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Amplifier Upgrade Decision

Hello,
I need some help/feedback with regards to upgrading my power amplifier for 2 channel music. My current set up includes following components
1. Source (Digital)- Oppo BDP-95
2. Source (Analog)- Clearaudio Concept Turntable
3. Pre-Amplifier- Parasound Halo JC-2
4. Pre-Amplifier- Parasound Halo P-7 (using the phono interface for playing the turntable)
5. Power Amplifier- Parasound Halo A-21
6. Front Speakers- Aerial Model-7T
7. Power Cable- Nordost Heimdall 2 and Red Dawn 2
8. Interconnect Cable- Nordost Frey 2, Heimdall 2 and Red Dawn 2
9. Speaker Cable- Nordost Red Dawn 2
10. Wall Receptacle- Furutech GTX-D NCF(R)
11. 2 Dedicated 20 Amp (10 AWG) circuits feeding the entire system
12. GIK Room Acoustics Bass traps/Diffusors
13. Room size- 16’ X 12’
This set up sounds good but I wanted to take it to the next level and wanted to upgrade my amplifier to a better 2 Channel amplifier or a set of mono-blocks. I love Class A/AB sound and would like to stick to this technology. My choices, not in any particular order, are
1. Upgrade to a Plinius SA 103 (125 W pure Class A per channel) and use it as a 2 channel amplifier
2. Upgrade to a set of Class-A mono-blocks. My choices, not in any particular order, are
    a. Parasound Halo JC-1
    b. Pass Labs XA-60.8
My budget is around 10-12K.

I know everything is system dependent but I would love to hear your opinion on these amplifiers before starting on product evaluation.

I am also not sure if my mono-block amplifier choices would provide significant value add from a sound perspective over the Plinius or any other good quality 2 channel amplifier at this price point. So I would love to hear your feedback on this point as well.

indranilsen
indranilsen OP
113 posts
 
Thank you very much for all of your comments suggestions. 
@darcman- The DAC suggestion is indeed interesting and I have that in my upgrade path as well. I could upgrade either source or amplifier at a time given the budget constraint and I decided on amplifier based on my personal choice. Ideally I should audition each upgrade separately and then decide but that would involve spending a lot of time which I might not be able to spend right now. However in the end I need both a quality source and an amplifier...
I am also interested to find out from the group whether 60W Class A power (mono-blocks) would have enough juice to drive my Aerials 7T, which drop down to 3 Ohms, in my 16' X 12' room. If not how much Class A power (min) I should look for to make this transition smooth? Any feedback on this would be highly appreciated.
mains
170 posts
 
hi 
im sorry to throw in a curve ball, but leaving out the current state of the art class D in my opinion is a mistake,
Please consider the UK built but shipped world wide Nord Acoustics, 
they were recently reviewed in hifi pig driving some 120,000 fancy loudspeakers,
I also know John Banford a very highly regarded hifi news reviewer, he now has them driving the Sir Galahads, 
I purchased there top one up reference monos and i believe they are very special,
I have owned some very high end kit ie Edge NL reference monos 2 pairs driving Carls Nola Grand Reference , FM  acoustics 711 and 266, various Krell big boy monos,
sorry i am not bragging and them good old days are gone, but the Nords sound better to my memory than the Edge amps,
and at around 2k your left with serious money to spend elsewhere,
 i gave them a punt and they are fantastic i wouldn't change them for anything right now, like you my budget was around 10k,
im now left with money to spend on better connections, isolation, maybe front end or speakers,
but to be honest they have raised my system to a new level along with some isolation i purchased with some of the change ,
i still have around 5/6k left in the bank and at this moment i am completly over the moon with my system regards john 


tutone's avatar
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tutone
16 posts
 
Have tried Pass, Plinius, BAT and Krell, ended up going with a pair of ModWright KWA150SE in mono.... plenty of power to drive anything, very nice depth and enough slam to keep anyone happy...
tdimler
132 posts
 
4425 has offered a good suggestion in the used D'Agostino S200, but ricred1 also has brought up the Rowland 625 s2 which should be close to your budget and is a superlative amplifier.  Can't go wrong with Pass either but I think the D'Agostino and Rowland are in another league.
andrei_nz
192 posts
 
The JC1s seem the default option.  The advantages of monoblocks are (1) forced separation of the two channels - not a biggie - and in any event you do get 'dual mono' power amps; (2) The separate chassis are very useful for heatsinking.  It can mean a particular design can be biased higher.  (3) Speaker wiring can be shorter.  This is beneficial, and said to more important than the corresponding interconnect cables.  I'm not too sure about this latter point but very long unshielded interconnects can be an issue.

 I was in a similar situation to you recently.  I ended up getting a Pass X150.8.  Fab sound quality but it runs hot, and takes a long time to warm up (I know that sounds like a contradiction.  Others on my short-list were David Belles  http://www.powermodules.com/about.html and Pureaudio who have a US presence.  http://www.pureaudio.co.nz/  Plinius is great but Pureaudio can only be better.  I guess that is how I would have gone but the Pass came up at an auction so I had to make a quick decision.  
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