Audio Flynn Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 AF musings... Nothing stops the VRD from being the most desireable power amp under $ 5000 except summer heat. For several odd reasons my house in the woods is not set up well for central air and my 14 x 22 listening room is au natural ventalation. I have had quite a few amps as some of you old timers may remember over the past 8-10 years. I would really like to head in a new direction. In allowing me a little less summer heat in the living room, I am in a quest for a non tube / non digital "tweaky" power amp for the Belles. No Asian amps to make the last cut. I have heard so many. No Adcom or other big watt power amps. Here are a few I have read are on the warmer side of nuetral by some reviewers at 100 watss or less. I am looking at used LINN. Meridian, B&K and Musical Fidelity amps. Just got a LINN preamp called the Kolector a month ago for my Scott 208 tube amp in my office, so LINN has impressed me of late. I never audition much outside of my home in the past 4-5 years. For my taste I need to live with a component for 2 months to really develop a solid opinion. Any models of my Manufacturer / Finalists' product lines anyone has an opinion on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hifi jim Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 I am looking at used LINN. Meridian, B&K and Musical Fidelity amps. I didn't care for the Meridian 559 on Klipsch when I had it, but that is their monster 300 watter. The Klipsch seemed too efficient to get the amp in its sweet spot, perhaps their lower wattage offerings would be different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USNRET Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 AF, are you saying that we should trade amps for a while or work a permanent? Perhaps you might like the MC2125 with YOUR Belles in those conditions while the VRDs would be better suited in my cool basement. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ69 Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 The little Quicksiler minis (2 EL34s) don't put out enough heat to worry about and sound really sweet. Music Fidelity is also very nice. I have two buddys with MF integrateds and both sound excellent. Thanx, Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 I had the chance to listen to La Scala II's and MC250 at JC's pad. The combo was really nice. I never thought I would be such a fan of early solid state but I am. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hifi jim Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 La Scala II's and MC250 [Y] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheltie dave Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 AF. I can vouch for the Musical Fidelity, and I also like the Accuphase E203 and the Marantz 19. The do well on KHorns too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I have a bunch of Musical Fidelity Equipment but no amps. Their equipment (at least the older 308 series) is very warm sounding. I just love it. If you are looking for a power amp their A3 and A3.5 shoudl have plenty of power. You might also want to look at some of the older Classe offerings. If I remember corrctly, my mono's run Class A up to 85 wpc, but they do nto get too warm. At 100 WPC you can get one of their older amps for a nice price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I don’t think the heat from the VRDs is reason enough to forgo their wonderful sound. My favorite sounding amplifiers are tube ones. If you must go the solid-state route, then the chip amplifiers, like Trend and Red Wine, are wonderfully sounding for the price. Amongst solid-state amplifiers, the blue dial Macintosh are said to one of the best matches for big ole horns. Of the dozen I seriously auditioned with my big ole horns, the s-s one I would love to have is the superlative Pass X250 concrete monster amplifier, which doubles its output as impedance drops (1000 watts into 2-ohms). But I think bi-amping, even passive style, like I do, is even better: delicious low power, low heat tubes on mid and highs, powerful s-s on the bottom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Wow how much heat do they give off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted April 23, 2009 Author Share Posted April 23, 2009 AF. I can vouch for the Musical Fidelity, and I also like the Accuphase E203 and the Marantz 19. The do well on KHorns too. I have not seen a lower price Classe or Accuphase amp to consider. It is just an odd room. Great for listening with 2 partially open walls but with no window facing west to get any prevailing wind airflow. Part of the quest is the WAF of the VRD being warm to her in the July / August timeframe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I have not seen a lower price Classe or Accuphase amp to consider. http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1244651160&/Classe-CA-101-Amp http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1245079065&/Classe-CA-150- http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1244651160&/Classe-CA-101-Amp http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1244640504&/Classe-70-stereo-power-amp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheltie dave Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Sorry about that, I meant E202... they normally move in the $350 to $500 range, depending on condidtion and having a wood case. Send it to EchoWars for a thorough tuneup, and you will be sitting pretty. They are equivalent to a Japanese McIntosh, and are the cream of Kenwood. Build quality is SUPERB, and costs for new gear are also (cough) reflective of the quality. http://cgi.ebay.com/ACCUPHASE-E-202-INTERGRATED-AMPLIFIER-KENSONIC-LAB-WORK_W0QQitemZ360146978088QQihZ023QQcategoryZ3280QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BE36 Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 I heard a Music Fidelity system with BA speakers that beat an all McIntosh $80K setup in the same room by large margin. (Gramaphone in Birmingham) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankphess Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 It's difficult to comment on a particular manufacturer rather than a specific amp, as they each make many different "levels" of amplifiers. I use B&K 220 watt monoblocks with RF-7's and think they're wonderful. I've also used a B&K 105w stereo amp which of course, was not as impressive. While I'm sure you don't need the extra watts with the sensitive Belle's, there's something to be said for the extra headroom of large amplifiers. With solid state it usually seems that bigger is better in my experiences. I've also used a MF A5 integrated which was also impressive, loads of power. Good luck with your search. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J M O N Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 If solid-state is what you're after, I'll second the Classe recommendation. I once owned the Model Seventy and it was great with the Cornwalls I had at the time. While not as fantastic as the tube amps that followed, still quite good and "tube-like" in smoothness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 If solid-state is what you're after, I'll second the Classe recommendation. I once owned the Model Seventy and it was great with the Cornwalls I had at the time. While not as fantastic as the tube amps that followed, still quite good and "tube-like" in smoothness. I use a pair of these Classe Amps with a Musical Fidelity Preamp: http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/304/ They ain't too bad[]. In my system tubes will not do better but my speakers are not exactly "tube friendly." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted April 28, 2009 Author Share Posted April 28, 2009 I really did not want to go over $ 500. The B&K amps I saw were geting on in years. Most of the others were generallly well over $ 500. I bought a LINN LK-85 for $ 335 delivered, double boxed and insured. Probably not the best amp I was looking at but it was more budget concious in these challenging times. For goofing around I can match it with the LINN Kolector pre amp I bought for my office 6 weeks back to get a feel for this unique manufacture. MF, Meridian and Classe amps will have to wait for another upgrade bug in 2010. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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