Amp Upgrade for Aerial 10t's


I've got a pair of Aerial 10t's driven with a MacIntosh-7106 amplifier. The amps 6 channels are bridged to 3 at 200 watts each (third is for Aerial Center Channel). I'm looking for recommendations for upgrading the amp. My thought is to use the 7106 on the center still and get something new to drive the 10t's.

Two amps on my research list are the Plinius SA-250 and the BAT VK-500.

Any recommendations are appreciated.

-Mike
mfishhead
Thanks for all your input. It just goes to show how many good alternatives there are out there.

A couple of amps I see often on Agon that look worth pursuing include the Classe' CAM-200 mono blocks, the Plinius SA-250, the Krell KSA-250, and possibly the Jeff Rowland Model 201's.

The CAM-200's look like the best bang for the buck, but I don't want to get the upgrade bug after 6 months of using them.

Your opinions are appreciated.

Thanks again,

-Mike

PS Does the upgrade bug ever go away? I always say I'll be satisfied after this last purchase - but a couple days on Agon and I'm at it again!
Hi George,

Up til this last week I was running my 10t's with a pair of rogue M150's and a classe CA 301 on the bottom. This classe puts out gobs of amps, but is perhaps not the ultimate in control. These worked very well as the gains of the rogues are perhaps just slightly higher than that SS amp. I would image the M150's and Zeus would be a terrific match.

I would bet Holenneck's Krell would be very sweet on the mids and highs with another amp on the LF. It really is amazing how the additional power just opens the soundstage that much more. The depth goes on forever and air around the instruments is much better.

Mfishhead, I've had to go to stupidly priced speakers to unseat the 10t's. But I'm also going in a different direction, higher efficiency and lower power.

Best of luck,

Dan
Mike,

I've used Bryston 7bST monos with my 10T's for about three years. Great range and tight base. Good luck.
I used a Pass X350 for a couple of years (after moving up from an Aragon 8008ST). The improvement in the mids & highs was so stunning it sounded like a new, much better, speaker... smoother, angelic, sweet, airy, etc. Vocals were suberbly natural.
Curiously, the bass was a little too prominent until after a long break-in (3-400 hours), but then settled in nicely, especially after I switched to Cardas Golden Ref speaker cables (and interconnects) at the time.

The bass is said to be much more tuneful on the new X350.5, so I would give that a try if I still had 10Ts.

Soundstaging was about the same on the Pass, which is not the 10t's strong point (tonality and a non-fatiguing nature is where they excel, IMHO).

Good luck!
I don't know, Rgs92. Mine image very well, but it is room and placement dependant. Once I got them about 1/3 of the room length from the front wall bass and imaging really came into focus. I agree with you about cables improving their sound. The 10t's will show the differences, if they're truly there, in any upstream change you make in your system.