Crang
Well-Known Member
I just ended up winning an auction for some Dahlquist DQ-20s. These will be my main drivers while my ADS 1590s come down for a total rebuild. And who knows, I may fall in love with them and decide to mod the heck out of them.....so now I am in the market for an amp. Everything I have seen says the B&Ks warm sound matches nicely with the power hungry 20s.
I am looking specifically at the EX442. It seems like they made a few variations of it over the years. I think the older ones are the ones with gold trim and handles and the Sonata series is the newer one with no handles a some red/blue logo on the faceplate, but I could be wrong on this. The Sonatas are not near as pretty but I did spy some XLR inputs on one of them just looking at photos of auctions.
Can anyone tell me the differences between the Sonata series and the gold trimmed ones? Is either better or is there a preference? I really do not want a project amp so perhaps the a newer 442 would be better? The gold trimmed ones are more attractive by a wide margin, and balanced inputs arent important to me.
I am looking specifically at the EX442. It seems like they made a few variations of it over the years. I think the older ones are the ones with gold trim and handles and the Sonata series is the newer one with no handles a some red/blue logo on the faceplate, but I could be wrong on this. The Sonatas are not near as pretty but I did spy some XLR inputs on one of them just looking at photos of auctions.
Can anyone tell me the differences between the Sonata series and the gold trimmed ones? Is either better or is there a preference? I really do not want a project amp so perhaps the a newer 442 would be better? The gold trimmed ones are more attractive by a wide margin, and balanced inputs arent important to me.