Compact Amp for Ethos

[macallan]

I am looking a compact amplifier to drive my Ethos and wanted some input. I am considering the Schiit Freya + as the preamp and I am debating between the peach tree amp 500 and the Schiit Vidar.
The peachtree is class D and much more powerful on paper. The Vidar is 100 / 200 watts class A/B. I have also read good things about Nord and Apollon but don’t know much about them. I will be replacing a B&K 200.2 which is too deep for my new media console.

 

[Chops]

Keep the B&K and get an amp stand for it. It's a better amp than any of the ones mentioned.

 

[macallan]

Interesting. The B&K is 15+ years old so I thought a more modern amp would offer better quality. You think B&K is superior to the newest ICE based amps for Logans ?

 

[Chops]

I've had a few "digital" amps, Wyred 4 Sound ST-250, NuPrime STA 9, PS Audio Stellar M-700.

Though they all had decent power and sounded good, there was just something about them that didn't sound quite right to me, even though the M-700's were the best and most powerful of the crop, they still lacked something in the sound.

The Schiit Aegir amps I bought (was running two of them in mono) after the M-700's sounded excellent and I'd still have them IF they had the grunt to power my SL3's. I never heard the Vidar, but have read many times that it is nowhere near as good as the Aegir. They say the Vida has leaner bass and a rather rolled off top end, neither of which I prefer.

At least your B&K is a traditional Class A/B amp with solid power output. 15 years old is young for a well built solid state amp. I'm currently running a 22 year old Roksan Caspian amp, Class A/B and only rated at 70 w/ 8 ohms and 120 w/ 4 ohms. And I think it sounds just about every bit as good as the dual Aegir amps I was using.

 

[macallan]

That is good to hear. I have also thought about a completely different path of either the primaluna evo 400 integrated or the Carver 275 tube amp

 

[Chops]

That is good to hear. I have also thought about a completely different path of either the primaluna evo 400 integrated or the Carver 275 tube amp

Or possibly a Hegel integrated. Those are supposed to be really good as well.