Integrated Amp to match with Magico A3


Have just ordered a pair of Magico A3, and looking for integrated amplifier to pair with it. As I heard once which had a very disappointing result to pair with Gryphon 300 in a local Hifi show in Hong Kong. Reallly looking for recommendations on matching amplifier. Planned to get a Marantz PM-10, but worried that the single box may not be powerful enough to push the A3. On the other side, some said Hegel H360 with 4000+ damping factor may suit even better.

thank you in advance
eldonfung
Sinewaveron, we both agree and disagree, we were former Hegel dealers and their products were excellent.

Whether an amp is class A or Class A/B is just one of the factors in determining sound quality, amounts of feedback, feed forward, type of feedback, circuit design, circuit implimentation and parts selection, and circuit voicing is just as important.

When we had the Hegel line we also had the Luxman line and we did prefer the 20 watt Class A Luxman, but we sold more Unision Research Unico 50 which were a class A/B solid state amp with a tube preamp stage then both of thoese products.

As per Pass, Gryphon or Vitus being better that may be much more to do with the design and implimentation of the product

By the way we also sell T+A gear which is class A/B there have been a few people here who had Pass gear which was outperformed by the T+A and T+A is also in the uber class of high end and their products are consistantly rated among the best of the best.

The point is you must evaluate a product for the way it sounds and not just its technology or class of operation.

Hegel’s designs are fast, open, clean with good dynamics, and excellent bass control, as per Alon Wolf raving about the Hegel H360, why wouldn’t he it would give many of his speakers a tighter bass and the amp is less expensive to allow for more expensive Magico speaker pairings.

Personally I would think the combo would not be that good, as the Magico line tends to be a bit on the more reservered, cleaner with less midrange bloom which is how the Hegel sounds, we would most likely use a warmer richer puncher amplifier to bring out a bit more midrange magic and liquidity to the Magicos which is how we like to voice our systems.

As per Vitus being great stuff that is not in debate and your $25k Vitus should squash a $5k Hegel. Whether of not their new super integrated is that good will all depend on how Hegel has implimented the design and of course how it sounds, to make such statements that because a Hegel is a class A/B product and therefore not as good as a Vitus shows you have an inate bias and are not open to what we all must do in audio which is to go out and listen and then do exact comparisons on the same equipment.

Hegel’s new super integrated might be fantastic or only a bit better than their previous offerings.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ


Sinewaveron,

Thank you for you’re reply and asking me what I think. In the spirit in which your gracious post was written, here are my thoughts per your request:

I think your aggressive response to a first time poster trying to be helpful and answer an open call for opinions uncalled for and suspicious.

I think that for someone who likes to talk about distortion - it is really bizarre for you to then recommend pairing a 25k amp with 9.8k speakers. I say this because speakers produce by far more distortion (like hundreds of times more) than all other components combined in a modern audio system and most people who know this allocate their budgets differently.

I think you have spent so much time evangelizing your amp (for whatever reason) that you’ve completely lost sight of the big picture.

I think this is a hobby and I’ll never understand why people like you try to take the fun out of it for everyone else.

Hope this is what you were looking for and thanks for reading.

@AudioTroy. 
Thanks, I understand where your coming from. I was just messing around a little bit. My Vitus actually replaced a Pass Labs Int-60 amp. I just couldn't get use of the treble, sounded on bright side to me. Now with Vitus, sound is slightly warm, yet micro dynamics still there. Anyway, most important is synergy, and what your buget is. Take Care.   Siltech 
Vitus is a very good amplifier.  However, the price is rather expensive and out of my budget at this stage.  They didn’t have a very strong resell value here in Hong Kong. Just too bad that I need a 120V for Canada 😢