I owned an Acurus A150 and an RL11 preamp. The RL11 remote had serious problems. If not aimed directly at the pre, it would cause the wrong function to activate. The worst was when I wanted to adjust the volume and the balance would change. I'd be sitting there marvelling at the avant garde recording tecnique that put all the sound in one channel, before I realized it was the balance control. Eventually, I became paranoid the balance was off, and compulsively had to check the balance knob all the time while listening. The shop I bought it from replaced the remote, same problem. I called Acurus, who tried to explain it away as a feature, saying they thought it was better to take a guess at what the remote command was than to do nothing if the signal wasn't strong. They made a mod to the front panel in which they put a counterbore in the back of the panel so the remote sensor would stick out more. There was also some talk of a firmware upgrade, but I don't know if they ever came out with it. I think they even replaced my whole preamp with one that had at least the counterbore upgrade, but still the same problem. On top of that, I found the sound to be quite muddy. At the time I was using a Sony CD player with its own volume control, which sounded much better direct in to the amp than through the pre-amp. Perhaps for the money, it was ok sounding, but I was extremely happy when I sold it and got a Classe CP-35. More money, but much better sounding, and very well built.
On the other hand, I really liked the power amp. It had reasonably strong bass for its price (although not a world beater), and an easy to listen to, non fatiguing quality, especially on speakers that were a bit hard sounding. I preferred it in most systems to the much more expensive Classe power amps, which sounded more mechanical, although certainly more extended at the extremes. One demo was with a pair of Ariel bookshelves. With the Classe, the highs were unlistenable, but the Acurus made the situation much better. I also spent a weekend with the Acurus separates and an Arcam Delta 290. The Arcam was clearly better in the midrange, but the Acurus was a lot stronger in the bass.
I did not try the brands listed above by Mwilson. One thing I remember hearing at the time (mid 90s)was that the bigger Acurii were less refined sounding than the smaller ones, which may explain some of our differences. I eventually traded the Acurus in for a Pass Aleph3. I also listened to Golden Tube Audio, Proceed, and Meridian amps. Maybe others, but I can't remember.
I don't know why MWilsons experience was so different than mine. Perhaps the brands he was comparing against were better than the brands I compared against, and you can never escape component interaction. Good luck.
On the other hand, I really liked the power amp. It had reasonably strong bass for its price (although not a world beater), and an easy to listen to, non fatiguing quality, especially on speakers that were a bit hard sounding. I preferred it in most systems to the much more expensive Classe power amps, which sounded more mechanical, although certainly more extended at the extremes. One demo was with a pair of Ariel bookshelves. With the Classe, the highs were unlistenable, but the Acurus made the situation much better. I also spent a weekend with the Acurus separates and an Arcam Delta 290. The Arcam was clearly better in the midrange, but the Acurus was a lot stronger in the bass.
I did not try the brands listed above by Mwilson. One thing I remember hearing at the time (mid 90s)was that the bigger Acurii were less refined sounding than the smaller ones, which may explain some of our differences. I eventually traded the Acurus in for a Pass Aleph3. I also listened to Golden Tube Audio, Proceed, and Meridian amps. Maybe others, but I can't remember.
I don't know why MWilsons experience was so different than mine. Perhaps the brands he was comparing against were better than the brands I compared against, and you can never escape component interaction. Good luck.