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

[groovybassist]

Integrated Amp: Karan Acoustics KAi-180mk2 - built like a tank, sledgehammer control of bass, dead silent background, beautiful timbre and incredible soundstage, but pricey and heavy (aging has me focused on smaller/lighter gear)

Power Amp: Neurochrome Modulus-286 - mine was built by @tomchr and the build is clean and meticulous, I admire Tom’s ethics and focus on quality/reliability, the amp is an absolute chameleon - passes on whatever it’s fed with no editorializing, the clarity is amazing - everything just seems to be of a piece, it incorporates soft start, speakOn connectors, speaker protection and 12V trigger. Tom’s work isn’t as cheap as many of the darlings here, but if you value quality, reliability and performance it’s worth the expense.

 

[Grotti]

Elac Alchemy DPA-2:

DPA-2 Stereo/Mono Amplifier

Alchemy liefert den Antrieb. Dank seines Class-A-Aufbaus, der diskreten FET-Stufen und des linearen Netzteils mit Ringkerntransformator steht der Alchemy DPA-2 Endverstärker für Dynamik und Musikalität. Durch seine rein analoge Eingangssektion geht kein Detail verloren, auch in schwierigen Passagen

www.elac.de

My first Class-D amplifier... It sounds flawless to me even though it is build around "outdated" UcD modules. Sufficent power in a housing just 50 mm tall (including feet!).

Does the Class-A buffer contribute anything positive to the sound quality? I don't know but I couldn't care less: this thing is silent, powerful, good sounding and still affordable. And selling it in case of "updating" to active speakers should not be a problem thanks to the well-known brand

 

[gags11]

My favorite amp is what I own now, McIntosh MC462. Powerful clean performance and beautiful. I don’t think I will ever sell this or need another amp.

 

[AdamG]

This may sound blasphemous but I’m going to say it anyway. Have owned many Anchor weight amps over the years. But one amp stands above them all for four primary reasons. Price, power capability at 4 ohms, size & weight, low distortion & noise. Hypex Nc502mp built by Buckeye Amp and our very own Member Dr. Dylan.

I paid a touch under $1600 usd for a six channel amp build. Measured and recommend here by Amir. Specked & verified with 500 watts per channel @4ohms. That’s 3000 watts total on tap. At .54 cents a watt. It’s science fiction come to life. It’s light and small footprint permits generous placement options. I live in South Florida so the fact it’s not a space heater is a major plus. A 6 channel 3000 Watt Amp for $1600 USD ? That really works as advertised? So for the person who is looking for highest value on a budget. This Amp ticks a lot of boxes.

Bias alert: I own two of these, so obviously some ownership bias in my above opinion.

 

[JeremyFife]

Musical Fidelity: X-Pre, 2x X-A50 (mono power amps) with nicely machined stacking blocks so they sat in a little triangular pile, with my X-LPS phono amp beside. Looked like the dog's "business" and I thought they sounded awesome! They just made me happy.

(the picture is not mine, I didn't have the X10-D, but you get the idea)

My dinky Topping PA5 absolutely dances all over them

 

[DSJR]

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.

 

[MattJ]

Best sounding amp I have owned is my current Schiit Vidar, solid bass and excellent detail. Most impressive amp I have owned was my Rotel RB850. That thing would continue to play music for close to 30 seconds - after it was turned off! Talk about power reserves. Impressed everyone that ever saw it.

 

[Anonamemouse]

Got any time left on the 20 year warranty? Great amp.

I think I still have 8 or 9 years. I don't think I will need it though.

 

[Dial]

Cairn K3 HE & Micromega Tempo power (second system).

 

[Sebastian]

Easy for me, AHB2. Compact, light, quiet as a mouse, clipping lights, bank vault built in safety systems, speakon connectors, superb customer service and reliability record, great resale value. Pricey if you need to go mono but for me it's the last amp I need to buy.
and almost forgot, external gain settings.

Let me second the reasons for your choice, in addition top of the line measurement at audiosciencereview.

 

[rwortman]

My favorite amp is always whatever I am currently using which right now is a Rotel RB 1582 mkii. Right now my attitude towards amplification is “Screw all those Lego class D modules, give a real class A/B amp with a linear power supply that I can fix if it breaks in the next 20 years and it probably won’t”.

 

[Rottmannash]

VTV Purifi.

 

[steve59]

A Krell kav300il did a great job, but there were no heat sinks and the unit failed 3 times under warranty so when it failed out of warranty I kept it as a clean class a pre amp a couple more years b4 moving on. The anthem 225i was a little powerhouse integrated for less than $2k and until I started using speakers with hyper sensitive tweeters was my main amp. The build quality of the parasound a21 is impressive and it looks more expensive than it is. My hegel h590 is the current fave for the blades.

 

[joeren]

Legacy PowerBloc2. Silent, clean and enormous amount of power and control.

 

[Chester]

Wouldn't a DIY amp, that has no perceptible sound of its own, HAVE TO BE one's fave? Example:
View attachment 209004

How do you know which song is playing then?

 

[phoenixdogfan]

My Purifi Eval 1 Eigentact assembled from parts from Ghent (Case), Hypex (Power Supply), and of course Purifi (Eval 1 Stereo module).

 

[Sukram]

My VTV Purifi Amp drives my Magnepan 3.7 with ease

 

[Timcognito]

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)

 

[Doodski]

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 appears like a rack of vintage naval RF gear. Very similar to the vintage naval RF gear that I've seen.

 

[Jbrunwa]

B&K Reference 200.5. Now taken out of service after I added more channels, but I still have it.