So, what are recommendable amps below 200$?

[BDWoody]

Buy a used NAD C370. Between 150,- en 200,- euro you have 15 year old top class amp which techology is similar as today's NAD amp's which cost now around 2000 euro.

I'm with you on the used amp side of things... The used NAD's, Adcom's, Rotel's, or even Bryston and Krell for a few more $$$ are all amps that would be very expensive today. These were made when 'inefficient' speakers were the norm, and have mountains of power, and power supplies to match.

Want a real bargain, look at some of the old multi-channel amps. I just picked up a Madrigal Proceed 5, which was apparently the 'value' line for Mark Levinson for a little over $800. 125w x 5 channels. Originally $5k.

I have an Adcom 545ll, and a Krell 250x3. Love them all...I don't spend my time wondering what I'm missing.
Looking forward to adding the new 120lb beast into the mix!

 

[Snarfie]

I'm with you on the used amp side of things... The used NAD's, Adcom's, Rotel's, or even Bryston and Krell for a few more $$$ are all amps that would be very expensive today. These were made when 'inefficient' speakers were the norm, and have mountains of power, and power supplies to match.

Want a real bargain, look at some of the old multi-channel amps. I just picked up a Madrigal Proceed 5, which was apparently the 'value' line for Mark Levinson for a little over $800. 125w x 5 channels. Originally $5k.

I have an Adcom 545ll, and a Krell 250x3. Love them all...I don't spend my time wondering what I'm missing.
Looking forward to adding the new 120lb beast into the mix!

Are you so now an than switching between those amp's. I'm also looking for a accuphase 305 or krell amp but if the difference is minimal i won't change from my NAD. By far the roomcorrection software made a hugh difference. Any amp in any price class can't compensate that IMO.

 

[BDWoody]

Are you so now an than switching between those amp's. I'm also looking for a accuphase 305 or krell amp but if the difference is minimal i won't change from my NAD. By far the roomcorrection software made a hugh difference. An amp in any price class can't compensate that IMO.

I have the Adcom in the office driving some Paradigm Studio 40's, I have the Krell in my main listening area driving LS50's (paired with another 20+ year old Velodyne DD12), and the new beast will go into home theater mode for my upstairs family room. I like buying stuff that is built to last... I was looking at a Bryston 9BST as well...Same price ballpark. There is a reason they sold with 20 year warranties...

 

[estuardo4]

I have the Adcom in the office driving some Paradigm Studio 40's, I have the Krell in my main listening area driving LS50's (paired with another 20+ year old Velodyne DD12), and the new beast will go into home theater mode for my upstairs family room. I like buying stuff that is built to last... I was looking at a Bryston 9BST as well...Same price ballpark. There is a reason they sold with 20 year warranties...

We're on the amps below $200 thread. I also have a five channel B&K that I got it for a lot less that what was sold in the 90s, but none of the old, good and powerful amps of yesteryear are below $200 USD. And if there's one, please let us know.

Meanwhile, the recommendations on this thread are power amps discounted because of bad software, or Class D amps from China. Or used NAD or other low cost and low power amps from last decade.

My vote will be any amp with a PWLink in between or the PWAmp.

 

[invaderzim]

We're on the amps below $200 thread. I also have a five channel B&K that I got it for a lot less that what was sold in the 90s, but none of the old, good and powerful amps of yesteryear are below $200 USD. And if there's one, please let us know.
....

I don't know if it is powerful enough but I've read really good things about the baby Adcom, the 535 II It seems to go used for 175 or so.

 

[Snarfie]

I sold mine NAD 1230 - 2200 pre an power amp around 25 years a go to a freind of mine it is stiil running fine whitout any failur. IMO there are build so many NAD"s over the years that the average failrate is probaly a bit higher than from brands that are 4 times or more expensive an are build considerbly less of. Enclosed link is from a NAD C370 this guy tries to sell it from april on he was wiling to sell it for 170,- euro (so around 190- usd) now he put it up again for 220,-. euro. http://link.marktplaats.nl/m1434995...ium=android_social&utm_campaign=socialbuttons


Read the 109 reviews about this amp avarage they are highly recommended
http://www.audioreview.com/product/amplification/integrated-amplifiers/nad/c-370.html

 

[BDWoody]

We're on the amps below $200 thread. I also have a five channel B&K that I got it for a lot less that what was sold in the 90s, but none of the old, good and powerful amps of yesteryear are below $200 USD. And if there's one, please let us know.

.

Actually, there are lots of them.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/173949491772

$200+/- can find one.

I believe I paid $230 for my 545ll.

 

[Willem]

Not all markets are the same, but I paid 175 euro (currently $195) for the refurbished 2x100 watt Quad 405-2 in my home office system. My Harbeth P3ESRs like that kind of power.

 

[Sasha]

There seem to be a few Yamaha P2500s and P3500s on eBay.com for around 250$...

I've got three of the P2500s and they work well. Never heard the fans come on ever.

Only mild issue is that I had to crank the gains to max when using pre outs from consumer level gear, and that resulted in a fair amount of hiss/noise - and needing to crank the volume on the pre amp. I believe a later version of these amps solved that problem with a gain switch at the rear or something...

I now run them direct from balanced DAC/soundcard outs instead and run them about 30-50% depending on the speaker. Barely any hiss until your ear is almost touching the tweeter, and I've only seen the clip light come on when I was using one to hammer a passive SVS CS-ultra sub with a horrific ~12-15hz section in Blade Runner 2049.

 

[Astray]

I decided the various downsides to the Power Gate were enough to go with something else. These downsides largely come down to it's annoying network functionality that won't let it deep sleep, the auto shut off, and the heat production of the power supply just being far to uncomfortable for a poorly insulated room in Florida. Maybe this could be a good device with a cooler running power supply though as that's where most of the heat comes from.

I ordered a SMSL DA-8 ($243 on eBay) as the size is perfect for my setup (the powergate also fit well), it uses an ICEPower amp module, and I won't ever be running these bookshelf speakers anywhere near 20W (SPL calculator puts that near 95 dB for my speakers), let alone the 50W the amp can handle even though there's distortion or noise (not sure on my terminology here) introduced past 20W looking at the data sheet. Plus it comes with a remote which I need when I'm lying in bed and using my TV as a display. I've purchased a RCA splitter for my DX3 Pro so I can eventually hook up a sub as well since I'm losing the subwoofer output from the Power Gate.

I'll continue using the Power Gate in the meantime and report back when I get the DA-8 and give a comparison between the two.

 

[johnk]

I own both a Volt+ and a Volt+ D (double). I bought the Volt+ as a cheap experiment for fun after I was so impressed with my Allo Boss. How good could a $90 amp be? I have a Yamaha A-S700 integrated amp which I used for comparisons. I built a switch box to allow me to safely switch between both amps with a single set of speakers to make it easier to compare. In summary, the Volt+ is better than the Yamaha which greatly surprised me. The bass was clearly tighter and the detail was better. I tried a number of PSUs I have lying around including the 19v one supplied with the board. Oddly, an old 15v Toshiba laptop PSU still sounds best to me. This is slightly under the recommended minimum of 16v, but it sounds good to me. I am still on the lookout for more PSUs to try. Given my success with the Volt+ I was happy to try the Volt+ D. It is a big jump up from the Volt+ and to me sounds fantastic. The only problem now is that it has highlighted deficiencies in my speakers which I now need to resolve.

 

[Astray]

Alright, so I've had the DA-8 for a few days now. For my purposes it has been absolutely perfect. It runs much cooler than the Klipsch PowerGate at ~20F lower. I measured its highest ambient temperature at 105F on the bottom of the device after being on for 3-4 hours and periodically touch it to see if it gets noticeably hotter and it hasn't. It's still warm for sure, but nowhere near the PowerGate which was slightly painful to touch after being on for a few hours. Since it's completely aluminum on the outside it cools down very fast when off too. It's also much smaller and I was able to place it in a much more satisfactory location on my desk for my setup with my DX3 Pro sitting on top of it. While there's noise and distortion if I push volume close to max or at max, there's absolutely nothing but clean sound fed from my DX3 Pro at the volumes I typically play it. If I wanted to go louder I could turn on the DX3 Pro's pre-amp on, but I accidentally did that one time and nearly blew out the speakers.... Regardless, it sounds very clean and I hope it gets tested as I believe it will perform at least as well as the PowerGate if not better in measurements. ICEPower is making some very nice amps even though Hypex is considered superior, but you're paying a premium for that superiority. If anyone's looking to buy a PowerGate PM me, I have one in excellent condition with all the original packaging and accessories.

 

[hyperknot]

Does anyone have any experience with cheap, fully assembled Chinese ICEPower amps, like this one? It's a ICE125ASX2 fully assembled amp for $160 USD, including shipping, which is crazy. It is cheaper than the original bare board kit from a EU seller like https://www.profusionplc.com/parts/icepower125asx2.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32951358519.html

Here are some reviews of the board from a Youtuber:

Is there any chance that this board uses a fake clone of the ICEPower board?

 

[hyperknot]

I think I just found the deal of the year for <$200. Over Diyaudio.com someone found out that the VocoPro FEATHER AMP FA-500 is a ICEpower 125ASX2 amp, but it's now selling for <100$ on many US stores. And this is definitely using genuine ICEpower modules, so no Chinese fakes here.

Can someone send one to @amirm or maybe it's just an instant buy for him? I believe it should be exactly the same as the Matrix Mini-i AMP which sells for $519.

http://www.vocopro.com/products/product_info_m.php?ID=747

$99 on newegg
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...amp_fa_500_feather_amp_480w_professional.html

$94 on eBay with international shipping options
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vocopro-FEATHERAMPFA500-500w-Class-D-Power-Amplifier/392289558398

 

[sajunky]

I think I just found the deal of the year for <$200. Over Diyaudio.com someone found out that the VocoPro FEATHER AMP FA-500 is a ICEpower 125ASX2 amp, but it's now selling for <100$ on many US stores. And this is definitely using genuine ICEpower modules, so no Chinese fakes here.

Can someone send one to @amirm or maybe it's just an instant buy for him? I believe it should be exactly the same as the Matrix Mini-i AMP which sells for $519.

http://www.vocopro.com/products/product_info_m.php?ID=747

$99 on newegg
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...amp_fa_500_feather_amp_480w_professional.html

$94 on eBay with international shipping options
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vocopro-FEATHERAMPFA500-500w-Class-D-Power-Amplifier/392289558398

Not sure Amir will be interested, as it is closeout product. I paid $120 for the module only on Aliexpress, but it doesn't look like a fake one. It would be difficult to copy the product, due to the custom chips.

 

[JJB70]

At $200 I think the two ways to go are probably second hand or new b stock/demo/graded as even though you can get a new amp for that price you will get nicer materials and build quality and probably more power by looking at s/h and clearance. At that end of the market (unlike the high end) spending a bit more can get you quite a lot more in terms of quality and performance.

 

[Mashcky]

I impulse purchased a pair of Vocopro amps on Newegg for only $180. I don’t need them but figured they’d be great for future subs (400W bridged is plenty) and fun to test out with my present speakers. I’ll report back on build quality and listening impressions, for what it’s worth.

 

[hyperknot]

I impulse purchased a pair of Vocopro amps on Newegg for only $180. I don’t need them but figured they’d be great for future subs (400W bridged is plenty) and fun to test out with my present speakers. I’ll report back on build quality and listening impressions, for what it’s worth.

@Mashcky can you test it with a bypassed input buffer/preamp? Folks over at diyAudio believe the input buffer is of poor quality, and the board itself is much better quality. Of course this means you can only test them in SE mode, but many of us would be using them in SE mode anyway.

 

[sychan]

@Mashcky can you test it with a bypassed input buffer/preamp? Folks over at diyAudio believe the input buffer is of poor quality, and the board itself is much better quality. Of course this means you can only test them in SE mode, but many of us would be using them in SE mode anyway.

I think the threads in diyAudio about that opamp indicate that it is an "also ran", which sounds to me more like it is not a top tier component, but it may be adequate for the demands of a preamp to the power stage?

 

[Mashcky]

@Mashcky can you test it with a bypassed input buffer/preamp? Folks over at diyAudio believe the input buffer is of poor quality, and the board itself is much better quality. Of course this means you can only test them in SE mode, but many of us would be using them in SE mode anyway.

They just came in the mail today. I can absolutely test them by passing the input buffer. According to the manual here (bottom of page twelve) only the 1/8th inch jack is preamplifier, if that is what you mean by input buffer?. I don't understand why that would mean only SE mode is available.

edit: I found the diyaudio thread and understand now. Running dual mono requires an input buffer that is hypothesized to be of questionable quality due to the low cost of the Vocopro.