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What Amplifiers Have You Heard In Your System and What Amplifiers Will You Always Keep

What Amplifiers Have You Heard In Your System and What Amplifiers Will You Always Keep In Your Collection (and Why)

I have heard the following amplifiers in my system:

Yamaha AV receiver—Home theater kept

CJ MF 2550–small easy to manage very spatial, powerful keep

David Berning ZH-270–15lbs, controllable negative feedback settings, a keeper

Carver Signature Sunfire 600—the Swiss Army Knife of amplifiers, keep

Carver Lightstar 1.0–busted but kept

John Iverson Eagle 2–excellent, spatial, powerful, manageable size and weight,keep

Crown 1500–these are surprisingly good little class D amps, keep, will probably sell

Yamaha p2150/2250–keep! These are amazing amps, especially mono blocked

Ampzilla 1974–music sounds just like you remember it sounding, keep

Ampzilla 2000–luscious, detailed, natural, currently in system


Pioneer AV Receiver—not so good sold

Sony AV receiver—very good sold

Emotiva XPA 200–fine entry level amp sold

Adcom 555–excellent, great amp, but sold

Behringer 1400 europower—too pushy, light hearing the sausage being made, sold

BAT VK-500–excellent, too big and heavy

BAT VK-250–a really great amp but sold

CJ Premier 350–don’t see what the fuss is about, sold

Spectron Muscian 3 Mk2–excellent, but details are odd, couldn’t drive Kappas

Quicksilver GLA—a beautiful sounding amp, great tempo and naturalness, but not powerful enough, and I don’t want to worry about tubes, sold

Belles 350A—worst amp I have auditioned, like nails on a chalkboard


Currently my system is:

TEAC 2300s reel to reel

Audio Technical Turntable

Oppo 105D ModWright

Mac Mini

Schiit Gungnir DAC

Sonic Frontiers Line 2 Pre

Ampzilla 2000 mono blocks

Thiel CS6 Speakers

Infinity Kappa 7’s, 8’s

Mogami interconnects




128x128brettmcee
vegasears
1,173 posts
 
VTL 450MKII.
rocray's avatar
rocray
1,446 posts
 
First Watt F5, J2
Monarchy Audio sm70 mkII (x2) 
 I like different flavors,what can I say?? 
eaglejo
21 posts
 
Shindo Cortese (Sold but will buy another one someday)
Shindo Sinnhonia (Good but not even close to the Cortese)
Berning 300B Siegfried (Sold to a good friend and will always be my absolute biggest regret in this hobby.  He said he will never sell the amp back to me which I've begged him to do.  The absolute best amp I've heard.  An idiot friend who I trusted at the time said the Kronzilla was better which it was unambiguously not.  I was swayed by the aesthetics of the Kronzilla vs the more pedestrian Berning.  Rookie mistake.)
Berning ZH270 (Sold)
KR Kronzilla (Sold)
Rogue Cronus Magnum (Good drive and a fun listen)
First Watt J2 (Sold but will buy again someday.  My reference for a low power ss amp.)
Coda (Forget the model.  It was a friend's who let me demo it for an extended period.  Absolutely great amp.  Something I would consider going forward.)
Crayon
Wyred4Sound ST500
Bakoon Amp 13r (Freferred the J2)

There have been a ton of others, but these are the ones I remember.

Currently:
Kinki EXM7 (Still trying to decide whether it's a long-term keeper.  My sonic recall is that the J2 was more to my sonic liking.  Need to a/b the 2.  The M7 might be the high power choice, the J2 low power. choice)
Triode Labs 2a3 FFX (My low wattage keeper but want to hear a Whammerdyne)
Finale F 7591 (My bargain amp favorite and an absolute steal because of the bad 6-Moons review.  In many ways prefer it over my 2a3.)

Need to Hear but own the Vibe/Pulse pre-amp:
Tom Evans Linear A

Favorites by type:
SS:  J2 or EXM7
SET:  Berning 300B
PP Budget Amp:  Finale F7591

Favorite manufacturers:
Berning
Tom Evans
Nelson Pass

To put things in context, I prefer an immediate, dynamic sound with a large soundstage.  When I get that with good timbre and tone, it's a keeper.  

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