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Your Favorite Power Amplifier that you have ever owned or currently own and what makes it your favorite

sarumbear

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I'm an oldie with too many old amps to buy any more really. My speaker loads are pretty benign, so the likes of a Krell is pointless for me, although I did have some good times with a certain KSA50S as shown above. I do have a HUGE soft spot for what was once a bit of an animal (in the early to mid 70's anyway before the competition caught on) and that's the Crown DC300A in mid period satin finish, aluminium knobs and IOC lights. Spent a couple of wonderful sessions in recent years with a particular 'original' sample and this one is a real iron fist in velvet glove presentation and not at all 'HiFi sparkle and whizz-bang' as one might think. It just gets louder and louder until the lights come on in warning and this example runs quiet and cool. I have it on my bucket list before it all has to go and be replaced by an active speaker model... I think it'd be 'respectable' today on the bench, but fifty years back I believe it set standards and not just for the 170WPC+ power output in a then-world of 30 Watters.


View attachment 209030
I still own mine. I couldn’t let it go. However, compared to my Benchmark it sounds so bad (shrill) that it’s shocking.
 

RenSong

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The only power amp I've owned...Rotel RB 1582 Mk 2. It's a current hungry beast that feels so reliable and effortless driving my Focal Chora 826s. I tried a Cambridge power amp last year and it was shoddy and terrible.
 

barfly

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My current Simaudio Moon 400m monoblocks. Never get hot powering Egglestonworks speakers
 

DSJR

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I still own mine. I couldn’t let it go. However, compared to my Benchmark it sounds so bad (shrill) that it’s shocking.
The sample (a mk 1.5 with IOC lights) I covet has an iron fist in velvet glove kind of tone, actually rather 'quad-like.' Absolutely no shrillness at all that I could hear... I have read that if the bias drifts a little, the power goes up but the sound may be a bit 'stark' to put it politely and increasing the bias drops the power a little but sweetens the 'tone.' Third party subjective observatiuons of course...

A Benchmark power amp is forwever beyond me now, but I accept your point.
 

ryanosaur

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Completely happy with my stack of 5 Outlaw 2200 MonoBlocks.
Nothing fancy. They work well and succeed at delivering clean stable power.
 

NiagaraPete

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I had a Meridian 103d with the dual power supplies. It was built horribly. It had horrible speaker connectors, and DIN inputs. I loved it and wish I still had it.
 

ripvw

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Apt Power Amplifier 1

1901491-4e3cd367-apt-corporation-power-amplifier-1.jpg
 

MAB

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Bryston
I've had or have 2B-LP, 3B, 4B, 3BST, 4BST, and 7BST.
The all sound and function the same, and the performance is great. And the 20 year warranty.
I like the minimalist design, zero-snake-oil. Instead, each one is tested and shipped with a rollup of the results:
1659559423225.png

I had one issue with one amp close to 20 years after I bought it. It was repaired free and returned promptly, of course.
 

sarumbear

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The sample (a mk 1.5 with IOC lights) I covet has an iron fist in velvet glove kind of tone, actually rather 'quad-like.' Absolutely no shrillness at all that I could hear... I have read that if the bias drifts a little, the power goes up but the sound may be a bit 'stark' to put it politely and increasing the bias drops the power a little but sweetens the 'tone.' Third party subjective observatiuons of course...

A Benchmark power amp is forwever beyond me now, but I accept your point.
Mine does not have the IOC lights. I bought it in 1972, in London. It was branded Amcron as at the time they had a brand name dispute.
 

Doodski

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I've had or have 2B-LP, 3B, 4B, 3BST, 4BST, and 7BST.
The all sound and function the same, and the performance is great. And the 20 year warranty.
I like the minimalist design, zero-snake-oil. Instead, each one is tested and shipped with a rollup of the results:
View attachment 222179
I had one issue with one amp close to 20 years after I bought it. It was repaired free and returned promptly, of course.
... and communication in two languages too. :D
 
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sq225917

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https://flic.kr/p/PiVFEq
My current monoblocks. Each one contains a pair of Tom.Cs nuerochrome 86p boards, run in bridged mode, with 400va and 88,000uf of reservoir capacitance. So that's equivalent to 486 monoblocks if he made such a thing per side.

They continue playing for 30 seconds after switch off they've got so much reservoir capacitance in them. Utterly silent, ruler flat, and about 160w per side.

The logo is an M in the shape of bridge, for bridged Modulus 86p, geddit?

They'll do.
 

Peluvius

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Now that I have started down the path of powered monitors this gets much less use than it used to (crying shame really). I love this because it drove my speakers as well as any power amp I had ever heard and it is built and designed in Australia by an individual many consider to be a bit of a prodigy. This is a 7 channel 190w @ 8 ohm. All it is doing these days is driving a pair of surrounds... :(

IMG_9584.jpg
 

Chrispy

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Not much of one to venerate the simple amp, but a shout out to the value of Crown XLS Drivecore amps....but always liked my Carvers too.
 

SIY

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Pure performance: Purifi Eigentakt EVAL1. Silent, strong, cool, small, just about perfect.

Pure fun: My old 150 WPC sweep tube amp. Ran near Class B, so remarkably cool for a tube amp, screen drive. I still have the transformers, waiting for the day when I can build the Mark 2 version.
 

Tom C

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I had a Nakamichi System One as the main unit for 15 years and almost everyone wanted me to sell it to them "when I was ready". Two solid state 620's sounded good, as good as a mid-70's Japanese amps could sound, all class B, no class A or AB. Never cared for cassettes (they stayed in the car) and added a second amp in its place. It's all in boxes in the garage in VG condition and no I'm not ready. An industrial art masterpiece with decent sound.(photo from the net)

View attachment 222163
It’s indescribably beautiful :oops:
 
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