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What amplifier do I want?

Daniel Quinn said:
There is a picture on the net of colin wonfor with a 100+ watt pure class a amp , it is nearly 6 foot tall to cope with the heat sinking .
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See my earlier post!

The amp you are referring to is single ended class A and half as efficient as even an ordinary class A amp! :eek:
I've seen it in the flesh but not heard it. I believe it was made by the short lived TOCA company (Touch Of Class A) which Wonfor had for a while...
 
Buy an XTZ integrated or PA (the integrated can be used as a PA BTW) fabulous amps with a wonderful remote control, sounded great with P3s.

They are pretty rare SH but the do crop up however you can buy from the manufacturer on a 30 day trial basis, SH prices are around the £350 plus delivery mark, new about double that inc delivery I believe.
 
This was the brief I also had. I have only heard one amp that really pulls off this trick ... The Hovland Radia. Hovland no longer exist so it is a somewhat risky purchase (although there are some excellent independent electronic engineers out there). Privately I wouldn't pay more than £2K.

Nic P
 
jy3 said:
Hi
I bought The Job 225 advertised on here recently by Bodymusic and can confirm it truly is a great amplifier. Started off with my brothers Audio Research Ref5se so can confirm it sounds great with a tube pre but have just bought a Tisbury passive pre and this works very well also. You are more than welcome to listen if you live in the Watford area. I know its been mentioned before but Sugden could also be ideal for you.
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One advantage of the JOB 225 is that you do not require an antique valve or passive pre for musical realistic sound. I use the pre-outs of my excellent Sony STR-DA5400ES AVR
 
Disbeliever said:
One advantage of the JOB 225 is that you do not require an antique valve or passive pre for musical realistic sound. I use the pre-outs of my excellent Sony STR-DA5400ES AVR
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Whats wrong with your Sony on its own, its not class D is it!? I use a 100W Sony ES receiver with it's built in Dac with the KEF LS50 and it sounds very good indeed, better than any *other combination i've tried them with for some reason, just got lucky.

*one of the combinations was 250W SS monoblocks and Valve preamp.
 
There is a Yamaha A2000 in the classifieds i think, could be a good match. Like Merlin says the Devialet SAM thing sounds intriguing, i might get one on demo to try next year to see what it does.

This also looks nice... http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=166492

XL_PM-11S2_D.jpg
 
I can vouch for the Job 225 too. Excellent vfm IMHO.
It doesn't sound better than a Devialet to me though into any of the speakers I have tried it with, and I own both and have been listening to both today.
 
F1eng said:
I can vouch for the Job 225 too. Excellent vfm IMHO.
It doesn't sound better than a Devialet to me though into any of the speakers I have tried it with, and I own both and have been listening to both today.
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You appear to have unusual or obscure speakers what are they ? Have you auditioned the latest Devialet 200 which is said to be much better than Devialet D-Premier not that it interests me I am very happy with the JOB 225.
 
Disbeliever said:
You appear to have unusual or obscure speakers what are they ? Have you auditioned the latest Devialet 200 which is said to be much better than Devialet D-Premier not that it interests me I am very happy with the JOB 225.
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I haven't auditioned a 200 at home, but heard it several times at a dealers and shows. I do not consider these sort of demos to be worthwhile for judging SQ though.

I have had my pair of D-Premiers updated to "an" 800. I did not notice any SQ difference, personally, just a change in functionality.

I had the amps updated one at a time so I went from 2 D-Premiers > 1 D-Premier > 1 Devialet 240 > Devialet 800 so could compare at each step at home in my familiar system, though I didn't waste too much time on the comparison.

I have used the Devialet with KEF LS50s, Goodmans LS3/5as, Harbeth P3ES, Goldmund Epilog 1&2 (a huge 3 way pretty efficient but a punishing load) and Tune Audio Animas, which are 109dB/watt full range horns.

I am listening to the Devialet/Anima as I type. I listened to some Vaughan Williams vocal and choral stuff on the Job/Goldmund speakers earlier today.
The Job 225 is a bit too noisy for the horns, but drives the Goldmunds beautifully.
 
F1eng said:
I haven't auditioned a 200 at home, but heard it several times at a dealers and shows. I do not consider these sort of demos to be worthwhile for judging SQ though.

I have had my pair of D-Premiers updated to "an" 800. I did not notice any SQ difference, personally, just a change in functionality.

I had the amps updated one at a time so I went from 2 D-Premiers > 1 D-Premier > 1 Devialet 240 > Devialet 800 so could compare at each step at home in my familiar system, though I didn't waste too much time on the comparison.

I have used the Devialet with KEF LS50s, Goodmans LS3/5as, Harbeth P3ES, Goldmund Epilog 1&2 (a huge 3 way pretty efficient but a punishing load) and Tune Audio Animas, which are 109dB/watt full range horns.

I am listening to the Devialet/Anima as I type. I listened to some Vaughan Williams vocal and choral stuff on the Job/Goldmund speakers earlier today.
The Job 225 is a bit too noisy for the horns, but drives the Goldmunds beautifully.
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I don't think I can afford a dev...but Intrigued enough with the ls50's to see just how far I can take them...
 
Thank you all for suggestions so far.

Thoughts : try a EAR 861 power amp and then worry about what pre to use it with

Other options : Gato 250 has lots of class d wattage..

Luxman 550 = 20 watts of pure class A from tyrannies

I almost bought a Sugden a21 back when I purchased my Elac 244's...what about the more powerful I4?
 
2nd vote for Luxman. I had a 550 for a short while and it was really quite good. It was only rated at 28 Watts into 8 Ohms but I seem to recall a HFN test report suggesting that it put out more like 70wpc so very conservatively rated! It did get very hot.

For a little more, the one set of amps I've owned which tick the boxes you're looking at sonically were Albarry M608s. You can if you look around get a pair of monos used easily within your budget leaving spare cash for a pre.

They drive difficult loads with ease, run cool as a cucumber in Class B (very efficient only using 7w in idle/standby mode) and sound creamy smooth through the mids with impressive bass punch and grip. M1108s even better but probably way above budget.
 
Hi-Fi Plus did a glowing system review of the Arcam irDAC - Arcam A19 amp - Kef LS50 combination, which perhaps would indicate the cheaper Arcam A19 would match your LS50's very well.
 
beammeup said:
Hi-Fi Plus did a glowing system review of the Arcam irDAC - Arcam A19 amp - Kef LS50 combination, which perhaps would indicate the cheaper Arcam A19 would match your LS50's very well.
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The Arcam A39 is supposed to be much better, I have heard the A49 and found it excellent with Sonus Faber Evolution speakers, no reviews yet on the Arcam Class G amps not that you can believe any review these days.
 
Space is the Place said:
Whats wrong with your Sony on its own, its not class D is it!? I use a 100W Sony ES receiver with it's built in Dac with the KEF LS50 and it sounds very good indeed, better than any *other combination i've tried them with for some reason, just got lucky.

*one of the combinations was 250W SS monoblocks and Valve preamp.
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Whilst the Sony DA5400ES EISA award winner is very good it is just not in the same class as the JOB225 for driving front speakers, the Sony is excellent for centre & rear speakers. As my speakers have no Xover I can not bi-amp. However nothing I have heard over many years betters the Sony line stage, even the MM phono stage is excellent as is the FM tuner, not worth spending any more on the hyped expensive high end where you can not
use the better & cheap HDMI cable from amp to player for mch sound.
 
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