Best Integrated Amp (for me)

I'm happy with my Musical Fidelity A300. Powering a similarly inefficient B&W 805 Matrix (87db) with a reputation for being a tad bright. The A300 does a great job with sound staging, great depth while still sounding smooth.  The A300 leans slightly warm, but still has good detail and manages to sound exciting. Vocals are especially good.

I also think the phono preamp for MM is under-rated.  I have compared the A300 phono with the well regarded Adcom GFP-565 phono and there is not a clear winner (I got the Adcom, thinking it would be a great improvement over the built-in phono on the A300).  Adcom has the quieter background, but the the A300 is more lively and engaging. The A300 can be difficult to find, but I have seen them go for less than 700.00. It can be a good sleeper with ample power (150 watts, Dual Mono, lots of inputs, pre-amp out, MM/MC phono).

mdodgeknee OP


Because they are quite hard to drive in the bass as Stereophile says, you need an amp with good current drive at 4ohms to get the very best out of them.

A used Parasound Hint would do the job very nicely, and the early ones should be around the $1k mark, and you get remote and ESS Saber dac in it also https://parasound.com/hint.php

The electrical phase angle is generally mild, but the combination of 5.3 ohms and –41° at 135Hz, a frequency where music often has high energy, will make the speaker work at its best with a good, 4 ohm–rated amplifier.

Cheers George

I have Kef R300s a very similar speaker to the LS50s. I chose them after listening to both side by side for hours. The R300 had better bass and was more aesthetically pleasing to my SO.  I drive mine with Marantz PM8005 now the 8006 for the last 5 years quite effectively and with very music results. You can get one for $1000 from many dealers. It is made in the Marantz Japan Reference factory and comes with a 3 year warranty and very conservative power ratings. It is a Class AB and has a slightly warmish sound. You can bypass the preamp and listen direct to the power amp which I do very often on good recordings. It also has excellent tone controls for not so good ones. I also really like the Rega Brio which is a bit smller and simpler but can also be found for a grand and has excellent sound. 

I ended up getting a Marantz 140 amp on ebay for $800. Now I'm going to start looking for a decent but not-super-expensive pre-amp to accompany it (until I can save up more $ to get myself something better... maybe the Marantz 3200?). If anyone can recommend any inexpensive pre-amps, I'd be curious to hear!

Mine,