Power amp around $3000 for C-J Classic preamp

If you are looking for powerful amp under $3K new to match with the cj Classic and big Vandys, I might suggest:

Cambridge Audio 840W - unique design inside, great result.

Vincent Audio SP-T100 Hybrid Mono amplifier - not full on solid state amp, but powerful and great anyway, and in your price range for a pair new.

Odyssey Audio Stratos Mono Extreme - My favorite Sleeper product - in this case the hybridization is German engineering and built in the USA - they are almost as good as our hockey team, but in this case, you win!

At a bit to well over the $3K price point you could check out:

Musical Fidelity M6PRX - latest 260W offering from the company that thinks power is almost everything.

Bryston 3B-SST2 - if you like that sort of thing, transparency may match well with cj warmth and Vandy presentation - although the 4B might better marshall the big Vandys around - Oh Canada!

McCormack DNA-250 - va va voom!

Conrad Johnson, I believe, has discontinued production of pure solid state amps such as the MF2500A and the Premier 350. They have acquired McCormack, and it seems to me that their pure solid state amps are now being produced under the McCormack label. Other than that I am not sure why they stopped production of these amps as they are excellent.

Also I would not be concerned about buying a non current cj amp as they have excellent customer support and will continue to support the non current product . And yes cj is using McCormack as their ss amp line-up.

Someone mention Premier 12 mono bloc's which is also an excellent choice as long as you don't mind the costs associated with replacing tubes; not to mention the heat associated with tube amps.

Pairing a cj pre with a cj amp makes very good sense and you won't have to worry about compatability issues.

Chuck

The McCormack and c-j amps differ enough that I would clearly choose the McCormack's over the c-j's for use with Vandersteens. If other speakers were to be considered, I could easily flip flop. I wouldn't even think about a pre till you've got the speaker/amp match worked out.

Actusreus, the input impedance of your power amp should be at least ten times the output impedance of your preamp. I've been told that without this the highs and bass will be rolled off. Actually if the input impedance of the amplifier is twenty, thirty, or more times the output impedance of the preamplifier that's even better! And typically, the lower the output impedance of a preamp the better for performance with an amplifier. But I'm no expert on technical parameters. I just learned about impedance mismatch when I got back into seperates after years of buying integrateds.