What a good integrated amp for Vantage?

Hey guys, I have a fairly simple question. I'm in the process of selling my BAT gear to raise a little money. I originally thought about selling everything, Vantages included but thought maybe I could find a good integrated to achieve some great sound. I would be looking in the $1000 range and my first thought was a Krell KAV-300i. Anybody here have experience matching this up with Logans? I dont run a sub and the CD player is a Rotel 1072.

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.

Hello,
The Krell would do nicely. I would also recommend the Plinius 9200 which I have heard with the Vantages. Thanks to the woofer being active, you can get away with fairly low power and still get quality sound. There are also some nice Tube integrated amps that would work as well. Rogue, Jolida, Primaluna, and others make some very nice goods in your price range.

If also wanting the flexibility of Home Theater, the Onkyo TX-SR805 offers a surprisingly decent amp section for a receiver. Offers THX Ultra2, Audyssey, HDMI 1.3, etc for an amazing price. B-stock or refurbished units are available for around 500 Dollars.
Cheers,
ML

The Krell 300i certainly has plenty of power for the Vantages. I had one powering my Aeon I's for a year which are more demanding than the vantages. Also, the HT passthrough makes integration into a home theatre easier.

I would however advise you to have an audition first, if possible, as I found the Krell was rather bright for my tastes.

I installed a system a couple years back with a Krell 300i and some Ascent i and it rocked! Sounded really good. The strengths of the Krell combine really well with the strengths of MLs....another option is Musical Fidelity. Their hybrid designs really make for a warm sound, yet still have the control that something like the Krell has.

It s interesting how tastes differ, I tried a MF amp (a3.5 if i remember correctly) for a while and hated it. The music was lifeless and lacked any slam.

By the way, I sold the krell and my previous cd player to a close friend who runs then through Mourdant Short monitors - and the sytem sounds wonderful, warm even - synergy is a funny thing.

I now have a conrad johnson integrated and could not be happier

aerius007 said:

Hey guys, I have a fairly simple question. I'm in the process of selling my BAT gear to raise a little money. I originally thought about selling everything, Vantages included but thought maybe I could find a good integrated to achieve some great sound. I would be looking in the $1000 range and my first thought was a Krell KAV-300i. Anybody here have experience matching this up with Logans? I dont run a sub and the CD player is a Rotel 1072.

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.

Click to expand...

I've told this story before. When I got my Summits, finding a knowledgeable dealer was nearly impossible. The largest local dealer was Sound Advice (a Tweeter subsidiary RIP). I went in one weekend and the apathetic salesman that I drew hooked up the Summits, (which were sitting in a row with other lesser speakers, backed up to the wall behind it) to a Pioneer 100 wpc receiver, playing a disc on a Pioneer DVD player, and didn't know how to use the board well enough to get anything else to work. The setup sounded like CRXP and I was truely dissapointed because I was nearing the end of a 1.5 year search for replacements for my Klipsch Ref 7s and had already been through almost everything.

The next weekend I went back into that same store and asked for a manager, (to find someone who at least knew how to work the board). I was introduce to Phil, the assistant sales manager, and it turned out to be a fortuitous event since Phil himself owned Summits and knew how to set them up and what the needed for power (he runs a Mac 352).
Phil dragged those puppies from the line they were in, into a private room and went and got a used Krell KAV 300 to power it and a Krell CD player to spin discs. To make a long story longer...by the time I left the store I was a Summit owner, not entirely because, yet significantly because of the influence of the Krell.

If that's not enough...I now own a Bat VK31SE and a pair of Aragon Palladiums, so I can give you some anticipation of what to expect from the change. The Krell is not going to be as warm in the midrange as you get with the VK30/500. It also won't be quite as polite....(some people think the VK30 to be a bit "dark") however, in a small to medium size room the Krell should provide more than adequate dynamics and a sense of ease and quiet that will provide excellent spacial clues. Good choice.

Here's an amp that works really well with the Vantage and Summit:

http://www.echohifi.com/inventory.php

Used to have one of these, it's great!

If you call Kurt at Echo, he's a good guy.

Scumurculum said:

It s interesting how tastes differ, I tried a MF amp (a3.5 if i remember correctly) for a while and hated it. The music was lifeless and lacked any slam.

By the way, I sold the krell and my previous cd player to a close friend who runs then through Mourdant Short monitors - and the sytem sounds wonderful, warm even - synergy is a funny thing.

I now have a conrad johnson integrated and could not be happier

Click to expand...

I have a Musical Fidelity A5 integrated and i think it's a fantastic
lively amp... great for rock, jazz, and instrumental. I don't think it's
the best match with my Spires because it's "too lively". It's a
great match with my Montanas, though. The A5 is solid state...
i'd like to hear the hybrid tube Musical Fidelity amps with
the Spires...think they would be a very good match.

I'm using a Joilda 302B-RC with Vistas, sounds swell; big tone, excellent imaging, good dynamics. In fact even the little 6BQ5 Jolida 102 sounded great with them. And the Vistas call upon more from the amp than Vantages do.