Frugal power amplifiers

TBone

New Member
Nov 15, 2012
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I've heard past "feed-forward" designs like Quad in the past. My experience with Benchmark equipment is limited, and I don't think I've heard their amps, so I can't comment.

However, I will comment on this misleading quote ...

"In contrast, class A output stages eliminate this crossover distortion at the expense of high power consumption, poor damping, and a limited dynamic range."

Well, not my experience. My "current" class A amps offer the smallest numbers I've ever had in my system, 100 wpc. They replaced amps of 150, 195, 250 wpc, all pseudo AB types offering some proprietary bias scheme. Yet, they offered the most tightly damped / dynamic sound of all 'em, especially at the extreme frequencies, irrespective of stats. Benchmark is correct about one item though, although it's common knowledge ... my amps consume power much like a forever hungry teenager consumes sugar-candy.
 
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hifitommy

Well-Known Member
frugal but very good is the adcom line. you may read a lot that they are bright. these are just parrots repeating what they read that was written by people that never heard an adcom in person.

i bought a 555II with 200wpc and its mate, the gfp565 preamp so nicely praised by gary galo in sterephile. gary galo was wrong about the preamp, it had nothing in common with ANY audio research preamp. when i acquired my arc sp3a`1, my jaw fell to the floor. the really good thing was that the 555II passed all that ARC goodness right on through to the speakers.

a friend had a pair of martin logan RE Quests that he was driving with a yamaha B2 which sounded pretty good but when he tried an adcom 5400, he immediately put the b2 on the market. he bough also a 5500 and a 5800, all were NOT bright on the electrostats. suffice it to say that i am an adcom fan.
 

flez007

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Aug 31, 2010
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I has a Oddyssey Khartago amp for a listen some year back - trully amazing!
 

wisnon

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Dec 12, 2011
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For $3,500 a pair, the Job DC coupled mono blocs will be very competitive, based on the impact of the 225 stereo amp.
 

Enoch Root

Well-Known Member
Oct 8, 2014
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Tiverton, RI
Maybe I should have posted this in the Frugal Integrated thread but that hasn't had activity for a while.

I have an Odyssey Cyclops that I bought on the strength of hearing Odyssey products at a show and I'm very jazzed about how great it is.

Like most of us, my system is in a constant state of flux. We audio guys love to upgrade. Be that as it may, my Cyclops won't be going anywhere soon.
 

treitz3

Super Moderator
Staff member
Dec 25, 2011
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Hello and welcome to the forum, Enoch Root.

Odyssey does make some good amplifiers for the money. Klauss will almost always upgrade them into basically another amplifier without actually having to buy another amplifier. Good deal for the frugal at heart. It does, however, take him a bit of time to service or upgrade. My only gripe with them is that you had to keep them plugged in for at least three days in order for the soundstage and other sonic parameters to come into full fruition. That became a real PIA during the summers living in the Carolinas with all of the lightning storms. So much so that this was the main reason I sold it. Had alot of fun while it was in the rig though.

Tom
 

treitz3

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Dec 25, 2011
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frugal but very good is the adcom line. you may read a lot that they are bright. these are just parrots repeating what they read that was written by people that never heard an adcom in person.
Hello, hifitommy. Please allow me to first off say that I am not a parrot. I have heard many adcoms first hand in many systems and in my experience, they all do tend to be a little hot on the top end. Why, I do not know and I am not knocking adcom. They have a good following of many happy customers. With that said, the best way I could describe the top end would be to pick out a particular instrument.

Let's take the cymbal. What I hear is a "tssst, tssst, tssst" when it should be IMO reproduced more as a strike, followed by as natural decay and shimmer. Some may say this is bright. Ear fatiguing perhaps but to me not bright. The frequency curve does tend to be enhanced with certain upper frequencies from those adcom amps that I have observed. That may just be the way they engineered them or voiced them to sound like.

Tom
 

Enoch Root

Well-Known Member
Oct 8, 2014
35
3
240
Tiverton, RI
Hello treitz3 and thanks for the kind welcome.

Too true! Had the Odyssey since May; constantly on excepting three hours for a thunderstorm.

I recall the Pass Aleph series (mis)behaving in a similar fashion. Worth the aggravation in both cases.
 

MtnHam

Industry Expert
Jan 12, 2014
275
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Nothern California Wine Country
Frugal power amplifiers- do you mean inexpensive to purchase or frugal in their use of power?

If the latter, Ayre MXR monoblocks do just that:
Output power: 300Wpc into 8 ohms (24.8dBW), 600Wpc into 4 ohms (24.8dBW). Power consumption: 34W (standby), 120W (operating/no signal).
 

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