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classe twenty five and classe fifteen

Hi there I am curious to what the differences are between these amp I am guessing that they are built the same years and they have the same design philosophy but the twenty five is the higher model, i cant seem to find to much info on the 25, any info would be greatly apperated.

Thanks,Paul
paulficarella
audiogh
3 posts
 
I have bought a used Twenty-Five to drive a pair of KEF 103.4. It has matched pretty nice.
Appreciated if someone could share the manual/instruction with me.
Thanks.
salectric
747 posts
 
I used a DR-10 for several years, and replaced it with a CA-300. The 300 was a major improvement across the board. More detailed, more dynamic, and a more even tonal balance. In looking at the circuitry inside, I noticed the DR-10 had a coupling capacitor whereas the CA-300 was direct-coupled. The 300 also had a large number of small power supply capacitors and the 10 used a single pair of large caps. Classe mentioned the power supply changes in their literature at the time.
thehorn
111 posts
 
This is a question is ear marked for "mofimadness" (the Classe dealer).
Mo - you were saying a couple of things.
#1: that the DR-9 was 1of your faves. Is it a sweeter amp than the Classe' - 25?
#2: you said you ran your a pair of DR-8's in mono. I ran a pair of DR-9's in mono & the amps sounds way better in Stereo than it does in mono, there's no comparison! That's why I'm looking at a Classe' - 25, I need the power. Did you do anything with your DR-8's other than flip the switches at the back?
#3: Between the Classe' - 15 & the Classe' - 25, which did you prefer & why?

Bill
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

I had the DR25 Nice robust amp).

From memory I recall (long time ago) both DR25 and DR15 had balanced inputs, these were a bit of a hoax as they were just an opamp that summed and they fed into the single ended input afterwards.

Better sound is obtained by just using the single ended inputs straight into the discrete input transistors.

Inputs are also capacitor coupled, I replaced the 5uf electrolytic coupling cap for a better quality plastic one for a further improvement in sound, and increased the Class A bias a bit more so the heatsinks ran at 50c on a hot day 30c.

Cheers George

mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
4,940 posts
 
#1: that the DR-9 was 1 of your faves. Is it a sweeter amp than the Classe’ - 25?

Yes.  Sweeter, warmer and smoother.

#2: you said you ran your a pair of DR-8’s in mono. I ran a pair of DR-9’s in mono & the amps sounds way better in Stereo than it does in mono, there’s no comparison! That’s why I’m looking at a Classe’ - 25, I need the power. Did you do anything with your DR-8’s other than flip the switches at the back?
Your’s are the first comments that I remember liking the stereo version over the mono better? I had quite a few customers come back and buy a second amp for mono. I guess it would depend on the speakers they were driving, but for most of the demanding speakers of the time, the monos were the way to go.

#3: Between the Classe’ - 15 & the Classe’ - 25, which did you prefer & why?

The 25 was better. Better bass control and extension. Better grip on the high frequencies, effortless power when needed.


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