True Fully Balanced Amplifiers

Thanks for all your responses.I appreciate them all.

Aragon makes true balanced amplifiers. They have quite a few excellent ones to choose from too.

Zaikesman, I could be wrong about this, but, I believe Pass uses one sigle ended push and one single ended pull per channel, to provide "symmetrical" single ended balanced designs. Does seem like an oxymoron, doesn't it?

Zaikesman, the Pass Aleph 5 is a balanced designs employing employing 2 gain stages.

Musical Fidelity uses dual-mono construction. I asked them if they planned to offer a balanced amp. They told me the sonic improvement, if any, was not worth the money it would cost. This was based on listening tests.
Maybe the dual mono design is the reason.

Onhwy61: I thought all Alephs employed single-ended circuits.

As Eldartford correctly pointed-out, any stereo amplifier operated in bridged-mono mode is a "fully balanced" amp. Therefore, the lowest-priced fully-balanced amp is the cheapest stereo amp you care to purchase...although this may not be the answer to your prayers ;-) Since you already have a balanced preamp, you have the ability to run a stereo amp in bridged-mono mode by running opposite-polarity signals to the 2 inputs and connecting your speakers across the (+) speaker terminals (this is true of conventional solid-state designs - tube amps will require an additional connection between the 2 sections of the output transformer, and you should consult the manufacturer for the correct wiring arrangement). This can work extremely well with an appropriate pair of amps but, in practice, not all amps are really appropriate. Generally speaking, the better an amp is at handling low-impedance / difficult loads, the better it will adapt to bridged-mono operation.

Best regards,

Steve McCormack
www.SMcAudio.com

BAT VK200 for solid state or VK60 for tube...fully balanced, reasonably priced, sound wonderful...I've owned them both...

The Hafler 9505. Designed by Jim Strickland of Acoustat fame. Excellent sounding amp.

Ayre V-3.

Used Rowland Model 1s appear regularly on Audiogon for no more than $1,200. Pass Aleph 5s go for less than $1,500.

You can find used McIntosh C7100 here on Agon for approx. $650 or so. It sounds great in my system with Mc preamp.

Any stereo amp operated in bridged mode.

At January CES, Portal Audio will be introducing a 200 W Fully Balanced Monoblock amp. MSRP per PAIR will be around $3k. These will be available only thru the Portal website (for US customers, that is) and will have the in-home audition program.
Disclaimer: I'm the president of Portal.

You could get a used Krell or BAT.