Perreaux amplifier 3150B - your opinion sought

As far as shorting the outputs goes. I accidently shorted out my output terrminals about a week ago. The rail fuses blew instantly but zero dammage to the amp or the mosfets.I put a peice of thick rubber between them now just to be safe. Sean's discription is rirght on the money. I also have two 2150b Perreaux amps and never have had any problems. The 3150 is a better amp though and IMHO thats saying alot as the 2150b's are very good also. The boards inside the 3150 are made of a better material. Basicly the 3150 builds on the earlier 2150b's and what they had learned from them. should be happy with it for a long time to come. And there are plenty of people that would be interested if you ever want to sell it. If you use heavy speaker cable as you should it with spades watch that they do not turn themselves and short out. It can be difficult to tightend the binding posts. You can't use a wrench on them as they are straight grooved aand kinda slippery. Also if you do over tightend them they may spin in the back pannel. I use WBT locking bananna connecters now and feel much better. Great amp and should give you many happy hours of good listening.

"As such, it has the potential to kill you ".........SEAN, my buddy.........you are scaring me to pieces!!!!

But seriously, I am still looking for this amp (took your advice or the one on auction. I do respect your advice so when (if) I get this guy you will have to tell me how I should protect the amp and (more importantly) me!!

Thanks Rick

Motorpsychos,

"WBT Banana Plugs" that is a fantastic tip thank you for that, I will surely keep that in mind. I know a fellow audiophile uses the VDH speaker cables on his Krell 300i and they sure lock in place.

Thank you guys for the input, always appreciated.

Dynakid

Rwd: Sorry for the phenomenally slow response. As you might have noticed, i've not been on the puter as much lately.

As to my "deathly" comments, you would have to be doing something really dumb to have an amp "cook" you via the binding posts. None the less, many high quality amps of good power are capable of doing what i mentioned IF you somehow managed to put yourself in such a position. The 3150 may offer slightly more potential to do so since it runs very high rail voltages (+/- 90 volts ) and makes use of bare metal binding posts. For the record, most amps run the rails somewhere in the 40 - 70 volt range.

Motorpsychos: Personally, i think that the 3150 & 2150 sound noticeably different from one another. It is hard to believe that they came from the same manufacturer let alone make use of 90% of the same parts. The 2150 is noticeably brighter / edgier sounding to me in the mids and upper range and lacks the bottom end "oomph" that i find the 3150 to normally display. Having said that, some might prefer the more forward and leaner sound of the 2150 than that of the warmer / more "potent" bottom end of the 3150. Obviously, this would boil down to system synergy and personal preference. Sean
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Hi Sean, My 2150b from 1983, had a staggering bottom that drove Infinity RS-1 bass towers better than anything I had.
Perhaps they didnt all sound the same. The amp was quite a bargain when it was introduced. We also thought quite a bit of the 1150b. You say output transistors are no longer available? Another reason to stick with the big established types like MAC. A basic power amp should be servicable for as long as one cares to keep it going........Frank