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Solid state amp for Klipsch Heresy II

Budget?

With something as sensitive as Klipsh Hersheys you're going to want something with a very low noise floor. Being a Linnie, I'll suggest a Linn model. The original Majik integrated would work nicely. It's very quiet and has a very competent phono stage, it delivers 33wpc at 8 ohms and 66wpc at 4 ohms (yes it does double its output into a 4 ohm load).
 
Heresys are nice and efficient and really love tubes, but sound surprisingly good with a little Tripath TA2020 T-Amp like an Amptastic or Temple Audio. They also sound fine with a Quad 303 and I bet they would with Sugden class A too. Avoid lean and dry flat earth stuff though as they date from the tube era and sound really nasty on a lot of solid state stuff to my ears. I heard them with Naim once and it was not pretty!
 
The Majik isn't overly lean, it's actually quite warm and smooth but also detailed. A Nait would indeed sound quite stark though. I've never tried a tripath design because I've mainly been using Linn speakers in active mode for the past fifteen years.
 
The nearest I tried to that was an original clam-shell Rega Brio, which neither shone nor offended, kind of ‘meh’ in this particular context and I’d certainly take a T-Amp over it. Do not underestimate the little T-Amps, they really do work very well with Klipsch, they are probably what I would choose if tubes really are not an option. I’ve made the case several times on pfm that a pair of Heresys, Cornwalls or La Scalas and one of these little <£100 amps is actually a pretty good way of spending that budget, i.e. turning the source first thing right on its head! The T-Amps are very clean, clear open and pure sounding over their first couple of Watts and have a reputation of sounding quite SET-like, which I can believe. A couple of Watts is all you ever need with classic Klipsch.
 
Heresys are nice and efficient and really love tubes, but sound surprisingly good with a little Tripath TA2020 T-Amp like an Amptastic or Temple Audio. They also sound fine with a Quad 303 and I bet they would with Sugden class A too. Avoid lean and dry flat earth stuff though as they date from the tube era and sound really nasty on a lot of solid state stuff to my ears. I heard them with Naim once and it was not pretty!

Sorry Tony, regarding the T-Amp do you need to connect it to a preamp or a switch box for having different inputs?

Is it possible to connect an headphone?
 
They tend only to have a single input, when I needed more I stuck a passive preamp upstream, though an input selector box would be viable too. The Amptastic I have has jumpers inside that enable bypassing the volume knob and just using it as a power amp, which is what I did. No headphone socket.
 
Take a look at Primare. Very high quality units that have a crystal clear sound but with a touch of sweetness, which should the speakers nicely...
 
Anything but Linn!! Early Linn amps are about the worst sounding solid state amps I have ever heard.
A Majik isn't really early Linn. Have you heard one? It's a very different sound to the LK1/2. I can't get on with those myself but as a budget buy, I do rather like the Majik. I suggested that as a very affordable unit because it's very quiet and has perfect channel balance throughout the volume range and had plenty of usable volume range... which is pretty handy with sensitive speakers.
 
Heresys are nice and efficient and really love tubes, but sound surprisingly good with a little Tripath TA2020 T-Amp

Funnily enough exactly what I was going to suggest. £35 brand new when they made them.
An original one was on eBay last week but appears to have been sold.

I was tempted to buy this one myself but I have no excuse to:
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=253267088315

You can't go wrong for £55 and if it doesn't sort your needs then I'll buy it from you just to give it a go with my Snells.
 
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So make them better! ;-)

PS Early on I’m inclined to agree, I jumped ship from the ‘flat earth’ thing when Linn and Naim went their separate ways; I really liked the band but not the solo acts!

The raw material is not good enough....ie the basic design, and their use of surface mount parts makes them a pig to work on.
 
Sorry Jez, I got my threads confused, I thought we were on your Leak 30 thread! I deleted my post before I saw you’d responded.
 
The nearest I tried to that was an original clam-shell Rega Brio, which neither shone nor offended, kind of ‘meh’ in this particular context and I’d certainly take a T-Amp over it. Do not underestimate the little T-Amps, they really do work very well with Klipsch, they are probably what I would choose if tubes really are not an option. I’ve made the case several times on pfm that a pair of Heresys, Cornwalls or La Scalas and one of these little <£100 amps is actually a pretty good way of spending that budget, i.e. turning the source first thing right on its head! The T-Amps are very clean, clear open and pure sounding over their first couple of Watts and have a reputation of sounding quite SET-like, which I can believe. A couple of Watts is all you ever need with classic Klipsch.

The Mini- T is an amazing little amp, my Virtue Audio amps are even more amazing mind.
 
Sugden A21 could suit.... maybe even original A21 if a valve like sound is wanted. With that efficiency a 10WPC class A amp should do great.
 
Tony,

Does the Amptastic TA2020 have a good ''balanced'' sound?

In the context of Klipsch Heresys it sounds very good indeed. All the TA2020 amps are sold as being “20 Watts” or whatever. They aren’t. Distortion is simply horrible at that level, but if you think of them as a really nice sounding 8 Watt amp they are very good indeed. With a pair of Heresy 8 Watts will blow the living room door off the hinges! Again in this context the T-Amp sounds really clean with a lovely open sound and none of the edge, glare or grain some typical solid state can show into such crazy efficient speakers. Does it sound better than a good tube amp into Klipsch? No. Does it sound better than most solid state? Yes, for me it does. The Amptastic is also very nice and quiet. I also have a cheaper Topping 2020 abd that gives a little high-pitch switch-mode ‘whine’ through my crazy efficient La Scalas whereas the Amptastic was silent IIRC. I need to dig it out for a re-evaluation at some point, I’m currently using a Decware Zen SE84UFO (a 2.3 Watt SET) which sounds lovely aside from rather more mains hum than I would like (La Scalas find hiss and hum in most things as their sensitivity is 105db, that is right down in most amp’s noise floor).

PS I thought the Amptastic was pretty good with both the Tannoys and JR149s too, I’d rate it below a good 303 (which loves both speakers), but not by that much, and a 303 in the internal/external condition of mine would be four times the cost at least. It is a wonderful amp for not much money, great for a TV rig or whatever and a surprisingly good option with vintage Klipsch. Power wise I’d rate it as less than my Leak Stereo 20, which is a very honest 11 Watts, e.g. the Leak can drive the insensitive 149s louder/better without any sign of strain.
 


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