Which solid state amp loves a 4 ohm load?


I am seeking your recommendations on neutral-sounding solid state amplifiers for around $1500 (or less) used. It will need to be a strong performer with a 4 ohm load and have enough power to fill a 60'x 20' room. However, I don't wish to sacrifice sound for power as I don't listen at high levels often enough. Speakers are Audes Blues and will work "backward" from there.

Thank you in advance for your expertise.
sydneysophia
Brace yourself or skip over reading my post if you are only looking for "nice words". I would rather "tell it like it is" and let you sort things out for yourself. At least with this approach, you know what you're dealing with and what to expect.

First of all, you're going to have problems with your speakers in terms of trying to place them and achieve relatively flat response in the bass / mid-bass region. The overall design, in specific, the placement of their woofer, is far from optimal. You can't mount a single woofer up that high and have it work properly.

Secondly, you should do some research of your own on the subject pertaining to what amps do well into lower impedances. Some of the amps mentioned here really don't do well into lower impedances. This has been covered in these forums and a magazine review also.

Thirdly, when looking at power ratings of an amp, look at what the amp clips at into various impedances, not what it is rated at. This will give you a better idea of how sturdy the entire amp ( both the power supply and the output stage ) really is.

Fourth and lastly, that is a BIG room. If you expect to generate high spl's there, your speakers will be eating power from an amp like a stranded survivor on an island would eat a bag of M&M's that drifted ashore. Take that into consideration. Not only will the sound be cleaner, but you'll have less chance of driving the amp into clipping and / or damaging the speakers from the associated distortion. Sean
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InnerSound ESL. 600wpc into 4 ohms. Kicks Maggie ass. You might be able to find one in your price range used.
Classe CA200 used - drive Thiels, average 2.4 ohms aplenty in my large room.
Sydneysophia,

Audes Blue in a 60'X20' room is a BAD idea! This speaker is more suited to a 14'X24' type of room at the most. You probably cannot generate enough SPL to "fill" your room. To do so, you'll probably be playing with very loud volumes, the excursions on the woofer are going to be very large & in a short time (a month I guess, if you are lucky) you will need new tweeters as you probably will be running close to max. power into them! The specs say max. long-term power=130W & max short-term power=200W - using the short-term power #, this will generate 104 SPL @ 3m & using the long-term power, this will generate 107dB SPL @ 3m. Doubling the distance (to 6m) drops the SPL by 6dB. This speaker is only 47" tall & goes down to ONLY 45Hz (+/- 2dB) with one small-med 8" woofer.

At any rate, another amp that does well into 4 Ohms is the Clayton M100 but it is only 100W/ch. The bigger amps S2000 or M2000 are much more powerful - 600W/ch into 4 Ohms & 1000W/ch into 4 Ohms. However, they are expensive (but damn good)!!

I think you need to get much bigger speakers (for eg. PBN Montana XP, KAS or WAS, one of the larger Dunlavys or JM Lab Utopia or the GR Research Alpha LS)if you want to fill the room. A better idea might be to section off the room so that you can create a much smaller space into which the Audes Blue can play. This will make you *much* happier!
I tried to use Maggie 3.6's in a 60' X 28' room and partitioned it down to 45 X 28 for better results.
I've been using a pair of Cary V12i Monoblocks with the 3.6's, having tried various SS amps such as McIntosh and Belles. The Mac ran out of steam at modest levels (200 watts into 8 and 4 ohm) and the Belles sounded too bright for my tastes.
The Cary's are good, great in fact for smaller scale music, but I fealt that the stage width/depth was somewhat smaller than it could be.
A few day's ago one of the Cary's blew a fuse, leaving me potentially musicless through the holiday. I went to my local dealer and picked up a 20 year old Perreaux 2150B that he had collecting dust. My thoughts were that any sound is better than no sound.
When I hooked up the Perreaux......what a revelation!
The speakers just dissapear and the stage width is incredible. Dynamic contrasts such as those playing Big Band music are incredible...the bottom end control is excellent also.
Anyway, I'm now looking around for a more modern Perreaux and may eventually try a Marchand x-over with the SS on the bottom end and the Cary's on the treble. Or I may just ditch the Cary's and use a Perreaux 3150 or something newer from their range.
Incidentally, I've found very little on the Perreaux amps here at AG, some comments from Sean who was/is using them to drive subs, but no detailed comparisons between different models in the range or comparisons with other amps capable of delivering high current into difficult loads. I can't find any feedback on the more modern Perreaux's either, just a couple of threads on the 3150B

Anyway, right now I would highly recommend that you check out a Perreaux amp for your 4 ohm speakers.

Any Perreaux owners out there?