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Elac b5.2 amplifier

chojnacki987

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Hello. Recently I bought elac's for 140$ and now I am searching for a matching amplifier. I would prefer used or vintage one. My budget is about 250$. I was looking at Marantz PM5005 or PM6003, Technics SU-Z2, Rotel RA 970BX or RA 413, ITT 8033, Yamaha R-S500, NAD c350 or c326bee, Cambridge Audio Topaz SR10 V2 or Topaz AM10, Denon PMA 980R or PMA 860 or PMA 710AE. I'm thinking about Marantz PM6003 but I have no idea if it or any of those will sound good with elac's. Can someone give me some recommendations on any of those or something different that will sound good at this price point?
 

AnalogSteph

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Wow, that list is all over the place. I would rather pass on the 40-year-old lowend gear (SU-Z2 and RA-413), the ITT 8033 receiver was not especially low-noise either. The AM10 seems to be pretty eh, SR10 v2 no idea (would rather prefer a more mainstream brand).

RA-970BX would be a fairly solid mid-sized '80s amp, though Rotel's choices for opamps can be rather baffling and I would want to swap out the AD827JN for something that isn't so noisy (NE5532AN would be a substantial improvement). Otherwise output noise level would be a bit meh.

The rest should all be fairly solid choices I think.

If memory serves the C326BEEs may be afflicted by toasty resistors in the preamp power supply and appreciate repair / upgrade. (It's a very quiet and fairly low-distortion amp though. Volume pot is known to have balance issues at low settings.) C350 also seems to have some neuralgic points.

PM5005 is a fairly entry-level affair that's only a few years old, I'd probably prefer the 6003. Should be fairly quiet, neither is extremely powerful though.

It'll be hard to fault the R-S500 for what it is (a basic receiver with PGA volume). That one should also be very quiet.

The PMA-980R would probably be the most powerful of the bunch. If you can find one in good condition without major contact issues, that's a pretty nice amp. PMA-860R is solid, too, a few years older. PMA-710AE is much newer; a generally solid choice but may be afflicted by bad solder joints.

You didn't say how close you were going to sit to the ELACs. In nearfield I would pay more attention to the noise level, at hi-fi distances power becomes more of a concern (though honestly, the remaining candidates should all have quite enough and I would expect the little ELACs to break a sweat first).
 
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chojnacki987

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Thank you so much for your answer.
About marantz pm6003. On paper it has 45W/channel at 8ohms and I have read that elac's need at lest 75W/channel to show it's potential. So would this marantz be okey or more powerful denon 980r is a way to go?
Or maybe something modern like Topping DA-9 would be better option?
I also found denon pma1080r but it's rated for 8ohm, elac's are 6, will it be okey or should I get 980r?
Generally I will listen to them pretty closely for desktop use.
Thank you once again for such a good reply.
 
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