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Noob! Please help me replace my old power amp, some candidates listed.

ME

Elderly, lifelong guitarist, I have a few well maintained tube amp circuits (JTM45; overbuilt "double" 5E3 1x12 combo; 5F1 1x12 combo; Weber speakers and NOS tubes). I am NOT audiophile.

MY HiFi GEAR

Yamaha M1 (1984) power amp (this is what I'm wanting to improve on)
Kenwood Basic C1 preamp
TC-750LC phono pre (regulated supply)
Pioneer PL-A450 turntable; Denon DL-110 MC cart (yay!)
ADS L710 pair (6 ohm, 94db)
ADS L1090 pair (8 ohm, 90db)
Sansui SP-2500 pair (8 ohm, 100db)
iPad (DAC)

MY MUSIC SOURCES

FLAC library on Plex server over Wifi or 1000BaseT
Vinyl

MY APPLICATION

Small room, up close, not much conditioning but hope to add some.
I love electric blues, jazz, soul, pop and country but touch on everything. I play electric blues and love '70s fusion.

Looking to replace my dicey old power amp.

In general I like more reveal but I don't like "clinical" hifi, I have cheap but surprsingly effective Mackie active monitors that do that. Obviously I'm budget concious, lol!

MY AMP CANDIDATES

Audio by Van Alstine (AVA) MOS-FET 150B 
Early '80s and all original; $500 used; class a/b; 75w/ch; gorgeous "servicable" layout/build quality; conventional transformer


B&K (BK Components) ST-140
Early '80's usually all original; $300-$400 used; class a/b; 70w/ch (kinda confusing revision history)


AVA NP-1
$1200 new, $800 used; class a/b; 55w/ch; I assume surface mount


Buckeye Hypex NCx252MP
$625 new; class D; 150w/ch; surface mount (board swap repair only)


Class D Audio USA Premium GaN 3.5
$750 new; class D; 135w/ch; surface mount (board swap repair only)

 

Admittedly class D makes me nervous but I'm open if the hype is even somewhat justified. I will do a tube amp eventually, but today I just want to plug in a new-to-me SS power amp. I'd do a Zen Triode but I might not live long enough, lol!

 

Brand new here so I hope I'm doing this right? Thanks!

caseylol
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,982 posts
 

Bad idea your best bet is a high quality integrated amplifier over any of these

 

For roughly 2kish you can get a brand new trouble free unison research primo integrated which is a hybrid design, with tubes in the preamp stage and you can order it with a built  in phono stage.

 So you get the warmth of the tubes with the puch and bass control of the solid state amplifier stage all in one elegant design.

 

Dave and Troy

AUDIO INTELLECT NJ

Unison dealers 

avanti1960
1,740 posts
 

@caseylol

ava for sure.  i have heard many over the years and they always sound very good.  i do not recommend a class d  

gotolondon2
38 posts
 

Welcome to Agon.

 

tweak1
3,765 posts
 

I agree with the carpathian. I have had several older class A/B amps die recently. Not worth fixing. Im 77 almost 78. Been using class D for over a decade. Icepower (which I have) or Hypex, both excellent choices, but Schitt is excellent and may comfort your anxiety HTH

balooo2
108 posts
 

Another Parasound A23+ recommendation here. Auditioned a few class D amps the Buckeye line is very good and I would choose one for an AV application but for the money run cool performance and all around fantastic price for what you get...

Parasound A23+ you cannot go wrong for the price. 

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