Integrated amp for Eggleston Andra II

I can sympathize with you. I use Lamm M2.1 monoblocks with my Andra II speakers, and they too get rather warm. (Not hot thankfully, but they do raise the temperature a few degrees in my non-air conditioned room. (Great in the winter, not so great in the summer!) I too have thought about buying a secondary set of amps for the summertime, but I love the sound of the Lamms so much, that I feel that anything else would just be second best.

As far as recommendations, I would recommend just getting solid state monoblock amps, and keeping the preamp. The tubed preamp should not run that hot, and it means not having to deal with restructuring your stereo system's setup, especially buying a secondary set of speaker cables and/or preamp to amp interconnects. (I assume that your speaker cables are kept short, since you run monoblocks, right? I know I do that.)

As far as a specific recommendation (for solid state monoblocks, as I recommend), I would try something like the Parasound JC-1 monoblocks. They are Powerful, and run in Class AB so they should run fairly cool. You can adjust the biasing so that they run more in Class A, which helps them sound better, but of course that will generate more heat! But it does give you some options depending on the ambient temperature).

Good Luck in your search!

Well, I'll defer to Ejlif on the heat generated by the JC-1s, since I have never actually owned them. (I saw and heard them at a dealers, and they did not seem to run all that hot, (warmish yes), but then again, they were in a large air conditioned room, that probably did a better job of cooling than your typical living room would!)

My recommendation then would be to find a good pair of Class AB amps, that aren't heavily biased in Class A (as the JC-1s, or my Lamm M2.1s are). I am not a big fan of the Class D amplifiers myself, but I will admit that they do run very cool. (I heard the Nuforce ref. 9's, and they don't sound all that great, IMHO. However, perhaps the Bel Canto ones suggested by Ejlif are better.) I would definitely audition them prior to purchasing them though.

Hey Tvad,

The Pass Labs XA-60.5 might work okay for a small room, but it would be hard pressed to drive the dual 12 inch woofers to full effect in a medium to large room. The Andra II is fairly inefficient @ 88 db (with 6 ohm minimum).

I use the 200 wpc hybrid Lamm M2.1s and they seem to have enough muscle to get those big woofers to move quickly and tightly. IMHO, the minimum would be 100 wpc, and 200 will pretty much get all that these speakers can put out. (FYI, the Manufacturer recommends a minimum of 30 wpc (small room) up to 300 wpc).

I would love to try these speakers with the VAC Phi 300.1 stereo amp. It is a fantastic tube amp with 150 wpc. (But, unfortunately, that would mean buing all new cables, something that I am not willing to do at the moment.)

My two cents worth.

Jprice,

I think you should seriously consider having your wife see a professional. How can anyone think that one dedicated listening room enough?! It's either that or I think it is time for you to sign the committment papers to send her to an asylum! (Which would probably be for the best; just as long as you don't send her to the Audio Ayslum!) ;-)