Hifi Amp Components, Modern Solid State

[tunghaichuan]

In the past I've owned vintage Dynaco and Eico gear. For those of you not in the know, these amps are vacuum tube based. I ended up selling off all my vintage hifi tube gear.

Right now I have a Sony CD boom box. Eventually, I'd like to get something a little nicer.

Can anyone make some recomendations for modern solid state gear that sounds good and won't break the bank? NAD and Rotel seem to come to mind, but it has been a while since I followed mid/hifi gear.

I used to subscribe to Stereophile magazine, which I ended up letting go because it drove me nuts. They reviewed lots of high end stuff I would never be able to afford.

So, lay it on me. What are some good choices? :AOK:

TIA

tung

[wingsdad]

I've got a 20-year old ($200 then) Technics (Panasonic) stereo receiver that is now the core of my den/music room system, replaced 3 years ago for the lving room/home theater by a more 'modern' $300 Sony receiver. Regardless, the speakers that deliver the sound will make or break the qulaity of the signal from what powers them, and your choice of those (3-way or 2-way, and crossover frequency points therein) will be somewhat dependent on the 3-dimensional size & shape of the room (square or rectangular, ceiling height, closed-wall surface vs. openings, etc....)

[bigG]

Hey tung,

Saw your response in the other thread and came here.

Depends on how audiophile you wanna go. You mentioned NAD and Rotel, so you know your stuff. I used to get Stereo Review (now Sound&Vision), High Fidelity and that dreaded Stereophile for years. Stereophile was a love/hate relationship for me, dangling all those astronomically priced amps, preamps, turntables, etc...for the average man to drool over. Remember the Krell Mono-Blocks!? I finally quit Stereophile in the 80s, drove me mad!

You can still check out Sound&Vision at www.soundandvisionmag.com and Stereophile at www.stereophile.com for the latest news on what's hot for the audiophile on a budget (S&V) and the insanely rich and anal (Stereophile). I haven't really kept up w this stuff for years, since SACD and DVD-A failed and MP3 and downloads became de rigueur.

About 10 years ago I decided that the state of the art of hi-fi reproduction had maxed out, what w all the latest technological advances being pretty much incorporated in most brand name stuff available in the local mall.

I have been quite happy w my stereo set-up since 1986: Thorens turntable w Signet cartridge, Sony 5-disc carousel CD changer (w SACD decoder onboard), NAD preamp, NAD power amp (w the original Power Envelope tracking circuitry; it's rated 100w/channel w minimal THD, but the power envelope tracks transients and has headroom to 600w/channel for brief spikes - as you probably know, most stereo music, even LOUD, is usually galloping along at around 4 - 6 watts, with transients that can hit 100 times that - so the NAD, for all practical purposes, is a 600w/channel amp, but runs much cooler). Finishing off my system are THE best three-way speakers I have ever heard: Boston Acoustics A400s. I compared MacIntosh, B&W, KEF, Polk, Bose 901s, Klipsch and others costing up to 10 times the price of the Boston A400s ($1000/pair in 1986!) and none of them sounded better, and some not as good.

I would highly recommend the NAD and Rotel that you mentioned, and also Denon. All excellent. Denon seems to be king of the hill these days for excellent build and specs, and value. But, I've been out of the loop for so long, a look at S&V, Crutchfield and Cambridge Soundworks (I use their high-end surrounds for my home theatre set-up) would probably give you the answers you want, since you know electronics so well. Another up 'n comer was Outlaw Audio, a direct sales company of their products thru the net. Also depends on if you want a receiver or separates. I've found that the state of the art is SO good these days in relatively inexpensive receivers that separates are unnecessary, unless for some personal reason.

For speakers, Definitive Technology gets raves, as does Canton, some of Cambridge Soundworks models, Paradigm, B&W, Magnepan (planar electromagnetics), KEF, Jamo, MB Quart, Klipsch (horn-loaded)...that's abt all that come to mind at the moment. Also depends on if you want floor-standing towers or stand-mounted/bookshelf size. But all this info should give you a pretty good start! :)

I hope this is of some help. It's not well organized, more stream-of-consciousness as things came to me. Check out the sites mentioned and I'm sure you'll come up w exactly what you're looking for, at good value and fidelity for money spent.

PM me if you have any questions...

[ibanezjunkie]

my friend took one of those FatMan iTube valve ipod amps and modified it to amplify his sony stereo.

it was a fairly expensive mod, but it works great.

a professional DJ i know (he does the PA for our live sound) uses a Rotel system almost religiously, which is an awesome bit of kit.

[tunghaichuan]

Thanks for the replies. You've given me a lot to think about.

I still have a pair of Advent Prodigy Tower speakers I bought new back in 1988. They've gotten very little use over the years.

And thanks for the tip on Denon, I wouldn't have thought of them.

tung

[tunghaichuan]

I bought the PCB for this project a while back:

http://www.sparetimegizmos.com/Hardware/Stereo_6t9.htm

I was thinking of building it as a small MP3 player amp. The hardest part is finding those 12-pin compactron pcb-mount tube sockets.

I have a small pair of bookshelf speakers, Infinity I think. I go them cheap at Best Buy, so they are nothing special.

Certainly not hifi, but the 6T9 might make a decent little bedroom amp.

tung

[marnold]

FWIW, right before my wife and I got married, her grandparents gave each of the grandkids a grand. Basically, it was their inheritance ahead of time. Since she and I only had cheapy boomboxes, we decided to put it all into a good stereo system. We went to a higher-end electronics place in the greater Chicago area, the name of which eludes me. We ended up getting a Denon AVR-900 receiver, a Denon 6-CD changer, and a couple of Mirage towers. A number of Christmases ago we added an Athena 100W (300W peak) subwoofer. It is my understanding that Athena is a lower-end line from the same general company that makes Mirage.

I'm not an audiophile by any means but it's a very nice system for us. The subwoofer really added a lot for movies in particular, to say nothing of those funk albums. It's just too bad our living room is about as acoustically dead as a room can be.

After we decided to buy and as a guy in the storeroom was getting our stuff together, the salesman took us into a special room with an extraordinarily high-end stereo system in it. Seems to me that the enclosures didn't even have actual speakers in them but used some kind of other technology. He seemed giddy just to show it off. I asked how much a system like that would actually cost. He just said, "Ah, let's not ruin the moment" and then smiled. He put in k.d. lang's "Constant Craving." I'm not a k.d. fan, but let me tell you, I get goose bumps thinking about that sonic experience 13 years after the fact. It was like the voice of the archangel.

When we were driving back to her apartment we debated which song we would play first, limited to the CDs she had. We chose "I Love You, Goodbye" by Thomas Dolby (http://www.last.fm/music/Thomas+Dolby/_/I+Love+You+Goodbye). Once we got it all set up and popped that tune in, we both grinned from ear to ear and knew we made a good decision.

[hubberjub]

Tung, McIntosh Labs is right down the road from me. I'll break in and grab you a couple "samples" if you like. I could never afford equipment like that.

[tunghaichuan]

Cool, thanks for the offer. :AOK: They still make tube amps, don't they?

I wouldn't mind having a vintage McIntosh setup. I listend to some vinyl on a friend's vintage MC-225. That was a good sounding setup.

tung



Tung, McIntosh Labs is right down the road from me. I'll break in and grab you a couple "samples" if you like. I could never afford equipment like that.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Tung, McIntosh Labs is right down the road from me. I'll break in and grab you a couple "samples" if you like. I could never afford equipment like that.
Can the rest of us place "orders" as well?