Question Poll : your preference in power amps

[AJM1981]

Vintage solid state amps
I like vintage amps (pre 80s) for their looks, sound and feel. They have their charm as pieces of antique “furniture” (decorative stuff we use every day) look great with vintage or retro styled loudspeakers and when recapped sound great too.

But although the vintage amp market is probably one of the strong holds in vintage electronics, it seems to start suffering a from ‘feature deterioration’.

I get it that people want to hook up a turntable, but tape playback and tape recording fell into obscurity of an extreme niche market.

Integrated tuners (and seperate tuners in set); count on a near to zero market value soon. Fm disappeared from the cable her in the Netherlands to free bandwidth and there are no reasonable workarounds to keep a vintage tuner functional. So prices dropped from hundreds to 20 euro’s for even free give-always of full functional separate tuners. It also means that a gigantic and heavy amp flagships with an integrated tuner, (which is 50% tuner )will risk more failure from its almost literally “bricked” components. In the end owning a fm tuner will be something like owning a telegraph set.

If we also single out features like loudness buttons, balance control and treble and bass control as being highly important..

What’s basically left of it all is an amp that we switch on and off and of we admire as a piece of art or slight sound signature differences. I could be on that side of vintage amps.

A new threat to vintage gear is the active speaker market. But it still needs loads of time before passive speakers will be vintage as well.

Modern amps
I also really like the sound of my Yamaha Wxa50 amp as much as the vintage sound of Quad and Pioneer. The integrated streamer instead of an integrated tuner, the p&p options, option to turn it on/off and fully control it with the app. And that it is a power amp and hidden pre-amp. I was surprised that I could make it serve a classic amp from aux out; the only difference with its pre-amp version(Wxa50) is the volume control.

Wondering about your input

 

[Al ears]

Why is your question about power amps and yet the last two items relate to integrated amps???

 

[AJM1981]

Why is your question about power amps and yet the last two items relate to integrated amps???

Because they are still “integrated power amps” and it was added it last minute to exclude some “other…” options for an answer. I think it kind of covers all choices now

 

[Al ears]

Because they are still “integrated power amps” and it was added it last minute to exclude some “other…” options for an answer. I think it kind of covers all choices now

Not sure of your definitions of power amplifiers by any means, terminology is everything....

 

[AJM1981]

The comma war has started.

 

[nopiano]

I’d like an example of “active hi-go speaker systems” please. That’s a new one to me.

 

[Gray]

I’d like an example of a “active hi-go speaker systems” please. That’s a new one to me.

Whatever it is, it's already got a vote 😉

 

[nopiano]

Whatever it is, it's already got a vote 😉

🤣🤣🤣

 

[nads]

No idea.

 

[AJM1981]

I’d like an example of “active hi-go speaker systems” please. That’s a new one to me.

Go is a finger placement shift to the right from fi. Wrote it on my phone. Glad I could contribute to a moment of fun in the lives of two people here.

 

[Al ears]

Go is a finger placement shift to the right from fi. Wrote it on my phone. Glad I could contribute to a moment of fun in the lives of two people here.

Not just two, I find the whole poll idea amusing as it doesn't actually refer to power amplifiers anyway.

 

[nopiano]

Go is a finger placement shift to the right from fi. Wrote it on my phone. Glad I could contribute to a moment of fun in the lives of two people here.

Ok, I get it now, except active speakers of the type I’m familiar with contain power amps, and need a preamplifier. It might be clearer simply to refer to amplifiers within powered or active speakers.

 

[aversaurus]

I like a integrated amplifier with a valve pre amp

 

[podknocker]

All this will be acedemic when Class D streamers take over the world!

Mwahahahaha!

 

[AJM1981]

Ok, I get it now, except active speakers of the type I’m familiar with contain power amps, and need a preamplifier. It might be clearer simply to refer to amplifiers within powered or active speakers.

Yes, you are right. Apart from the typo it is the trap in trying to catch many choices in a poll, that in hindsight could have a better description.

 

[Al ears]

The best power amplifier I ever owned was the Tom Evans Audio Linear A and that was only a 24wpc valve amp.

 

[podknocker]

The best power amplifier I ever owned was the Tom Evans Audio Linear A and that was only a 24wpc valve amp.

The Mk3 version now has 25W per channel and it's £8k. I bet it sounds superb. Why did you get rid of it?

 

[Al ears]

The Mk3 version now has 25W per channel and it's £8k. I bet it sounds superb. Why did you get rid of it?

Lack of work and financial need unfortunately, tax man was on my back.
Unfortunately had to let it and the preamp go.

 

[podknocker]

Lack of work and financial need unfortunately, tax man was on my back.
Unfortunately had to let it and the preamp go.

That's a shame. I often think of all the money I've spent on HIFI and other kit and I wish I hadn't. If I'd saved up and bought a system that would sound incredible and last a lifetime, instead of impulse purchases and the inevitable upgrade itch. If I could turn back the clock etc. I think I'm done with the HIFI stuff now, but I do like to see what's out there, just in case my fortunes change and my dream device appears.

 

[ultraminiature]

I had a Meridian G55 five channel power amp. It sat there just doing it's thing never needing attentions just gone on with its job.
First pre-amp/power amp I heard was the Meridian 101/105 and then the Naim back in 1979, Naim won with Isobaiks and on classical but the Meridian won out on nearly every thing else. I ended up with active speakers Meridian M1. 45 years later I still own the 101/M1. Doing the research and saving up half my annual salary saved me from endless attempts to upgrade and tweak the system. I did replace my Linn Sondek ten years later but only because the upgrades would take a month and the offer part exchange would take three days (set up and soak test).

The G55 was when I had two pairs of passive book shelf speakers and wanted to experiment with surround. Added another stereo pair to get five channels and added an active sub-woofer. I sold them all to fund floor standing active speakers keeping my original 1980 active speakers in the mix.