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Cary CAD300SE Signatures...bought them before any rave reviews came out.
We got a record number of responses last week when we asked readers to share their loudspeaker preferences. Now tell us what <I>drives</I> those speakers.
I use a quartet of Marantz MA500s in my stereo rig---a very modest amp but very lively. I am saving all my nickels and dimes for a pair (or perhaps a trio, to power a center channel) of Krell FPB-250s, which I love. I will likely have to buy them one at a time. I currently don't have the power lines at home to support large class-A amps.
Vive le Jadis Orchestra. It is rated Class A by Stereophile, but would be rated A++ if Stereophile were published in Asia. The amp just costs about US$1100 plus small change in Singapore! I used to think that amps do not have much effect on sound. But I (and even my wife) completely revised our opinions after we got this into our system. To my ears, this beats any system up to 10 times the price (inlcuding more expensive ones from Jadis) hands down.
MY VOTE GOES FOR MY MUSIC REFERENCE RM-9 TUBE POWER AMPLIFIER. IT'S UNUSUALLY VERSATILE IN THAT IT HAS A THREE POSITION FEEDBACK/GAIN SWITCH AND THREE OUTPUT TAPS. ALSO, YOU HAVE THE OPTION OF USING EL-34, KT-88, OR 6550 POWER TUBES. THE UNIT IS ATTRACTIVE AND COMPACT IN SIZE CONSIDERING ITS 100W/CH. OUTPUT. IT SOUNDS GREAT DRIVING MY ACOUSTAT 1+1 ELECTROSTATICS. I THINK I'M GOING TO HAVE THIS AMP A LONG, LONG TIME.
Musical notes ooze out from my CD player and enter the Musical Fidelity X10-D tube buffer amp. The tubes polish the raw notes and feed it to the Quad 34 preamplifier, where they grow up in volume a bit and are squeezed out to the Quad 405 II power amplifier. As the notes in the amp come of age, they mate with the beauty, the Maggies. Oh! What a feeling of pleasure!
AB Systems 810B. A relic left over from my years as a pro musician. It is a "sound reinforcement" power amp. Equipped with input level controls, I use it without a preamp to simplify the signal path. It is rated at 200 wpc t 4 ohms, 400 at 2 ohms. No 8 ohm rating. It can get kind of hot when cranking out into my Martin Logan SL3s, but I love the clean effortless sound.
An Onkyo Integra integrated amp, model 9711, I think. 80Wpc @ 8 ohms. Not the ultimate in sonics, but still kicks the behind of any receiver I've heard, and holds its own with many components that I've seen on your "Recommended" lists.
I have Symdex Sigma-Omega Signature speakers (updated to the Epsilon level). These 3 way dynamic speakers are the best speakers I have heard under $15,000. With the right equipment and cables, these speakers have clean, crisp extended highs, deep extended and controlled bass, and a full, rich midrange. They have excellent focus, a broad and deep soundstage and are utterly transparent. There are no gaps in the musical tapestry which begins to the left of the left speaker and extends beyond the right speaker. The amount of musical detail is astounding. Transient attacks are swift and decay is protracted (where appropriate). There is a sense of "air" between the players.