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Mono Blocks on a Budget, is it possible?

I’m really struggling with the direction to take my system. I have the following:

Legacy Classics speakers
Aurender N100H media player
Schiit Freya tube pre-amp
Schiit Yggdrasil DAC
Schiit Vidar x2 (in mono block mode)

I will be replacing speakers at some point but the rest of the system I love... except the Vidars. Before them, I had NAD 356BEE that was used for the amp. Very clean and I loved it, except it was only 80 Watts. I decided to upgrade to the Vidars. They cost twice as much From a good manufacturer like Schiit so they must be better right? Not really. They are more noisy than the NAD amp and I’m finding myself less in love with them that I though I would be. I was planning the Vidar purchase for about a year and now that I got them I don’t know which direction to take in replacing them. I want to get cleaner mono amps but don’t want to spend more than $3k MAX for both. The Vidars are 400 Watts into 8ohm, are there any options out there for me that are close to the Vidar specs? I’m open to used but mostly I want the amps to sound almost completely clean with practically no distortion. 
xerotrace
erik_squires
15,945 posts
 
One aspect of monoblocks not mentioned: Channel separation. 

In truth, not sure how much this matters. Some great sounding stereo amplifiers score rather poorly (-67 dB or more). 

But this is an advantage. The theoretically near perfect isolation of signals from one channel to any other. 

Best,

E
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nutty
2,669 posts
 
Check Merrill Audio for details 
Thor mono's

http://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649420805-merrill-audio-thor-monoblock-amplifiers/

Good luck !
steveyork's avatar
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steveyork
10 posts
 
There are a couple pairs of Herron monos for sale right now on Agon. Worth a look. 
xerotrace OP
30 posts
 
Thanks everyone for some really great points and suggestions!!! I have so much more to go on than I had and I’m really grateful for that! 

@Chazzz007 good point I do like the sound of the NAD but I was hoping for an upgrade to the sound and possibly a little more power in the bottom end. The M22v2 might fit that description, worth a look

@soix you might be right about going for one box in place of two. I was looking for specs similar to Vidar to make my purchase future proof. The last component i plan to update will be the speakers which is next after the amps (probably should have been first but that’s another story lol). I want to make sure I have enough power and head room to push anything I need to

@tcatch I thought about that angle with PS as well. I watch Paul on YouTube and generally like the company. That would also solve the problem of what to do with my current amps. I just need to take a listen to those guys and the trial might be a good way.

my biggest struggle right now is to decide if class D is the way that I want to go (generally I was looking for AB rather than D). At my budget I might not have a choice.
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