Class D or Hybrid Amp for Fritz Rev 7 speakers


I am a long-time member but very seldom post. However, I value the expertise here as I have not bought a lot of audio equipment in my day. My goal in 2014 is to upgrade my power amp to hopefully get more detail, a better midrange, and better soundstage. After upgrading the amp, my plan is to upgrade the pre-amp in 2015.

I had some great recommendations on potential tube amps but when I started reading the manuals, I realized that I don’t have the rack space to suit a higher powered tube amp. It seems like there is a lot of discussion here on Class D so I thought I would ask for comments/help.

My current system consists of MacMini/Rega DAC/Acurus RL11 preamp/Acurus A250 power amp/Fritz Rev 7 speakers. The Rev 7s are 4 ohm, 89 db sensitivity. I plan to keep these for a long time so want an amp to match. The Acurus equipment was modded a couple years ago.

My budget is approximately $2K used or new. As of now, my plan is to try a hybrid tube amp (Rogue or Audio by Van Alstine) or Class D amp. If I don’t get one of the hybrids, I would be intrigued by Class D amps such as Channel Islands, W4S, and Bel Canto.

One criteria is that they would have to be compatible with a tube pre-amp as I wan tto try tubes somewhere in my system. In 2015, I plan to upgrade the pre-amp. I have not heard Class D or tubes extensively so I don’t have a strong inclination. However, it seems that I could put together a nice combination using a class D or hybrid with a tube preamp.

Given my budget and system, are there any obvious combinations that you would recommend? Thanks in advance for any comments.
sruffle
After doing some research, I narrowed it down to the nCore 400 or the Rogue hybrid amps (Medusa/Hydra). I really wanted to hear the nCore 400 but I found a very nice deal on the Medusa and went with that.

I am very happy with the choice. It seems to work great with my speakers and is a significant upgrade over the Acurus. There is definitely an increase in detail but that is not the most significant benefit. The soundstage is greatly improved and there is a smoothness in the mid-range that I did not have before. Additionally, I don’t get a glare/hardness on high notes like I did with the Acurus.

Of course, after getting this improvement, I am busy thinking of the next upgrade. The big one is going to be a tube pre-amp to go with the Medusa. That will probably wait until late this year or 2014. In the meantime, I am going to:

1. Upgrade from my Blue Jeans speaker cable
2. Upgrade from the stock Medusa powercord, and
3. Consider trying new AU7 tubes from the Phillips JAN 5814 tubes currently In it ( I will wait a few months before trying this)

Thanks again to all for the comments on this thread. It was very helpful to get opinions from a group of people with this much knowledge.
You could've continued to mod the Acurus amp instead of buying a new amp. I learned from experience how much the sound may change or improve from swapping out a few OEM parts for high quality parts. I never used a solder iron before I got into this hobby that has now turned into an addiction. You've been warned!

Start with decoupling power supply electrolytics with V-Caps rated at .47uf or higher capacitance. You'll hear a very impressive improvement to the soundstage. This is where my inspiration comes from - http://jimmyauw.com/tag/vcap/