Recommend Me A Very High Power Amplifier

[User211]

Bored, I was thinking about a solid state very high power amplifier to drive the Apogees with as an alternative to my current thermionic setup.

Am looking for something that might beat a Parasound A21 which I used to feed with an EAR868PL. The EAR has long since gone, but the Parasound and EAR together produced some stunning sounds.

The power amp or amps will be fed by a tube preamp via RCA connectors.

Greater than 400 Watts into 4 Ohms is what I am after.

Just sling me some ideas... even though I promised myself I would no upgrade for a while. I'm justifying it as a side-grade That is, if I see something worth taking a punt on.

Monos or stereo but please power amps only.

I probably will not keep any solid state amp long term... so it'll be a 2nd hand buy with the view to letting it go after a while.

The Parasound could quite literally astonish with drive capability and dynamics. Similar capability in another contender would be what I am after I think.

Budget no more than £2-3K 2nd hand. Preferably a lot less.

[Yomanze]

http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/hypex_dlcp_n400_e.html (reviewed with Maggies) 600W into 2 Ohms.
http://www.hypex.nl/product/2012-11-...-35/nc400.html

[User211]

I tried a Hypex nc400 amp - but with a linear PS and JFET input stage. Sounded fab TBH right up there with the best SS amps I have tried with the speakers. The maker of said amps says if it has an SMPS module don't bother. I haven't verified that though personally.

[Colin151]

What is the Apogee's load exactly? 4 ohms pretty straight or does it go quite a bit lower? Which Apogees?

[DSJR]

Apogees as I remember, 'featured' hideously low impedance loads - down to 2 ohms or less over much of the range - and so this will rule out 95% of all domestic amps IMO!

OK, BORING, but you need to look at Krell first, as these were designed for these sort of loads, and in conjunction with ARC preamps, became a sort of US equivalent to Linn and Naim for a few years in the 80's and 90's. A good friend and one-time colleague had some Duetta Signatures with a KSA80 for years and it was wonderful - he's now got huge Martin Logan's and a D'Agostino integrated... I once sold a Krell FPB300 and it was awesome, but the FPB 400 may well be around your budget now. KSA80's go for £1500 or so and sound really good into all sorts of speakers. Older Krells run VERY hot, so big service bills aren't uncommon - the KSA 'S' series onwards

Classic large Levinson (pre bling) should be looked at too. I can't remember the models, but the early 90's black boxes were superb and judged better than many Krells of the period 'by those that know' (I don't!). Into some power hungry Maggies, I was able to compare the smaller stereo black box to the larger one (ML28 preamp) and the bigger one allowed far more scale and image size in all planes.

Looking at pro amps for a minute, lots of power houses there, but I have little idea as to how they'd drive an Apogee style load..

[User211]

Speakers are custom built spec'd by me Duetta like jobbies (much better made than the originals). A constant 4 Ohms and an 80 Watt tube amp drives them better than any solid state so far... but that is not to say SS amps don't have different but really interesting results with them.

Tried a Krell KSA50 which drove them well but sounded flat as a Witch's Tit (owner's remark) but that was with a passive pre. A KSA300 was good with Calipers. A KAV250a was good but not excellent with Duettas. Not really looking at Krells.

John Curl (Mark Levinson designer) did the Parasound A21 so an ML amp may well hit the spot,

Crown XLS1500 (pro amp) nothing special but good - excellent for the money.

[cyclopse]

Krell and Apogee are two names that have been matched together for decades. Always wanted to hear MRA. Other suggestions could include Pass Labs and possibly Gamut monos. It will be Autumn soon so valve heat will be more manageable.

Regards

Stephen

[DSJR]

Ok, I get ya

My own KSA 50S is very bland when first powered, but does become acceptable after a couple of hours. I was intimidated by it at first (it's a gift), but now I'm getting the measure of it I'm not so in awe of it now (even gets to old industry pro's like me and I once sold the Ab Sounds portfolio!). The original one could sound 'cloudy' I found, but preamps used domestically in the Top End have come on hugely since then.

I've only ever heard one large Parasound amp and it was very good indeed. I think they were regarded as 'AV' so ignored by the snooty two-channel brigade. Others have spoken highly of other models, so well worth trying to find one

I think the Crown XLS models would be amazing for speakers like passive ATC's and maybe NS1000's, which NEED loads of power to make 'em dance to the music's tune IMO. My mate's Duetta Signatures in the years they worked properly were incredibly 'open' to what they were fed with and if yours are better made than this (and hopefully longer lasting than a mere ten years), then do look out for an early big ML amp. Hifi Dave may be able to advise on models to look out for, as the more bling they acquired, the less exalted they became, even if they became more 'commercial' as a result.

Good luck - and please report your findings, as well as other recommendations..

P.S. Don't laugh, but what about the current big Quad mono's? The 606 onwards were perfectly happy with 4 ohm loads and the basic design has been refined considerably since then I think.

[StanleyB]

My dream power amp is the Harman Kardon Citation XX . http://www.thevintageknob.org/harman...tation_XX.html
Anything else just won't hack it. And that includes Krell.

[User211]

My dream power amp is the Harman Kardon Citation XX . http://www.thevintageknob.org/harman...tation_XX.html
Anything else just won't hack it. And that includes Krell.

Dead cool. 1978 though will probably need attention IF you could find one. Are there really many around Stan?