What Integrated Amps have the sonics of Separates?

Hi,

It sounds like you really know what you don't want, but I'm not sure what is left for you to listen to :)

I can say, having lived with a Pass Labs XP-10 for a while, their new preamps are not really damped and flat. They do, however, take a week to warm up. Still, I don't consider the current breed of Pass preamps to be tube like, however, the Pass B1 buffer has a lot of presence similat to tube preamps.

One of the heavy posters on Audio Asylum, who has a lot of tube equipment, wrote that the Pass Int-150 sounds very good. The quality of Pass gear is excellent, although it is costly. If Pass uses anything like their B1 buffer as the front end to the Int-150, then I bet it sounds quite good. Still, most of the lushness in the Pass sound seems to come from their amps.

I've never heard the Vincent stuff, but from what I've read they are a quality product.

What kind of speakers are you trying to drive? What do you have now and why don't you like it?

Audiosoul, class D amplifiers like the Rowlands or the latest Bel Cantos are not even faintly digital. They use ICEpower analog power conversion modules.

The only cavieat with ICEpower based amplifiers is that they need to be very well broken in, or they sound dry and the treble response may be foreshortened. 500 to 700 hours is a good breakin for the Bel Canto products and the JRDG Continuum 500. The JRDG Continuum 250 and the JRDG Concerto integrated may require over 1,000 hours to shine.

One of the good news is that they draw almost no power at idle. . . e.g. 25W for the JRDG Continuum 250 integrated (and probably the same for the Bel Canto integrated). . . 35W for the JRDG Continuum Integrated. . This means that you can leave these amps powered up continuously so they always give you peak performance whenever you listen to music.

Do not exclude class D products a priori, they are just like any other technology. . . They all sound different. . . some of them you may like, and others you may not enjoy. G.

Just pick up a used NuVista M3 and be done with it. It's already been mentioned a couple of times in this thread, but it bears repeating. I've had mine for years now and will continue to have it for more. For the used prices today, it's a screaming bargain. And I have to say that the phono section is no slouch--it is BOTH MM and MC. There's dip switch inside the amp that ajusts for MM and MC. It won't have enough gain for the lowest output MCs but for my medium output Benz M2 woody, it's plenty (volume knob never goes past 10 o'clock and is most often at 9.) Its only real quirk is that the speaker binding posts are ridiculous and are too big to accomodate any spade lugs I know of.

Actually my "just listen to the Music" amp is the Mac 2275. Mine was purchased used for $3600.00 and it offers excellent "tube" sound, plenty of flexibility, reliability, and enough power to drive most speakers (currently it drives B&W 805's to satisfactory levels in a fairly large room). I did upgrade the tube complement but with the exception of the Sovetek 12AX7LPS's in the phono preamp it was not necessary. So when " Hi Fi Hypochondria " gets too severe I go back to the Mac system for recuperation. The sound is superb and the pain diminishes quickly :<}.

Audiosoul:
CODA CSI Limited Edition is a great choice, especially if you can use 220 Watts of power. You will see several comments previously in the Audiogon archives if you search, and I can highly recommend this product.