Anthem A2 or Anthem 225 integrated?

[arcamguy1]

Hi group,
I need some opinions: I'm thinking of adding either a power amp to my system, or switching out my Rega for another, more powerful integrated.

Does anyone have experience with either Athem's A2 amp, or their 225 integrated?

How do they sound? What did you like, or not like, about either amp?

Thanks in advance for your insights,
Jeff

 

[Chubba]

I belive my Anthem MCA-20 was similar to these units and I liked it a lot.I sold it because I wanted an amp with clipping lights.

 

[bare]

Welll....Most any amp will be an Upgrade over the Arcam
(I own the pair: Inty and power and it's erm ..Poor in all embarassing candor)

Isn't Anthem a 'son of' Sonic Frontiers.. Who in it's spotty history, 15 mins of fame.. Proved that premium parts DO Not necessarily make for a premium product??
Tread lightly.

 

[fiddlefye]

I don't know any of the more recent Anthem products, but I have a Pre 1 tube pre and it is very fine. Well built and sounds really good.

 

[jhildred]

We tried the 225 at our store and found it too powerful for most speakers/settings. The gain was such that you had almost no room on the volume range between 'not enough' and 'WAY too much'. Of course your mileage may vary.

As more versatile alternative we've gone for is Parasound P5/A23 or A21. It's a bit more expensive but with many more features and the ability to adjust the gain on the power amp. Or better still, if you don't need oodles of power, the Exposure 2010S2 just sounds sooooo good.

Of course being 'in the trade', I would expect you to take these comments with a pinch of salt

 

[arcamguy1]

Everyone,
Thanks for your input. Jez...very helpful comments.
I think what I'm going to do is just keep the Rega; I had it switched out for my old Alpha 9 amps for the past couple months, and last night, brought the Elicit back into service.

What a great amp. It really does a fine job with music. I also switched out speaker cable, going from Kimber 8TC to 12TC. You can hear the difference. The Rega is 105 wpc; upon critical listening, I think that's fine, for now.

I saw Parasound; funny you mention them: I was considering going for a P5/A21 combo, and may in the future. I've not had any personal experience with Parasound - never listened to it; I understand it is well-regarded.
Jeff

 

[steve59]

well for other thread searchers out there the anthem 225 is powerful but no tape loop so if your speakers, like mine, have an active eq the only option is to bi-amp and the anthem is so powerful good luck finding a matching seperate 2 channel amp to run with it.