First System Amp . . .

Thanks, folks. I'll investigate the Aragon, Rotel, McIntosh, Bryston and B&K. They all sound good.

What you're going to do with your broken one?
Send me a note, since I buy broken equipment and fix it(finally I built my home lab!).

After your old Adcom Bryston 3b-st used will be the very valuable upgrade. It has better current delivery capabilities and sounds more relaxed and detailed.

My belief for a first system amp is a amp that is < $500. Start off with a Acurus, Adcom, or Rotel. You will be happy and if you expirence the need for more spend more but please start with an amp less than $500. Enjoy.

I would have to second the aragon, i have owned the 4004mkII, which I acquired from this site, for about 2 years now and the only thing that would make me consider selling it is maybe an upgrade to the 8008 series. I've just been very happy with the way my music sounds. And I agree, it is much more musical than the adcom amps as I remember from auditioning them both a few years ago when I was shopping. ANd the dual mono design puts out as much power as any speaker could want (400 watts into my 4 ohm thiels! or 200 into 8ohms). It really is a great deal at $800 and the 8008 is only about 50% more.
good luck

I would try a used McIntosh MC7100 or Odessey Stratos. I own the former and have tried the last one at home. They are similar in that they have a warm sound that is super-easy to listen to and with good layering and coherence. I just love my little Mc and it just about beats anything else I have heard for around $700. So much body and soul - it just rocks relentlessly with control that belies its conservative 100Wpc 8ohm rating. This is with a McIntosh C712 pre, Sony CA80ES cdp, and Paradigm Reference 100.2 speakers. Anyway, good luck - Arthur

LeAmpII's are just coming online!I really look forward to hearing these babies.Everyhting is positive as far as the build and components used.
If they fail in the Mids\Highs to please me I will use them for th Bass in a vertical amping situation.I cannot see they will fail to please.
They are better than the orriginal LeAmps that got luke warm reviews and I see why ,but these dhould shine.
They are capabile of proving double the power with each halving of Impedance.
That in itself is incredible for a $400 set of Monos.

Will post a review after getting them and my new NEAR speakers which shall be the most advanced set of M50's in the world.Really jazzed about that!

BTW-The parts used in the new amps use the same trannies that Mark Levs use.This is a steal of a deal if the sonic attributes are stellar!

My present amp is a modded B&K ST-202 which has been better than any thing I have heard in my area.

Happy hunting!

My ADCOM 545 from 1989 was decommissioned this past December. I had it paired with an ADCOM 500 II preamp/tuner; SONY SCD 555ES SACD changer; and Acoustic Research 302 Classic Series speakers and was very pleased with the set-up. I replaced it with a Musical Fidelity A3 Integrated Amplifier. The sound is a little more detailed; more musical in a subtle way; and warmer. I can listen for longer periods. The Musical Fidelity took a long time to break in (is probably still breaking in). I am happy with the MF. The other integrated amp that I considered was the LFD Mistral. The deciding factor was the very good deal I received from Upscale Audio.

You probably mean a little more musical..
I have been thru alot of Adcom amps..
545 I and II, 555, 5800...
Liked the 545 the best out of those..
Use all Mirage speakers.. always did..
Bought an Aragon 8002... what an incredible difference!
Anything from the Aragon line is great with mirage, and energy.. same company.
The 8002 or 4004 can be had for 700 or so.
Not bad at all..
There are alot of nice choices..
But I wanted to stress that the Adcom and Aragon are not even in the same league at similar prices...
Same with any of the b and k amps that are newer...
imo, the Aragon is a best bang for the buck..
I now own 5 of them!!
Happy listening,
Joe
Custom Audio LLC