Amplifiers you use

[dynamo]

There are so many neat different solutions. One thing that struck me as funny reading these is that we all seem to have garage systems

Ha, lol, forgot that, 90s JVC prologic receiver running stereo in the garage

[stephenmarklay]

There are so many neat different solutions. One thing that struck me as funny reading these is that we all seem to have garage systems

[Derekj]

Nothing too fancy here - Dayton APA150, an 80's Kenwood receiver, and a Lepai 2.1 plate for the garage.

[Paul K.]

I forgot to mention that before I bought my Wyred4Sound ST-500 power amp, I had a Quad 909 for many years and loved it (people who like their tubed amp's midrange would like the 909, too, or its current successor). I thought it had become defective in one channel and replaced it with the ST-500. Turned out the 909 was fine, but I really liked the additional headroom of the ST-500, so I sold the 909.
Paul

[joeybutts]

Ht room- Denon X4000, handful of QSC CX amps for front stage and subs
Garage- Old pioneer from late 90's
Living room/backyard - Marantz NR1603. I love this thing.
Shed - chip amp
Master bath- Sonic T-amp of old.
Master bedroom - some kind of 2.1 chip amp

[mlwebb]

Re nutube, sounds very good. Mine will ring a little if tapped, but soon quits - my diy enclosure is quite heavy, which I suspect helps.

Re: Cost - I am very good at hiding the cost of my audio projects from myself, could not tell you with any accuracy (: I did replace some of the caps with better ones (per ClaudeG's recommendation in the B1K thread).

[Wolf]

No, the Drivecores are not Ncore based. It is a proprietary integrated circuit chip pioneered by Harman International.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrIKOWJnlqM

To my knowledge, the Purifi, Ncore, Pascal, ICEpower, and Drivecore are the only Class D amps immune to high frequency variance due to load differences.

[dynamo]

It’s decent. I wish now I had the v3 which involves the tube preamp circuit in the preouts. The v2 couples the tubes only to the ucd boards and not the preouts.

If I did it again though I’d perhaps consider the Pharaoh. Almost twice the power and some better parts.

I used to have an ARC LS7 paired with a Primaluna Prologue Four. I wanted a simpler setup, with remote, a decent phono preamp, maintaining a tube preamp with the bass control of solid state amplification. I sold these to fund the Sphinx. I got what I wanted, but also lost some things, like the massive soundstage and a lot of “magic” (I’ll spare you additional subjective audiophool words, I’m sure you catch my drift).

The Sphinx is just a clean reliable unit that does its jobs. The ability to tube roll easily is nice. The old clear top rcas are easily obtainable and work well in them.

[Kornbread]

Aren't the drivecore nCore based?

[Kornbread]

Main amp: Home built Nelson Pass, Firstwatt diyAudio F6. Fed by a B1Korg Nutube preamp, or Motu M4.
(If you don't think amps make much of a difference - listen to a good class A amp - some of my friends were astonished. )
Shop amp: 3eAudio TPA3251 board, fed by Khadas Tone Board thru Shitt Vali preamp.

Been eyeing the nutube for a while. How do you like the nutube pre? Get the microphonics under control? DIY or manufactured? Cost?

[tom_s]

The ARC D52b sure sounds different than any of my others. It has noticeably more low end punch and is a little warmer/fuller than the others. I've always credited that with the secret Analog Modules they use in many of their products. It may run in Class A up to a point because it sure runs hot even at very low volume. It's great for small monitors that might be a little on the lean side.

I can't wait to get my Pass DIY build running. Just need to hunt down some PS caps and thermistors.

[Carbon13]

Let's make this interesting. For those with multiple amps, do your amps have 'flavors' and do you mate them with certain speakers/genre of music because of this?

Yup, for sure. I like my Fisher tubes with my sensitive speakers (klipsch fortes) and they definitely have a tube flavor to them. Great detail and what I would call a "full bodied" sound (like a good red wine;) at moderate volume. Love it with acoustic music especially. I use the Yammy for when I want to crank some ac/dc. Plays very clean and accurate with little color to the sound. I find the Marantz a little too boomy in the bottom end with big speakers but it seems to do well with the Classix iis. Matches well with their theme as a fun rockin speaker.

[fpitas]

QSC RMX850 for the woofers - lots of power. Used up to 150Hz
Parasound Halo A21 for the mids - lots of power, very clean midrange. Used 150 to 800Hz
First Watt J2 for the horns - Class A, no crossover distortion, only 25W, but who needs power for a horn. Used from 800Hz up

None of the amps have flavors; wasn't what I was going for. It is important to avoid crossover distortion when feeding a horn, it's not a pretty sound.

[mlwebb]

Main amp: Home built Nelson Pass, Firstwatt diyAudio F6. Fed by a B1Korg Nutube preamp, or Motu M4.
(If you don't think amps make much of a difference - listen to a good class A amp - some of my friends were astonished. )
Shop amp: 3eAudio TPA3251 board, fed by Khadas Tone Board thru Shitt Vali preamp.

[Wolf]

Primary: Crown Drivecore XLS1500 x 2, XLS1000, XLS2000
Garage: Sonance Sonamp 275SE
Computer: DTA100
InDIYana event: Crown Drivecore XLS2000

The Crowns are clean and powerful, no flavor involved.

Later,
Wolf