I don’t think it’s a joke…I currently am pairing my MSRP $2.5k DAC + $5k amp with a $200 headphone…
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It’s a running joke around here. Many of us got some Porta Pros around the same time, and I posted a joke Yggy > Eddie Current ZDS > Porta Pro pic. Someone else did the same with another giant setup (can’t remember what). Those pics around here somewhere.
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Oh! Okay then. 
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Yes!!!
Why is this not a part of the sales pitch?? 
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They’ll be hanging Porta pros in LTA next time you go in haha.
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Hey friends join us this Friday the 18th at 7pm PST (Los Angeles Time Zone) for a fun live chat with Justin Weber the founder of ampsandsound Justin Weber - ampsandsound discussing his flagship amp the Nautilus, which I have in for review.
We will also discuss his love for the audiophile hobby, his other amplifiers, music that inspires him and stick around for a special discount code good for a limited time for friends and family of my youtube Marcello Rostagni - YouTube Don’t forget to subscribe and turn on all notifications using the bell icon. Thanks as always for your support, see you Friday the 18th at 7pm PST.
Much Love,
Marcello
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It’s nice to see this company getting a bit more of a profile. I’ll probably check out the show in reruns!!
I wonder if enough people even realize the Pendant is an AandS amp?
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We covered it on the last stream and I will be talking about it again on this one!
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Pumped to see you all in the chat!! A few short hours away!
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Pendant in place next to Nautilus for comparison and pendant in the loop to the KEF as well via preamp from the streamer 
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I watched the stream and really enjoyed the discussion. The conversation with Justin pushed me from a casual tire-kicker to giving him a call. I’m now awaiting delivery on a Kenzie Ovation. Thanks for convincing me to take the plunge.
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Didn’t realize that NAD was so big! Need to research it some more =) I want that DIRAC to play with ha
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Considering how much I love my Pendant, this really has my interest up, might be time for me to stop inching towards end game amps and just get there already.
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Wrapping up my time with the Nautilus and filming the last content over the next day or so, then it gets boxed up and shipped out where it will arrive in a great new home.
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I hope you enjoy this one! This is a long video as I compare to the Pendant, and Mogwai OG as well as describe the Nautilus quality of sound with several headphones.
Have a great weekend friends.
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Any comparisons against the WA33 or WA33 JPS elite?
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Hello everyone, don’t usually post about purchases but I received my Nautilus about 2 months ago and have had a few requests to share my thoughts.
First off, I am not a reviewer and certainly don’t have a broad enough understanding of the market to provide reasonable comparisons. My aim is to share my experiences as a Nautilus owner for anyone that is interested. You might think of this as more testimonial than review.
For reference my system is:
POWER - PS Audio P12
TRANSPORT - Ifi Zen Stream
DAC - Holo Audio May DAC KTE
AMP - Ampsandsound Nautilus
OPEN HEADPHONES - ZMF Verite Open
CLOSED HEADPHONES - Dan Clark Audio Aeon 2 Closed
SPEAKERS - Klipsch r-51m (hilariously out of place I know)
THE AMPSANDSOUND EXPERIENCE
My time purchasing audio equipment has been almost universally positive but doing business with Justin has been a truly exceptional experience. I have had the pleasure of dealing with many interesting people that care about their products and their customers however even in this context Justin easily sets himself apart as one of the best. Buying this amp reminded me of buying tailored clothing or good meals at restaurants where you know the owner. Personal and wonderful.
USER EXPERIENCE AND USE CASE
When it comes to using the Nautilus two themes dominate, simplicity and versatility. There are many amplifiers that have the ability to drive both speakers and headphones but I have never used one that does so without feeling like a compromise on one or the other. So long as you understand the limitations of speaker/headphone sensitivity (more on that in the next section) the Nautilus can easily fulfil all your amplifier needs and it accomplishes this feat with only two switches and a volume knob.
SYSTEM MATCHING AND TUBE SELECTION
While the Nautilus is impressively versatile it is still a SET amp and that requires consideration for the sensitivity of speakers/headphones. In brief, headphones that are too sensitive for the tubes being used are subject to excessive tube noise and speakers that are not sensitive enough will be too quiet or sound weak/thin.
In my time with the Nautilus I have tried several combinations of tubes including the following:
INPUT - 12au7, 12ax7 and 5751
POWER - 7581a, kt66, kt88
Generally speaking this is a very quiet amp (very little in the way of hum or hiss) even with kt88s and sensitive headphones. I found that kt88s are too much power for the Verites because ANY flaw in the tube (ringing, rattling, etc.) came through loud and clear so I gravitated toward the 7581a and kt66 when listening with them. For speaker listening I was consistently surprised at how much volume I could get even with lower power tubes but I have a small room and speaker listening has not been my focus so far.
In the next two sections I will try to focus on the sound of the Nautilus irrespective of the tubes being used but that isn’t to say the tubes don’t matter. My general impressions of these tubes are below. Please note that the groupings (i.e. 12au7/7581a) do not necessarily refer to using the listed input and power tubes as a pair, these tubes just have similar effects on sound.
12au7/7581a - Softer/looser, increased romance and intimacy
12ax7/kt88 - Stiffer/tighter, increased linearity and space
5751 - Between 12au7 and 12ax7 but closer to 12au7
kt66 - Between 7581a and kt88 but closer to kt88
SOUND STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
This section is as close to proper review territory as I will get. I have chosen what I perceive to be the top and bottom two performance characteristics of the Nautilus. There are a couple things that I ask you to keep in mind here. The first is my lack of exposure to true competition at the price point. The second is that the overall performance of this amp is extremely strong. The weaknesses I list here are relative to the strengths. In actual use I have NEVER come away wanting more.
The greatest strengths of the Nautilus are:
- Vocal realism - Vocal timber sounds as close to real life as I have ever heard.
- Presence - Sounds have a weight to them that makes it seem like the sources are in the room.
The greatest weaknesses of the Nautilus are:
- Space - Spaces that should feel boundless (think Solar Fields) sometimes sound a bit enclosed
- Bass Speed/control - In music where bass is supposed to start and stop on a dime (mostly electronic) it sometimes sounds a little softer than would be ideal
LISTENING EXPERIENCE
For me there is one word to describe the Nautilus, emotional. In my time listening to music I have had many emotional responses but nothing quite like the Nautilus. This amp brings a unique combination of intimacy and realism to voices that gives a powerful sense that not only is the singer here, but that they are singing specifically to me. The music creating an emotional bridge between me and the artist is simply breathtaking and I’m not ashamed to say I was brought to tears more than once.
I don’t want to give the impression that the amp is only good for sentimental genres. The feeling invoked depends on the type of music but I am consistently drawn to experiencing the music rather than analyzing it. I suppose you could say that where some gear fools my head, the Nautilus fools my heart.
WRAP UP
This amplifier is not cheap, it weighs a ton and dominates the space it occupies. This cannot be mistaken for a lifestyle product but is a statement piece. It is a lifetime purchase that has already had a profound impact on how I engage with music and I look forward to hearing what it can do in a two channel setup when I have space for a proper listening room.
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Welcome to the forum! And a nice review, despite saying that you’re not a reviewer.
Can I ask which tubes you ended up using for headphone listening, and also what kind of music you tend to listen to?
I’m asking because I’m a fellow Nautilus owner and am always curious about what works for others.
I tend to listen to rock & alternative more than anything else, and after rolling a lot of tubes, I found that the following combination gave me the sound I wanted (the sense of realism that you mentioned, slightly warm neutral sound, slam and rhythm in the bass) at the price I was willing to spend:
Power: NOS Tung Sol sold grey plate 6550 (equivalent to KT88)
Input: NOS Brimar Footscray CV4034 (equivalent to 12au7)
Rectifier: NOS Valvo (made by Amperex) 5AR4
Although put together for rock, I think this combination also works very well for the limited jazz and classical listening that I’ve done IMO.
I’m curious about whether you’re using a 5U4G rectifier because I had a similar experience with an RCA 5U4G, and when I replaced it with the Valvo 5AR4, the bass did indeed start and stop on a dime.
I haven’t tried any power tubes other than KT88 and 6550. I really should try some examples of the other tubes you listed - if there are specific brands that worked for you, I’d be grateful to hear about them.
Your experience with the 12a_7 tubes was interesting. Were they all by the same manufacturer? The only input tubes I have from the same brand were a 12au7, 5751 and 12ax7 by Sylvania, and I really only noticed the gain differences, as they all exhibited a similar neutral house sound. Otherwise, the majority of my rolling was with 12au7 variants, where there were significant differences between the various manufacturers.
I hope my questions don’t come across as challenges to your conclusions. I’m genuinely interested in your experiences, especially if we ended up with different conclusions, as I’d like to compare and contrast against my own, which will help me learn more about this amp. We don’t have the same system (mine is Yggy → Nautilus → Verite/Stellia/RAD-0) but there is a fair amount of overlap.
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Thanks for the warm welcome and kind words, I really appreciate it.
Since I do most of my listening on the Verites I have settled on the kt66 (Gold Lion), 5ar4 (Tung Sol) and 12ax7 (Gold Lion). As you can see these are all current productions. Once I have spent more time and truly settled into the amp then I will likely look around for better NOS options.
Like so many these days I find my music taste ranging far and wide but recently I have been listening to mostly early jazz, electronic (both typical EDM and more atmospheric stuff like Daniel Avery and Tangerine Dream), classic rock and some singer/songwriter.
I have tried 5u4g rectifiers and agree that they are a bit softer which is why I prefer the 5ar4 though I still feel like it never quite reaches the level of control that can be had with solid state offerings (I know this might be an unfair comparison as that is one of the signature strengths of solid state).
As for brands of power tubes I believe that the 7581a is a proprietary version of the 6l6gc that is only made by Tung Sol so no real choices to be had there. That being said, the tubes sound great and the blue glow is visually striking in low light (I know not everyone cares about the aesthetic but I really love it). Since the kt66 was the last power tube I tried I have only used one brand (Genelex Gold Lion) chosen because of the great performance I had with their kt88s and 12a_7 tubes so again not a lot of wisdom to offer on comparative performance I’m afraid.
In the 12a_7 line I have tried JJ, Gold Lion and Electro Harmonix. I found a bigger difference between tube types than brands but of the three manufacturers I definitely preferred the clarity and dynamics from the Gold Lion over the other two. Funny how our experiences were almost the exact opposite here.
No worries, the questions didn’t read as challenging to me and I appreciate the chance to chat with someone else who has this amp! There aren’t too many in the wild yet (probably around 30 or less I would guess) so it’s great to connect on the topic.
Any chance you would be willing to share how you settled on your tube choices? As someone that has yet to cross the line into vintage tubes the prospect is a bit daunting so anything you can share would be much appreciated.
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