Amplifiers:A Keeper for Life. Do you know of one ?


Just wondering, with this audio merry-go-round of buying and selling, if anyone has an amp that will be a keeper for life. I haven't yet but came verrrry close once...
sonicbeauty
My Quicksilver V4's. My gosh, what depth they posses. I love them so much I just bought a pair Bruce Moore Custom M 120's. While the BM's are on a boat heading my way, I'm thinking, these V4's sound so awesome, how could something else sound better than these? Still, they'll have to go when the new amps arrive. Or, the new amps will have to go. Will the Bruce Moore's really sound better at 3 times the cost? Maybe I just need a twelve step program for audioholics....

David
The CAT JL-3 Signatures are the end of the road for me. They are rated at "only" 150w but this is very misleading compared to the rating of many other amplifiers I have tried on Magnepan series 3 speakers. Of course the JL-3s are a lot of amp to use with these speakers, but it quickly showed me that these amps are affected by nothing.

The JL-3's each have 16 6550 power tubes driven in triode. The older ARC Classic 150 amps used 8 of these tubes to achieve the "same" rating in triode mode. And the CL150 amps shut down just as the Maggies were starting to play their magic. With the JL-3s driving the Magnepans, the only limit here is the speaker itself.

And the JL-3s are claimed to drive the very difficult MBL 101s and also can be configured to drive the difficult 1-ohm Apogee speakers. So driving the Dynaudio speakers should be a piece of cake for the CATs.

And not only do they have phenomenol drive capability, they have a dynamic contrast and resolution potential that you have to hear to believe.

So all of this adds up to an amplifier that I suspect will be with me for a long long time.

The only issue is that they need dedicated 20A circuits as they take quite a surge when powered on.

John
with an ARC LS5mk2 preamp. Tube/SS heaven for almost 9 years
now with not a single itch for change. Only music matters now.