What integrated amplifier should I pair with my Mission751?

[admin_exported]

Hello folks,

I've given up on getting my CA 340A repaired. It cost me only 45 pounds second hand and given that the interior is immaculate, I'm not willing to pay 40 pounds for possibly a broken on-switch (or worse a lot more). Poor student ...

There is this whole range of used 80-90s but highly cherrished integrated amplifiers, but I'm not sure whether they will suit my speakers.

My setup is a PC to a Beresford DAC to the amp. My room is quite small (~9sqm or ~81sqft) and I'm mostly listening to ... uhm ... Pop (*blush*), but also plently of Rock, Punk, Reggae, some metal and the occasional classical piece.

Now the list of amplifiers, which I may be able to afford (looking at around 50 pounds used)

- Pioneer A-400

- NAD 3020

- NAD 3120

- NAD 302

- NAD C320BEE

- Marantz PM40SE

- Marantz PM66SE (KI? not quite sure how much this improves its function)

- Marantz 6010OSE (KI?)

- Denon PMA350

- Rega Brio

- Rega Mira

I'm very grateful for any advise. Also, if you know about other hidden gems, please tell. I vaguely remember someone mentioning some unknown Japanese amps.

Thanks a lot,

Mike

 

[Anonymous]

If you stretch the budget a bit, you make pick up an old Audiolab 8000A, which from my long experience go extremely well with Mission speakers form the 750 and 750F series. The 751s can easily hold their own with amps a level better than those listed.

From the above list, if my recollections ok, the Pioneer a400 wasn't too bad a match.

 

[the record spot]

As far as these speakers go, they'll work well with a wide range of amps. The original 751 was a breathaking little speaker I thought, I had a pair back in the early 90s (1993 or thereabouts) and they were fantastic. Great across the frequency range and sounded the business. I used mine with an Arcam Alpha 5 at the time and they rocked like a winner. It went with the Marantz CD-52 Mk II which was another budget star at the time. Together, they worked very well. Incredibly well and did they go loud...I remember REMs "Monster" album thumping out when I came home early one day; the workmen we had working on our house at the time had discovered the volume knob - you can imagine!

So shop around, see what takes your fancy. All I might suggest is to avoid overly bright electronics and go for a balance, but really, you shouldn't have too much difficulty finding a good amp for these speakers. They work well with budget and more expensive amps and will easily to justice to higher priced variants as you might discover.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys! Well, let's see what ebay holds for me

 

[Anonymous]

IMO Cistron; with your taste in music and having owned those speakers a long time ago; I really feel that the likes of a NAD C320BEE or the later C352 (PD version) would suit your system and music tastes/set-up best...

If you're brave the likes of a Musical Fidelity XA100 or 200 integrated amp would work superbly as well

 

[Anonymous]

IMO Cistron; with your taste in music and having owned those speakers a long time ago; I really feel that the likes of a NAD C320BEE or the later C352 (PD version) would suit your system and music tastes/set-up best...

If you're brave the likes of a Musical Fidelity XA100 or 200 integrated amp would work superbly as well

Oh, I tried very hard to score one of these "cheaply", but most of them went well beyond £100. Writing up my thesis, so no active income and budget Hifi is one of my luxuries, haha.

I finally managed to get a Denon PMA-350 II for a decent price. It came with a TU-260L. Does analog radio still work?

My HiFi vocabularly is pretty non-existent. It sounds colder than then the CA 340A I used beforehand. Less bass, unless I crank the tone dials. Will have to get used to it. The "source direct" button by-passes the tone-controls, doesn't it?

It feels good to drop the Gigaworks T20 back into their box. The desk felt so empty, haha.

Thanks for all your advice, folks!