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 3 responses by ricevs

Another one to add to the list:......I make a dual mono 600 watt per channel (1200 into 4 ohm) stereo amp for $2000 using the latest Icepower IceEdge modules (2 mono modules per box and highly modified).  I sell these extremely tweaked amps with 30 day money back guarantee and will even pay the original shipping to you if you send it back.  I supply 8 ohm power resistors with the amp so you can burn the amp in all day and night.  Check out tweakaudio.com for more details.

Viber6,

Mono and balanced are mucho superior to single ended stereo.  The trouble with the AVA stuff is that Frank is anti tweak.  So, if anyone modded his thang he might throw a tantrum......and could you get it serviced?  If anyone wants to send me a pair of the AVA mono SET 600s I would mod them for sure.  However, this is out of this guys price range.

Some stereo amps are fully dual mono....separate power supplies for each channel.  The Nord stereo amps are dual mono....my stereo amps are dual mono.  In fact, I have an option to have two separate power cords on it so if you have a dedicated line for each channel you will get a little better sound.  I am sure there will be stereo amps with the Purifi modules that will be dual mono.  Mono amps do allow you do put the amps closer to the speakers....but other than that a stereo dual mono amp will sound the same.....assuming great separation of the channels inside the amp.