The Best Amp for the Price of Dirt

This thread should have been entitiled " Best Mono-Block Amps for the Price of Dirt ". My fault.

The A-500's are best configured as 500W mono blocks with specs that can go down the page. They can be compaired Mono-Blocks costing 100 to XXX as more ; mine cost $198.00 ea. , including an additional 2 year, "No Questions Asked", warranty. The bite on them is that "Hi-Fi World" yawned in their review & Robert Hartley declined to review them for "Stereophile". "The Audio Critic" highly recommended them but some just love to hate the Editor and his recommendations : I view that behavor as unethical even if Peter is hard-core in his views. I have been reading his views for 30+ years. My view, he is more correct than not , even if he's a nut on a rare few issues.

The A-500's can hande almost any speaker from 2-16 Ohms with grace. Here's the rub ... Should you get a superb pair they work that way right out of the box. I am told a few % points of stock sold is terrible, Ergo the need for a modest cost extra protection warranty. I purchased mine from musican's friend web site , wonderful folks to do business with.

I'm certan lots of superior equipment exists but 0-500W @ 8 ohms ???? My only rub ... I only listen in 8 ohms & all should do so as mono-blocks.

It's warmed up in Texas and my room is already sweltering when I run my AR cassic 60. I decided to look for a warm weather amp for cheap. I found an audiosource tripath amp. It came today and so far it's sounding quite nice. I got it here on audiogon for " cheap as dirt". There were mixed reports about it on the web. No hum or rf iin my setup. I'm pleased

Docdan50: I reside in Maryland, land of 4 seasons. Here, the summers are getting hotter & more humid. In MD, A/C is very expensive , up near 500 % from the time when I purchased a tube amp. Thanks Gov'.

As in Texas warm weather relates to a change-over from tubes to solid state.

This year Dave Cocklin's S.O.B.'s;they are 84-90W,use 6550's or KT-88's Test-Beds , serial #'s I & II sneezed ; the iron plates in the chokes started to create a slight mechanical noise . Doc, these amps have been good to me. Besides unparalled sound, I have had no break-downs in 18 years of ownership . I am the second owner to David who is no longer with us.

Eric Falkenhan (410-467-3620) is to replace the Chicago Standard Collins R-63 Chokes with drop-in replacements. The alternative would be a mucho-buck rewinding & potting or re-dipping of the plates, not kind things to a bank account in hard times.

The A-500's have been returned to service in the "Big Rig". In my view they stand on their own merits with any speaker source & are of course "cheap as dirt".

Doc, the best to you & your amp source. Pleas keep us informed of your listening experiences.

I've tried too many amps to count and have been very impressed with ChiFi. Best $, period. Best audio BARGAIN.

Just got Shengya A10CS from eBay seller "listeningchina" for $800 shipped for US 110V version. it's same as Vincent SV-236 MkII sold in US for $2,000. My decision was based on glowing review on Stereophile April 2009 issue.

Wow. No kidding and can see why this int amp has been darling of TAS too as "Editor's Choice" for 3 years straight (2006 to 2008).

This along with Esound CD-E5 will be with me for a while.

I've owned following amps in last 10 years: Linn Classik, Monachy SE100, Marsh Audio (another TAS fave), Bel Canto evo, PS Audio digital (Bel Canto was way better), Nuforce, Dussun V8i - all in order. So went from solid state to digital back to solid state (Dussun was another great sounding 90lb bargain) to tube/ss hybrid.

Listen guys, just take TAS and Stereophile's glowing reviews says it all and yeah incredible BARGAIN at only $800!

Lastly be careful when you buy from China as most are 220V.

It seems like the trusty Behringers are still the reference standard for the price of dirt.

For those of you who try to pay your bills by selling Ongaku amps, I will concede that one of my "monoblocks" has a noisy volume control after two years of constant use.

Perhaps this can be fixed with some contact cleaner.

They otherwise continue to sound great and work like champs with my ATC monitors on my desktop.

cheers,