Please forgive me, I’ve only skimmed the comments and not in detail here, but it appears that you have your choice of both the Croft and the Belles integrated amps right now on USAM. Here are the links:
A decent integrated amp under 2K ...
I'm looking for an INTEGRATED AMP. My speakers are Altec 620A (100 db efficiency) and my listening room is 14 x 21. I mainly listen to digital files from my DAC (Metrum) but sometimes I feel less lazy and put on a vinyl on my Garrard. I don't need a phono stage, I use the one from another integrated amplifier (Spendor D40). Here's my shortlist:
1) Belles Aria Integrated (slightly powerful for my needs)
2) Croft phono integrated (since I don't need a phono stage, I think it's a shame to burn tubes for nothing)
3) Rogue Sphinx V3 (too powerful for my needs)
FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS: I can live with tubes but only in the PREAMP section and I try to avoid Class A due to the heat. I'm open to Class D (proof: the Rogue) but the choice is limited and these devices come with a bunch of stuff I don't need. I rather spend my $ where it will make a difference.
regards
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I may be late to the table here but I believe one thing that does not get talked about when choosing an amp for a highly efficient set of speakers is damping factor. Choosing a normal solid state amp on efficient speakers will strangle them. Judd Barber of Joulle Electra fame talked about damping factor that anything above around 8 and the amp will start to swallow up the bass notes - this is compounded with high efficiency. Hence Croft makes it a great choice for your Altec speakers - it measures like a tube amp.
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@waltroman : very interresting comment... I end up buying a Belles Aria Integrated about a month ago and I've been listening to it ever since... its damping factor is 2000 and I lost quite a bit of bass..I would like to compare with the Croft, but I don't know its damping factor and this info seems hard to get on the web... |
- 109 posts total