Amps which are Great, but either Unknown or Underpriced


Hello everyone,


When I think of Power Amps (or integrated amps) that play / sound way beyond their price-point and can be non-household names, I think of companies like:


  1. Belles (Power Modules)
  2. McCormack
  3. Coda


Can you guys please suggest other Power Amps / Companies that are also somewhat unknown or of great value?


Your suggestions would really help me and others.  Thanks!


Matt

mminor
Will also recommend Line Magnetic - purchased a 518ia (integrated 22wpc SET) - excellent build quality and sounded good with stock tubes, but swapped in some NOS GE 6L6s and 12 AX7s, and NOS Mullard 5AR4, sounds fantastic driving Daedalus Argos V2s
Crown XTi 2 amps are very interesting...and just downright killer if you have a rather good power conditioning solution and speakers with passive crossovers you’ve been looking to upgrade. These amps have free software you use to access a suite of digital pro tools. You type in any frequencies you want for the crossover points, type of slope (1st-4th order), relative gain and EQ for each amp which has a balanced line out that will pass a processed, or unprocessed (your choice) signal to the next amp. Very trick...all you need to buy extra is the wiring to make it work. Say goodbye to expensive crossover parts and the power-robbing crossovers and hello to one helluva dynamic envelope...provided your speakers are up to it. Sound out of the box is...meh, but with good power conditioning they come alive and are steal...very authentic sounding! No better way to multi-amp anywhere Near this price that I ever saw. These amps are not just for subwoofers...excellent mids and highs too. The only real caveat is that for best sound the speaker connectors (Speakons) should be bypassed.
Many good amps listed. I'll add Coincident Dynamo 34SE. Top notch and cost effective if you pair with high efficiency speakers.

Unknown can be a result of never having been given a review in the audio mags, or small production, or both.

I am a big fan of the Classe DR3 VHC, but they never had a review, they only made 166 of them (I own 3, one run stereo and two as bridged monos) and they were very expensive at the time ($5K c. 1987.

If you ever get the chance to hear them don't pass it up, and if you see them for sale (a very rare event) consider them. They will drive literally anything (including Apogee Scintillas on 1 ohm setting) and sound almost tube like.)

Downside is that they are very large (too high to fit in regular racks with fixed shelves) and quite heavy (c. 110 lbs each)