soix are nice recommendations, I owned the Octave and then Audio Hungary 20 watt class a amp both were very nice. Only reason I let Audio Hungary go was their US audio repair center was closing down and I would have to ship it to Hungary there and back at my expense if repairs were needed. It may be different now. I settled on Conrad Johnson CAV 45 S2 running it with Mullard xf2 tubes which make a fairly large improvement over some of other new production and NOS power tubes I tried. There is a lot of fairly nice 4 to $5000 intergraded amps out there it can get a little confusing, good luck in your search.
Integrated suggestions
Hi all, for personal reasons I need to sell my $17k tube integrated & would have to replace it with something much cheaper - around $4k, maybe $5k...
I only mention the price of my current amp so you're familiar with the level of performance to which I am accustomed.
It would need to have at least one balanced input, line only is fine, at least 30W PC, any class is OK as long as it offers exceptional performance for its price point! Tube or SS. Capability to run 4ohm speakers.
Any suggestions...?
I know there are many but you guys may suggest something I may not consider.
Thanks.
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@mboldda1 UK The Gato & Audio Hungary look interesting. I'm aware of both brands but know little about them. Russ Andrews offer an upgrade service to the M6si so considering its low cost on the used market it's a tempting option. @soix Funny you should mention Octave as I currently own one of their amps & have owned 2 others in the past! As I'm familiar with the performance of this amp I think a regression within the line would be more noticeable than other manufacturers...if that makes sense! Decware is too expensive with the options I need & that VAC would require a voltage change...plus there's no balanced input. Thanks all so far. |
Ha. I was a quantitative analyst/market strategist on Wall Street and did quite a bit of multiple regression analysis so yes, it makes perfect sense to me. Just make sure you account for autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity 😉. Seriously though, what Octave amps have you had and what do you think of them, and what did you end up replacing them with and why? They’ve always been high on my radar so I’m very interested in your thoughts, impressions, and comparisons if you’re willing to share. |
- 60 posts total