Gamut D200
Hidden Gems in Pre-Owned Solid State Power Amplifiers?
Browse the listings for power amplifiers (e.g. under $5K) and you notice a myriad of Classe, Parasound, Bryston, older McIntosh and Mark Levinson and lots of Pass Labs.
So many in fact that you wonder why.
What are the true audiophile gems in the pre-owned solid state market? Thanks in advance.
So many in fact that you wonder why.
What are the true audiophile gems in the pre-owned solid state market? Thanks in advance.
96 responses Add your response
Hi Avanti1960, Right now there is a Pass Labs XA30.8 stereo class "A" amp that is for sale (not mine) that I also have used for the last five years that is, in my opinion, an absolute giant killer. I have owned too many other amps to list here but this thing will drive just about any speaker on the planet (don't let the 30 wpc fool you) and is always supremely musical. He wants a pretty reasonable price for it also. If it's not very old I would jump on it. Good luck. Scot |
crown K2, or K1 its not for every sauce but matched right synergy can be obtained with "little" money. here is a video of my gear done by Thomas, enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKGENSSr_Is&t=91s |
I have a 22 year old Bryston 3BST driving Vandersteen 3ASig!! Love it. An ARC 150.2 with Maggie 1.6. Love it PSE Studio IV with Tekton D.I.'s . Love it (Older than Bryston!) Just had my Counterpoint Solid 1A serviced. Will try with Tektons. Mosfet vs. Bipolar. Think it will be different . Not sure if better. May be a sideways move. ALL of these amps have a wonderful synergy with the speakers they're mated with. |
There is so much to choose from. I was watching a,pair of Pass Labs monos, and the McCormack monos (which I ended up getting for a way good price (wife selling em in a divorce) I was pleased, which is why I popped for these instead of the Pass amps, the Pass looked better, yes, I’ve never gone less than gobs of power in past 15 or so years. I’m happy with them, would I be happier w the Pass amps, don’t know, myabe aesthetically , sound , who knows, I know I doubled my power buying the McCormack monos. either way you can’t lose with mnay of these wicked deals one can find on here. Look, research, read, read a lot, as I did! absolutely,,no regrets on. My decision. Buy, warm, listen, if it’s not your liking, sell them, try another pair, that’s the fun, most of the time you will break even or gain a little coin on reselling them, or maybe lose a hundo, enjoy the search! i enjoy just looking, never know maybe I’ll come across some thing I really want. |
H/K Citation 16/16a, McIntosh MC-2300 (insane power, smooth, effortless at any load.. any load), Krell KSA-50, class a, very sweet a little bass heavy. Marantz 15, Sansui BA-5000, Mark Levinson ML-2. There are just too many to list. Bargain with no snob appeal would be an Adcom 535, or 555. The first series sound better. Great American Sound, Grandson. This little amp is amazing and punches way beyond it’s weight. |
For the flexible possibilities imparted by his design and the extraordinary sound quality my Sansui AU 7700 is the amplifier to die for, especially at low price...No modern amplifier is so flexible and you must pay way over 1000 bucks to beat his organic and balanced tube like musicality and S.S. accuracy... A legend that does not lie... |
Fortunately for me, there were several amps that had a special sound and did not break the bank. One of the used pieces that became a favorite was a Forte' model 3. As luck would have it there was a defective chip that started to produce trouble and the amp had to be abandoned. I am having it rebuilt as I write this, but it will not be the same amp, that is for sure. A few changes are being made and I am hoping for the best. |
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The Nakamich 420 souds excellent combined with a Supratek preamp.A lot of SS power amps sound quite good but are not transparent so impose too much of their own sound . Using a top flight preamp with them does not improve them greatly.The 420 allows the benefits of a good preamp through.The Usher R1.5 is also excellent in that regard. |
@avanti1960 -- I would look for the Crown Studio Reference I/II. They have a build-in fan, yes, but it will only "go off" when you really push the amp - and believe me, the Studio Ref's barely break a sweat, and when they do they can take it, hour after hour (and the fan shuts down immediately when you lower the volume from high power use). Forget about it being a pro amp build for studios (that is, to me it's typically a good thing); a great amp is a great amp, and the Crown Studio Reference is exactly that - build like a tank for hard, constant use with no frills to cater to a high-end milieu. Personally I love the industrial look and its understated elegance - a beautiful amp, I'd say. The sound of the Studio Reference is effortless, unetched, with a natural tone, great soundstage and overall composure. It just doesn't seem to get in the way of the music with any obvious signature of its own. |
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One incredibly refined integrated amplifier built in Italy and selling at under $2500 is a steal the Audia Flight Three S Integrated Amplifier it is very conservatively rated 100wpc into 8 ohms ,and over 160 into 4 ohms . My friend is driving his Big Maggi 3-6 which are like 84 dB efficient , the current delivery on tap is hard to believe this $4k integrated can be bought for under $2500 is by far the most refined, powerfull and very natural weight I am strongly considering buying one ,for tube integrated the Ayon Scorpio at under $4k has not much competition for its sonics and build quality and 40 wpc and a very powerfull 45 wpc in pure class A pentode with -0 negative feedback And constant microprocessor tube monitoring and build is second to none using choke filtering power supplies pure gold plated berrillium copper tube sockets , these 2 products best in class stated around the world. |
I bought a used Classe CAP-151 integrated to power my B&W CM9 S2 floor standers and i i love it! Plenty of power, a Balanced input, built like a tank and sounds fantastic. I paid about ~$800 for it and it worked well for a couple years but then an issue with the left side cutting out started. Turns out it needed a recap which set me back around ~$400 (14 in various sizes) but now it sounds better than ever. I use it with a Mytek Brooklyn DAC upstream, anti-cables balanced, the rig sounds clean and punchy, the components have great synergy too. I couldn't be happier considering the price of admission! You may want to factor the cost of a recap into your budget, an amp that is ~15 yo will likely need some maintenance. |
You need to not only look at their number, but the prices. The deep discounts will tell you more about how frequently buyers tend to want to move them than how many were sold. I like Parasound, in general, as a solid, neutral to warm piece of gear that looks great, and has great flexibility and very reliable. . |
avanti1960 If you can find them, and have the money, as they are very sought after. A pair of Mark Levinson ML2’s, 25w Class-A monoblocks, that said to be able to double wattage for each halving of impedance that all the way down to 1ohm and that works out to be 200w into 1ohm. Their no good for the "party set" unless driving Klipsch/JBL’s, but will happily drive the Wilson Alexia (one of the worst load ever .9ohm!!) all day without breaking a sweat to a comfortable good level, after all they are only 25w into 8ohm. http://www.hifido.co.jp/photo/05/504/50446/c.jpg https://www.hifido.co.jp/photo/05/504/50446/a.jpg Cheers George |
Pass XA 30.5; such a music maker! @avanti1960 My dad had a white 1963 Studebaker Avanti, R2 with red interior from 1979 to 2012. I should have kept that one. I helped him put a solid state ignition in it and was with him when he rechromed all the pieces under the hood. I had a lot of fun with that car. Such a sweet exhaust note.... coming off speed and hearing the back pressure throaty sound was a joy. I still have heads for an R2 that we were going to revamp to make R3 once we bored the block out to 304.5 ci. Never got to do it, but it was a nice dream. |
Most if us buy gear, enjoy it for a while and then try something else - rarely does it mean there's anything wrong with the equip- just part of the hobby (being able to try different gear)...I"ve had tons of equip in and out of my home for decades, almost always it was great and I enjoyed it for a year or two until I got the itch to try something else... |
Carver Research Lightstar Reference. 300/600/1200 into 8/4/2 and is <1 ohm stable. 80 lb badass amplifier Carver Research Lightstar Reference 2.0 the big guys lighter weight (only 42lbs) brother. Still 300/600/1200 watt capable and can do 3500 watts momentarily(2000ms) and stable into 1ohm. Both are very musical and have held their value. Look for a quality unit that has been at the very least recapped they are 25 years old after all. Someone mentioned the Carver M500t, one of Bobs better sounding efforts in my opinion. Last but not least the Carver TFM-75, 750 watts into an 8 ohm load. All are great sounding with a spacious soundfield and good detailing. ray |
I also own a Kinergetics KBA-75 class A amp. It was excellent back in the day but needs to have upgrades to compete now. The HK 16 is an excellent power amp especially for the used prices but the XX model is in another league altogether. If I was to buy a SS power amp today, that is what I would buy as a SS power amp in total stock form. Most people here know that I build audio components - the final versions of my hybrid power amp will be out soon. These are point-to-point wired, V-Capacitors, Amtrans, Shinkoh and Caddock resistors, Plitron Transformer & toroidal choke. If you are looking to hear something special, contact me. Yeah I know I snuck that one in! Happy Listening. |
After 25 years, I still have my Bryston 4B NRB, along with my Audio Research LS3 preamp. I enjoy listening for several hours every day and I have no plans to replace either one. The cost of what I would consider a marked improvement is more than I can shell out right now. After 21 years, the Bryston did develop an issue. I took it to my dealer, Audio Advice, and it was shipped to Bryson. They repaired it at no charge, even though it was a year past the warranty period, and even paid the freight back. That is customer service. |
@patrickdowns I’d heard his amps were great too. I cannot find anything about the owner of the company... it’s like he vanished. Did he die? Ralph Catino is still around, living in the Boston area last time I heard from him, which was maybe three years ago. He left the audio biz long ago, having passed the brand on to Scott Nixon in North Carolina, who continued to service the products and perhaps still does. I bought the last amp Ralph built. We developed a solid phone friendship that persisted for many years. Brilliant, interesting guy who was obsessed for a time with making the best amp he could. |
@patrickdowns and @avanti1960
Thanks to you (two) and everyone else here for that matter for introducing me to fine and affordable amps! Darn good post. |
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I first started researching the older models of the Anthem MCA 20, 30, and 50 series of amplifiers but then just the other day I stumbled on the Anthem Integrated 2 Preamp (that I had never heard of) selling for less than $700 and later found out Part Connexion does rufurbs of Anthem products. Although it uses (2) 6922 vacuum tubes I think the Anthem Integrated 2 Preamp is going to be my head unit new toy. |
A lot of recommendations without any concern for what speakers will be driven (and their sensitivity, impedance, & phase angles) and the preamp/dac that will do the driving (and whether there will be an impedance mismatch between it and the amp)... Also, plenty of amps are up for sale because of upgrades. People do buy more expensive models from within the same family simply because they love the sound and want "more of it." And some people end up with speakers that don’t match amps they love. I had to sell my Coincident Frankenstein 300b monos for that reason. It’s a lot easier to move an amp than a pair of 300lb speakers. Finally, ears and systems work differently and something that would sound terrible in one situation can be another person/system’s dream amplifier... usually because of problems in speaker/preamp matching. |