Counterpoint amp (need input)

go to www.altavistaaudio.com to find info on the amp. this is Mike Elliot's new website(he was founder and designer of Counterpoint). my experience with the amp was that it would drive difficult speakers easily but if it was not mated with good surrounding equipment it could be very hard sounding in the midrange. all counterpoint eq is very forward sounding.

the sa12 was the predesesor to the sa100 amp, it is a hybrid amp which for what these amps are selling for in the used market would be hard pressed to beat. I have found Counterpoint equip to be very inexpensive on the used market due to a bad reputation in regards to reliability. I own their flagship sa11/9 preamp phono stage and have so for over 6 years without much problems. I have 8 other pieces in the past and other than human error on my part they were very satisfactory.

I would tend to agree with Tkmetz' observations. The Counterpoint gear that i've had experience with was rather forward sounding with a hard upper midrange. The bass was also slightly bloated and lacking definition. This was tried with several other pieces of highly respected gear and cables, so take it for what it's worth. Keep in mind that the Mosfet output devices as used in those amps are no longer in production and could pose a MAJOR problem should something go wrong with the amp. You could end up with a boat-anchor. Sean >

I bought a used SA-100 (the successor to the SA-12) about a year ago and liked it well enough as it was (I found it liquid and spacious, not forward or hard), but had it modified by Mike Elliott, and it became a superb amp...superb enough that I won't part with it. Counterpoint ultimately licked its reliability problems. Nice thing about it now is that the designer (Elliott) is still available for repair and/or modification of the amp...as already noted, at www.altavistaaudio.com.