Ultimate Amplifier for the next 20 Years


Hello all!
Well, you I am again on the amplifier merry-go-round after my last digital amp(noname mentioned!) let me down in the dumps after a comparison with a Halo A21 amp. I had a keen ear friend who reviews for Stereo Times and he felt the same. Musical instruments more real sounding with better decay. Man was I surprised after thinking that the digital amp was my last! BTW, the most important part, my speakers are a pair of Apogee Studio Grands in beautiful piano black!! Now the digital amp is on subwoofers in which it has ALOT of punch! The perfect(but not cheap) subwoofer amp! High damping factor, runs cool, dual posts to run four(4) subs if you choose to and never runs out of juice!!

Anyway, I want to keep it under $5000 used or new. Prefer 2 channel amp and maybe monoblocks. Amp can't run too hot(very important)! My pre/pro is a Lexicon MC12B.
Here are my amps that I'm considering in order:

Classe CA2200- Runs class A up to 60 watts! Right now I have a dealer making me a killer offer. Probably the one I'm going to buy...

McCormack DNA500- My big second choose!

Theta Dreadnaught II- Since I have a 8.4 sound system but don't need alot of power for the other speakers, this would be the perfect multichannel amp for me(remember the .4 is powered by my digital amp). One BIG problem, it runs tooo freakin’ hot!

NuForce 9.2- Hearing great things.

Krell FBC300Cx- Jason Bloom ran only krell amps with Apogees.

Please add your thoughts on any comparison on these amps or a new one that you think are superior. I want this to be my last amp purchase for a long time! Right.... ; )

THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP ON THIS MATTER!!!
Best,
Paul
128x128ptheo
Presently I'm using an Innersound ESL amp with my Vmps RM 40's which are very revealing. This amp has the most smooth and effortless sound. It runs cool, is powerful(300wpc@8 & 600@4) and was designed to handle the highly capacitive load of electrostatics. The ESL will handle an electrostatic speaker without strain. If you do some research here and at the planar asylum at AA you'll find alot of people feel the same way I do about this amp. The amp is actually made by Coda. Here's a good article by Roger Sanders who used to own Innersound: http://www.innersound.net/esl300whitepap.html
Best of luck in your search.
Warnerwh-thanks for the reply. I have actually have owned in the past both the RM40's & Innersound amp. The only reason I sold the speakers is the Apogee's! Regarding the amp I bought it when I had a pair of Siverline speakers. It sounded to dry and not enough body with them, so I sold it. Coda does make great amp though plus they are located about 5 miles from me! I have read that there class-A amps run hot. The new Classe Delta amp seem to be the ultimate:

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/classe_ca2200.htm
http://www.classeaudio.com/reviews/reviews-pdfs/DeltaSeries-TheAbsoluteSound-July05.pdf
http://www.stereotimes.com/amp051205.shtm
Hi Ptheo -

True Class A at 60 watts per channel is defintely not cool-running. Are you serious about needing a cool-running amp? If so, may I be so bold as to suggest that the best deal in the world on a product that does't meet your requirements may not be such a good deal after all.

Warnerwh's suggestion of the InnerSound ESL amp is an excellent one. That's a killer little amp, stable into a .3 (that's "point three") ohm load as I recall. I used to sell them, and have one customer who used InnerSounds on Apogees and several who used them on Sound Labs (a different but still difficult load). You might even stumble across a pair of ESL 600's or Kilowatts, either of which are very very powerful amps.

I'm a dealer for Nuforce, but wouldn't be confident in recommending a NuForce to drive Apogees. You can try it and it might work, but if possible arrange to have the option of returning the amps if they don't work.

I'm also a dealer for Jeff Rowland. The 501 is a very powerful cool-running amp, but doesn't like very low impedance loads (below 2 ohms). I mention this in case you were leaning in their direction, as my experience would suggest you look elsewhere.

An amplifier that I'd be confident hooking up to the Apogees is the Parasound JC-1. In low bias setting, the first 10 watts is Class A (25 watts in high bias setting), so while I wouldn't characterize them as "cool-running", they're a heck of a lot cooler running than the Classe'. I have used JC-1's for years on hard-to-drive speakers. My impression is that the larger InnerSound amps are more powerful, but at least compared with the InnerSounds I'm familiar with (mentioned above) the JC-1 is a better sounding amp. But like I said, I wouldn't call it "cool running", except in comparison to something that really runs hot.

Best of luck to you.

Duke