Let's talk about the top end amps..

[7.62]

My system is really coming together nicely, I have a few new pieces and for me things are getting really good
musically. My sig shows my speaker choice.

The time is fast approaching if not already here to have a serious go at biamping. There's so many choices it's hard to decide, McIntosh, Jolida and on and on. Personally after some thought I'd like to stay SS purely from a maintenance standpoint. But I'm open to anything, there is a budget restraint of 2K for me. Given that there's a lot of great choices.

I'm leaning towards a pair of Odyssey Khartago mono's myself for the top of the 90's.

The doors wide open, order your favorite beverage, have a seat and lets shoot the bull about what brings out the best of the top end !

 

[jazzmans]

Personally?
Sunfire signature would be my first choice, Bob Perfected his magnetic field amplifiers, or 'tracking downconverter' with them.
next would be Krell, or PS Audio, or Pass Labs, then Mcintosh.

Unless you've an unlimited budget, then I'd say go get yourself a pair of Bob Carvers new Silver Sevens.

http://www.bobcarvercorp.com/for-your-listening-room

 

[7.62]

I had pretty much ruled out carver and emotiva, here’s why. Emotiva is way to sterile in my opinion, I just don’t like the sound. Carver because the 500’s I had failed at driving the Kappa 8’s.

The sunfire I suppose could be an option, I’ve read about them and they do get great reviews. Krell is definitely in the mix, there’s a KSA right now on our clist but I think that would drive both speakers, age s a bit of a concern. I don’t want to send anything in for a refresh. I think that may have been an issue with the Eagle 7A otherwise I would have kept that amp on looks alone.

I’d like to keep my XLS on the bottom for woofer duty.

And also since it’s cooling off, I’ll be starting our grills here very soon.

 

[slimpikkins]

I like my McIntosh mc7200 for the QLS. Stable to 1ohm, direct couple, no auto former. Tried several amps, Phillips 578 which made smoke but was great for the year or so I used it, Adcom gfa5500 (very good) Odyssey Stratos (nice amp too). Also used tubes on top end with a ARC d115. Settled on my mc7200 and c35 setup. Rock solid performer that really controls the Watkins circuit and has a full bodied top end.

The c35 preamp is to date my favorite preamp. I've used many but just love the control of the 5 band eq and great phono section. Displaced ARC sp6b, ls7, Phillips 572, Carver c1, and odyssey tempest. It was really hard to unhook the ls7 for the c35 but needed phono and in my system the Mac amp/preamp is very good plus it's matchy matchy...

You guys give me lots of ideas and stuff to look for. Would love to own a pair of k9 and one of those Sunfire Sigs. That setup would loosen the joint compound in the walls...

 

[jazzmans]

the Carver M 500 failed on kappa 8's? damn, that's a very highly rated carver amp (for sound quality) especially among carver nerds, I wonder if it needed service.
There is no doubt in my mind the Sunfire signature would completely control the Ren 90s, I can't, and will likely never be able to afford Bob's latest tube amps, but I can dream. . .

 

[7.62]

Yeah they could have needed service, I had 2, tried one and got way hot, shut down at moderate levels. 2 in the mono mode was ok at low levels but once you turned things up, for me anyway it was burning ear experience way to harsh.

I agree on the tube amps, dream is the proper word.

Slimp, have to agree on the McIntosh. I think we have the same listening taste. I just purchased a pristine C26 and I absolutely love everything it does. My budget would have to increase two fold to hit my want list. While I think I’ve lost a hint of sweetness that my Anthem Pre2L SE has to quote Jazz I like it mo bettah ! The Anthem stays as a backup.

More research and reviews has me now seriously considering an VTL ST85

 

[geoff727]

With a budget of $2,000, you already named what is probably the best contender....Odyssey Khartago mono blocks. Upping the budget a little bit will allow you to go with a lot of the upgrades they offer, like a much stiffer power supply that is more adept at handling any speaker impedance difficulties. You've probably read the review of the Khartago's in The Absolute Sound a few years ago, where they received a very positive review.

In my signature icon, those two gold components are Khartago stereo units, each doing an active vertical bi-amp on the Magnepans, with Bryston 10B L-Rs doing the frequency splitting. A Ren 90 can only be bi-amped passively, with the passive crossover in place. Bi-amping in this fashion unfortunately does not provide the type of gains that active bi-amping does, and throwing four mono blocks at them (or two stereo units) may be spending a lot of money for only very limited gains. You're probably better off using that budget to go with two higher-quality mono blocks and experimenting between single- and bi-wiring on the speakers. If you want to read the science behind this, Google Rod Elliot's articles on bi-amping and read Parts 1 and 2.
G~

P.S. Part of the customization that Odyssey can do is setting the bias on the amplifiers to suit the customer's application.

 

[chef free]

I love the sound of my McIntosh MC2200s. A 2200 can be had and rebuilt (not just brought "up to specs") for less than your budget. The MC7270 is two generations younger and can be found in your price range, it may be the best watts/$ McIntosh out there.

I've heard that Arnie Nudell insisted on demoing his big Infinity's with a tube amp.

 

[jazzmans]

AR Tube amps IIRC. chef free.

7.62, I've NEVER been able to send any of my carver amps into protection mode from overdriving them, only from crossing the wires accidently way back when. I run out of db's before the amps run out of juice, but I've seen the top red headroom exhausted ed's flash once or twice on my M 1.5T back when I was trying to impress someone, I'm sure. I've never been able to make any of the pro amps clip lights flash.

Also, I've never had a carver amp run anything more then idling warm temps for most other amps (bryston, I'm looking at you!) Even on the few times I've seen the headroom exhausted leds flash. They get warm, but NEVER hot.

 

[chef free]

I've run those strapped MC2200's in a hot garage, flashing the red lights, on those 1 ohm QLS-1's, FOR HOURS, and they get kinda warm...

 

[7.62]

I was still young into the hobby jazz, they were the third set of amps I bought and the kappas could cook on off in 20 minutes or less. The Eagle 7A came after and when we shut it down I bought my first QSC and never looked back. The GX5 had complete control of the 8’s.

Geoff, I had never seen that website. Thank you it’s going to take awhile to digest and understand everything but very good reading so far.

 

[slimpikkins]

Love the MC7270 Chef free but how's this for McIntosh watts for bucks. MC7200=200watts/8ohm, 320/4ohm, 625/2ohm, 726/1.3ohm, 882/1ohm. It's a great amp, may not get all the hipe because it does not have autoformers but man it can really deal out the business. No KSA but not too shabby.

Also worth considering is Perreaux. The big mosfet amps (PMF3150 comes to mind) were 1ohm stable and some of their progear was just huge power. This 5570 is not mine but I wish it were...

 

[xero-D-hero]

Add me to the Sunfire 300/2 ~ 600/2 Signature series recommendation.

That comes directly from my good friends experience with using a 300/2 for driving his Kappa 9's.
Was the only amp he could find that did the trick (and he tried a few others),and it did so no problemo.
And it sounded great to boot (preamp was a Yamaha C4).

Never clipped & never got even the slightest bit hot,that amp just took his abuse and kept on ticking.
When Bob (Sunfire) named those amps "load invariant",,,he (they) meant it,,,LOL...

Plus they come with outputs to bi-wire using just the Sunfire amp itself.
One set of outputs are voiced for the mids/highs (w/tube like voicing).
And the other set of outputs are voiced for the woofers (w/SS like voicing).

It's almost like Bob & Arnie were looking at what the other was doing and egging each other on.

My friend has since moved on to a pair of Bryston mono-blocks (7bst @ 500wpc > 8ohms) and sold off his 300/2.
And he's regretted selling that 300/2 amp lately,he really wishes he had'nt sold it off.
Not that there's anything wrong with the Bryston mono-blocks,but they just added another level of complexity that now seems unnecessary.
Plus those Bryston's represent cubic $$$$ vs. what he had into that Sunfire 300/2.

Anyhow,that's my 2¢.

Bret P.

 

[7.62]

When I first started my audio journey and discovered our local guy audio expert, he had one of those perreaux amps in the store. It was one of the first amps I did some reading on. Something was mentioned somewhere that you could arc weld with one !

I’m doing more reading and kinda rethinking everything, after back reading some of my own post I’ve come to realize that my Kappa 8’s have built in a distrust for 2 channel amps such as adcom, carver etc. since my first pro amp purchase I’ve somehow convinced myself it’s the only way to go. I don’t think the rens are as hard to drive as the kappas. Maybe I should not rush it and up the budget.

The money I spent before the QSC could have easily stepped into the higher end of Krell, Levinson, McIntosh. I don’t want to make the same mistake again, the 90’s in my opinion are worthy of the best I can give them.

I really appreciate everyone’s input here

 

[Tim 700]

Pair of Ren 90's on E-Bay for $500. right now. Go get em!