What amp are you currently using?

Recently I bought a Belles Aria integrated. It’s a massive and I mean huge upgrade on my previous Exposure XVII & XVIII pre/power combo which are now for sale.

I bought it ex-demo from Coherent Systems, and the owner, Tony had upgraded the power supply, so even better.

Sorry for asking such a daft question. Did John Farlowe favour having a forward bright sound signature?

S.

Well I'm using an NVA P50/A60, and very happy with it.

I'd certainly agree that Naim can be brighter and also harder-sounding. I remember having an Exposure 3 & 4, a 62/Hi Cap/250 and a Linn LK1/280 all at the same time. Used with a Naim CDI and SBLs, the Exposures won by a good margin. Surprisingly the Linns just edged out the Naims to take 2nd, although the two were closer. The exposures just had more presence, weight, speed and life. The Naims sounded a bit coarse, distorted and shut in when compared. I like Naim amps and none of those traits were evident when listened in isolation. It was one of my most fun experiments though.

Recently acquired a Creek Evolution amp, very nice, best of the bunch I have tried lately
Lots of power, grip, expression & involvement, blew a Nait 5i into touch, which surprised me a little.

The main early listening I ever did to the mk1 Krell KSA50 was with DNM preamps at Jimmy H's place. A little cloudy perhaps, I don't know, but utterly 'comfortable' and no hardness or fatigue whatsoever. My favourite early Krell was the KSA80 model although thirty year of hot running would make existing samples knackered I reckon. By the end of the 80's, Linn had all but ruined their amp - too many add-ons as £500 upgrades, which they specialised in with the LP12 if you remember and the 90's saw many internal revisions on most of not all their electronic and digital products (three revisions of the Numerik in a year or so comes to mind, all of which altering the tonal quality a little too... By the end of the 90's, I thought the Karik/Numerik mk3 and the last issue Kairn/Klout were very good indeed, where early Klouts were again grainy and 'forced' somehow in sonics.

I suspect my stint with the Krell KSA50S wasn't as good as it could have been. Buying a Krell tends to force you to join a particular clique and mindset and I began to think that way myself - not having a penny to spend on increasing my membership.. The 50S was designed from the outset to be fully balanced, seemingly from the input itself and although phono sockets were provided, one had to put links in the XLR sockets to allow their use and Krell didn't recommend it. I used mine with a passive preamp and although it worked on a CD source and just about with an old tuner, the need was really for a balanced line driver at least, and preferably a Krell or coloured ARC preamp with balanced outputs costing a grand or more used. The cables I had wouldn't be judged good enough either, so hundreds more on transparent interconnects and VDH 'the Wind' speaker cables. The CD source, a Micro Seiki I've had since the early 90's, would be good enough but the turntable would be sniffed at by Ab Sounds fans - and so on and so on. See what these cliques can do to ones bank balance if allowed? Another step nearer to audio nirvana is only another (expensive) purchase away...

For the cost of a fancy interconnect or mains lead even, you could seriously consider an NVA, which being so simple and direct, just seems to give you what's there with no added embellishment or music taken away. I was late getting to know them, but I do appreciate the musical merits which are there in abundance and without sounding smooth and silky on the one hand, or 'exciting' and 'lively' on the other.

Back in the early to mid 70's when I started out seriously, I discovered Crown/Amcron 'D' series amps, which at the time were top end before the term was coined and with price tags to match. Forty five years later, domestically owned samples are still going strong and performing well still and I retain a very soft spot for them regardless. I don't expect anyone else to agree here, but impart as part of the thread subject.

You may not like the Crown D amps and I'm hot and cold over an original D-150 right now, despite loving my D-60's (the 150 can sound too straight-laced compared to the others for some reason)... A DC300A is on the bucket list and I hear and lust over one often - it's no better really today than a Quad 606mk2/707/909 etc but still, it weighs and looks the part... Back in 1974, nearly 200WPC made it an animal of an amp...

Regarding older Krell life, I'm going on how 'SQ' found at least one KSA250 he bought cheaply at fifteen years or so old. Knackered caps and internal damage due to overheating I seem to remember. The KSA80 when new was capable of good things if properly driven, but they're now around thirty years old so it's anyone's guess. The mid 90's 50S I had uses plateau biasing, where it'll idle cool up to half a watt or so, then go into middle bias (very warm if continuous at this level) and over five Watts or so, it switches into full-bias mode and cooks the thing on regulo 9! After a minute of no signal, the bias goes back down. I needed to use mine in a Arca cabinet and there wasn't enough ventilation, so it started to cook after ten minutes at medium bias level. I only used it twice this way for short sessions and sold it on because of the heat issue as I couldn't have it free standing. Tell you something though, despite the large mains transformer and huge supply caps, it ran absolutely silently! The bridged D-60's sound off like buzz saws a lot of the time (a known thing with them at UK voltages)

Two pics of my 2010S2.

Not a bad amp. Musical sounding with drive.

Compared to a Farlowe era Exposure integrated. This will make them sound a bit ragged in comparison.


S.

Wouldn't mind trying a 3010S2 someday.

S.

Yup! Nice amp.

S.

Currently using a bit of this and that at the moment.

Diy amps with nva boards, no cases, separate psu for front end (like A80 but ei transformer on front ends and 340va toroid on output stage) big distance between transformers and amp boards - makes a huge difference ime. These are driving the mid and tweeters of my diy speakers

Diy Avondale voyagers on bass duties. Big 340va toroids, regulated front ends.

I have another 4 nva amp boards sat waiting so i can triamp my 3way semi omni behemoths. Need another set of ls6 though before i can use a 6 pack

Pre is just four resistors - no source selector, no volume control. I cant change the volume without getting the soldering iron out but it sounds damn fine. As everything is built on 60cm square 20mm chipboard sheets i have no colouration from cases.