High current audiophile amps - Recommendations.

I found that as soon as I submitted..so had I quickly edited the post. was not quick enough apparently :)

yeah an rca pin is required
 
Marantz 90w/ch @8 Ohms (140w @ 4 Ohm) PM15S2 (~70k) - Exceedingly good dynamics, perfect -soundstage, pin-point seperation, awesome mid-range clarity. Wholesome 3D experience. Sound to die for.

This will be a great choice.

Other options - cyrus amplifiers.

NAD 40w/ch @8 Ohms C320 (mine) - No dynamics, muddled sound, (still manages to go to a very high volume), NO soundstage. In short - passable sound. Cant listen for a day.
One thing to admire about NAD is their amplifiers do produce the power they claim to. Some vendors to publish inflated claims.

Given the above, It is evident that the speakers need good muscle power to drive. High current amplifiers are what they need to shine.

You'll need minimum 40W/Ch to drive them. If you keep sound levels to moderate and sit at a distance of less than 6ft from the speakers, this will suffice as well as sound good. So you should be able to use a lower powered amplifier as well, if it's of a high quality.

Higher powers will be required only to ensure the amp doesn't run out of steam at high volumes. Your speakers can play really loud.
 
Today has been a largely productive day for me.. :D

Updates:

My NAD C320 is back to form.. :ohyeah:
Tested with the Jamo C405 and they drive them with as much ease as the bookshelves :D

So, here Iam.. Declaring the world.. The Wattage readings in the amp are next to nothing!! A 50w amp in question can drive floorstanders (and in my case easily). I found 2 examples today..

Coming to the NAD + Jamo sound now..
It is slightly bass heavy in a good way. The bass is thumping.. The way I know my amp will produce bass. :yahoo:

Midrange is lacking in details compared to the marantz + Jamo combo (But I agree that the amp in question costs like 70k and is not direcly comparable).

The Jamo shows what it is capable of in the soundstaging and seperation. :ohyeah: Don't know who is the boss here though..

There is a resonance problem near to 10-11'O clock position vol. Bass become over pronounced. Iam fiddling with the placement. If I move it farther from the wall, the speakers become so close to each other (5 feet) but the resonance vanishes (along with some soundstaging :( ). But if move them farther apart (towards the wall) resonance resurfaces. Hopefully there is a optimum point which I dint discover.

After lunch went to Sound & Vision to audition CD players. Marantz CD6003 if possible. The moment I asked for CD player, the answer was "sir we deal with only hi-end stuff". I asked what hi-end stuff? He said "upwards of 20k". I said I wanted demo marantz CD6003. He said only NAD C542 (or something) is available apart from yamaha. Had a demo with NAD C315BEE, not impressed. Price 34k.

And guess what? There was a Music hall 25.2 (for which I was asking opinions about, since musicmaya has one for sale). They have connected it to puny Telome speakers. I immediately asked for an audition. They sounded 'good' infact 'very good' for the size. Better than any bose.

Next, I asked him to connect to the Mission M34 floorstands that were lying beside. The sound was 'great' in all departments except the bass extension. Even the (puny) telome speakers had better bass!! (Are these M34 speakers weak in bass??) It was wholesome natural music other than that. :)

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Edit: Adding more details. :)

The soundstaging was not proper. I think it is because of the speakers though because, I frankly don't think that a set with so many positivs can go wrong here. Also, My M50 headphones built a very good stero image (and that is not the highlight of my headphones!!). Midrange detail was, to express in single word 'surprising'. The high frequency also had great amount of details. But this system is defenitely forward sounding with emphasis on hf. (Coming from NAD user, so could be spoilt). Bass was lacking as I said before. But this could be because of the prounced details in the upper frequencies. I tried for 1/2 hour but could not conclude this.


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They are ready to let go for 44k for the combo with Bill & Warrenty (Negotiable to 42k I guess as he said 40k will be a loss). According to him, he is offering at a lesser price than the US. The sound is much better than NAD C542+C315BEE combo anyday (except the bass). My audio technica (M50) headphones also sounded a bit bass shy in the musichall compared to the NAD combo but produces much much more details in the midrange and HF. Hopefully this could solve my room resonance problem. ;) :D

So, this is a big contender for me. I dont know how the player pairs with my NAD C320. Will be a good experiment.

P.S: Onething I noticed is that the NAD C315BEE sounded worse than my C320 (Both in speakers and in headphone). The BEE is supposed to be an improvement right? Could be that Iam so much used to the C320 sound. :D
 
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Next, I asked him to connect to the M34 floorstands that were lying beside. The sound was 'great' in all departments except the bass extension. Even the (puny) telome speakers had better bass!! (Are these M34 speakers weak in bass??) It was wholesome natural music other than that. :)

Were the speakers Mission 34i ?
which amp are you buying finally ?
 
So, here Iam.. Declaring the world.. The Wattage readings in the amp are next to nothing!! A 50w amp in question can drive floorstanders (and in my case easily). I found 2 examples today..

I completely agree on this. I used to have Naim nait 5i which was just 50 watts, i used naim to drive Dynaudio audiance 72 floorstander which is suppose to be a power hungry speaker, i never felt speakers demanding more watts at moderate volumes.
 
I had 545bee and now i am using CD6003. I can vouch for marantz in terms of build quality,had to send 545 thrice to the service center for some tiny issues like CD error, no disk etc. CD6003 will offer you ease and peace i guess :)

Why don't you try Rega or arcam ? you may have to shell out little more for that but its worth for the extra you pay.
 
Today has been a largely productive day for me.. :D

Updates:

My NAD C320 is back to form.. :ohyeah:
Tested with the Jamo C405 and they drive them with as much ease as the bookshelves :D

So, here Iam.. Declaring the world.. The Wattage readings in the amp are next to nothing!! A 50w amp in question can drive floorstanders (and in my case easily). I found 2 examples today..

So finally you agree:D
 
Please try to audition for exposure and creek. You will love them

you can get both amp and CD from exposure 2010S2 or creek Evo at 80 ~105K.


Surprisingly not many people use Class D amplification, if you want one ultimate piece.

Try out Belcanto C5i as well.


Finally Emotiva pre/powe combo is also quite good.

Cheers
Venkat
 
They look like normal RCA outs, can a normal RCA cable be instead of these thin pins??

P.S: Foto is from the net, I just made markings..

These are called PreAmp Jumpers, i bought one from Audioquest cables (refer their website, accessories section) and it is worth buying a good one rather than using the lengthy RCA cables to avoid clutter. Regards.
 
what happened to Music Hall amp? You pooched me in PM no?

Yeah.
Read my earlier post wherein the jumper pin of my amp came out and the amp was sounding bad. Currently it is fixed and amp requirement takes a back seat. ;)
 
You can make one using 2 pairs of high quality RCA connectors and 1 meter High Quality Speaker Cables ..(Extra Unused Cables:D) Make it Twisted Pair using four cables of 15cm cm Each for each Interconnect, Solder It to the RCA Connectors and Try it and compare With the Jumpers, if you feel your cables are good go with it or else Jumpers;), Some say that changing the Factory fitted Jumpers with high quality cable Jumpers Really improves the Audio quality..I have never tried it myself..may be I will try one day:rolleyes:


Thanks
Saran


Where are they available in india?
 
Given the above, It is evident that the speakers need good muscle power to drive. High current amplifiers are what they need to shine.
Absolutely disagree.

My best ever upgrade was replacing a 120w Sherwood amp with a 50w Cyrus.

I had no idea how rough the Sherwood sounded until I plugged in my Cyrus. Even the audition in the shop had not given me any real idea of just how much improvement I was buying.

Try the Cyrus, Musical Fidelity and the Naim. They match very well with the Jamo's and Dont get fooled by the watts. Yamaha's 150 watts is nothing in front of Naim's 50watts. If you are looking for a long term setup, then buy any of these amplifiers.

Absolutely.

Apart from protecting themselves from the people who might plug their domestic speakers into some kilowatt-output PA system, ending their lives in one short pop, I'm convinced that speaker manufacturers just use these numbers as some sort of decoration on the box! Meaningless.

If you still think you need Big Watts to drive those speakers, talk to the tube-amp guys ... some of them are getting wattage only in single figures out their amps!
 
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