2. amps-preamps
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Please tutor me on some integrated amp basics.

I’ve recently purchased Magico A3 speakers and a VPI Classic 2 SE turntable with an Ortofon Black 2M moving magnet cartridge. I have a Marantz SA 8005 CD/SACD player to play the few (maybe a hundred or so) CD’s in my possession.
I’ve mostly vinyl albums and no streaming sources. I’m next going to upgrade my old amp/preamp purchased back in the late 70’s with a new, probably integrated, one and am starting to do some research.

Here’s where I need some tutoring. A lot has changed since the seventies with the advent of digital technology. As well as I need to learn more about amplification components in the high end of audio technology. I keep running across terms I don’t understand. I’ll give you a list and if someone would be kind enough to explain these basics I’d be obliged.

For instance I was reading about the Hegel H360 integrated amp that Magico’s Alon Wolf recommended for their A3’s. The review mentioned they were a Class A/B amp, another person commented Class A’s were better, and a third person said he didn’t care for Class D amps. What do these classes signify? 

A second question is about DACs. I generally understand their purpose of the DAC, converting a digital to an analog signal. However my only digital device, the Marantz SA 8005 already has a DAC, ostensibly of good quality. The turntable ’s Ortofon cartridge would not need to play through a DAC, I presume. Would I bypass the CD’s players DAC if I purchase the higher quality Hegel H360 integrated amp?. Or could I find an equivalent integrated amp without an integral DAC?

On the other side of the equation I understand the turntable’s cartridge cannot play through the Hegel without first going through a phono stage. My old Phase Linear 4000 preamp you just plugged the turntables RCA cables into the back of the preamp and you were done. What’s that about? Do they make equivalent integrated amps to the Hegel H360 with integrated phono stages already in place, so I can just plug my turntable in as I’ve been able to do before. The amps don’t seem to be well integrated at all if you have to add a pricey phono stage to make them work, and end up having an extra DAC. That’s just me whining.

Third question is what are monoblocks, how are they used, and what are their advantages to a system? They were used at one of my speaker auditions.

I figured out the answer to what amplifier damping was myself, so I’m sparing you that one, but what does the term impedance mean? I keep coming across that.

Thank goodness I don’t have to figure out the cabling nightmare yet. Thanks for any help.

Mike
skyscraper
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skyscraper OP
830 posts
 
Kosst_amojan,  My Magico A3's were mentioned to need 300 hours. 

Those Pass XA100.8's weigh in at a heavyweight 99 lbs. making my 55 lb. Luxmans seem anorexic in comparison. They didn't feel that way carrying them up a flight of stairs though. I would have liked a Pass Amp if they hadn't been out of my price range, and so heavy.

Mike
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
I use Transparent Audio interconnects and Belden 1311A speaker cable in a self-designed bi-wire. Every few months I replug connectors as IMO, cables don't burn in, connections deteriorate. But hey, I'm a dinosaur engineer from the last century.

Transparents mate well with my taste in electronics and the speaker cables work well with the my loudspeakers, the failings of each complimenting. See http://ielogical.com/Audio/#CableQuest for past cable tribulations.

A lifelong pal & his missus visited us this week. We began our audio odysseys as boys, grooving to his guitar and upright bass playing father's Pass, Kessel, Mingus and Brown and my dad's Harry James, Satchmo, etc.

He's a live music fan, the aforementioned Pass and Kessel to Stevie Ray Vaugh and Joe Bonamassa.

I asked him the favor of a listen. Listening to Joe Pass Virtuoso, his first three words were "Wow! - Wow! - Awesome!" I knew he was grooving because his toe was tapping and his head was bopping. Later on Stevie Ray Vaughn, "Man, I can hear everything. I feel like I could get up and walk around among the musicians. Nothing competes and nothing gets lost no matter how thick." His dad said something similar when he visited us 30 years ago about a system that was north of $30k in 80's dollars.

No one has ever commented on tonal balance when listening to one of my systems because they are drawn into the music, not pushed away by the sound

BTW, we used burn in new studio drivers for about 24-48 hours continuous. Ditto amps. But, hey, what did we know, we only had live musicians on the other side of the glass for reference. 500 hours? Poppycock!
jetter
3,033 posts
 

I think you need to be a little cognizant that many who are giving you advice on expensive wires never have a system more than a year or two before changing.  Its a little like a person who goes out with a woman/man for a year and gives their knowing advice on relationships and then theirs is over before you know it.

If you want to save a few dollars, there is nothing wrong with getting some inexpensive interconnects and speaker wires by canare, mogami or morrow, clear day, or many others for the interim and enjoy your system.  Then when you detect that maybe a change is in order, you can research what wire may help meet your desired change. 

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