New Power Amp Suggestions

[tkam]

I'm in the market for a new power amp, preferrably something with 300+ Watts into 4ohm. I've been considering picking up a used Rotel RB-1090 it would certainly fit the bill powerwise. But I keep seeing all the various "Class D" type amps and their size and weight make them intruiging options. Out of the Class D amps the ones that caught my interest the most are ones based on the ICE Power modules (think the new belcanto amps) and the Hypex UCD Modules (think CIAudio amps). Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated.

[philodox]

You could get mister x to build you a nice gainclone.

[TheSloth]

You could get mister x to build you a nice gainclone.

This is pretty close: http://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/909stereo.htm

[TheSloth]

This is pretty close: http://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/909stereo.htm

Quoted the wrong post - wasn't trying to say it's close to a gainclone...

[n_maher]

I'd have a look at the Outlaw 2200 Monoblocks. It matches your 300W into 4ohm requirement exactly.

[Dusty Chalk]

Musical Fidelity A300^CR is something like 450 into 4 ohms. The gain is ridiculously high, though, you need a quality preamp that handles the low end of its volume range well.

And I can tell you from personal experience its a sweet amp. I will eventually get another one.

It's from their first generation A3 series -- for some reason, they didn't make one in the A3.2 series.

Should sell on the used market for under US$1500. They show up on Audiogon pretty regularly, although not constantly.

[Dusty Chalk]

Did some research on the Rotel: 700 Watts into 4 ohms?!? Unholy carp!!! I bet that would sound pretty nice with my Dynaudios, may have to consider that, myself.

Current generation MF would be the A5 (unless you could settle for an integrated): 416 WPC/4 ohms, US$3.5K MSRP.

[tkam]

Haha yeah the rotel has a healthy amount of power and it usually goes for $1000-$1500 on audiogon so it's priced right. Thanks for the recomendations of the MF gear I'll keep an eye out for them used.

[Dusty Chalk]

I've also heard good things about Bryston (and in my boss's system) -- seems like the 4B and the 6B meet your criteria. link

[Yikes]

The original Bryston 4B is a little bright (I always considered them expensive Adcoms, better but cut from the same tonal cloth), with the SST and newer they got much better. Very expensive used because of the fantastic warranty and customer service.

Amps that would work well that I have always liked.

Classe DR-25 and CA-300 or CA-400

Conrad Johnson MF-2500

Ayre - Any of their Amps (NOT the Integrated) would work very well.

The Rotel RB-1090 is a tremendous over achiever. Great dynamics, but it does lack a degree of refinement.

IMHO- Not one of the digital amps is worth getting. The great reviews that they get is proof positive that the reviewers don't know their Asses from holes in the ground.

[aerius]

IMHO- Not one of the digital amps is worth getting. The great reviews that they get is proof positive that the reviewers don't know their Asses from holes in the ground.

Gotta agree with that one, of all the digital amps I've heard the original $99 Teac Tripath is the only one I can tolerate, and even then it takes good speaker matching due to the limited power. Panasonic, blech, dry digital sounding, Rotel, bleh, same as Panasonic but not as bad, BelCanto, nothing to write home about, haven't heard CI yet but not expecting much either.

Personally I like the Class? sound, haven't heard their older models in a long time but the new Delta series is damn nice. Chord's new CPM series is pretty nice too, similar to the Delta series but a bit more tubey sounding and maybe lacking a tad of refinement & detail.

[philodox]

Gotta agree with that one, of all the digital amps I've heard the original $99 Teac Tripath is the only one I can tolerate.

I've got a Charlize on the way which I will power with a new 12amp Pyramid Gold PSU I recently acquired. I will be using the PSU for the Sol Headphone Amp [MOSFET] that I traded off of looser101 as well, which will be setup as a pre/headphone amp and feed the Charlize/Polk Speakers in my computer setup. Next time you come over you will have to give it a listen and see if it is tolerable.

[tkam]

Current generation MF would be the A5 (unless you could settle for an integrated): 416 WPC/4 ohms, US$3.5K MSRP.

There's actually an A5 integrated and A308 integrated on audiogon right now. I might check those out.

[tkam]

Not yet, decided to just wait for a good deal on audiogon. Theres a couple MF amps I'm inquiring about now we'll see how it goes.

[tkam]

Well finally found a Rotel RB-1090 for a decent price so I'll be going with that unless its been sold already.

[tkam]

The Rotel RB-1090 is mine and the seller is pretty close by so with ground shipping probably only taking one day I should have it tomorrow

[tkam]

The amp arrived today, took a bit of time go lug it downstairs as the package weighed about 100 lbs. After getting the box downstairs it took even more time to get it out of its triple boxing. Then it was just a matter of moving my power conditioner up a shelf on the rack and putting the Rotel on the lowest shelf (only one it would fit on). It has about 2" of clearance above it and the sides have plenty of space to ventilate.

I've been listening to it for 3 hours tonight and so far the things that have struck me the most are the bass authority and the bass control which is just phenomenal. As much as I liked the primaluna monoblocks I previously had they never did bass like this. I guess I'll chalk it up to the 700W and a damping factor of 1000.