While this might fly in the face of a lot of "audiophiles" that will read this, i would suggest taking a look at this
Yamaha M-80 or this Yamaha M-80 listed here on Agon. While this is strictly an amp without a means of multiple source selection, it does have input gain controls. This would allow you to directly feed it a signal from a CD or DVD player and adjust the volume using the amp's gain controls. Obviously, this means that you don't have a phono section or any way to select various inputs if you have multiple sources, but this is a good amp at a good price.
For those that aren't familiar with it, it is a true dual mono design i.e. a separate iron core ( non-toroidal ) transformer for each channel. It is quite capable of driving difficult loads and may be one of the very best sounding "mass produced" amps that ever came out of Japan at a reasonable price. Obviously, anything at this price point can easily be improved upon, but in a side by side shoot-out, one of these amps absolutely "wasted" a Bryston 4B in every category possible. The amp has plenty of power for most uses, reducing the risk of out-growing it should you change to lower efficiency speakers or "really want to rock" with what you already have. As a side note, Paradigm speakers typically work best with higher powered amps of at least pretty reasonable current capabilities.
As things progress, you could look for a good but fairly priced used preamp should you need source selection and / or a phono stage.
As to the bad things about this amp, i absolutely HATED working with the "binding posts" on this amp. As one can see from the photo's that the seller has posted, the connections are not like normal "binding posts". If you are using bare wire connections, it might not be a big deal though. Other than that, i do have a copy of a review of this amp complete with test bench results. If someone purchases this amp and wants a copy, they can drop me an email and i'll see what we can work out.
If you are looking for a reasonably priced integrated amp complete with phono stage, take a look at this Kyocera unit. For those that aren't familiar with Kyocera, they are the same company that makes the "high end" CEC belt drive CD players / transports and similar models for Parasound. The name Kyocera comes from Kyoto Ceramics, as this is the parent company to Cybernet. Cybernet is one of the largest electronics manufacturers in the world and produce products for other companies under many, many different brand names. Sean
>
PS... I have NO affiliation with the sellers of these items or any other items currently on Agon.
Yamaha M-80 or this Yamaha M-80 listed here on Agon. While this is strictly an amp without a means of multiple source selection, it does have input gain controls. This would allow you to directly feed it a signal from a CD or DVD player and adjust the volume using the amp's gain controls. Obviously, this means that you don't have a phono section or any way to select various inputs if you have multiple sources, but this is a good amp at a good price.
For those that aren't familiar with it, it is a true dual mono design i.e. a separate iron core ( non-toroidal ) transformer for each channel. It is quite capable of driving difficult loads and may be one of the very best sounding "mass produced" amps that ever came out of Japan at a reasonable price. Obviously, anything at this price point can easily be improved upon, but in a side by side shoot-out, one of these amps absolutely "wasted" a Bryston 4B in every category possible. The amp has plenty of power for most uses, reducing the risk of out-growing it should you change to lower efficiency speakers or "really want to rock" with what you already have. As a side note, Paradigm speakers typically work best with higher powered amps of at least pretty reasonable current capabilities.
As things progress, you could look for a good but fairly priced used preamp should you need source selection and / or a phono stage.
As to the bad things about this amp, i absolutely HATED working with the "binding posts" on this amp. As one can see from the photo's that the seller has posted, the connections are not like normal "binding posts". If you are using bare wire connections, it might not be a big deal though. Other than that, i do have a copy of a review of this amp complete with test bench results. If someone purchases this amp and wants a copy, they can drop me an email and i'll see what we can work out.
If you are looking for a reasonably priced integrated amp complete with phono stage, take a look at this Kyocera unit. For those that aren't familiar with Kyocera, they are the same company that makes the "high end" CEC belt drive CD players / transports and similar models for Parasound. The name Kyocera comes from Kyoto Ceramics, as this is the parent company to Cybernet. Cybernet is one of the largest electronics manufacturers in the world and produce products for other companies under many, many different brand names. Sean
>
PS... I have NO affiliation with the sellers of these items or any other items currently on Agon.