B&K ST-202 or Forte 1A?

Room size is about 20X20 and I listen to a broad range of Music.Anywhere from Soundtracks,Classical,Rock to Country when I have people around that want to hear it.

Roo size will vary though until I get a house of my own.

Playing Levels will generally be Loud when time permits.

While the Forte' is a far more refined amp that is "more powerful" than its' ratings would lead one to believe, i would probably stick with the B&K. While the Forte' might work better for Classical and jazz, it will not come across as having the "drive" that the B&K tends to produce, especially when being pushed harder. The 1A is much more open and airy sounding but does not have the "warmth" or "body" that the B&K does. As to the B&K amp, it can be made into a very good sounding amp due to the VERY simplistic design. Even with the limited parts count that are in these amps, you can get rid of another 10% of them due to lack of necessity and sonic degradation. Upgrading the input cap makes a BIG difference and bypassing the the power supply caps also helps to clean up and open up the top end. Sean
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I have found with the Mods done to the amp give it is a very clean sounding amp.The Highend Treble region I want more emphasis placed with my next amp wth the ability to Drive insfficient speaker's up to 300watts.That is the rating which the M50's have.
The NEAR's I am using have a newly designed Woofer\Mid Driver that has an emphasis in the lower Bass which lends warmth to the overall sound.
I will stick with the B&K till I find a Substantial Bargin in the used sector for a World Class Amp.
The best playback system I have heard my speaker's with are an ARC Pre-Amp and a Mark Levinson amp with a Proceed CDP

Thx again!

I would not recommend either amp. I don't think either amp could be truly comfortable with a 2 Ohm load in stock form. Perhaps the mods on the B&K have adressed this?

Unsound, i did not even notice that in the original post. Thanks for pointing that out to both of us. Neither amp would be real happy with that type of a load in my opinion. Not only does the B&K not have enough power supply, it is seriously lacking heatsink for that type of operation. The Forte' would deal with it a little easier, but i don't think that it would have enough juice to get the job done and do it cleanly. Sean
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