Acurus A250 power amplifier

[fishface]

Was half-assedly contemplating how a pair of RSIIb's would look crammed into my living room when on a whim I decided to see what the rated power of my A250 amplifier was. Listed in the OM as 250 into 8 and 350 into 4, I figured I might be stretching it with any low impedence dips. I've heard that the published figures may be a bit conservative (especially in this modern era) and I ran into this review in Stereo Review, 1993 that suggests it might be up to the task?
Apparently well designed, definitely low on the frills factor.

Your opinions?

(review after pic)

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z287/seriousb0y/gbporn026.jpg

[fishface]

P.S. I've never gotten it even luke-warm, on a hot day.

[USA Soccer]

I had an Acurus A200 once, liked the amplifier. I am not sure what the difference is?

[basite]

big tranny, big caps, very simple design, enough cooling...

How can it possibly not be good/aquedate to drive a pair of bad ass infinity's?

keep them spinning,
Bert

[bordeno]

That's a serious power supply. Never heard Acurus. Come up quite often on Audiogon. Nice lookin' amp.

[Tedrick]

I test drove an A150 (150 wpc) on my Infinity RS-IIIb's several years ago, and it handled them just fine. I did a 3-way comparo over a weekend with the Acurus, an Adcom GFA-555II (200 wpc) and a Carver TFM-25 (225 wpc). I wound up buying the Adcom (and selling the Carver). I suspect that with a bigger Acurus, the decision would have been much tougher.

The A250 should be up to the task of driving some RS-IIb's, and will probably sound very good doing it.

[totem]

Steve read the Infinity post "interesting reading" regarding the ohm rating
on the RS-IIb,s, another eye opener.

[totem]

Never mind I see you are one step ahead of me!

[cableguy]

Good looking amp....I agree, simple but very HQ innards...whats not to like.....I see them come up for sale on Audiogon as well...They have that have that certain air of being one of the "tank like" amp builds...I'd love to hear more.
we need more pieces like this for discussion in this forum.....
Come on out guys with your Modern Gear and let's get this baby rolling....:yes:



Bill

[kichijai]

I have one. It is quite transparent and has excellent soundstaging. That's why I haven't gotten rid of mine despite the slight lack of upper mid/treble smoothness and bass that doesn't have enough wallop. It was a good match for my old Mirage bipolars, less so for my Ohm Walshes. I suspect the higher line Aragon models would fare better with bass and refinement.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f304/elbee1/picture017.jpg

[240sx4u]

Nice amp, I have about the same amount of power on tap as your acurus. It should drive your speakers without a problem.

[ehoove]

I have the Acurus A200, which I A/B'd with the A250, and thought the A200 was the better of the two. I bought mine on the recomendation of a highly thought of Speaker designer, and have never regretted it. It replaced a McIntosh MC2100 and an Adcom GFA 545 II driving a pair of Green Mountain Audio Continuum 1's. It now pushes my Maggie 1.6QR's which love a lot of current, and have yet to make the A200 get more than just warm to the touch. It has a great soundstage tight bottom, lush midrange and a top end to marvel at. Great amp IMHO!
Regards,
Jim

[Tripqzon]

I've never heard it but I'll bet that baby can rock the house.:yes

[marc mc]

I love these amps. I have two A250's and an A150. They have never given me any reason to look for anything else. I drive a pair of Energy 22 Reference Conn's (87db) with one and a pair of Clements RT-7's (87db) both go to about 25Hz and both notoriously hard to drive. The 250's never notice and never get the least bit warm.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h214/marcstoolshed/cl6.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h214/marcstoolshed/alex1.jpg

marc mc

[BrassTeacher]

I love these amps. I have two A250's and an A150. They have never given me any reason to look for anything else. I drive a pair of Energy 22 Reference Conn's (87db) with one and a pair of Clements RT-7's (87db) both go to about 25Hz and both notoriously hard to drive. The 250's never notice and never get the least bit warm.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h214/marcstoolshed/cl6.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h214/marcstoolshed/alex1.jpg

marc mc

Oooh, Clements RT-7! I wish I lived near enough to you to be able to hear them! I have a pair of his later speakers, the Clements 206di, and they are astoundingly good. I've heard the RT-7 was better.

PRC is a genius!

[marc mc]

Oooh, Clements RT-7! I wish I lived near enough to you to be able to hear them! I have a pair of his later speakers, the Clements 206di, and they are astoundingly good. I've heard the RT-7 was better.

PRC is a genius!

Not to hijack the thread but.

Agreed, He made these speakers in Richmond Hill Ontario. Just up the road from a friend of mine Micheal Wright (Dayton-Wright) I have two pairs of his speakers as well LCM-1a's and XAM-4's. Both these guys thought way outside the box and I seem to spend alot of time with there speakers.

The RT-7's belong to a different time in audio and are simply fantastic. That is a picture of them without the poles and the wrap that goes completely around the speaker. The poles are now on but I haven't got to the wrap. Heres a shot of the other one.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h214/marcstoolshed/cl7.jpg

And one of the XAM-4's. I have tri-amped these with an A250 on the three way top section. An A250 driving the 40 litre subs and the A150 driving the rear ambiant drivers. Stunning.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h214/marcstoolshed/Dayton-WrightXAM-4.jpg

marc mc

[VanDaRo]

These were very, very good amplifiers. The fact that some 15 years after their introduction that we are still talking about them puts Acurus on an enviable plateau. Their reputation is beyond reproach.

I own 2 Acurus A-150s which I use to vertically bi-amp my Martin Logan Sequel IIs. They never run out of steam, but do get quite hot when I drive the speakers hard for a while. FYI, the Logans are a nasty load for any amplifier, with its impedance dropping to 1 Ohm and presenting a challenging reactive load as well.

A pic:

[GordonW]

I have one. It is quite transparent and has excellent soundstaging. That's why I haven't gotten rid of mine despite the slight lack of upper mid/treble smoothness and bass that doesn't have enough wallop. It was a good match for my old Mirage bipolars, less so for my Ohm Walshes. I suspect the higher line Aragon models would fare better with bass and refinement.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f304/elbee1/picture017.jpg

This is almost entirely like my experience, comparing the A250 to the Aragon 4004 and 8008. The Aragon and Acurus models have a very similar "sonic signature", just with the Aragon amps having more bottom end "whomp" and improved smoothness in the mids and highs. That's what the better parts in the Aragon get you... bigger transformers (dual!), better caps and resistors, and a bigger heat sink, as the biggest differences. Given this, I tend to recommend the Aragon 4004 and 8008 for really difficult impedance loads (like Infinity IRS, ML electrostatics, Apogees, etc)... they just don't ever flinch into those sort of loads. Worst thing I've seen, other than a lightning strike, was a blown fuse, in very isolated cases, with these amps running low-impedance speakers at high levels...

That said, the A150, A200 and A250 are all remarkable performers. IME, I never really found much difference between the A200 and A250- and from looking inside, there's really not much of any ascertainable difference, in parts and layout. I think they may have upped the rail voltage on the A250...

Regards,
Gordon.