£600 stereo power amps.

Good evening everyone.

Hope you dont mind giving me a helping hand here.

Do you have any good recommendations for stereo power amps in the region of around £600?

I have a dual use setup, which i use for listening to music & watching DVD's, so something that would do a good job for the two different disciplines would be great

Many thanks.

Viper.

 

Simon at Hi Fi Sound ( 013250241888) has a Conrad Johnson SA 250 Hi current in stock @ £599. It is mint, with one careful owner and little use.
The owner paid £1200 for it under three years ago. I Know 'cos I am/was he. 125w per channel has driven Amphion Xenon's and Magneplanars.

Darren

( I have been paid for the amp and gain nothing from it's sale)

 

Arcam FMJ P23 (the power amp version of the A22) should be easily had for 600 notes. The Alpha 10 incarnation of it for even less.

Plenty of quality Rotel's around that price level aswell I would think.

Just the first 2 things that came to mind

Michael.

 

Thanks very much for that gents

I probably should have said that i have a 6.1 system.

So, ideally, i was thinking of using 3 x stereo power amps which would connect to my signal processor.

Thanks once again.


Viper

 

So, you need 3 stereo amps (to make 6 channels) for £600 total (ie £200 each)? Then you're looking at relatively bargain basement stuff.

Michael.

 

If that's the case, then some second hand Rotel RB series power amps would definitely seem to be on the cards.

BTW Michael, congratulations on your 2000th post [pre-empt]

 

Not quite Michael, i was thinking along the lines of £600 for each stereo amplifier (£1800 - total)

I shoul have made that clearer on my original posting.

Many thanks.


Viper.

 

Im not in the least bit knowledgeable about AV.

My idea of AV is running an IC from my tv to the stereo for movies.


Having said all that, if music is your first love, would you not be better to get a great stereo power amp for the front two channels, and an AV decoder/amp for the remaining channels?

Im sure the AV folks on here could help reccomend on this option?
I cant see 3 x power amps being the best option surely?



As an aside, I always thought stocking up on crimson monoblocks would be a great and quite small way of getting 5 or 6 channels of amplification..... wouldnt they look great all lined up? a bit like a borg cube attack...or better still...

 

Hello bottleneck

I like to listen to CD's as much as i like to watch some DVD's.
I suppose i am trying to strike a balance between the two.

I was thinking it might be beneficial to go 3 x stereo power amps, so i could still keep a good standard of stereo reproduction, whilst having good DVD movie performance.

Thanks again.

Viper

 

Here comes the 2000th post Most I've ever had on a forum

OK, Viper then my original advice stands 3 Arcam P23s should be managable allthough finding 3 s/h won't be that easy.

With £1800 on six channels of amplification there may well be better options than 3 stereo amps aswell...

Michael.

 

In that case, I'd still look into getting a batch of second hand Rotels, but staying on the second hand theme you might also want to add Audiolab and Tag McLaren to you search list.

If you're feeling a bit more adventurous and fancy buying/importing second hand from across the pond, then there appear to be glut of Bel Canto Evo 200.2 stereo amps going for the right money over there. Although by the time you've paid import tax they may be just a touch over £600 each. This would probably be the satisfying solution for your music needs, and certainly give you plenty of power and grunt for movies.

 

Parasound Halo A51 S/H A52 New?

 

Ok, as most of my listening gear is 'some what different from most', I'm going to go with the rotel's we have one in the test cell at the moment a 1070, quite a little preformer 2 by 100 rms@ 8ohms but more importantly has the current delivery, good solid, punchy ballsy sound nicely detailed, and not in yer face either, does have a decent slab of PRaT too, it retails for £495, which I feel is very fair, nicely constructed, and decent binding posts, now they (rotel) do a 6 channel version for about £900 new, outside your price point viper, but worth a serious look, an under rated product in my book
worth a mention the Arcam FMJ P35's great amps balls and some finesse too, I have seen the P7 as low as £ 1750 used. Wm

 

Thanks very much everyone.

There is certainly enough stuff for me to be investigating


Viper

 

Tone, his budget is 1800 quid - he was looking at spending 600 on each amp(600x3)

I still think best option is to get high quality front two channel amp, and budget more for other channels.

Im sure that would make the hifi sound the best anyway

NB - someone clear this up for me..
Whats the difference between 5.1 and 6 channel AV?

Chris

 

Careful scanning of the s/h market will turn up a Bryston 9BST at around £1800. Only 5 channels but superb for av and a cut above most for stereo.

Plus you've got a 20year warranty so buying s/h is fairly safe.

 

Well if it's £1800 then easy answer Belcanto Evo 6 used, everything you'll ever need in one box

 

I think 6.1 has a centre rear channel in addition to the standard ones of 5.1, plus the sub channel.

 

Yes. The .1 is always the sub. 5.1 is two fronts, two rears and a centre (+ sub). 6.1 is two fronts, two rears, a centre front and a centre rear (+ sub). 7.1 is when there are two rear centre speakers instead of just the one in 6.1.

Personally, I won't ever go beyond 5.1 and I reckon the same is true of most people with AV systems. Unless you have a dedicated home cinema room then who's going to want to have centre rear speakers cluttering up their living room? It's bad enough with rear surrounds and then you've got an extra 2 channels of amplification to think of aswell!

Michael.

 

Or three Cyrus Smart Powers and switch the front into mono mode