I need your help.....CLS 1 looking for the right amplifier

So I bought a set of CLS I that sound great....My experience goes back to the 80's SAE, Krell, Cary Audio, Counterpoint, Denon mono Blocks, etc

I am looking for a newer amp that is reliabkle and don't have the recent experience...

Can I get some help here finding the correct Amplifier?

Thanks

Emery, again, welcome !

There is no 'one' correct amp ...........what's your budget ?

It better be a high current design.. Class A will give best results ...

I am looking for a newer amp that is reliable and don't have the recent experience...

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Does it need to be a newer amp? Before going on with recommendation, please let us know:

1. What is your budget?
2. The type of music you're listening to.
3. How loud? If you can specify in dB, that'll be helpful.
4. What are you looking for? Bass attack, lush vocal, crisp highs, etc...
5. How big is your listening room?
6. How far away is your listening position?

Specifically in my case, I found a great match with an older Mark Levinson 331 amplifier than with newer amps. We can start throwing out the typical high end names like Pass Labs, Levinson, BAT, Krell, Bryston, Sanders ESL amp, etc... but those are all over the map without knowing your requirements/preferences. Generally speaking, the CLS series are pretty tough load to drive, requiring a high current solid-state amplifier to work well.

Start here:

http://www.martinloganowners.com/fo...quently-asked-question-on-this-site-READ-THIS!!

Budget unlimited

Maybe between 80 to 90 db

Looking for everything depending on the music we can buy several amps

Accuracy is the most important thing

we are looking for imagry based upon the producers mix..soundstage stuff

what we would like to be able to do is go back and forth re engineer tracks

I have a bunch of Amps...SAE X25A...Counterpoint 10...Adcom 555....Denon POA 3300's.... SAE 501.....I have a few more nothing worth mentioning...

I listen to a broad range of Music...we have a studio here and all kinds of artists come here to record. I was listening to Mahler the other night on a laser light disc. most of the time its blues here though. Some mainstream rock...alot of local Jazz artists....Dave Koz...Santana...most of the local artists engineer here some local high school kids that have a string quartet..we have a broad range of folks that come in here....

The room they will ultimately be in is 7' high 12' wide listening will be about 10-12 feet away sheet rock walls and wood floors with an area rug.

The reason for the speakers...They were the best I have ever heard in my life...We are ordering 2 sets of new panels for them as one of them in the lower third is not working.

We have them set up on the stage now and they sound better than anything we have ever heard before.

The speakers will mainly be used for playback for artists to listen to their music and re-engineering tracks for balace and depth.

I'd look at Pass Labs, Levinson, BAT, Krell, Bryston, Sanders ESL amp, Parasound, over any of the amps you mention. Parasound JC1's would be awesome with CLS's.. I love Pass Labs stuff too. Very powerful and controlled. Would be a great match.

Hi Emery,
From your post, I gather that you're in a studio environment, dealing with musicians with the applications of monitoring and sound-engineering the tracks. I firmly believe that you'd need a very transparent amplifier for this purpose. Heck, you'd need a very transparent signal chain from start all the way to the speakers. Toward this goal, Pass, BAT, and GamuT should be on the top of your list, given their minimalist design philosophy to preserve the purity of the signal chain. I also like the older Levinson and Krell amps, but it could be due to their coloration of the sound which match with my preference. Other amps worth mentioned are Parasound JC1, Sanders Sound ESL amp, Bryston.

We are ordering 2 sets of new panels for them as one of them in the lower third is not working.

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Before embarking on the amp quest, I think you should wait until this panel issue is resolved.

Good Luck,
Spike

along with everything else that was mentioned add Plinius to the list. I've listened to them driving CLS's and it was damn good.

Tom DAC....Do you have any specific models so I can oreer them?

Spike... Can you please give me specific models so I can order them

Twitch same question

I will be using a Denon DCD 3000 for playback straight to the AMP instead of wiring the DAC to the Sound board to the Amp to the speakers

unless you have a better CD player suggestion or I can down load to Ipad or Ipod.....

We like to burn them here so we can tell exacly what the listener will be getting

Thanks again for all of your suggestions, I do appeciate your time

I already ordered the panels from Martin Logan

Spike... Can you please give me specific models so I can order them

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Well, it really depends on how much power you need and whether you're willing to buy pre-owned (vs. new). To be on the safe side, I am suggesting amps with 150wpc minimum.
On the pre-owned market, you should look the following:

1. Pass X150/250/350
2. BAT VK500/VK600
3. Mark Levinson 331/332/333.
4. Krell FPB300/600
5. Krell KSA 100s/200s.300s

Amps which are the current models are:

1. GamuT D200i
2. Pass Labs XA xx.8 series.
3. BAT VK225SE/VK655SE
4. Parasound JC1
5. Sanders Sound ESL amplifier.

We like to burn them here so we can tell exacly what the listener will be getting

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Why do you need to burn CDs in the 21st century? I would like to suggest that you copy the tracks onto a USB memory stick, SD card or directly to the iPhone/iPad. These tracks are in WAV, FLAC or MP3 formats and can be easily copied in a much more convenient fashion than burning a CD. Along this line, my suggestion is the Tascam DA-3000 recorder which can burn CDs as well as accessing other medium like USB memory and SD card.
Link to Tascam DA-3000
Link to the DecWare modified Tascam DA-3000

^^^ What Spike said.

Here's your guide to all things Plinius ..........

http://www.pliniusaudio.com/en/Plinius_Range/Power_Amplifiers

myself, I own the earlier model SA-102. A fella who no longer frequents the site here was using the same amp to drive his CLS's with excellent results

Spike tom And Twich

Thanks for the great suggestion I will get a few of those Amps and see what works best for our clients depending on the music they are listening to....

Spike,

Obviously you have never hd to deal with Musicians, composers songwriters, etc.

THEY ARE ALL NUTS

they want MP3, Digital copy, Digital Direct from Protools, CD's Record albums cassetes and if they could get them 8 track tapes.....some of them play really great music some of it is complete garbage......We try to accomodate everyone...../better not to let these folks mess around with anything more that a CD player....take my word for it...

twitch I will try the Plinius....ordering one today I tried the SAE's the adcom and even a couple haflers I have sitting around they are so old though...really tired and rather than dump money into them I will just buy something newer that can be repaired quite easily... We are talking about workhorses here on 12 hours a day sometimes 7 days a week

We are talking about workhorses here on 12 hours a day sometimes 7 days a week

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If this is the case, go straight to Bryston and get their "Cubed" or "Cubed PRO" amps. You cannot beat the their 20-year warranty policy!
Brochure on Cubed Amplifiers

Spike said:

If this is the case, go straight to Bryston and get their "Cubed" or "Cubed PRO" amps. You cannot beat the their 20-year warranty policy!
Brochure on Cubed Amplifiers

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Agreed ............

Spike which model?

emery said:

Spike which model?

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Let's start with the 3B-Cubed amplifier. You can move up to bigger amps if you need more power.
Link to Bryston 3B[SUP]3[/SUP] Amplifier
Link to Bryston 3B[SUP]3[/SUP] PRO