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What the most musical power amp for under $1K?

I have this Audio Research tube amp that soon will need to be retubed. So, one night I decided, just for fun, to hook up a little NAD 50 watt receiver, that I have in my office system, to drive my Von Schweikert VR4 SE's. Well, I couldn't believe it. The damn thing sounded pretty good. The word that coming to mind while listening was MUSICAL. No, it didn't have near the resolution, or air, or extension on the top as the Audio Research, but it sounded very nice, rich, warm and musical.
So, now I've been looking for something like a used NAD C272. Something to hold me over, until I really decide if I want to spend the bucks to retube, or get something else.
To get to the question, what's your recommendation for an inexpensive, MUSICAL, solid state amp to hold me over until I decide what to do (NAD, Parasound, Quad 909, Cambridge Audio, used Krell, etc). I'd like to find something for under $1K.
In advance, thanks!
louisl
coffee2
88 posts
 
a used mccormack. hands down
ferrari
617 posts
 
Biggest value in price/performance ratio and there still in business and thats important is Musical Design. Hand crafted in the U.S. by John Hillig. The Musical Design D 75, D 140 or D 150 more than will fit your requirements, and all can be upgraded to a higher level of performance as time and resources dictate. Just not found that often as they do not come up for resale that often. People that get them, tend to keep them. I used a D140i for quite sometime and later it was upgraded to Signature service. To this day regret selling that amp to move on am amp I initally thought was better, it was not. That amp was a Musical Fidelity which just never made it for me.

Now using a PS Audio HCA 2, which is a damn fine amp and that one fits into your price category. Later this summer will have Rick Cullen do the upgrades and I am set for a very long time.
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dogmcd
115 posts
 
Lots of great suggestions! I'd go for a used McCormack DNA.5 or DNA1. Both ar excellent. Another thing to consider is a Bel Canto S700; one of best amps I've ever used and a steal second-handed!
76doublebass's avatar
76doublebass
254 posts
 
You can buy a brand new SET INTEGRATED AMP 84C ZEN from DECWARE. A Pentode strapped in Triode mode. Can drive down to a 1 ohm load ,But only puts out a WONDERFUL 1.8 watts of pure class A BLISS. i'M NOT SURE HOW EFFECIENT your speakers are though. This is the amp I have now paid $299.00 for th kit. I think fully assembled by the designer its $800.00. You should type in 84c ZEN and see how many hits u get. I just love this little baby. It needs to be mated with the proper speakers to come to full usage.
louisl OP
183 posts
 
NSgarch,

Thanks for bringing me back to reality. Your probably right, the VT100 MkII is probably heads and shoulders of everything else suggested. I guess the NAD just, as you put it, stimulated me.

How do I know that it needs tubes? Well, the bottom is mushy, way overly ripe, and the mids and top end sound really flat and edgy if I push the amp too hard (and I'm not talking rediculous levels here). I've also lost that magic 'air' that the amp is capable of.

Now, I don't know if you've had any experience with the VT100, MkII, but it's a, excuse my language here, bitch to set up properly. Too many people have advised me to send it to ARC for retubing. Thant's about $700 (with the Winged C's) +, probably $200 for shipping.

Thank's again!
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