Acurus A200five


Hello,

I am putting together a 5.1 home theater system and have an opportunity to pick up an Acurus 200five locally to me. The heat sinks are faded for some reason (not sure what would cause that) but other than that it looks and works good. They are asking $775 but will come down a little on the price. 
Is that a decent deal for the 200five?

Also considering a new Outlaw 5000x.

Thanks for any input. 
mediapimp
I suspect that what you are thinking is the A200five is actually the A125x5 amp. It’s the same case size and same single shared power supply as the A200, but having to power five small amp boards that are bolted to the side heat sinks of the amp. If this is the amp you are looking at (which I think it is based on the selling price), then I think the Outlaw would actually do better. For one thing, the Acurus is really old and probably has degraded electrolytic capacitors that need to be replaced. Second, the power supply sections on the Outlaw are much better designed. A transformer that is twice as large. Then individual power supply sections for each amp board.  Here's an excellent review of the 5000 which gets more into the technical aspects:

https://www.audioholics.com/amplifier-reviews/outlaw-5000

Acurus does have a newer amp called the A2005. It’s a true 200 watt per channel, but I don’t think that’s what you’re looking at because it’s newer and has a retail of $4500. So, the used price is not going to be anywhere near $700.
Thanks for the reply & input.

This is not the newer Acurus amp, but they did make an older 200x5 channel amp called the 200five.

Here's a photo of it: Acurus 200five

And thanks for the link to the Outlaw review!
I owned a 200FIVE several years ago. It was a really good multi-channel amplifier, but it had an annoying whine upon shut down. I think it was the caps discharging. Still, it was a good amplifier. However, it's quite an old design/unit and if you can get the Outlaw for nearly the same price, I would advise going with that. 
I own/have owned two 200FIVE's as well as two A200's, two A150's, two A250's, one A200x3, one 200x3, one A100x3, and one A100, and all have been rock solid performers with my very efficient Klipsch speakers.

Though the 200FIVE is spec'd at 200w/ch@8ohms, 300w/ch@4ohms, I think it is actually 200w/ch with only 3 channels driven which really is not an issue with most speakers.

As far as price goes, I bought both of my 200FIVES for under $600.00 maybe 9 years ago.  If no noticeable noise from the toroidal transformer and no channel cutouts, I think around $600.00 is a good price.  As mentioned, the two 23,000 microfarads power caps are a bit long in the tooth so may need replacing in the near future if not done already.  I think they are around $50.00 a piece if my memory serves me well.

As far as a new Outlaw(ATI), new with warranty, affordable, good performer, are all good things.

Bill
Thanks for your input, Bill.

I’ve had Acurus amps in the past as well and agree they are solid performers. 

Based on my recent research of other Acurus amps that have sold this year, they all seem to be going for about 1/3 of their original msrp (give or take a little based on condition). 

So the 200five would be somewhere around $650 - $660. I offered the seller $600 due to unknown history and the faded heat sinks. So you and I are on the same page price-wise.

The seller, however, did not feel the same so I went with the Outlaw.