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

Changing amps is kinda like having roving eye for us. I can afford to change amps every now and then, but not a wife

That is a good question. One purpose would be to identify some of the best amps available for consideration. What would be even more interesting to me is to identify the best amp you have owned and what three other amps you owned or compared them to; to provide some context and weight to a judgement. It is different to say Amp X is the best amp I heard, and the other amps you are familiar with are Arcam, Rotel, or NAD (nothing wrong with thes, but...) versus having owned/or having worthwhile familiarity with CAT, Atmasphere, or Lamm (or others of that ilk). To some extent, these types of contextualized judgements help assess the strength or relevance of the judgement, a type of listener IQ (don't in anyway mean to sound snobbish about this). Additionally, when anyone says that an amp blows everything out of the water, or incomparable to anything else, I immediately grow weary.

I didnt think another amp would enter my thoughts again. In my system the old but sturdy Krells have made me a happy man. I find myself much happier than with the Ayre V-1XE and the Parasound JC-1s which ruled before them.
Then I spent a moment, then an hour, and then a day with the Mcintosh 1201s. Now I find my mind wandering.....
Were are my morals? ;)

I, we(?) all know what you mean. I got the itch and bought a few amps (3) while I've had my CAT JL2s, I sold all three and kept the CATs, so maybe, just maybe...

Well, I've had my Conrad Johnson CA200 and see no reason that I won't keep it 25-years like my Bryston before it. Since I'll be 60 in a couple of weeks, then it could very well be my last amp.

Very little has changed since I started collecting records in the late 1950. Two-channel has refined a bunch, but it's still two-channel. So far as I'm concerned, "surround" and multi-channel have failed as music media. (Technically, good surround is now possible I know, but seldom happens in reality).

Still, technology, in general is marching on at an astounding rate. My Korg 1-bit, 5.6MHz hard drive recorder, for example, amazes me, but I'm still running it through the same analog amp and speakers.

Maybe, just maybe, a break through will occur that allows a true, complete concert hall experience in my living room. If it requires a new amp, then I'll likely upgrade. Still, I'm not counting on it. I'm not wed to this amp, but I'm unlikely to change.

Up the thread I see lots of people proclaiming lots of amps as the "ultimate". I'm not that young. My amp is damn good, but I'm not fool enough to proclaim it "the best" and everyone should have one.

Ciao,

Dave