Channel Islands D-100 Amplifier

My D-100s are due to arrive on Tuesday. Can't wait to check them out!

I'm looking at using the amps with Elac 207.2 speakers, which I'd describe as open, detailed and neutral in my system, with sacd playback via a modified SA8400 (a two-channel version of the SA8260) and cd playback through the Marantz and a Bel Canto DAC2.

That's certainly some high recommendations! I guess there's no doubt then that the D-100 would be a significant improvment over the Marantz SR9300's internal amps.

I'm located in Australia and have contacted Dusty, who's told me there's no problem shipping internationally and that a 220~240v/50~60hz version is available (for Australia, Europe, most of Asia etc). But obviously it would be difficult for me to take advantage of the 30-day trial and I need to be pretty sure of the quality of the amps before ordering.

Please keep the comments coming. This is very useful and, so far at least, sounding more promising than I could have hoped.

I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on these. My only concern, sparked by terms such as 'revealing' and 'specific' is that the amps may sound a bit bright to my ears (though 'tubelike' wouldn't necessarily fit that bill). I prefer a slightly warm, musical sound. Do you think these amps would fit?

Well, I bit the bullet and ordered the amps. What's the worst that can happen? They'll presumably take a little bit of time to get here (Australia) but I'll post my findings after I've listened to them.

Thanks for the helpful comments which convinced me to make the purchase. If I don't like them it will be all your fault!

I'm planning on using my Marantz SR9300 receiver as a pre for the time being, though will upgrade to a stand-alone unit once the budget allows. I guess the Marantz is probably on the warm side of neutral, so it will be interesting to see what sort of a combination it makes. It may also provide a clue as to what sort of a separate pre I should look for.

Rx8man - it's an interesting thought. The problem is that I would like to keep my stereo and home theater kit combined, if possible. A VPC-1 with ir control would make certainly make it more attractive. I'm not sure whether the passive preamp would require a specific processor/home theater passthrough or not, though that would also be a consideration.

That previous comment should have been directed to Gunbei - sorry about that.

I thought the idea with a HT pass-through is that when the HT input is selected the AV receiver's volume control is used - the preamp's volume dial would not need to move. Once you switched from the HT input to a different input, such as CD, the preamp's volume control would kick back in. Throughout the process they'd be no need for the preamp's volume to be on full.