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I heard the Belles years ago and was blown away for the cost. Then Johnny at Audio Connections in NJ started to carry them and holy cow are they a great buy. To me, dollar for dollar, they are of the best you can buy. I have always loved the top NAD and even some of the Rotel's, but the Belles is worlds better and for not much more at all. That integrated is listed around 1800 or so I think. What a value in high end audio. More money for the speakers, lol.
At roughly $100 new, the Topping amps are great little boxes and take up practically no space. Around $400-500 used, the Bryston 2B is fantastic. The B60 is the integrated version and is my last remaining Bryston piece after I've gone through a ton of their amps. At $1k new the NuPrime IDA-8 is another great all-in one. At $3k new the Benchmark AHB2 is one of the finest I've heard.
what is your personal favorite stereo amplifier
why
and what is it's average cost used on ebay or an audio site?
The Benchmark is actually closer to Class H, in that it has multiple rails with a switched mode power supply.
Quad 303
I remember seeing that one on display at Sounds of Music in Edmonton back in the late 70's... seemed pretty reasonably priced for a power amp at the time.
Quad came to market with solid state amplifer years after all the other manufacturers jumped on the solid state (transistor) bandwagon, because they didn't want to present an amp that to them sounded inferior to their tube amp (the Quad II), so they plugged away until they came up with the 303.
According to Home Theather Review... Quad sold 94000 units between 1967 - 1985.If I am not mistaken I think the reason why I dismissed it at the time was because the model I saw at Sounds of Music required a DIN connection. I had no idea what that was and I didn't want to stray from convention.
... Mission Cyrus One, ...
I miss my Mission Cyrus One sometimes - it was such a great jump up from the NAD 3020a it replaced, but then I remind myself the sale of it funded the Naim Nait 2 that I still have to this day.
I have a real soft spot for the big Sansui receivers from years gone by. I have the G8000 playing right now. Great big power supply anchored by a massive toroidal transformer. With 120W available to drive my 8" two-way monitors, I have all the SPL I need. Clean, clear, quiet and beautiful to look at.I recently had all the electrolytic caps replaced and the lights fitted with LEDs. It was completely worth it.Here's a decent picture of one from the web. I can't seem to get a decent shot of mine.