Integrated amp?

[Arkless Electronics]

well just picked up a little gem from a fellow fishie Rotel RA 820A still sounds as good as I remember

Great little integrateds. As good as a Nait 1 for much less money.

 

[say it as it is]

yep a wee classic

 

[x21]

The Rega IO with external DAC for the TV is probably going to be a safe bet for the money. For a more budget option there's the NAD C 316 BEE V2 and the NAD 3020D V2.

 

[booja30]

The Rega IO with external DAC for the TV is probably going to be a safe bet for the money. For a more budget option there's the NAD C 316 BEE V2 and the NAD 3020D V2.

Yep, I use a cheap (under £20) optical to RCA type DAC from Amazon. Totally fine for TV audio.

 

[Spencerfrater]

Thanks for all the responses. Now I need to see what’s available...

 

[Countryman]

+1 vote for the Rega Io. I picked up a nearly new one for £250 and it’s a belter. Footprint the size of a piece of A4 paper. Incredible sound quality, comparable to the Brio. Only 2 inputs plus phono stage but that’s no big deal for me.

 

[TonyScarlett]

+1 vote here for the Arcam Delta 60, must be one of the best kept secrets in hifi, strange when you consider it's a direct descendant of the classic A&R Cambridge A60. Sweet sounding amp with a respectable phono stage. Also, the coolest running amp I've ever owned, the casework gets barely even lukewarm even after several hours running which bodes well for its long term reliability unlike the Rotel RA-840BX3 I also own that you can fry an egg on after a few hours use.
TS

 

[Joel Burt]

I tested a Linn LK Majik against the Brio R and the Linn is more natural sounding. They are cheap too!

 

[x21]

+1 vote for the Rega Io. I picked up a nearly new one for £250 and it’s a belter. Footprint the size of a piece of A4 paper. Incredible sound quality, comparable to the Brio. Only 2 inputs plus phono stage but that’s no big deal for me.

As far as I can tell it's based on the power stages from the newer brio.

I tested a Linn LK Majik against the Brio R and the Linn is more natural sounding. They are cheap too!

What is the Linn driving?

 

[Joel Burt]

The Majik and brio were driving Linn tukans.

 

[stevec67]

If you can find a Myst TMA 3 that would do you. Great little amp

Do yourself a favour and get something else. A mate had one, it was going to be a legend, he spent a bit having it serviced, it still sounded poor.

It's a development of the Hitachi circuit, the repairer commented that the mods made it worse than standard.

I'd vote for the Rotel btw, or one of the JVC AX models, or a Sony ES, or maybe the upmarket Marantz ones, take your pick from £100.

 

[Charlie_1]

Exposure XV

I nearly posted to say, 'yeah, great amp but they come up on ebay so soldomly these days.'

And now one has popped up on auction and it's in nice conditon. Defo worth £300. They are regulated like the Naim 250.

It probably needs a service though but I think Exposure still offer that (worth checking).

If not, then agree that Majik LK is a bargain and preferable to a Brio-R - for some reason I assumed the OP needed shoebox due to space limitations but LK is not much bigger anyway.

 

[Olsen]

Do yourself a favour and get something else. A mate had one, it was going to be a legend, he spent a bit having it serviced, it still sounded poor.
.

A friend had a Myst TMA3 and it was splendid

 

[stevec67]

Goes to show that we don't all hear the same.

 

[toprepairman]

Currently on fleabay, JVC AX1 for 65 quid and Ruark Sabres for 165.

 

[SteveG]

+1 vote for the Rega Io. I picked up a nearly new one for £250 and it’s a belter. Footprint the size of a piece of A4 paper. Incredible sound quality, comparable to the Brio. Only 2 inputs plus phono stage but that’s no big deal for me.

I'm thinking a Rega Io might be a good choice to replace the DNA45 in my bedroom system. The limited number of inputs isn't an issue for me, even though the turntable I'm using has a MC cartridge so one of the inputs would be needed for that as I all the other sources can feed it via a DAC which has multiple inputs.

 

[Iain Docherty]

+1 vote here for the Arcam Delta 60, must be one of the best kept secrets in hifi, strange when you consider it's a direct descendant of the classic A&R Cambridge A60. Sweet sounding amp with a respectable phono stage. Also, the coolest running amp I've ever owned, the casework gets barely even lukewarm even after several hours running which bodes well for its long term reliability unlike the Rotel RA-840BX3 I also own that you can fry an egg on after a few hours use.
TS

Delta 60 was my first amp. Preferred it in demo over an Onix OA21. Had a Arcam Delta system with Linn T/T and speakers for years and enjoyed it a lot

 

[Olsen]

Goes to show that we don't all hear the same.

Or one amp was faulthy

 

[stevec67]

Or one amp was faulthy

Just serviced and repaired, so not in this case. As the repairer commented "it's just the old Hitachi circuit, with a few modifications, all of which make it worse than the original" .