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good, SMALL solid state amplifiers? on a budget...and not Class D

Very nice, but I’m in the U.S.

I used to run a Line Magnetic 518ia...which I will have again someday, but a toddler is limiting any listening time and I’m prioritizing child-proofing and cleanly appearance over ultimate sound.

I bring that up because aren’t Naim and Cyrus amps generally bright? My tolerance for bright components is usually pretty low. I really like the price of the Naim 110.

I briefly had a Heed Obelisk on a home demo and was really impressed with it, I didn't buy it as it was the MK2 version and they now have the MK3 version which is more powerful and wanted to hear the MK3 but have not done so as yet.

The Heed Obelisk may suit if you don't want a bright sound, to my ears it sounded nicely rich with a natural warmth to the sound without losing out on detail.
 
I used Quad power amps with AN and Snell speakers to pretty good effect. A good, serviced 306 can be had for less than £250 and will run happily with the DAC doing attenuation. If there's too much gain in stock form or you feel the need to add an active preamp you can alter sensitivity very simply by changing a resistor.

The 306 is a surprisingly bouncy little amp, having all the lovely midrange you'd expect from Quad without sacrificing transparency.
 
No major reason other than I have old school-ish efficient speakers. I love them with SET amps...I just assume Class D wouldn’t be what I’m looking for (and I don’t want 200 Watts).

Excess power doesn't hurt, and a decent class D amp is fine at lower power levels too. They are small and efficient, and can really challenge top-notch A/B amps in terms of sound quality.
 
Or how about the Valvet monoblocks currently in the classifieds? 10 watts single ended class A per side... and solid state...
 
I'm surprised no one has offered the obvious answer.

NAIT2.

I'll have to bring mine out of hibernation to try out with my Yammy NS-1000Ms.
 
No major reason other than I have old school-ish efficient speakers. I love them with SET amps...I just assume Class D wouldn’t be what I’m looking for (and I don’t want 200 Watts).

FWIW I now have old school efficient speakers (NS-1000Ms) and Nord NCore 500 D-class amps. They sound stunning together.

My only concern is ensuring I don’t put 400W through the Yammies.
 
I guess the proper designation would be "Hypex nCore 500's as sold by Nord", but then we should apply the same terminology to people like NAD too...

Absolutely right. Nord ‘just’ put them in nice boxes with some decent opamps.

While I have your attention - given that I currently run my Roon end-point (Raspberry Pi thing) through a Dragonfly Black DAC into the Ncores... how would I calculate the digital attenuation required to ensure I don’t exceed 100W into the Yammies?

I hope that makes sense.
 
I bring that up because aren’t Naim and Cyrus amps generally bright? My tolerance for bright components is usually pretty low. I really like the price of the Naim 110.

No that's an old wives tale. Both are essentially neutral and there is no aspect of their design to make them sound bright.

Older Naim is fine though hiss levels might be an issue if your 'speaker sensitivity rating is over 90dB.

The old Cyrus Power and Smart Power were fine units (I've owned the former). Not tried anything produced by Cyrus in past decade though.
 
Pass XA 25.

World class sound, beautifully built, reliable in the extreme, and it will outlast you. $4,900 U.S. and worth every penny.
 
Price isn't necessarily an indication of sound quality.

I agree. In this case, it’s incredible for the money. It’s not better than the budget Rotel amp I’m currently running, though (which I paid 100 bucks for).
 
EWA Q20 and matching pre, by the guy who invented the Inca Tech Claymore. Plenty of power and a half width chassis, I think it's being reviewed this week in Audiophile News and Music Review.

I've got a forerunner of the Q20 and it's really special.
 
Rega do make a half-width amp, as do Heed & Mission.

So does TRON. The Convergence Mono amps are currently available, or the Convergence stereo version will be available before Christmas.

Convergence-1.jpeg
 


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