Amplifier shortlist - Your Opinions Sought

I've decided after all the forum members' helpful advice that the weakest link in my HiFi "chain" is probably the Audiolab 8000a so, armed with about £800 to spend and going down the second hand route, I've done some digging around and have shortlisted to:

New:

• Adding 2xAudiolab 8000m.

What's out there second hand:

• Meridian 501.2 pre and 556 power.
• Sonneteer Alabaster
• Musical Fidelity A3.cr pre / power
• Chord SPM-1000B power amp (Keeping the Audiolab as Pre)

The amp will take Meridian 506.24 and Manticore Manatra / RB300 / Sumiko Blue Point SPecial / XLP as sources and will feed a pair of Neat Petite 2 / Gravitas speaker combos.

Although the best test is to go and audition, no two of these are in the same shop so at best I can only go and listen to 2. I would be most interested in your thoughts.

In addition, I would be grateful on thoughts on speaker cabling. I currently have the speakers bi-wired with Audionote AN-D. With the amps above, would this still be the best cable or, in the case of the Alabaster for example, I would need to run only one cable from the amp, what would be a better cable to run in that configuration?

Cheers again.

 

Bryston 4b-st - much better than the chord 1000b I used to own

Add an avi preamp from the 2000 series

cheap qed cable wil be as good as anything.

 

What about a Nad S300

 

If I could find one to audition, I would consider one.

 

Recently added a Lyngdorf sda2175 power, very impressed and there are one or two about

 

I had an 8000lx and had the chance to dem the new 8000 line next to MFs A5 range. The component that astonished me was the A5 pre, it opened a window into the music that none of the other combinations came close to.

I'd suggest a s/h 8000p or the like that you can upgrade in the future and a new A5 pre at £600 (Lintone Audio). It'll be a breath of fresh air next to your 8000a (IMHO!).

 

cairn...

 

Any particular model?

 

Seeker, are those your only 4 options?

 

MC2 beats Chord and Bryston MC450, 650, 750 or 1250-make most amps sound like toys.

 

well, they don't come up that often - but there's one on fleabay...not sure what it's like tho...

 

No, but they're all I can find that I know of, are relatively close to home and within the price range

 

I looked at it - it's being sold by The Emporium and, given their level of knowledge of all things HiFi, I'm surprised they can't tell more. Seems a good price tho'

Can't find anything else out about them at all and their doesn't appear to be any UK support either. So I'm tempted but a little unsure....

Edit - seems also they're 30 WPC. Neat advise nothing <50WPC......

 

yeah, here's there website -
http://www.icairn.fr/

 

Ta.

 

or...?

http://www.usedhifishop.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=640

don't know anything about it tho...

 

Again, thanks for the link - that's where I got the Meridian CD from - Dave is a very, very nice chap.

 

agreed!

wont even bother to list all of the amps i tried (all 1k-3k) , the mc750 was better

 

I third the MC2 route,I use mine(650) without a pre amp using the amps own linked controls .A cracking amplifier my NAP250 is sitting around feeling neglected.

 

You should be able to pick up a Krell 300i for around that price. If you like that sort of sound then I'd thoroughly recommend it. I had one for about a year too. You can just use the power amp section if you wanted to move to a seperate pre too.

Cheers, Tim