$1000 used amp. What can I buy?

Musical Fidelity A3, A3.2. Dual mono design, very nice

I definitely like your suggestions.

WIth every system I have owned it has benefited from splitting the low frequencies from the main speakers. That might not be the case with large speakers that have dedicated cabinets for the low end drivers, but those are usually recommended to be biamped as well. But we are now talking much more money than most of us can spend. The midrange seems to open up with the bass being ran through a separate driver and amp. Getting rid of the low frequency caused distortion of the woofer allows lower distortion in the midrange. Also this lowers the power requirements to drive the main speakers. The down side is that you are adding another part(external crossover) that can degrade the signal and parts must be of high quality.

Give the McCormack amps with revisions a try. They are rarely sold for very good reasons, one of which is they sound superb. You may also look into some of the digital amps like PS Audio's HCA-2, quiet, runs very cool & load invarient.

Threshold - (Cas 2,400A,SA3,S150,S200,) Forte 4a, Muse 100 or 160 , Pass Labs Aleph - (3 or 30 or 5),Sumo - (The 5 or The Nine or Andromeda,)Classe DR Series any of them,my favorite here is the DR 2 and DR 8. Bryston 3B ST or 4BST.

Might want to consider another preamp, from the same manufacturers as listed above. With most of the amps listed above you may find that a sub woofer is not needed,unless your speakers only go down to 45Hz.

I have never heard of Acoustic Reality. I am stranded in Iowa. I will give anything a listen.

Dale, what do you think of the Acoustic Reality (eAR) 202 ICEpower amp (($600US new)?

Chris

add 250 dollars.You will get Stratos Oddyssey Extreme
monoblock used,they are very good.

muse...very, very nice...(btw, i own clasee).

you can find a used bat vk200 below $1200. great amp. i use it to drive vandersteen 3a's. like upper midfi said. if you buy here and don't like it, sell it.

aloha keith

Conrad Johnson makes some nice SS amps . Most people myself included prefer their tube gear so you may get a great deal.

The Pass Labs products are very good, I might suggest going a generation older to the Aleph series when they used a single gain stage. They were not as powerful, but they sure sounded good. Aragon 8008st or 8008bb are both good options too for an inexpensive but powerful amp. It would suck to have to buy just based on a few opinions here, from people you don't even know. Ideally you NEED to listen to the amp in your system, but when you buy used, if you don't like it, sell it and buy another...

Thanks. I have Klipsch RF3 speakers. 13X20X8 room. Listen to much different music. Enjoy turning it up too!! I am a bass nut. That is why I have two subwoofers hooked up to this system. Quite nice sounding bass. Just think I need a better amp for the main speakers.

I know you said "maybe $1,500"...go a little more and score a Pass X-150 and you will probably be stunned with the performance.

Good luck, and have fun.

I have been using a Van Alstine SS amp for years. They are hard to find fault with. Extremely reliable with good quality sound and priced within your budget-especially if used.

Without knowing your other equipment and room size and musical preferences it is hard to advise. But I enjoy my Aragon 8008BB dual mono design very much and it might be near your price range used. Mondail Designs which handles Aragon have always been very good to deal with for me. The amp is quite built proof (survived me touching the speaker wire together while powered with just a blown fuse), well built, about 70 lbs, does nice things across the range and particularly the base.