are all amps equal

"power more important than brand" I don't think so,to me sound is more important than anything else, class a, class d, tube, ss etc.

Alot of very general comments being made here.

Here is a list of just power amps that I have owned,own or at least had in my house for a reasonable amount of time
Mcintosh....252,402,501,275
ARC d60,M100 D90b,D115
Vtl st85,125,it85,185
Marantz 8b
Dynaco st70
Linn lk100,klout
naim...alot
threshold, Perreaux,Apt,Nikko....ah the old days....and more that I am forgetting...... are amps the same ????

Er um...NOPE

Laser, I hear people say that about automobiles too, but we all know that they are not equal, despite the fact that they all go forward and backward and can turn left and right? If comparing one amp to another prompts one to say that X amp sounds better than Y amp, than how can they be equal? It would be very interesting to know the criteria used by those folks that believe all amps, preamps, cd players etc. are equal. I would bet that they have probably compared a few different amps that sounded the same and derived their conclusion of equality based on this sample. IMHO, If Keslerd really believed that they were all equal, he wouldn't have posted this as a question.

Where should I spend my Money.
I will list my system again.

cd- player Onkyo DX-7555
amp- ARC 150.2
preamp- ARC LS1 (old)
all my cables are Phillips from Walmart.
speaker wire 12 gauage, 10ft. run, and bi-wired

I plan to spend between 3k & 4k$, where would you put the money. The Usher speakers are here to stay. Thanks for ANY suggestions..

Keep in mind that what additional power will do, everything else being equal, is to raise the volume level at which clipping occurs, and perhaps raise the volume level at which distortion starts to increase as the clipping point is approached. That's all it will accomplish.

And that in turn will depend on the size of your room, your listening distance, and the kind of music you listen to. Worst would be classical symphonic music, due to its wide dynamic range, and also obviously heavy metal or comparable rock music that, while it typically has highly compressed dynamic range, is listened to at very loud levels.

That said, I would think that given the speaker's 200W rated power handling, an amp in the area of 250 to 300W would probably be a good choice. But I'd feel free to deviate from that somewhat if it meant getting better sound quality or a significantly better price.

Concerning ICE and other Class D amps, one of their key strong points (aside from providing more watts per dollar, and reduced size, weight, heat, and power consumption) is high current capability, which does not seem particularly applicable to your speakers with their fairly benign impedance curve.

Regards,
-- Al