Ok Gentlemen, here’s my situation;
I am looking for an amplifier for my secondary system. This amp will be ran directly from the PC. The environment is ultra-near-field with the speakers only a few feet from my ear and less than 6 inches from the back-wall.
The speakers I am using are the Stone Image Rothschilde A2’s, compact two-way monitors that are 88.2 db efficient and sport a relatively stable 8 ohm load (not dipping much below 6). Given their price and size – the performance of these little gems dish out some of the best sound I’ve heard in their class.
Because a good majority of my time is spent in from the PC, I have a whole slew of recordings on the hard-drive. Some are exceptional rips from your typical audiophile discs and others are average bit-rate mp3’s ripped from poor sounding CD’s. I am presented with a few hurdles and hope to tap into the experience and knowledge of the forum members here to give me advice on where to proceed. Here are my hurdles;
Budget: $1200.
Heat: The amplifier cannot run exceptionally hot because of where it will be placed. This rules out many tube amps and of course, for bore class-A amplifiers. This sucks because that’s where my own personal bias hides.
Resolution: This is the tricky part; finding that good compromise to where you can enjoy the fruits of a high quality recording while at the same time being able to tolerate music that was not so lucky to be engineered with care.
Power: Because the speakers are so close to my ears – I do not believe I will need gobs of power. My only concern is the variety of music I listen to and how demanding some of it can be on dynamic peaks. The speakers are easy to drive, and when you add together room gain – are pretty efficient.
Design: These things were voiced with the Almarro A318BX integrated. In other words; they were designed for SET amplifiers. Now you may begin to see my problem…
To complicate matters, I have a great friend coming to visit me by a rather impromptu notice in about 9 days and I would love to have a system up and running for him to listen to. I have been into audio for years now and he has never once listened to any of the rigs I put together. I had to tear apart the main one for cash – but I’d like to have something to show off and let him experience something he never has before.
I think I’ve posted every single detail except my own tastes in electronics. This part is simple; I am all about the soul and message of the music.. you can say I go for electronics that are more harmonically rich in tone / blossomed.. vice the electronics that are designed to be quick and completely transparent. Naturally I would like to have my cake and eat it too, but when you are on a big budget… you gotta make big compromises somewhere along the lines. For $1200, there are options… but I would like to gather idea’s from other individuals in hopes of finding the ideal solution. Considerations I’ve already had are;
Music Reference 6EM7 2.5 watt SET amp. It’s very compact, which means heat will not be an issue. The reviews of this amplifiers signature seems to be exactly what I am going for. The $800 intro price is also incredibly tempting. The major downside is of course its very limited output power. 2.5 watts should be good for casual listening, which is mostly what I do. I could live without cranking it, but the real question is; how can that low powered amplifier handle rock, electronica, r&b, and other demanding selections of music?
Red Wine Signature 30. It is above budget – but it too seems to embody a lot of what is important to me. It has the power, runs cool, and I already have had experience with Vinnies little Clari-T (which was very good). Its major downside is it being battery operated. With a system that will be on and playing for large amounts of time – I will probably go through batteries a lot quicker than his average customer. This translates into replacement costs, which can get ugly over time. Also, I don’t have 4-6 weeks to wait.
Altmann BYOB. It’s power should be “just enough” to keep me satisfied. It runs on a major car battery which will only need charging once a week (given my usage). The few reports out there seem to match my tastes. The major downside is that I am having a lot of trouble putting that much money down on a component that looks like it cost no more than 50 bucks to make. Its not like I want flash and bang – but damn – for $950 USD I’d at least expect the recommended battery with it?
Other thoughts include used;
Plinius 8200 MK2 integrated
Monarchy SE-100 monos (may have gain issues with the PC though)
Any help will be GREATLY appreciated guys! Thanks for reading! Edit: Before anyone makes the suggestion... no, I am not getting a headphone rig!
