Recommendation on power amp

I would consider not narrowing it down to those two.

Price does not dictate quality, I know $2000 power amps that outperform $50,000 ones.

Here are amps that are very transparent, so wattage is all you really need to focus on (normal listening distance with 87dB speakers usually don’t need more than 50W):

* Benchmark AHB2, can be used as monoblocks (as long as your speakers minimum impedance isn’t much below 3ohm).
* PS Audio BHK 300
* Arcam FMJ P49
* Parasound JC5, can be used as monoblocks. 
* ATI AT542NC

@newtoncr

John Atinkinson isn’t wrong, but I see no benefit in regards to transparency over the Benchmark amp when monoblocked; the Benchmark has far lower distortion, especially at lower watts where you mostly will reside. The only negative of the Benchmark is the industrial look.

@yyzsantabarbara

You hear what you hear. However, I bet I could easily trick you into what amp you were listening to if you don’t know what you weren’t listening to. No one is immune to bias, even if subconscious, once you know the brand, price, and/or asthetic, measurements don’t tell you jack. Also, need I remind you of the $10K amp challenge.

“Space between instruments” has nothing to do with an amp besides channel mismatch and crosstalk, which neither of Benchmark nor the ML has issues with.

Also, the Blade 2 is excellent, better than most all around its price, and anything Wilson puts out, but due to its side-firing woofers, what room it’s in (or how much treatment you have) becomes a factor. Once you go far off-axis (50°+), it has huge dips around 500Hz and 4kHz and a large wide-frequency hump centered around 1kHz around 90°,  so I would suggest either a very wide room or a good amount of thick acoustic panels to the sides of the speakers.

Or, sell all your equipment, get the Dutch&Dutch 8C and dual Rythmik G25HP’s.