One Amp To ‘Rule’ Them All....


Is there one amplifier that everyone can agree on as a contemporary standard? An amplifier that can be considered a standard in both the studio and in a home stereo setup?

What one amplifier does everything very well and can be found in homes and in professional audio engineering environments?

What amp covers all the bases and gives you a glimpse into all qualities of fine musical reproduction?

...something Yamaha? ...something McIntosh?

128x128brettmcee

Showing 2 responses by larryi

The perfect amplifier would be the one that works best with
the particular speaker to which it would be paired.  For studio speakers, like those made by Genelec, the perfect amplifier, to me, would be one that puts out 0.000 watts/channel.

It is crazy to even speculate what kind of amp--solid state, tube, OTL, single-ended, pushpull--never mind the specific implementation of a particular variety.  I cannot even say what type I like because my favorite amps span OTL, SET and pushpull tube amps and I've only seriously listened to a handful of solid state amps.  

Looking at some of the candidates mentioned here clearly shows how mush everyone's systems, taste, and experience differ.  Every so often magazines like Absolute Sound and Stereophile raise the question of whether a particular amp they are raving about is the best ever or something close to perfection; their choice has been consistently disappointing to me.  Remember Halcro?  After hearing their amp, a friend who is in the industry mentioned how he had tears in his eyes after hearing the Halcro because it made his so nostalgic--it reminded his so much of the Phase Linear 700 (this was NOT meant as a compliment). 

f there is even a perfect amp for me out there, I've not heard it, and it would assuredly not be perfect for even a small fraction of others.


Brettmcee,

Even if we disregard opinion on sound quality, I don't think you will find any particular amp that a majority of people have actually heard.  I bet even the most common and long-lived amps have not been heard by more than 10% of the populace.  So, at a starting point, you might want to survey how many people have heard certain candidates.  I can offer the NAD 3020, Crown DC 300, Dynaco ST-70, McIntosh 275, and Adcom GFA 555 as sort of serious gear that where somewhat widely experienced (i.e., not including stuff like Bose tabletop models).