What to try?


Currently have Yamaha As1200 integrated with KLH Model 5.  Looking to get a more refined sound with a tube integrated.  220 square foot room,  8 foot ceilings.  I  am getting a somewhat foreword presentation now but good solid clear sound with punch.  Thinking about a Pathos Classic One MkIII or Willsenton R8 or Line Magnetic KT88.  The Pathos is a hybrid but have heard good things.  Play mostly vinyl with Fluance RT 85 and Ortofon Blue. Listen to mostly rock and alt country and some classical.   Just thinking of dipping my toes into tubes to get a different sound.  Any suggestions?

laecp123

Just a suggestion. Ron at New Record Day did a sound demonstration of 4 amps here:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=new+record+day+amp+comparison

It features the Rogue Audio Cronus III, the Black Ice F35, the Galion TS120E which mostly are in your price range. The fourth amp, the LTA Z40+ integrated, is not in your price range. I don't know anything about your speakers and I'm not making any recommendations but given the comparison, maybe this sound demonstration will help or give you some ideas. 

 

I am very interested in the R8, the Pathos Classic one Mkiii and the Line Magnetic 805 amp. It is a lot more money so would have to be used. The Muzishare and Cayin amps look terrific  also. Still reading forums etc. am going to demo a Kt88 Line magnetic at a dealer near Boston in a few weeks. Thank you all for your advice and suggestions.  @Mganga how was the Pathos lifeless. In what way?

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@laecp123 I didn't say the Pathos was lifeless; I said it was anemic in my system.  My room is well treated which typically allows the music to expand well beyond the speakers and with the Pathos the sound almost entirely between the speakers.  So in that sense I described the sound as anemic.  Perhaps others would use a different word.  I would not go so far as to say it was lifeless, but for me it didn't work.  It was a used mkii however and perhaps the caps were due for replacement?  I only share my experience.  I have read of others loving their amps, but that more often seems to come from those who use them as mono blocks.  

@perkadin I only share my experience with the one Willsenton R8 that I had in my possession, which I purchased new off of Amazon.  I would share my receipt with you but you would probably call it a fabrication.  I do not understand why someone who has a different opinion on a subject than someone else, would resort to assuming that person is a lier or biased as opposed to just having had a different experience or exposure.  Perhaps my example was poorly constructed?  I suppose some people are wired up with all negative leads.  Anyway, I am fairly evenly tempered and logically minded.  I know that these three amps all come from various areas of the same factory.  However, they were made at different times by potentially different people under potentially different parameters, etc, etc.  I don't know why one felt better made than the other but it was clear enough to me.  From the finishing of the remote (such as how the buttons fit and the edges of the metal were finished), to how the dials on the front of the amp were fit (such as wether they turned nice and smoothly or wiggled loosely) to how the metal work looked around the transformers, all of it added up for me to that of a well made Muzishare and a so-so made Willsenton.  As to whether any of that workmanship extended to the inside where it counts I cannot say as I did not open up either amp.  But it makes me wonder just a little.  The Line Magnetic was built like a tank from what I remember (parted with it a few years ago).  BTW, I returned both the Muzishare and the Willsenton, so I am not sure where bias would benefit me in anyway at all.  But it sure seems some do not like to hear dissenting opinions to their own.  All of the above is in IMO and experience only of course.  And I hope that my Willsenton experience was a one-off.