2. amps-preamps
  3. 1040867818

Quietest amplifier you have ever owned.

I hate it when I'm sitting in the listening chair with no music playing and you can hear the sound of the amplifier coming through the speakers. I was curious what the quietest amps out there might be. One example I can think of would be the Antique Sound Labs MG-SI15DT integrated amplilfier. With the amp on and no music playing I can put my ear right up to the speaker and hear nothing but dead silence. This is probably the quietest amp I have ever had and it probably has something to do with it's single-ended design.
bobgates
pbb
1,140 posts
 
Maybe you should put some music on. I always feel empty, in an empty room, with an empty cd drawer or naked platter with no musical matter, even more so on an empty stomach. Is listening with no music on a new audiophile preoccupation? And there I was thinking it was about the music! I think this may be the quintessence of audiophilia nervosa, listening to the amp itself without music. The beauty of the s/n ratio in all its nakedness! Heck some people don't even need the amp, they just read the specs on the lew and it fires up their imagination. From my humble but God-awful cold one-holler in the frozen mid-fi trenches, good day!
sean
6,231 posts
 
You're right Pbb. I'm scrapping all my gear and buying Pioneer, Sony, Technics and Kenwood. Think of the money i can save in the future and the money i can put back into my bank account after selling all of the gear that i have now !!! Since the mass market stuff all measures the same, and the measurements are good by most people's standards, and it all produces sound that one "could" call "music", i've wasted a LOT of time, money and effort with the over-priced junk that we call "sound systems". Ha !!! Thanks for opening my eyes !!! You've steered me back onto the right path once again. Both you and Norm Strong have been right all along.... Sean
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rcrump
427 posts
 
The Parasound JC-1 is the quietest amp I have owned and it measures 122dB at 400w out into 8r....At 1w out this drops into the upper eighties A-weighted...
jtinn
1,124 posts
 
Twl: If you are talking -120 db signal to noise ratio, I think you have been lied to. It is close to impossible to acheive that number.
sean
6,231 posts
 
Jtinn: While some of you probably know that i'm not a fan of Bryston amps ( don't know anything about their preamps or processor ), one of their amps was reviewed a while back and had a VERY high S/N ratio. I want to say that it was very near or slightly above -120. I'm not sure, but this might have been the little 60 wpc integrated. Maybe someone can refresh my memory. Sean
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