Integrated Amp to match with Magico A3


Have just ordered a pair of Magico A3, and looking for integrated amplifier to pair with it. As I heard once which had a very disappointing result to pair with Gryphon 300 in a local Hifi show in Hong Kong. Reallly looking for recommendations on matching amplifier. Planned to get a Marantz PM-10, but worried that the single box may not be powerful enough to push the A3. On the other side, some said Hegel H360 with 4000+ damping factor may suit even better.

thank you in advance
eldonfung

Showing 3 responses by audiotroy

Sinewaveron, we both agree and disagree, we were former Hegel dealers and their products were excellent.

Whether an amp is class A or Class A/B is just one of the factors in determining sound quality, amounts of feedback, feed forward, type of feedback, circuit design, circuit implimentation and parts selection, and circuit voicing is just as important.

When we had the Hegel line we also had the Luxman line and we did prefer the 20 watt Class A Luxman, but we sold more Unision Research Unico 50 which were a class A/B solid state amp with a tube preamp stage then both of thoese products.

As per Pass, Gryphon or Vitus being better that may be much more to do with the design and implimentation of the product

By the way we also sell T+A gear which is class A/B there have been a few people here who had Pass gear which was outperformed by the T+A and T+A is also in the uber class of high end and their products are consistantly rated among the best of the best.

The point is you must evaluate a product for the way it sounds and not just its technology or class of operation.

Hegel’s designs are fast, open, clean with good dynamics, and excellent bass control, as per Alon Wolf raving about the Hegel H360, why wouldn’t he it would give many of his speakers a tighter bass and the amp is less expensive to allow for more expensive Magico speaker pairings.

Personally I would think the combo would not be that good, as the Magico line tends to be a bit on the more reservered, cleaner with less midrange bloom which is how the Hegel sounds, we would most likely use a warmer richer puncher amplifier to bring out a bit more midrange magic and liquidity to the Magicos which is how we like to voice our systems.

As per Vitus being great stuff that is not in debate and your $25k Vitus should squash a $5k Hegel. Whether of not their new super integrated is that good will all depend on how Hegel has implimented the design and of course how it sounds, to make such statements that because a Hegel is a class A/B product and therefore not as good as a Vitus shows you have an inate bias and are not open to what we all must do in audio which is to go out and listen and then do exact comparisons on the same equipment.

Hegel’s new super integrated might be fantastic or only a bit better than their previous offerings.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ


Jerry I would expect that pairing to be good. All the Magico's we have heard always sounded  a bit on the dry side, so a slightly warm, yet articulate tube amp like the Octave sounds like a perfect match. 

Enjoy the Octave we have always liked their gear.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
Rhg88, there are a couple of things wrong with your summation about just getting an amp, and not hearing a lot of differences between the two amps.
1: Your Marantz AV 7704 is probably not a great preamp2: The testing conditions ie cables and hooking up to an inexpensive surround sound piece could be a huge limiting factor in hearing a difference between the amps3: Neither the M27 or the SPL S800 may not be great amps4: The M27 and the SPL 800 may both sound similar.
One of the reasons that people are recommending an integrated is the integrated amp will have a suitable preamp stage built in.
The quality of the preamp is very important for these reasons:
1: It is a first stage amplifier that increases the amplitude of the line level signal to match the amplifier2: The quality of the volume regulation preserves time and phase information which can increase of decrease your image.3: The preamp stage may hinder the system's overall level of resolution.
Your test was fine what you should have done would be to substitute a high quality integrated amplifier to see how much better that device would perform.
Dave and TroyAudio Doctor NJ