dog-or-man
03-06-2008, 06:20 PM
I am very happy with my Linn Ninkas when they sound their best, but I'm finding that a lot of the amps touted as being more "musical" sound muted or too polite or just downright inaccurate to me. So far I've tried Bryston (noise floor seemed too high), Rotel (coarse and grainy in the upper midrange), Parasound (had pretty serious mechanical problems), Arcam (too polite), Naim (way, *way* too buggy), and Linn's own AV5105 (which sounded slow and mushy to me).
To complicate things I was hoping to acquire gear that wouldn't have to be thrown out as my system evolved into a HT rig -- presumably 5.1 and not 7.1 since the room is small. I'm not against buying a two-channel amp, but the fact that I plan to (eventually) go to HT means I've been researching multichannel stuff at the same time, so the first thing you'll notice is that the list of "finalists" is all over the map:
Odyssey Stratos Extreme
McCormack DNA-1 or DNA-HT5
EAD Powermaster 1000
NuForce 9.02 monoblocks
Proceed Amp5
For the Pre/Pro, I was thinking of an Arcam AV8, a Classe SSP-25, or an Aragon Stage One, but the review literature seems to suggest that the Classe has some troublesome reliability problems.
Any thoughts that anyone may have -- specifically with an ear for the following list of priorities...
terrific soundstage
total commitment to the last tiny little micro-details
lean, cool, well-controlled bass
treble and midrange that's forward without being shrill
a black-as-night noise floor
no reliability problems
...would be most appreciated.
I'd probably try a pair of NuForce amps with the Ninkas first, based on what I've read, if the idea of five of them down the road wasn't completely out of the question, budget-wise. The Naim Nait5i had the best sound of the bunch, but the Naim stuff is off the table now because of some pretty ridiculous quirks with their stuff. The back channels will probably be a pair of Totem Mite-T's that are on their way from an audiogon seller. I don't yet have a center or a sub.
As for the usual advice ("listen for yourself and buy the one you like best"), it's problematic for two reasons: I'm not close to any of these brands, and I'm too cheap to pay retail.
Dog-or-man
To complicate things I was hoping to acquire gear that wouldn't have to be thrown out as my system evolved into a HT rig -- presumably 5.1 and not 7.1 since the room is small. I'm not against buying a two-channel amp, but the fact that I plan to (eventually) go to HT means I've been researching multichannel stuff at the same time, so the first thing you'll notice is that the list of "finalists" is all over the map:
Odyssey Stratos Extreme
McCormack DNA-1 or DNA-HT5
EAD Powermaster 1000
NuForce 9.02 monoblocks
Proceed Amp5
For the Pre/Pro, I was thinking of an Arcam AV8, a Classe SSP-25, or an Aragon Stage One, but the review literature seems to suggest that the Classe has some troublesome reliability problems.
Any thoughts that anyone may have -- specifically with an ear for the following list of priorities...
terrific soundstage
total commitment to the last tiny little micro-details
lean, cool, well-controlled bass
treble and midrange that's forward without being shrill
a black-as-night noise floor
no reliability problems
...would be most appreciated.
I'd probably try a pair of NuForce amps with the Ninkas first, based on what I've read, if the idea of five of them down the road wasn't completely out of the question, budget-wise. The Naim Nait5i had the best sound of the bunch, but the Naim stuff is off the table now because of some pretty ridiculous quirks with their stuff. The back channels will probably be a pair of Totem Mite-T's that are on their way from an audiogon seller. I don't yet have a center or a sub.
As for the usual advice ("listen for yourself and buy the one you like best"), it's problematic for two reasons: I'm not close to any of these brands, and I'm too cheap to pay retail.
Dog-or-man