to select high or Low sensitivity settings for the inputs. This helps make the amplifier suitable for use with passive preamplifiers too

I put on Gwyneth Herbert’s Clangers And Mash, and I really enjoyed the lovely, buoyant feeling of the track ‘Perfect Fit’. It was all there, as the ukulele sound possessed real substance and the handclaps had an immediate, genuinely fleshy quality. And the first few bars of ‘April In Paris’, from Sarah Vaughan With Clifford Brown, recorded in glorious Mercury mono in 1954, were enough to remind me why Sarah Vaughan was called ‘The Divine One’. With the Icons, she was divine indeed.