Seeing the over night success of the speaker evolution thread, it may be interesting to see what type of amp(s) we have all run. Same deal as the other thread-we will sort of create a puzzle of our systems you'll have to visit multiple threads to put everything together!!! ;) For me I started: Adcom GFA-565 monoblocks Rotel RB-990bx Jeff Rowland Design Group Model 5 Balanced Audio Technology(BAT) VK-60
either a CAT JL2, BAT VK-75se or Tenor 75Wp on the horizon.
I never understood why anyone would even consider buying SS amps when for the smae price or even less you can get a much better sounding tube amp. Beats me????????????? Paul
Back to tubes again, should have never left! Will this ever stop??
Akai Receiver Nakamichi Stasis Receiver Van Alstine Omega III 440HC Electrocompaniet ECI-4 SE Integrated Amp Spectron Musician II Parasound Halo JC-1 ASL Hurricane 200DT Berning ZH270 Joule Electra VZN-100 Plinius SA-102 Ayre V-5X BAT VK-600 w/BP McCormack DNA-500 Conrad Johnson Premiere 350SA BAT VK-500 w/BP (currently own, favorite SS amp) Dodd 120 tube monoblocks (ahhhhh toobz! EL34-based, borrowed these from a friend for 3 weeks, loved 'em, ordered 'em, now have to wait a couple months for my very own pair. Sweet!)
1975: Sansui 771 reciever (a fantastic piece) 1980: Sansui integrated (not nearly as good as the 771) 1992: Carver TFM 45 (oh my goodness, I thought this was the holy grail) 2002: Carver Silver 9t monoblocks (holy grail #2) 2003: Sunfire Signature (very good, but I preferred the Carver monoblocs 2004: Carver Silver 9t monoblocks again (bought 2 pairs of them to biamp....holy grail #3) 2006: Pass Labs X-600 (I bought 2 pairs to use in a biamp config.)
Until the Pass Labs amps, I had been in mid-fi and didn't know it. The Pass Labs amps made me see the light.
Hold on to your hats- lots of experience and insight to share. Have had many amps that I have owned, bought and sold.
Bias- I have owned and listened to many amps over the last 29 years. Do not listen to the mags, the reviews, the advertisements- you just have to go and listen. Very well designed tube amplifiers (and there are only a few manuafacturers out there that do it right) just convey a more enjoyable listening experience. Solid state amps can provide clean sound with great bass and dynamics. What they cannot provide is a solid, full sounding mid-range that has real texture and depth to it. They sound electronic!
Now for the amps I have owned.
I will asterik the ones that are definite keepers!
Kenwood KA-701 Integrated Hafler 200 Apt One Denon PMA 500 and PMA 700 Quicksilver KT88 - three sets of amps NAD 2600 Quicksilver M-60 Berning EA-230 * great for mini-monitors Berning EA-2101 Bryston 3B NRB Bryston 4B NRB YBA 3 DT - Two diff amps- one Alpha and one Delta Berning EA-2100 Two amps * YBA Integre - Two Different Alpha versions * Linn Klout Bel Canto Orfeo SE2 845 SET Mono Amps * Music Reference RM-9 MK1 Two Amps *
Keepers: The Berning EA-230 is great for mini monitors- natural timbre, soundstage and sense of air around instruments. It cannot provide adequate bass for full size speakers though.
The Berning EA-2100 - same as EA-230 but with more power, like the Ea-230- hybrid design by a designer who knows his stuff.
YBA Integre- Alpha, Delta, Sigma- they all sound the same- best buy for sweet grainless solid state- but do not have the texture and body of tubes.
Bel Canto Orfeos - 30 watts of SET power- think of a 300B amp with gusto- not good with speakers with over done crossovers- with others- pure sound delight.
Music Reference RM-9 - a ballsy, natural sounding tube amp that gets voices right and whose dynamics give you the feeling of live music.
If I had to keep only one of these amps- regardless of power and based on sound and build quality, reliability, flexibilty - I would pick the Music Reference RM-9. It can drive anything, easy to care for and built to last. Above all- it makes you forget about all this silly amp hype and you just get into the music.
Very simple really: Musical Fidelity FX followed by Pass Aleph 5. Played with a Musical Fidelity F19 alot, but never owned it. All of them are great in their way, but am currently still in love with the Aleph!
Starting in 1977 to present:Sansui 8080 receiverSansui AU-717 integratedNAD 2140Adcom GFA-555Counterpoint SA-20Audio Research D125Audio Research VT100mkIII
Fisher Receiver- not one of the classics :( Sansui Receiver- worked great and got me through college NAD3140 Integrated - a classic, still powers my 2nd system NAD2150 Bridged w/3140(still works great) Adcom 5300- thin and strident, one of my least favorites Acurus A250- one of the better lower end choices Acurus A200- actually preferred the older A250 by a little Aragon 4004MkII- a very nice ss amp for the money Classe DR25- more refined and musical than the 4004MkII McCormack DNA 2- outstanding bass, otherwise unremarkable BAT VK-500- nice mids but not as good at the extremes McCormack DNA 500- the best I have heard, nice midrange, juicy bass, musical across the board, and never runs out of steam. I am sure there is better, but I suspect the price of admission for a noticable upgrade would be large (the CJ Premire 350 looks tempting though...)
These are my personal amps, in order of purchase starting in 1971. I think it is a fairly short list for 35 years. The amps I still have are marked with an asterisk. Dynaco Stereo 120, Harmon Kardon Citation 12, Dynaco Stereo 400, Phase Linear 700B, Phase Linear 400, Dynaco SCA35*, Dynaco Stereo 70*, Audio Research D51*, Audio Research D75, Dynaco Stereo 35*, Berning EA2-30*, Berning Personal Amp*, Berning EA2-150, Tact 2150x*.
1980 - Akai something-or-other 1984 - Naim Nait (the first version) 1985 - Musical Fidelity A1 1986 - Cyrus II/PSX 1994 - SimAudio 4070 2003 - Sugden Au51P 2003 - KR18 BSI 2003 - Coincident MP300B 2003 - Wavelength Triton Blue 2004 - deHavilland Aries 845G 2004 - Canary CA-339 2005 - Audion Silver Night PX25 2005 - Tom Evans Audio Design Linear A
With the Linear A I may be done for a while. Mated to sensitive speakers it's the answer to a SET-lover's dreams - all the SET liquidity, harmonic richness and natural midrange coupled with a level of microdynamics, extension, imaging, resolution, transparency, palpability, air and impact that is unequalled in my experience. Not bad for a 25 wpc amp that uses 4 EL84s per side, driven by op-amps. Within its power envelope it's hard to imagine better performance.
1970's Marantz receiver Sony HT monstrosity Sony ES separates VTL MB 125 monos Parasound JC-1s.
Nothing on the horizon amp wise. I think Im done for awhile although I would love to try some high power tubes, VTL 450s maybe. The JC-1s are proving to be fantastic with my Vandersteen 3A sigs and 2WQ subs.
Kenwood receiver, KENWOOD A/V RECEIVER, [ALWAYS 2-CHANNEL HOME THEATRE INT.]ONKYO TXDS 747 RECIEVER W 5.1 PREAMP OUTS,INTO ADCOM GFA 7000 /5 CHANNEL, PLINIUS SA 100MK3. -NOW PLINIUS SA 1O2s DUAL MONO , PLINIUS P-8 FOR CENTER, SA 100 MK3 FOR SURROUNDS[TODAYS CONFIG] AND LIKELY TO STAY...
1974 Sherwoood FM only 8900 Receiver 1979 Crown 1 Preamp with Dynaco(solid state) power amp 1990 NAD (3025?)Receiver '25' watt (with 6dB headroom) 2000 Yamaha DSP-A1 with Adcom GFA6000 multichannel amp for HT.
The Sherwood was an incredibly strong, honest sounding 60 watt receiver for its time, as is the classic NAD. Adcom- a solid performer, if not as refined or smooth on the upper end. The Yamaha is a competent HT amp and has some useful sound fields, but is hardly the last word in amplification. (Side note -An A-B session done with the big Apogees 30 years ago demonstrated the sonic difference between Rowland's best and Adcom's best power amps at the time. Let's just be kind and say the Adcoms didn't self destruct under a 1 ohm load. Neither were they pleasant to hear. The Rowland amplification let the magic come out of the hideously difficult to drive Apogees.)
The Crown/Dynaco combo was good, but not as good as you would expect on paper. Believe it or not, the NAD is the most musical, followed closely by my memories of that old Sherwood. (It was hooked up to a Phillips GA212 table and Hartley Zodiac 10" 2-ways that were amazing. All for under $ 800 - about the cost of a good shunyata AC plug. Sheesh! The bass from that Sherwood was comparable to a lot of 200 watt amps out today. Pinball Wizard sounded like Pete Townsend and Entwhistle were in the room. Speaker placement and room acoustics helped, but this was a great amp!)
2005 - Dreaming of the next amp for the main system. Maybe Evanna will send me a Stingray for Channukah. Or Jeff will ship me a Concentra. Or...
Why not it's interesting reading and I'm a team player. Caztech Bryston 3B Bryston 3BST Pair of Bryston 3BST's Bryston 4BST Bryston 14BST Spectron Musician II Cary V12,went tubes,superior synergy with Electrostats. And that's all she wrote.
The Meitner MTRs have stayed in my main system, as I haven't auditioned anything else that I've liked as much.
The Meitner STR-55 remains in my office syste for the same reason.
The OCM 500 was a very good amp--I preferred it to a brand new Bryston 4B-SST, but I'm severely downsizing the living room system because it hardly ever gets used, so now I'm back to the Muse Model 100.
1988-93 Pioneer A-656 MKII (ALR Nummer 3 stand speakers) 1993-97 Harman Kardon HK1400 (ALR Nummer 3 stand speakers) 1998-03 Rega Mira (Original) (Mission 751 monitor speakers) 2003-04 Linn Classic (Mission 751 monitor speakers) 2004-04 Linn Wakonda/LK85 (Mission 751 monitor speakers) 2004-05 Jolida JD302B (Mission 751, Spendor S3/5, Omega Super 3) 2004-04 Audio Aero Prima (very nice, but returned due to problems) 2004-04 Unison Unico (awful sound, sold after 3 months) 2005 Sonic Impact T-amp (Cain Abby) 2005 Bottlehead S.E.X amp (Cain Abby) 2005 First Watt F1 (Cain Abby) 2005 Fi Super X 2A3 amp (Cain Abby)
I guess the list got quite a bit longer :-) since last time....
I resurrected my Nikko, YES NIKKO, NR-1015 receiver and it only made me thirst for more power - BIGGER COWBELLS, EVEN! Now I am waiting on the delivery of the legendary Sansui G8000. I've had two contractors come in here and put R rods in the walls, point the foundation of the house and install flying buttresses to keep the walls from being flattened when I crank this puppy up.
I started this silly pastime in 1963 Grundig consol stereo (parents) Dynaco 35 (kit) McIntosh 275 (I should be hung for selling this for more power) Phase Linear 1000 Carver 4000 (little switching power supply 400w/c terrible) Crown DC300 PS Audio (200watt/channel) don't remember the model # Krell KSA-200s Krell FPB-300cx
07-25-04: Matrix TECHNICS RECEIVER HK AVR 25 II GOOD RECEIVER KENWOOD RECEIVER JUNK ADCOM GFA-5800 PS AUDIO MUSE MONO BLOCKS DRY SOUNDING THRESHOLD S/150 (POSSIBLY THE BEST SOUNDING SOLID STATE-I WISH I KEPT IT...) THRESHOLD S/300 ROGUE 120 MONO'S LIVED WITH FOR ABOUT A MONTH, DECIDED TO MUCH MONEY and not exactly what I wanted. CODA 10.5 VERY GOOD AND CLOSE TO THE S/150 WITH A LITTLE MORE POWER AND THE NEWER "ESOTERIC LOOK"... ODYSSEY STRATOS VERY HAPPY WITH FOR THE PRICE, 10.5 WAS A LITTLE BETTER, but odyssey wins. CARY 70B SIGNATURE TRUE TUBES 65 WATT PER CHANNEL Now for the Big mistake I went back to Surround Sound, New Denon Avr 3805, with SACD and all the bells and whistles, complete 7 channel system, it was satisfying for about 2 months and then I found I was missing a lot.... Back to 2 channel all the stuff is gone and could not be happier, Current amplifiers Odyssey Extreme Mono blocks' Excellent
Radio Shack 80watt Receiver. Nice unit with seperate AM and FM tuners.
Sansui BA-3000 and BA-2000 to bi-amp Dahlquist Q-10 system.
Tandberg 2080 Receiver to replace Sansui stack. It did too!
Two Aragon 8002's, one just for the woofers in my Dahlquist DQ-20i's. These are really good amp's and somewhat overshadowed by their 8008 BB big brothers. Two of these are stonger yet more refined than the big horses. IMO
In secondary systems I have 4 Denon DRA-775 stereo receivers spread around the house and garage areas. Fairly good units for todays environment.
1 Aiwa receiver...back when I was a student..an all Aiwa set up: hey I was poor 2. NAD integrated...driving Alison speakers 3. Aragon power amp: pre-amp/DAC was TACT 4. Chged power amp to TACT for all digital set up 5. Something missing...chged amps to Linn Klimaxx solo monoblocks 6. Chged pre-amp to DCC2 as purchased the Meitner set up
06-24-04: Strabo Yammaha RXV-750 75wpc - Used for 10 years Denon 4802 125wpc? - Returned after 30 days for refund Sonic Frontiers PVA-5 125wpc - Still used for center and surround duty in HT Lexicon NT-512 140wpc - Great amp, but still not what I was looking for. Need to sell soon. AES-25 Superamp DJH 35wpc push pull. - Now we are getting somewhere.
************************** A year later: Sold the Lexicon. Sold the Superamp.
Picked up a VAC PA100/100 and am very happy after trying a few different tubes.
Fisher 400 receiver Original Amber preamp and amp (for around a decade, these kept me SO happy, but I accidentally shorted out the amp and it was not repairable, so....)
Adcom 545 (big sonic step backward, alas, based on excellent reviews, argh!) Forte 4a with PS Audio preamp (nice) Forte 4a with Audible Illusions M3 (better) Bryston 2 (or was it 2a?) with AI M3, later M3a (better)
Conrad Johnson 11a (huge improvement, score!) Conrad Johnson Premier 12 monoblocks (tighter, more authority) adding Conrad Johnson 17 LS preamp toyed wiht First Sound Premier Deluxe II preamp (should have bought one..)
This was my sonic high water mark.
Then I got the DOWNGRADE bug. I decided to try out integrateds, big time. After reading so many raving reviews of cheap solid state integrateds and tiring of maintaining tubes... (Sam, are you seeing this?)
LFD Mistral (wonderful but not as lifelike as tubes) Plinius 8200 mk II (wonderful but not as lifelike as tubes) M something, model 208 receiver (nice but not nearly as lifelike as tubes)
Ok, what about tubes..... Cary SLI-80 integrated, after heavy tube rolling, NICE. Have stuck with this.
DK VS-1 Mk II (NO, NO, did you have to bring that up ; - ) Actually the DK is my favorite non-SET integrated to date, but the looks don't really work in my living room. And, you do have to tube roll and leave it on constantly. It betters my Cary in authority and bass control, by a wide, wide margin, while being reasonably close in overall naturalness and offering better detail and bite. Sigh.
Quad 306 and 34 pre Leak stereo 20 and stepped passive pre Leak tl12+ and stepped pre Homemade triode monoblocks and nuance pre This is an evolution, except that the stereo 20 is the sweetest amp here. You can feel it humming along to the music, i kid you not. would have loved to have heard it with the nuance pre. Want an audible illusions pre
Yamaha ? Nad 3020 Cambridge Audio ?? (Stan Curtis design Pre Richer sounds !) Mission Cyrus 2 with PSX Musical Fidelity A100 Musical Fidelity A270 with the Pre Amp Audio Research LS22 and Mark Levinson ML3 power amp Musical Fidelity TriVista 300 and a little 300B 7W triode for the bedroom !
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