Mono Blocks on a Budget, is it possible?

I don’t know why but I forgot about Emotiva, great option thanks!

Thanks Erik, the Hypex is a great option as well. I remember new record day making a video on it. Great way to save some money!

Thanks those are both great options I’ll do a little digging on them. Much appreciated!

Yeah the stellar 700 is a good option. I think I wanted class AB at the time I was looking into amps so I skipped over these guys. I wonder how big of a difference a class AB vs a class D from a good audio company will make. I also wonder how important it is for the power to double moving from 8ohm to 4ohm. Looks like I have some research to do.

Wow some very good options. Thanks for all the input, I just wish I could hear all these to know which sounds best to my ears. That’s always the problem with this hobby it is often hard to test drive.

Thanks everyone for some really great points and suggestions!!! I have so much more to go on than I had and I’m really grateful for that! 

@Chazzz007 good point I do like the sound of the NAD but I was hoping for an upgrade to the sound and possibly a little more power in the bottom end. The M22v2 might fit that description, worth a look

@soix you might be right about going for one box in place of two. I was looking for specs similar to Vidar to make my purchase future proof. The last component i plan to update will be the speakers which is next after the amps (probably should have been first but that’s another story lol). I want to make sure I have enough power and head room to push anything I need to

@tcatch I thought about that angle with PS as well. I watch Paul on YouTube and generally like the company. That would also solve the problem of what to do with my current amps. I just need to take a listen to those guys and the trial might be a good way.

my biggest struggle right now is to decide if class D is the way that I want to go (generally I was looking for AB rather than D). At my budget I might not have a choice.

@ron1319 wow 801s are good speakers. When you get your Vidar please post your thoughts. Even with all my other equipment off I get a mechanical hum from both of them. The left one is a little worse than the right one but still. I’m using the same outlet etc as I did with the NAD but the noise floor seems higher unfortunately. 

I have a Yggy, it is probably my favorite past of my system next to my aurender which I absolutely love!

great idea with the crowns- I have a guitar center locally as well so I might be able to try them out before I commit to them. I think they are made by Harmon which invests a lot of $ into R&D.

213runnin - no you have it right they are 4ohm. I actually did like the 356, a lot cleaner than I was expecting and had decent power so I was relatively happy with them. They were definitely a lot cleaner than my class AB Vidars which is strange (maybe it isn’t, maybe class AB is more noisy...)

jeburgess - well that is a good question. There were 2 things that made me get rid of the 356. It is an integrated with only 80 Watts so in the pursuit of improving my system and the sound I thought moving from an integrated to a dedicated amp would be better. And heck, in that case moving from an amp to a pair of monos is even better still right? I learned that is not necessarily true. The second reason is I’m getting my younger cousin into the hobby and when he picked up a pair of Elac B6s as his first pair of speakers I sold him the 356 very cheap so he can have a good amp and a good sound.

Ron 1319 - please keep us posted, I’m so curious to hear if you have the same issues with the Vidars as I did. 

Thanks ron1319 for the feedback that is very interesting. I did a quick listening session with the Vidars yesterday to remind myself of how I felt. I do like the amps to be honest especially in the bass region but I can’t help but hear that buzz when I first turn them on and think “surely a quieter background would make these things sound better”. I’m in love with the idea of Pass Labs mono blocks but they are so expensive, I just don’t think I’ll be able to justify dropping $4-6K on them used unfortunately... I agree that it is more complicated then just listening to some like-minded folks on a forum. I think there are a lot more options to think about now with everyone’s recommendations which makes it harder, actually, because there is more that needs to be listened to lol. 

I like my legacys but but in a couple years I might move to the new Magico A3 (if I can get myself to spend that much... we will see). 

Sometimes I think appreciating what we each have as a system is underrated and not as appreciated as it should be, speaking for myself at least.

please let me know what you think of Saga. I like Freya and am running fully balanced, the unit has made me appreciate tubes a great deal especially on the pre-amp side of things.

Ok that answers some questions. I can’t hear anything from my listening position and I’m using an aurender with a SSD so computer noise is very minimal if present at all. If I have nothing on except the Vidars and I run my ears by the speakers I hear very little at the top end but the mid range and subs are humming. They are low and only audible within maybe 3 feet from the speakers but they are definitely producing sound. They amps are on a dedicated circuit - nothing on there with them at all. It was much worse before I did that but it’s still an issue. No power conditioners from my amps, just a surge protector plugged into the wall. This is an improved setup compared to the NAD (which was plugged up through a noisier battery backup) and It was quieter in spite of that so I think it’s the Vidars not the power.

If you plug the Vidar into a single speaker with nothing plugged into it (not bi-amped, the Vidar driving the entire range of the speaker) and put your ears next to the drivers can you hear anything? 

I might need to try a single Vidar in stereo mode, less wattage (dropping the wattage for my setup from 700W to 200W) so less noise... maybe... just thinking out loud.