Thanks for all the great responses, this forum is always a wealth of information, even though a lot of it goes a bit over my head.
Well,I made my choice today and the winner was the Classe CA-5100 which is now hooked up on my rack.
Since everyone was so kind in suggesting pros and cons I will explain my choice.
Firstly the ones that I did not buy. The Earthquake BR Grand 7 looked great on paper but the prospect of lugging around a 145lb amp and finding a rack that could support it and shipping fees if it was not working etc... just ruled it out for me.
The Audiocontrol was an interesting prospect and I could get it at just over half retail new. New is always good for warranty and out of the box experience. However its design seemed to be an update of the old Arcam P1000 albeit with more power. What scared me off the Audiocontrol was again the complete lack of reviews of any kind and also the prospect of it being impossible to sell in the future and the class H topology as I am primarily interested in music, stereo and multi-channel.
Now, onto the Classe. The seller was local, original owner and the unit was mint, complete and 6 years old. As Auxinput noted the class A bias on the delta series is likely a nice complementary feature considering my choice of prepro. I reasoned that in the event of upgrade ( Which we always do despite our best efforts not to...) the classe is a far easier resale proposition than the other two. Also I need seven channels so a Ca-2200 would make a nice addition in a year or so. I have the surround rears covered with a NAD which only triggers when I have my bluray input selected.
After a quick listen to my got to 5.1 SACD Avalon by Roxy Music , I was instantly put at ease in terms of choice. I have listed to this disc perhaps 300 times and know it from start to finish. The Classe does a wonderful job and the improvement was instantly apparent over the NAD T955 which was serving as a stopgap solution. I only had a small window to test until real life interupted my listening test. Anyway, Thanks a lot for all the advice.
Well,I made my choice today and the winner was the Classe CA-5100 which is now hooked up on my rack.
Since everyone was so kind in suggesting pros and cons I will explain my choice.
Firstly the ones that I did not buy. The Earthquake BR Grand 7 looked great on paper but the prospect of lugging around a 145lb amp and finding a rack that could support it and shipping fees if it was not working etc... just ruled it out for me.
The Audiocontrol was an interesting prospect and I could get it at just over half retail new. New is always good for warranty and out of the box experience. However its design seemed to be an update of the old Arcam P1000 albeit with more power. What scared me off the Audiocontrol was again the complete lack of reviews of any kind and also the prospect of it being impossible to sell in the future and the class H topology as I am primarily interested in music, stereo and multi-channel.
Now, onto the Classe. The seller was local, original owner and the unit was mint, complete and 6 years old. As Auxinput noted the class A bias on the delta series is likely a nice complementary feature considering my choice of prepro. I reasoned that in the event of upgrade ( Which we always do despite our best efforts not to...) the classe is a far easier resale proposition than the other two. Also I need seven channels so a Ca-2200 would make a nice addition in a year or so. I have the surround rears covered with a NAD which only triggers when I have my bluray input selected.
After a quick listen to my got to 5.1 SACD Avalon by Roxy Music , I was instantly put at ease in terms of choice. I have listed to this disc perhaps 300 times and know it from start to finish. The Classe does a wonderful job and the improvement was instantly apparent over the NAD T955 which was serving as a stopgap solution. I only had a small window to test until real life interupted my listening test. Anyway, Thanks a lot for all the advice.