citation 7.1 pwr amp


would like comments on this amp from end users.i'am told they are excellent for the money.
gts87
I have the baby brother of this amp the 5.1 I got it at ubid.com and paid 500.00 for it (the 7.1 was around 800.00) after having this amp for 3 months now I have to agree with Bruiserwy. This is one great amp! the sound stage is well defined and the power is endless. I have mine bridged and can get 300 watts per channel! I have older B&W speakers dm 620s and this amp made them come to life. I tried many others but the sound and build quality is top notch!
I have owned this amp now for about 2 months. I got one of the last "new" ones from a dealer. I paid $1000.00 for it, but it is easily worth its original retail of 2800.00. It has endless power, remarkable dynamics, and a truly refined sound. Soundstage depth and width are truly world class and the bass has excellent control and authority. It sounds better than the $5000 Krell amp I was considering and has more current output than any Rotel, Parasound, Adcom, or the like. I feel it is definitely in the same class as Krell or low to mid priced Levinson amps (Levinson and Citation are made by the same firm- Madrigal, which is a division of Harman International). The weight alone will tell you of the quality before you even open the box. At 80 lbs unpacked, it is extremely well built and very, very pleasing to look at. The only drawback (to some) is that it only has four channels...I use my Newcastle receiver's center channel amp to drive my highly efficient Klipsch Reference center channel, so the lack of the 5th channel is not an issue for me. My 7.1 drives my Magnepan front and rear channel speakers to volumes unheard of for Maggie speakers without any compression or hardening of the sound. In fact, this amp loves to work, so the louder you go, the better it sounds. Maximum output is rated at over 150 amps, so there really isn't a speaker on the market that it won't drive. These amps are no longer made, but there may be a few still out there that haven't been used. Pre-owned units are for sale on this web-site and on e-Bay from time to time.