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Best Amp to drive my Apogee Stages?

Greetings all.
I am wondering if I might get some good suggestions from anyone who might be firmiliar with the Apogee Stages. I have owned them for quite awhile, but due to blowing up my Krell (300i)intergrated amplifier more than once now (a $400 bill to fix it each time) I beleive that it is time to buy the right amplifier for the job. I need more power for sure, but my wallet is light these days. This means that I must minimize my purchase to something definitly under $2K and even more like $1200 price range. This seems to limit me quite a bit in my findings, but I am wondering if I might have missed something with my research so far? I have reviewed Krell, Levinson, Pass Labs and Threshold to date. Each have older options in my price range, but I am not certain if any will work better with my speakers?

Any thoughts out there?

Thank you in advance.

-LoveItLoud
loveitloud
gallant_diva
143 posts
 
Rrog: As sogood51 says, 50 WPCs can drive but may be not enough load and may lack dyanmics. When we says power matters (and not matters) it is all relative. The Stage is an easier load as Leo was saying but still need good enough power.
hr1's avatar
hr1
125 posts
 
Burmester 956 MK2

With best regards,
Rocco
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Gallant_diva, I'm still a little confused after reading Leo's statement again. He states a 50 watt receiver may drive the speakers well. His "so what" is in regards to quality.

"You might find a good receiver of, say, 50 watts/channel output that drives the speakers well, but so what? I think that the fine detail and the quality of the Stage really demand a truly fine quality amplifier. Power isn't the issue here. Quality is. So although the Stage is more widely compatible than previous Apogees we don't condone the use of poor-quality ancillaries anywhere in the chain."
gallant_diva
143 posts
 
Rrog: So my answer is even though you may have a 50 WPC amp that can drive the speaker, then so what? The fine detail and quality of the Stage requires a fine quality amp. So for a 50 WPC, numbers may not matter, quality does. And Even though the Stage is more flexible than other Apogees, it will will not work well with poor-quality 50wpc.

Hope you get the point. -)

So the best is to try it out and you be the judge. Do report it here how it went.
loveitloud OP
8 posts
 
Whoa,
It has been crazy-fun to read all of your postings. I have been enjoying the comments and opinions so much. And, I have researched many of these ideas.

I still have not made an amplifier purchase due to my 4 month old daughter joining Day Care. With 2 kids in Day Care now I am looking at around $3K/mo.

Recently I have run into a Krell KST-100 amplifier ($750) which seems like it would drive the Stages just fine, but after reading all of these postings I might think about saving more money to get more. I really want to be able to experiment and listen to some of these great quality amplifiers to get more of a reference sound. My Dad owns a Levinson, but he will not let me take it out of his house. I can't blame him for that.

Does anybody have an opinion on the sound differences between mono block amplifiers versus a stereo amp? Financially it seems like I can get more of a quality amp. with 2-channel, but reading past Stereophile articles has brought my attention to the old B&K M-200 as well as the Adcom 565 mono blocks.

Thank you all for participating in this thread. Keep on writing.

LoveItLoud
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