Can you recommend an amplifier for under $500 / £500?

[charlesphoto]

6 hours ago, kirkmc said:

 

Well, "office system" doesn't mean that it isn't important to me. I work at home, and it's a quiet environment. I also do some "real" music listening in that room. :-) 

 

Same here. I’m sure I spend 3-4x more listening to the office set up vs the living room. Short change the office at your own peril.

 

Lots of used Naim Unitiqute’s in the 600-800 pound range in the UK. Search hifi shark. Mass drop also announced a PS Audio Sprout 2 that lookas interesting. Not sure how much but the original is $499 and an option as well. 

[charlesphoto]

Oh, the Sprout 2 on Massdrop is $599. 

[zackthedog]

8 hours ago, kirkmc said:

 

Well, "office system" doesn't mean that it isn't important to me. I work at home, and it's a quiet environment. I also do some "real" music listening in that room. :-) 

 

Of course, and I didn't mean to imply otherwise.  It just seemed to me that some of the suggestions went well beyond your stated goals. ;-)

[George Hincapie]

I recommend you have a look at Nene Valley Audio. They are based in the UK and offer a full money back guarantee. All of my amplification, speakers, interconnects and speaker cables are from that company.

 

Have a look at this, which retails for £400: https://www.nvahifi.co.uk/ap20-integrated-amplifier/ 

 

NVA offers an incredibly transparent, natural presentation. I promise you will not be disappointed.

[left channel]

59 minutes ago, George Hincapie said:

I recommend you have a look at Nene Valley Audio. They are based in the UK and offer a full money back guarantee. All of my amplification, speakers, interconnects and speaker cables are from that company.

 

Have a look at this, which retails for £400: https://www.nvahifi.co.uk/ap20-integrated-amplifier/ 

 

NVA offers an incredibly transparent, natural presentation. I promise you will not be disappointed.

 

Wow! Excellent value. Quality at direct-sale prices. Very interesting designs, and a very interesting designer.

[kirkmc]

18 hours ago, George Hincapie said:

I recommend you have a look at Nene Valley Audio. They are based in the UK and offer a full money back guarantee. All of my amplification, speakers, interconnects and speaker cables are from that company.

 

Have a look at this, which retails for £400: https://www.nvahifi.co.uk/ap20-integrated-amplifier/ 

 

NVA offers an incredibly transparent, natural presentation. I promise you will not be disappointed.

 

"Only NVA LS1, LS2, LS3, LS5, LS6 and LS7 is recommended for use with this amplifier, other cables will invalidate the warranty."

 

Nope. WTF is that anyway? As if speaker cables could damage the amplifier. 

[George Hincapie]

1 hour ago, kirkmc said:

 

"Only NVA LS1, LS2, LS3, LS5, LS6 and LS7 is recommended for use with this amplifier, other cables will invalidate the warranty."

 

Nope. WTF is that anyway? As if speaker cables could damage the amplifier. 

 

Read the explanation and it will explain that certain cable types can cause damage and why.

[George Hincapie]

From their site:

 

No attempt is made to add output compensation networks, such as an inductor or parallel capacitor network or even fusing. Therefore, the amplifier is not unconditionally stable, and requires low capacitance speaker cable. NVA's LS series cable is the natural choice. It has a separate positive and negative cable for each channel to minimize capacitance, about 7pF per foot, and is made up of individual silver alloy solid core conductors in a black woven sheath terminated in Z plugs.

 

https://www.nvahifi.co.uk/nva-design/

 

That';s why you can't use certain cables like Litz design because they aren't low capacitance.

[R1200CL]

On 9.11.2017 at 4:53 PM, GUTB said:

I don’t think you can find an amp you’d call "good" in that price range. The most decent I could think of would be a Schiit Vidar which would be close to your budget. Also, if critical listening isn’t that important to you there’s a UK manufacturer of budget NCore class D amps named Nord — thier bottom of the line model might be close to your budget.

 

Alternatively consider a Chinese tube amp which are likely to at least sound decent — places like AliExpress, China-hifi, etc.

 

Sorry, that is a difficult budget for amps an audiophile would call good.

 

Agreed ?

 

May I add this one to the list:

https://www.ghentaudio.com/amp/ga-s125p.html

 

 

[R1200CL]

On 9.11.2017 at 6:22 PM, kirkmc said:

Chris recommended that, in particular the Yamaha NX-N500, which has AirPlay, and which retails at £500. However, I already have good speakers (Focal Chorus), and that seems like a waste to not be able to continue to use it. It is very tempting, though; it gets rid of a large device, and provides presumably decent sound without a big footprint. It's likely that the amplifiers in those units are well matched to the speakers. 

 

So if you sell “everything” and add your budget, how far are you from a KEF wireless ?

Ever heard them ?

[kirkmc]

2 minutes ago, R1200CL said:

 

So if you sell “everything” and add your budget, how far are you from a KEF wireless ?

Ever heard them ?

No, but I'm not paying that much. I like the speakers I have very much - they weren't cheap; I bought them when I lived in France, and they cost around €600.

[kirkmc]

Thanks for all the recommendations, even if many of them are way above my budget. :-)

 

I may go for this, if I can find a discount on black Friday:

 

https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/audio_visual/hifi_components/r-n803d/index.html

 

It's currently £699, but it might be £100 off or so. 

 

And, no, it's not an audiophile brand, but I find that Yamaha stuff sounds good, and is reliable. It's got all the connections I need, and it'll probably sound better than the one I have currently (which cost around £200). 

[left channel]

2 hours ago, R1200CL said:

 

Agreed ?

 

May I add this one to the list:

https://www.ghentaudio.com/amp/ga-s125p.html

 

 

 

Love it. Apparently they've moved the City of Ghent from Belgium to China. 

 

[left channel]

2 hours ago, kirkmc said:

Thanks for all the recommendations, even if many of them are way above my budget. :-)

 

I may go for this, if I can find a discount on black Friday:

 

https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/audio_visual/hifi_components/r-n803d/index.html

 

It's currently £699, but it might be £100 off or so. 

 

And, no, it's not an audiophile brand, but I find that Yamaha stuff sounds good, and is reliable. It's got all the connections I need, and it'll probably sound better than the one I have currently (which cost around £200). 

 

It's hard to go wrong with Yamaha, even after all these years. Certain audiophiles just need to get over it.  Good luck finding that brand-new model at a discount though. We'll be cheering for you.

[2112]

I don't think NVA can be bettered at the price. Speaker cable and interconnector is supplied with the A20/P20 combination.

[GUTB]

Well OP is just going to go for a consumer-level sidegrade he may as well just save the money IMO. Hasn’t heard high end sound and doesn’t seem very interested in it either.

[kirkmc]

13 minutes ago, GUTB said:

Well OP is just going to go for a consumer-level sidegrade he may as well just save the money IMO. Hasn’t heard high end sound and doesn’t seem very interested in it either.

No, I can’t afford high end sound. I’d rather avoid boutique brands, so it’s probably best to stick with a reliable brand. 

[synn]

Yamaha stuff certainly sounds good. Better than the internet makes them out to be. They generally tend to sounds tad bright though, so if you can, do try to demo it with your speakers before buying.

 

happy listening!

[George Hincapie]

1 hour ago, kirkmc said:

No, I can’t afford high end sound. I’d rather avoid boutique brands, so it’s probably best to stick with a reliable brand. 

 

You will not get better than what I've suggested. Honestly - do yourself a favour. If you e-mail Richard he'll even LEND you the complete set until you decide. 

[kirkmc]

On 11/11/2017 at 4:40 PM, left channel said:

 

It's hard to go wrong with Yamaha, even after all these years. Certain audiophiles just need to get over it.  Good luck finding that brand-new model at a discount though. We'll be cheering for you.

 

I just ordered the R-N803D; it's £100 off on a black Friday sale. That's £100 above my budget, but I can go that high. Thanks again for all the recommendations. 

[rodrigaj]

1 hour ago, kirkmc said:

 

I just ordered the R-N803D; it's £100 off on a black Friday sale. That's £100 above my budget, but I can go that high. Thanks again for all the recommendations. 

I got a kick out of this thread.

 

After listening to some of your podcast, I just knew this was not going to yield any advice that you would take. You guys are probably the most "un-audiophile" pair of commentators on audio gear I have ever heard.

 

I mean that in a good way.

 

I owned a yamaha natural sound tuner for over 40 years. Some of its lights went out but it served me well. Paid $260 for it, which was a lot of money back then, and sold it on ebay just recently for $25. Still working fine after all these years.

 

Yamaha makes some good stuff. Hope they still do.

[kirkmc]

3 minutes ago, rodrigaj said:

I got a kick out of this thread.

 

After listening to some of your podcast, I just knew this was not going to yield any advice that you would take. You guys are probably the most "un-audiophile" pair of commentators on audio gear I have ever heard.

 

I mean that in a good way.

 

I owned a yamaha natural sound tuner for over 40 years. Some of its lights went out but it served me well. Paid $260 for it, which was a lot of money back then, and sold it on ebay just recently for $25. Still working fine after all these years.

 

Yamaha makes some good stuff. Hope they still do.

 

:-)

 

Yes, I'm not obsessed with sound, though I want good sound (and, in this case, specific features). I find that Yamaha makes good quality stuff, that sounds great, and that is reliable. 

[GUTB]

3 hours ago, rodrigaj said:

I got a kick out of this thread.

 

After listening to some of your podcast, I just knew this was not going to yield any advice that you would take. You guys are probably the most "un-audiophile" pair of commentators on audio gear I have ever heard.

 

I mean that in a good way.

 

I owned a yamaha natural sound tuner for over 40 years. Some of its lights went out but it served me well. Paid $260 for it, which was a lot of money back then, and sold it on ebay just recently for $25. Still working fine after all these years.

 

Yamaha makes some good stuff. Hope they still do.

 

I listened to first few minutes, and yeah they were clearly not audiophiles. Just guys who’re interested in the lifestyle aspects.

[kirkmc]

2 minutes ago, GUTB said:

 

I listened to first few minutes, and yeah they were clearly not audiophiles. Just guys who’re interested in the lifestyle aspects.

 

"Lifestyle" must be some kind of put-down I don't get. 

 

We're interested in music.