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Mono Blocks on a Budget, is it possible?

I’m really struggling with the direction to take my system. I have the following:

Legacy Classics speakers
Aurender N100H media player
Schiit Freya tube pre-amp
Schiit Yggdrasil DAC
Schiit Vidar x2 (in mono block mode)

I will be replacing speakers at some point but the rest of the system I love... except the Vidars. Before them, I had NAD 356BEE that was used for the amp. Very clean and I loved it, except it was only 80 Watts. I decided to upgrade to the Vidars. They cost twice as much From a good manufacturer like Schiit so they must be better right? Not really. They are more noisy than the NAD amp and I’m finding myself less in love with them that I though I would be. I was planning the Vidar purchase for about a year and now that I got them I don’t know which direction to take in replacing them. I want to get cleaner mono amps but don’t want to spend more than $3k MAX for both. The Vidars are 400 Watts into 8ohm, are there any options out there for me that are close to the Vidar specs? I’m open to used but mostly I want the amps to sound almost completely clean with practically no distortion. 
xerotrace

Showing 2 responses by mulveling

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,774 posts
 
NAD makes some super gear; I got my girlfriend an 80 Watts/ch NAD C368 receiver (also class D), and it sounds great - very musical! Schiit on the other hand, I think tends to be overhyped. For you budget I think you’d be way better off finding the right stereo amp pairing. NAD makes the higher-end M22 (now in a 2nd revision, which should be right around your budget) which I’d love to hear, and of course there are plenty of awesome Hypex nCore options out there.

Monoblocks are great for the super high-end, when you need to break up that 200+ lbs stereo amp into two more manageable/moveable chunks, and your silver speaker cables run $1k+ a foot, etc. Until then, you're largely paying for an extra chassis.
mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,774 posts
 
Agree that monoblocks at this price point don’t make too much sense, unless maybe if you go used - even then it’s a tough ask. I used to have Legacy Signature III speakers. Hated them with a very dry sounding Sunfire Signature amp (the 600 Watts/ch one) - it simply lacked any soul to the music, which is what I imagine your problem with the Vidars might be (noise aside). Huge, HUGE improvement with a Parasound A21 and later JC-1 monoblocks. In the right room and with a great (vinyl) source, that was a rocking setup. Though in my system at the time, the JC-1’s weren’t THAT much better than the A21 (and at 3x the cost). Both Parasound amps had just a touch of sweetness that the Legacys needed, to go along with incredible power and dynamics. I’d extrapolate that a new A21+ would easily exceed your needs and expectations.
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