Advice for integrated amp

[davetherave]

I have a pair of Aerius speekers and want to buy a new (or used) integrated amp. My budget is around $2000. Can anyone tell me which is the best to use with my speekers? I play mostly classical and jazz music. Thanks!

 

[Audiophiliac]

Wow...there are so many to choose from in that price range....Krell comes to mind. On the warmer side of things, you can choose some tubes....BAT, CJ, VTL, etc.....you will get a wide range of responses here, but the best thing would be to try and listen to some locally to see what you like.

 

[Diamonds]

Musical Fidelity A5 is the best intergrated I ever owned but there are several very good ones. I had to go to pretty good seperates to beat it.

 

[MiTT]

I've got a buddy driving his Aerius i's with the BAT integrated amp and it sounds very, very good. Obviously a family resemblance to my BAT VK-31SE feeding my VK-6200 driving the ReQuests, just not as much detail and slam.

You would be very hard pressed to find the BAT integrated amp within your $2K budget though.

 

[kcl]

Have you considered Sunfire? There's a Sunfire Ultimate Receiver on Audiogon with a current asking price of $1800. The listing is here, while the specs for the receiver are here. The receiver is still from when "Carver" was still part of the name, is a 7.1 processor, and has 200 watts per channel.

 

[NicksPicks]

I'll throw in....

Loved my Odyssey Cyclops. not too expensive either. VERY nice sounding.

I'm a huge fan of the Manley Stingray..but maybe underpowered for panels.

the new Bel Canto (can't recall the model) looks cool, and has a built in DAC and USB input. Plenty of beef too.

 

[slowGEEZR]

I have a pair of Aerius speekers and want to buy a new (or used) integrated amp. My budget is around $2000. Can anyone tell me which is the best to use with my speekers? I play mostly classical and jazz music. Thanks!

Dave,

I've got both the Krell 400xi integrated and the Jolida JD1000RC integrated and the Aerius speakers. Overall, I prefer the sound of the Jolida (tubes), though the Krell (transistor) is also very good. Either of these integrated amps can be found for around the $2000 - $2200 range. Good luck in your search.

 

[Huey]

Dave,

I've got both the Krell 400xi integrated and the Jolida JD1000RC integrated and the Aerius speakers. Overall, I prefer the sound of the Jolida (tubes), though the Krell (transistor) is also very good. Either of these integrated amps can be found for around the $2000 - $2200 range. Good luck in your search.

Wouldn't the Krell be more reliable and require less maintainence over the years???

 

[Nielsen]

I use a Bryston B100 SST DA for Aeon I.
Pre, dac and poweramp in one package, and very clean detailed sound.

 

[MiTT]

Wouldn't the Krell be more reliable and require less maintainence over the years???

I don't know about others, but I've had more "failures" over the years with Solid State gear than with tubes.

As for maintenence, I've replaced a grand total of one set of tubes in my old Sonic Frontiers pre-amp in 10 years of owning valve equipment. When I owned my Rogue Audio M-120's they had an auto biasing circuit, so there wasn't even any maintenence involved there.

I think people have a mis-conception about how much effort it takes to keep modern tube equipment up and running.

 

[tonepub]

I've been really excited about the Valve Audio integrateds. You can buy them from music direct and they make a 100wpc model for 1695 and a 200 wpc for 3000.

both are hybrid amps, with 6922 tubes in the front end and solid state outputs.

They are very simple amps, no frills but great sound! Im using the 200wpc Predator with some B&W's in my living room (also fairly current hungry speakers) and have used them with my Summits and the Vantages with excellent results...

The Krell is also a nice amp, and if you look at the used market, you might find that BAT between 2-3000.

 

[slowGEEZR]

Wouldn't the Krell be more reliable and require less maintainence over the years???

Huey, you're probably right, but I've had the Jolida running a lot of hours over the last 6 or 7 months and so far, so good. One of the design goals of Jolida for this amp was that it would exceed the reliability of good solid-state amplifiers. Jolida states the tube life of the power tubes is rated for 3000 hours. They say the average use is 10 hours a week, which works out to 6 or more years before changing them. Of course, if you listen more than that, the time lapse will be shorter! Jolida rates the preamp tubes and the driver tubes at 6000 hours.

 

[slowGEEZR]

I don't know about others, but I've had more "failures" over the years with Solid State gear than with tubes.

As for maintenence, I've replaced a grand total of one set of tubes in my old Sonic Frontiers pre-amp in 10 years of owning valve equipment. When I owned my Rogue Audio M-120's they had an auto biasing circuit, so there wasn't even any maintenence involved there.

I think people have a mis-conception about how much effort it takes to keep modern tube equipment up and running.

Thanks Tim. The Jolida is my first tube amp. I'm hoping it lasts a long time. It sure does put out the music!

 

[SteveInNC]

Musical Fidelity A5 is the best intergrated I ever owned but there are several very good ones. I had to go to pretty good seperates to beat it.

I also have an A5 Integrated driving Ascent Is. I'm very happy with it, with one exception: there is some perverse conflict with the IR codes for my SciAtl HiDef cable box. Rarely, when I'm rapidly scrolling through the cable box TV guide, the A5 will interpret some sequence of IR bits as a code to change its input source. Mostly I run mine in HT Bypass when watching video, so the unexpected loss of audio is annoying.

I got mine used on Audiogon for around $1700 shipped. They're $2500 new. They have very high current capability so they handle electrostats well.

 

[davetherave]

Thanks!

Thanks everyone for your input! I'll check out some of the Amps you reccommended. Has anyone had any experience with the Bel Canto e.One S300iu, or the Bruston B100 SST? integrated amps? There is also a Chinese Amp I've been told is good 'XINDAK XA-6950' Has anyone got any knowledge of this brand or Amp?

 

[Audiophiliac]

Ive been wanting to try a Music Hall Maven....looks like a slick integrated.

 

[NicksPicks]

Thanks everyone for your input! I'll check out some of the Amps you reccommended. Has anyone had any experience with the Bel Canto e.One S300iu, or the Bruston B100 SST? integrated amps? There is also a Chinese Amp I've been told is good 'XINDAK XA-6950' Has anyone got any knowledge of this brand or Amp?

yea, thats the bel canto I was talking about.

no experience w/that particular amp, but i've heard / owned other BC "ice powered" amps, and I really like them. gobs of power, and very together sounding presentation.
I dont think you could go wrong w/one.

 

[NicksPicks]

Ive been wanting to try a Music Hall Maven....looks like a slick integrated.

I bet it is. I ran a Mambo for a year, and was just blown away by how sweet it sounded.
the DAC was very decent in it as well.

 

[Huey]

Huey, you're probably right, but I've had the Jolida running a lot of hours over the last 6 or 7 months and so far, so good. One of the design goals of Jolida for this amp was that it would exceed the reliability of good solid-state amplifiers. Jolida states the tube life of the power tubes is rated for 3000 hours. They say the average use is 10 hours a week, which works out to 6 or more years before changing them. Of course, if you listen more than that, the time lapse will be shorter! Jolida rates the preamp tubes and the driver tubes at 6000 hours.

Ok thx slowGEEZR...good to know, its just that a M8 of mine had a tube amp, and had lots of problems. Valves aren't cheap..

 

[DavidG]

Meridian

And if the Bel Canto doesn't do it for you, try the Meridian G51. More than enough current to drive the MLs, and a neutral sound that is truly amazing from such a compact and inexpensive unit.

Cheers,

David