Temple Audio Upgrade

[Freeman]

Hi,
I've been running a Bantam Gold now for about about 4 years powering it via a 12V SLA battery. The source is a Sonos Connect through a Bushmaster Mk II (also battery powered). A recent upgrade to a pair of Elac BS263s has made a great improvement but I'm now wondering if further gains can be had in the amplification department. The obvious upgrade to a Temple Audio user would be the new 70W monoblocks or maybe a Bantam One. If I upped the budget to maybe £1200 is their better options out there, new or used?

Thanks

Mark

[Dauntless]

Hi Mark, Temple's new 70w monoblocks are a bit of a shot in the dark as they are very new and most folk won't know much about them. I have looked at them and they appear to offer very good value. Temple seem to have done work so that they can be paired successfully with a passive pre so that looks to me to be a good value upgrade and would be difficult to better buying new from a cost point of view. Some on here don't like class D but I'm not one of them. You would have to use Temple's supplied switch mode supplies as I would think that you would need more than 12v to power them. You may find it useful to talk to John at Temple to see what he has to say on the matter. You could also look at Schiit Audio who have a distributer in the UK. They have some well priced pre amps and a new power amp available for reasonable money. I myself own some of their products and I find they work very well. I'm not too keen on buying used myself. I always wonder why the product is being offered for sale!

[wee tee cee]

PM sent

[Alan D]

Much will depend on the synergy of a replacement amplifier with your speakers, so whilst not making a recommendation, I can share the following experience:

I set up a small second system in our bedroom consisting of a second squeezebox touch, Bantam Gold and Rega RS1 speakers and lived with this system for a couple of years.
(I ran the amp from a linear PSU).

I saw a Quad 306 for sale on the forum and fancied trying it. (Being a power amp, I also got a Tisbury passive pre). The improvement in all areas of sound quality was amazing and the Bantam Gold went on ebay the next day!

Don't just limit your choice of amp to one from the same stable. See if you can loan a few for evaluation.

[wee tee cee]

I ran a tissie with temple mono blocks into frugels.

Marco of this parish was over for a chin wag and some tunes.....he remarked that the valve mono blocks behind the speakers were doing a fine job.

I showed him behind the speakers the temple monos velcroed on the back doing amp duty!!!!

On a big car battery my system completely off the grid sounded respectable.

The mono blocks are very good...

[Freeman]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. As you can probably tell, i'm a novice when it comes to Hi Fi.
I have aspirations for a great system, but like many don't have a huge budget. Hence I'm trying to judge how the direct sellers like Temple Audio et al sit within the more traditional high street brands in terms of price performance. For example how would the Rega Elex-R at £900 compare with the Temple Audio Monoblocks at £500?

[Ninanina]

The improvement in all areas of sound quality was amazing and the Bantam Gold went on ebay the next day!

Don't just limit your choice of amp to one from the same stable. See if you can loan a few for evaluation.

I ran a new Bantam Gold for a short while and I quite liked it but I replaced it with something else, sorry I just can't remember what it was at the time :doh: but I know it was not that expensive, but I also found the replacement sounded better, to me, than the Bantam Gold and I sold the Bantam quite quickly afterwards

If you have a budget of £1,200 that opens up literally thousands of amps both new and used

I have never heard a Rega Elex-R but people seem to really like it and it can be purchased used for £600 upwards and even the Elicit-R can be had for about £1,000

Other well known brands like Arcam, Cyrus, Quad, Musical Fidelity, Creek, Exposure, Sugden, Naim etc etc... all produce very good products and all can be purchased very reasonably especially used

I am also guessing that the 'high street' brands would probably hold their value better as well

[wee tee cee]

My son was using the temple mono blocks with a tvc promethious up to this weekend.

They have made way to a croft pre/power combo which hes rather happy with.

When they came out of my system it was a TQ Claymore=Colin wonfors own amp that replaced it.

Of course you can get improvements.....see if any of the AOS troops are down your neck of the woods and can bring some amps to you to get a listen.

Lots of very helpful folk in this wee community, just wanting to help you on the road to good tunes!!!!