Tell Me About Your Amplifier.

Hello everyone

Well here's one thing we can all agree on providing we have hifi separates systems.

Please tell me about your Amplifier the one you currently own. Does not matter if it's cheap/expensive Intergrated , Pre Power , Valve/Transistor/Class A or D. Tone Controls & switches galore or purist plain.

By all means talk about passive/power supply/headphone amps/phono stage previous if you wish .

Please respect each other choices & lastly no " I have an I Pod & Headphones/Music Centre/Autochanger/Stereogram/Table top radio/Guitar Amps . Negative commentators can " do one "as well.

Thanks.

 

Sorry I forgot my Pre Amp is a Denon PMA 1510 in Pre Amp Mode & Power Amps are Vincent SP 991 Monoblocs . I am delighted with the sound & I have come a long way from my Amstrad 8000 Mk 3 . (It was alright as it happens I was 12 in 1979 & it was a start)

 

My amplifier is a tube stereo amp that uses two 349 pentode output tubes per channel and two input/driver 348 tubes per channel (can't recall what rectifier is used). The amp also utilizes transformers at the input. My linestage utilizes two 311 and four 310 tubes, and uses transformers at the input and at the output (output transformers are needed for ideal match to the input transformers of the amp, so the two components are, in a sense, "matched." The transformers in both the amp and linestage are vintage Western Electric transformers. I believe the amp is rated at 5 watts per channel.

I can also use, as an alternative, a pair of Audionote Kageki monoblocs. These amps are parallel single-ended triode amps (two output tubes per channel). The output tubes are 2a3s, the input/driver tube is a 6sn7. This amp is rated at, I believe, 6.5 watts. Although the Kageki does not have an input transformer, it works well with my linestage (I have been told it was designed to work with other Audionote gear that does use transformer outputs).

 

My amp was designed by this man:

 

Very nice

 

Recently purchased a Cayin A-50T integrated. Uses EL34 tubes, 35w/Ch Ultra-linear Mode, 16w/Ch Triode mode. I'm liking Ultra-Linear the best to my suprise. Sounds great with my speakers.

 

I feel boring with my Marantz PM6004 now.

Even so, I like it. Haven't got the big bucks for the really nice stuff and first on my list to upgrade are my speakers anyway.

 

.......and here he is with my speaker designer:



Unfortunately neither of them are with us anymore.

 

What are you looking to learn from threads such as these? Gear profiles have our gear listed.

 

If you must know , I am interested in other people's ways of putting a system together and how they have found their Audio Nirvana. I have also found that I enjoy various people enthuse about their equipment & perhaps I could learn something from it . There is never one way of putting a system together only your way. Don't you like your amps then?

 

McIntosh MC402

 

My current power amp was designed by James Bongiorni, a quiet retiring sort of fellow as you can see in posts 4 and 8.

It's a Son of Ampzilla costing me £3,500 in 2006. It is well thought of with my speakers (I'll talk about them in the forthcoming 'Your Speakers' thread). It's a hefty solid state amp weighing around 25kg with a bold blue and gold frontage which is not to everyone's taste. My only criticisms of it is that it only has four speaker binding posts so they have to be doubled up for biwiring, and the rubber feet. I found by trials that other feet will improve the sound a tiny bit (a little bit more percussion, a bit more clarity) - I use Finite Elemente Cerabase because I had them but they seemed to have the same effect as Syposium Rollerblock Juniors, or Townshend's Isolation Pods.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue20/ampzilla.htm

I still have my previous, an Audiolab 8000A integrated amp. This does have binding posts for biwiring.

 

Not trying to be negative, just realistic here, but knowing what amps are used will take someone nowhere really, as a system is often greater than the sum of It's individual components....if done well, if not it can be lesser than the sum of It's parts. Also, the same system that could sound glorious in one room, can sound like balls in a different room.

We also have very different ideas on what sounds good to each of us.

But, meh....carry on regardless, if you get stuff out of it more power to you! I do really mean that

 

Arcam Alpha 9, bought in 1997 (along with a pair of Epos ES12 standmount speakers). Got it on sale for £360, should have been around £450, IIRC. Together, they make a fabulous sound. It wasn't until I added an Arcam CD72 player in 2010 (replacing a £200 Marantz player) that I was able to use the direct button on the amp with spectacular results. Speakers are biwired from the day I bought the amp/speakers (first time I'd ever experienced biwiring). Everything was brilliantly focused and detailed with nice, deep but tight bass. If anything goes wrong with the amp, I'm going to have it repaired; I spent around two hours in the dem room and it paid off. Big time. It's simply the best amp I've ever had.

 

Why not just post a single thread about how members put their system together? That would be interesting. Much better than your next one: Tell Me About Your Loudspeakers

My stand-mounted loudspeakers were designed over a couple years by one of the world's largest speaker manufacturers, Focal. The latest and greatest from the likes of Focal is bound to deliver and certainly the Diablo Utopias do just that. Huge images in a well defined, 3-dimensional holographic soundstage. World class resolution. Extremely fast transients. Amazing frequency extension (even the bass will take listeners by surprise). My front end and amplification, cords and cables, power conditioning, room treatment, and positioning (of sweet spot and loudspeakers) have come together to create a very nice hi-end listening experience.

 

I'm using Bluenote S3 Signature

 

I'm using a McIntosh MA 6450, which sounds very musical in my system.

 

Very nice.

 

Three power amps in use: Conrad Johnson MV-45 tube amp, Epicure M-1 and McIntosh MC-250 SS amps. Love them all.

 

'90s Linn Majik (solid state, 30-ish watts). Enough juice to power the sorts of monitors I favour (Wharfedales and other UK brands.) Flat Earth, baby.

 

Bryston 4SST. While not the creme de la creme sonically, it's a good, reliable, solid amp. I've only gone into clipping once, and that with the volume on the preamp turned up all the way. A workhorse amp, more or less. It's built well, and has one of the best warrantys in the biz. It has good sound overall. Again, not the ultimate in fidelity, but it holds it own in its price range, which was significantly less than the current SST2s.

http://bryston.com/PDF/Manuals/3B_4BSST_MANUAL.pdf

 

Musical Fidelity M6i. Integrated. - Prior to this was an NAD M3.

 

Mine is an Odyssey Stratos Plus. Solid state, 150w x 2. Mine has the blue face plate. Using it to drive a pair of B&W 805's. I'm using a Denon AVR-3313 (which I'm not thrilled with) in a 5.1 system. I'm also using an SVS PB-12 Plus sub.

 

Hay, that amp can probably do some awesome things with the right speakers and front end feeding it .

It's not all about what it costs

 

The Kenwood KR 9600 is powering my main rig:






Lots of power, lots of current. This "Frankenstereo" hooks up the speakers in pairs in a series configuration, then each pair [the a/d/s L400e's with the Mordant Short speakers, the Infinity 2500's with the mid/bass panels of the MMG's] is paralleled to the other so that the amp works with a reasonable impedance. Fun experiment.

This amp is not working at the moment but I intend to get it running again this year:



It's a Scott 299b, all tube, from around 1962. Mine needs re-tubing and a new power diode. Sounds amazing, very low background noise level, wonderful MM phono stage.