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

It is all true, but getting same cable as what the speakers were demoed with would place two known variables in the system, rather than just one (speakers). It may not be perfect, but there is no guarantee that it would not work, either. Unless someone is fully dedicated to working (trial and error) on getting the absolute perfection regardless of the expense in money and time, getting cables that were used when the sound was good may be as good of a shortcut as it gets. Not perfect, but better than blindly trying and discarding. skyscraper will surely decide how far he wants to go with that. This was just my idea, in case he wants to cut the chase short with some semi-logical approach.


Of course, some would say that cable does not matter much and any attempt is worthless anyway.

But in Mike's case he has VPI TT, 8005 CD, Luxman Int Amp & A3s so speaker cable is the wild card.

He may find that the ROI for 1-2-3 K$ in speaker cables is very poor relative to whatever he has lying around.
ieales

Thank You for posting the information via Galen.  Happy Listening!
Yes, it is really a wild card and on him to decide how far he wants to go with it. There are many approaches and none may be superior to the other one. I have a hard time believing that with his set up, which is quite a fine one, cables would be a dealbreaker of any sort. Everything in the chain seems to be really good.
I suspect that both Magico and Luxman demo with quite expensive cables, Luxman makes very expensive reference interconnect and speaker cables, by the way.
I don't think Mike wants to go to a great length to choose cables, that's why I didn't suggest complicated approaches.
He also says that the power in his area is bad and unstable. This may have nothing to do with the choice of speaker cables but one should do something about it. I think, in the beginning he underestimated a little the cost and effort that are involved in achieving good sound.
Yes, very wrong cables can screw up the sound big time, regardless of how good active components are.