Can somebody please, please help me find a new amp!! (long post) (1 Viewer)

[Michael R Price]

James,

"I don't know, I guess I just like to know it's there if called upon."

I agree that this is important, but please consider the money spent on those channels could be saved - or directed to a better quality amplifier to power the channels you care more about.

Also, be cautious basing decisions on the subjective impressions of reviews... "warm" is not really specific at all, and I don't know if I ever found out what "musical" means. For example, I could tell you my Zen amp is "warm and musical." (Which, I guess, is true judging from a very unspecific interpretation of those words.) But I wouldn't have told you that it has terrible damping, doesn't like low impedance loads, and has almost unacceptably high distortion when used at more than a watt or two... it might be warm sounding but that doesn't mean you'd like it. Heck, I could call any other amplifier "warm and musical," since it isn't in comparison to any other established reference.

Anyway, sorry for complaining. Things aren't as bad as I make them sound. I know that regardless of which amplifier you pick, you will be happy with the result, since they're all pretty good.

 

[Chu Gai]

Both reasonable choices and you probably wouldn't go wrong either way. Maybe this is the time to say 'honey, i can't decide, which one do you like better'? I wouldn't quibble over a few watts although I might take a close look at their respective performance into 4 ohms and see what their headroom is. I don't think the Sherbourne is ugly...Ugly is my sister-in-law
Now give those amps their own circuits, run it off a separate panel that's got an isolation transformer and you'll be giving em nice clean power.

 

[LarrySkelly]

Consider buying a good 2-channel amp off of Audiogon. SInce you listen predominantly to 2-channel, focus your $ there, for the speakers and the amp.

I tend to agree with the comments about the surround speakers being less critical and requiring less pristine amplification. There is not a lot of detailed content in the surround tracks.

As far as what to buy, that's a tough one. Unless you can listen to a number of amps driving your Studio 100's, or have a numbe of opinions on an amp from Studio 100owners, its a bit of guesswork.

Personally, I just bought a Bryston 4B ST on Audiogon, it arrives tomorrow. I selected the Bryston to drive Martin-Logan reQuests in the front because
- they require high current and the Brystons are known for having real balls (oops can I say that online)
- of glowing reviews I've read of the amp
- opinions of other M-L owners who are using Bryston
- very high value (quality for the $) especially used
- 20 year transferable warranty and stellar service reputation

The fact that they are built 45 mins from here is a nice coincidence.

If other M-L owners had of pointed me towards Classe or Threshold then I would have looked seriously at those. Have not heard them, but I suspect they may be a tad better but not as good value as the Bryston.