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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
ron1319
57 posts
 
Why not bi-amp?  I don't have balanced outputs with the Saga so I can't try mine as a mono-block.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if it sounded better bi-amping, either vertical or horizontally. 

I'm just running Transparent The Wall wire right now to the bottom end and it sounds pretty good.  You could test the configuration with inexpensive wires.
akaim8's avatar
akaim8
28 posts
 
the only monoblock amps worth building, would be a 300B or 2A3, and the answer is NO, it's not cheap. sure it would have a "budget"- and it would be a high one cost-wise.
flh's avatar
flh
3 posts
 
I have a set of bell canto mono blocks for sale if you’re interested class D
axememan's avatar
axememan
279 posts
 
+3 on the Crown XLS series 1502 or 2502,I have the Emotiva XPA-100's for the Frnt Speakers and an Outlaw M2200 for the Center.I had zero issues with the Crown XLS1500[Silver] but sold it to try something else.The price is really nice for the Wattage and they do handle 2 ohm loads!The Crown '02' series added Black as the color,you can turn off the front lights if you want and it has 2  choices for input voltage level
1.4v and 0.77? v for Home levels if you need it
    • 300 watts x 2 at 8 ohms
    • 525 watts x 2 at 4 ohms
    • 775 watts x 2 at 2 ohms
    • 1050 watts x 1 at 8 ohms in bridged mode
    • 1550 watts x 1 at 4 ohms in bridged mode
signal-to-noise ratio: 103 dB
I haven't had any of the Higher Cost Amp options mentioned so I really do not know what kind of Awesomeness level those might deliver.I'm a Budget Level Audiophile.I would buy some of those that were mentioned in a heartbeat if I had the Coin.I do watch The PS AUdio Youtube stuff that Paul M does and I can tell that I really like him so I would definetly buy some of his Amps if money would allow.
mcreyn
293 posts
 
213runnin isthe only person that caught the OP is running the Vidars in mono into a 4 ohm load.  They are not designed for that (8 ohm or above when bridged), nor is there a need to.  Those speakers are rated 94db/w, so a single Vidar in stereo should be more than enough at 200 watts per channel into 4 ohms.   Even a 50 watt/channel amp should drive those to very high volumes.  
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