New Integrated amp recommendation
Greetings:
I’m looking to upgrade my Yamaha 801 to drive my Revel 328s
Unfortunately I live in South Carolina and auditioning equipment requires a fair amount of time and travel.
The room is 20x25 loft open to one side to a staircase and 11 foot ceilings (not ideal but limited amount of conditioning will follow)
Almost always classic rock and contemporary jazz never above 80db Vinyl/CD and streaming
I’ve read a number outstanding reviews on Luxman integrateds and that is the first question..Is the 505z a good fit? If so does stretching the budget to the 507z offer a sonic difference? If not Luxman any other recommendations. I’m not necessarily looking to color the sound of the Revels but the Yamaha and maybe the room lack a bit of low end clarity and maybe a bit of fatigue from the Be tweeters.
Finally has anyone had experience buying direct from Japan? Can I assume the transformer is going to add unwanted noise?
Appreciate any thoughts love the forum. Learn from it everyday.
Thank you
JF
My STR Int laughs at the allegedly power hungry Maggies. Effortless from top to BOTTOM. |
Several excellent suggestions for sure. Hard to go wrong with the Anthem, Yamaha, Luxman or Accuphase. (Either Luxman or Accuphase will be the next in my rack). By your listening preferences might i suggest the Cary SLI80HS? I have had mine for almost two years and it has been excellent. With my pretty efficient Volti Razz it really sings. The newer versions of the Cary use a solid state rectifier section as opposed to the older ones which used a tubed rectifier. The difference is a much tighter, less honey sweet (and sometimes too sweet) sound. Only one state over from you, no tariffs and I'm sure you could work out a home audition solution.. |
I will add my thumbs up to all the positive comments on the Anthem STR. In general I have been a fan of a solid state power amp fronted with a tubed pre. Wanting to give a break to my 30 year old Audible Illusions Pre. and hoping to find a replacement Pre. that sounded that good, with a built in phono stage, for something less than 10K wasn't easy. After reading all the very favorable comments on the Anthem STR, I thought that for half the price of a nice Pre. with a built in phono stage, I'd give it a try. Driving my little power hungry Maggie 1.7s for almost 2 years now, I have been most satisfied with both the sound and it's flawless performance.
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@jwfitzdo - your Revel speakers are somewhat easy to drive, so there are a lot of excellent integrated choices. Here’s my list of medium-high powered integrates that I found notable (prices are old): 1.5 Wired 4 Sound mINT 3.0 Unison Research Unico Nuovo *4.5 Rogue Audio Cronus "Dark" Integrated Amplifier 100wpc -5.0 Arcam SA45 - 180/300wpc AXPONA - sounded great -5.5 Audio Research I/50 50wpc optional phono ($750), DAC ($1000) 5.5 Atoll SDA300 Signature 150wpc *5.9 Kora TB140 70wpc surprisingly great *6.5 Lab12 integre4 MK2 75wpc tube -7.0 Krell K-300i [XLR in] -7.4 LFD NCSE mk3 70wpc ss -7.4 LYNGDORF TDAI-3400 200/400wpc AXPONA sounded great -7.7 Hegel H400 - 8.3 Synthesis Action A100 Titan w DAC 100wpc tube 9.0 Audio Research VSI 75 75wpc tube -10.0 Bat VK80i 55/55wpc tube -10.0 Audio Research i70 70wpc *10.0 SimAudio Moon 641 300wpc SS -12.0 Vinnie Rossi L2i-SE used 13.4 Boulder 866 200/400wpc 210/360wpc tested ss *15.0 ALLNIC T-2000 30th Anniversary Stereo Integrated 120wpc/60wpcSET tube -15.9 Grandinote Shinai 37wpc can drive Magico |
