Legendary used amp, or economical new one?


This past week a couple of my 30-yr-old vintage amps went awry. One, a VSP Labs TransMOS 150 developed a loud hum and got smokin' hot before I shut it off. The other, a Heathkit AA-1600, lost the left channel.

I may get them fixed, possibly to keep as backup or to sell, but I've come across yet another, a 100 wpc ultra-wide bandwidth Perreaux amp, also from the mid-'80s. The Perreaux has some features I've always been curious about in an amp but couldn't afford in a new one--distortion at .009%, bandwidth out to 3Mhz, and the accompanying rise time below 1 microsecond. I'd love to see how all that speed and resolution translates into sound quality, spatial cues, low level detail, and pinpoint timing--key elements in musically involving.

But I don't know how rugged Perreaux gear is, and maybe for the same money I should settle for a new Emotiva XPA 200 or a much less used Odyssey Khartago or Stratos.

Thoughts? Feelings? Opinions? Condemnations? :)
johnnyb53

Showing 2 responses by halcro

I bought a Perreaux PMF 1750 in about 1980 and used it every day for 30 years.
The only problem in all that time was the blue power light failed after about 1 year (which never bothered me).... And the spring behind the power-on button didn't retain its strength to push back out in the 'off' position.
Again this did not bother me as I kept it powered 'ON' for the full 30 years :-)
It was....and still is a superb sounding amplifier which was only surpassed in my system by the Halcro DM58 monoblocks about 5 years ago.
The Perreaux amps of the 80s were true high-end products designed and built by Peter Perreaux in New Zealand......and were better than those produced under the Perreaux name after that time.
I can still happily listen to it today.......