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Amplification is underrated

hopeless said:
Perreaux is great stuff that never got any traction in the US. Repped it for quite a while but it was a hard sell.
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those were great amps.
but, I'm a total heretic, I use thirty-five year old carver Pro amps to drive my totl speakers.....

and I use chip amps where I'm not using carvers.


so, there's that.
owned bryston (great amps, just ran too hot for me) owned rotel, owned yamaha's totl, Adcom, etc.

carver still does it for me, although I could see owning an ice power amp some day, or a macintosh.



anyone who doesn't think a pm 1200 or pm 350 doesn't do bass, is welcome to come listen to my delta/gammas, when I'm home

and my ren 80/90s, and magnepans sound mighty fine with old carver amps.
one of the sweetest sounding amp ow ever owned was an adcom 5300. not much power, but good goddamn, within its power envelope, it was beautiful sounding!

I'd love to own a WOPL. seems they fixed all the little problems phase linear had.
 
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E2 said:
No, when I say clean no background hiss of any kind when you aren't listening to music like you get with vintage units.

Both my Sansui AU 919, and Yamaha CR 2040 did/do this. And a myriad of other vintage pieces I had did this.

I have no idea how many watts the Denon is pushing when at the 9 position. It sounds great, and drives the Mani's effortlessly. So I can't say I really care.

I have heard Musical Fidelity, Bryston, Hegel, Parasound and Mcintosh. Sure they were great. They better be. They cost enough.

I really wanted the A308 by MF, but now there are even better offerings by them. Still, I would never spend it.

Something will turn up. It always does..........
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My point is that you are not experienced. You are satisfied because you just don't have any understanding of what is possible. When I did stand up trainings, one of my soap box topics was the difference between knowledge and understanding. I've literally had dozens of amplifiers through my systems, of all types and sizes. I can tell you that a better amplifier will change your world.
 
Zygmo said:
But it was my experience that virtually every upgrade to higher power meant better sound. It was rare that the sound quality went up when one downgraded to lower power. Not unheard of...but rare
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There is a good bit of discussion that some of the less powerful receivers sound better than the big dog in more than one lineup. The 1980 is surpassed by the 1050/1250 and maybe others to the power limits of the units but those are receivers and we are talking mostly high quality power amps whether they be the 50wpc Krell KSA-50 or the 300 wpc Luxman M-6000
 
E2 said:
A better amplifier will change my world? What a nut.
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I swapped from 50 wpc monaural amps to a freshly recapped dual mono 80wpc amp today and I don’t think I’m happy. I will have to listen again but same company only a few years apart and subtle differences. It has also been a couple days since I had the rig running. Just hoping for the best as the lower powered amps were just so musical and nice sounding they might just be that much better.

for those that don’t believe in break in, burn in or whatever I don’t think the recapped amps are gonna change much but I’d be happy if they sound as good as those little mono amps.
 
As an owner of lots and lots of amps over the last 50+ years of active collecting/listening, I trust my ears more then any reviews or spec numbers. I use those too, just that my ears are the final decision maker. I currently own 3 great vintage McIntosh tube amps, and 2 other Mc solid states(all can be seen in my signature). Love them, use them all almost every day. But I also own lots of speakers, so the other day I went looking for an inexpensive solid state amp to drive my Allison One's, and after doing a fair amount of reading, bought an SMSL A300 Class D integrated for less then 2 Franklin's. I have 2 of their DAC's that I really like, and that made it easier to take a shot on their amp. Got it today, and after listening all day I'm am completely impressed. It's ballsy, with a clear, robust presentation. Has all kinds of settings for tone controls, EQ, a sub out(don't need that) etc, but I'm using it as a basic amp, along, controlling volume with my McIntosh CR7. In fact, I like it so much I just bought another to run them as mono blocks(they can be bridged as well). These are rated at 85 watts at 8 ohms/165 at 4, so don't need the extra power, but what the hell? Can also use one/both on another pair of speakers if it gets too hot to run a tube amp.

I don't mind spending money on high quality stuff, especially stuff that holds it's value. But it is possible to get quality without spending a fortune, and the A300 is a good example, IMO.
 
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Nice amps! I'm in nowhere near the same league, but I get 10 watts Class A, and then 130 watts A/B. I have fairly efficient speakers, this is enough. I rarely go out of Class A bias, anyway. Other speakers are a different matter, and I let the amp stretch it's legs occasionally with speakers that like a little more power before they open up. It ain't the watts, it's the QUALITY of the watts that matters. I'm happy with my watts, in my mid-sized room, with the rest of my gear. That's all I was looking for....
 
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I heard a pair of those Classe Omegas several years ago with a pair of Magnepan 20.? and was absolutely impressed with the effortlessness the music just flowed into the space.
A perfect example of quality AND quantity, there is something magical that happens when you get both !!! I had a pair of Maggie IIIa's powered by a Carver TFM-55 at the time and thought my stuff sounded good till I heard that setup. That experience helped me understand the difference between good sound and great sound.

Beautiful amps, hope you enjoy them for years to come.
 
Blue Shadow said:
I swapped from 50 wpc monaural amps to a freshly recapped dual mono 80wpc amp today and I don’t think I’m happy. I will have to listen again but same company only a few years apart and subtle differences. It has also been a couple days since I had the rig running. Just hoping for the best as the lower powered amps were just so musical and nice sounding they might just be that much better.

for those that don’t believe in break in, burn in or whatever I don’t think the recapped amps are gonna change much but I’d be happy if they sound as good as those little mono amps.
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Money is a big factor in this. I am happy with what I have, and if I find something great so be it.

It's why I haven't done anything with the amps I mentioned above. They will be sold when I find something else.

Kinda Blue sounds great through the Denon, and Totems at the moment. And the $10 Marantz CDP..........$60 in all.
 
sberger said:
As an owner of lots and lots of amps over the last 50+ years of active collecting/listening, I trust my ears more then any reviews or spec numbers. I use those too, just that my ears are the final decision maker. I currently own 3 great vintage McIntosh tube amps, and 2 other Mc solid states(all can be seen in my signature). Love them, use them all almost every day. But I also own lots of speakers, so the other day I went looking for an inexpensive solid state amp to drive my Allison One's, and after doing a fair amount of reading, bought an SMSL A300 Class D integrated for less then 2 Franklin's. I have 2 of their DAC's that I really like, and that made it easier to take a shot on their amp. Got it today, and after listening all day I'm am completely impressed. It's ballsy, with a clear, robust presentation. Has all kinds of settings for tone controls, EQ, a sub out(don't need that) etc, but I'm using it as a basic amp, along, controlling volume with my McIntosh CR7. In fact, I like it so much I just bought another to run them as mono blocks(they can be bridged as well). These are rated at 85 watts at 8 ohms/165 at 4, so don't need the extra power, but what the hell? Can also use one/both on another pair of speakers if it gets too hot to run a tube amp.

I don't mind spending money on high quality stuff, especially stuff that holds it's value. But it is possible to get quality without spending a fortune, and the A300 is a good example, IMO.
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Looks interesting. I wonder if it shares any characteristics, similarities with more expensive units. It may be branded under another name? :idea:
 
Here's the funny part. Days separated from big amplifiers, the h/k PM635 stands proud. A very competent and capable amplifier. Waiting to be stomped into the dirt, but very pleasant in and over its weight class.
 
There's no wrong answers here. It's what works for you in your system. If your happy doesn't matter one whit what someone else thinks. Up, down, tube, SS, class A, class D anything as long as it makes the owner happy.
 
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