D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum Integrated Amplifier Review

D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum Integrated Amplifier

The mid band is both scrubbed clean and highly detailed and blossoms with such ease and resolve. Tube lovers rejoice! The midrange is at once completely neutral — i.e. void of distortion, supple and grain free to the max leaving only the recorded signal and a good dose of magic, which adds up to a mid band that never ceased to impress. Send In The clowns with Sarah Vaughn and Count Basie is simply sublime. Her presence is just there, no tricks or gimmicks, just pure tone and vocal modulation helped along by transient purity, tonal resonance and effortless dynamic shading.

The D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum is not just better than all that have come before, both integrated and stereo amps, it is better in ways that make the distance between them seem so great. So low in distortion yet so naturally warm, detailed and dynamically alive, the Momentum renders music in its purist form. In a hobby based around incrementalism, the Momentum shoulders its way in and creates leap step separation from other like devices. Listening to John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman in Dedicated to you, the vocals and sax are so airy so effortless yet not in any way wimpy or wavering. Notes that are held and sustained are so linear, so true and full of texture supple dynamics and organic resonance. This quality is truly mesmerizing.

I like to refer to one aspect that makes up great sonic reproduction as architecture. The Pass Labs XA200.5 monoblocks have it. But the momentum does it with a bit more ease and just a touch more liquidity. The Pass labs XA200.5 present a slightly larger picture with bigger images and a wider soundstage, the hallmark of a well-designed mono amplifier. There is a certainty and confidence that comes with such grounded ness. The bass is a bit bigger as well, though the D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum Integrated does not suffer by comparison. The bass of the Momentum Integrated is more neutral and more clearly defined. You pay your money. You make your choice.

Steve Morse’s Southern Steel is a disc full of power trio pyrotechnics that can be grating in the treble. When played through the Momentum grating distortions are mostly replaced with clean tones never before heard from what was a below average recording, or so I thought. Transformative is what I would call familiar music through the Momentum Integrated, without the fear of hyperbole.

Joe Satriani’s House full of bullets shows how far down the road to sonic purity the momentum travels in the treble. For one thing, cymbal crashes are not only textured and cleaner than ever, they simply leap off the stage with effortless dynamics, never being overly forward or shrill. Again, this is far from a reference level recording but it does illustrate a great point. The momentum will make every recording it plays sound better — not a little better like I-just-added-“XYZ” tweak-and-I-think-my-system-sounds-a-little-better kind of better, but holy-S&$t-this-sounds-better!

While listening to Wes Montgomery in Full House, you will fall prey to the temptation to crank up the volume higher than you usually would. And let me tell you that is a swell idea. With the D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum Integrated I can get real world jazz club scale in the room with me, all for me! The Momentum Integrated reminds me of the Jeff Rowland amplifiers of yore in a way. My 8TiHC with battery pack had the same clean power on tap. The Momentum is however a radically different animal as it is so profoundly un-colored. The Rowland’s were voiced a bit dark and did not have anywhere near the bass control or over all resolution. Having said that, the 8TiHC is the one that got away for me. I miss that amp more than any other audio product I have traded.

Keeping with classic Jazz, Cannon Ball Adderly in Somethin Else was tamed with a couple of clicks of the treble control and Voila! What was once a bright glary sound is rendered with air, texture and life-it was there all along just tucked under some unneeded brightness. Goodness, the traded solos between Adderly and Miles Davis are so alive and yet accessible. The scale is remarkable as well. These are no approximations, no scaling down or bloating of the impact or image size. We are talking full-blooded living and breathing instruments flailing about with freedom from any common restrictive distortions. The tone controls are extremely effective in freeing a ton of music from either a hot top end or a lack of bass. Being able to engage the control from the remote is a real plus, though you can only adjust the controls from the front panel.

Not to say it’s all bombast and huge dynamics with the D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum Integrated. Listening to Tommy Smith’s Chelsea Bridge, a real case study in controlled low-level dynamics, Tommy really holds his horn back allowing a beautiful vibrato to finish off notes. The quiet sustain is so seamless, so musically complete even at the very low volume. This is really tough to pull off and pays tribute to the Momentum Integrated’s near infinitely low noise floor.

Where so many amplifiers present dimly lit silhouettes against a cloudy sky, the D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum casts a surreal glow upon a mid day sunlit sculpture garden of sonic images. Proximities between images on the stage are rendered so clearly. Here, the inclusion of the outstanding Verestar Grand Illusion speaker cable and interconnects help to clearly define the soundstage much like in live performances. Though it is the bloom and completion of the notes that really keeps our attention, not pinpoint imaging in the audiophile sense of the word. The ability to hear notes fade to completion is something I so enjoy in live music, the Momentum captures those moments perfectly. Just pick a musical thread and follow it for as long as the recording will allow. I’ll never understand how the term “pinpoint imaging” became a positive description. Short of the highest frequency small-scale instruments such as the piccolo or triangle, instruments when captured and rendered accurately should bloom and resonate giving them real dimension and presence.

Ok, off the soapbox. Here is the lowdown. The D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum Integrated Amplifier is the finest amplification I have ever had in house. It has what I like to call musical magic dust sprinkled all over it. Able to strike all the right chords that make up an audiophile’s obsession, it is, however, really more than that. It is a component capable of unleashing the music, freeing it from mere “sound”. A kind of un-definable musical rightness so few components are able to muster. All that wrapped in some of the most beautifully sculpted case work this side of a Breguet. The pride in ownership quotient is really off the scale.

Having really little in common sonically with Dan’s designs of the past,t he D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum stands on its own on every level. Despite the steep asking price, I consider this device truly investment quality much like a fine watch or high performance automobile. Built to last and backed by one of the true greats in audio engineering, I do not hesitate for a second in recommending a serious audition.