Amp around £500?

I-S

I-S

Good Evening.... Infidel
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No, not for me...

My parents are planning on purchasing a new amp around £500 (liberating my old RA-971 as a stand in for the S300).

My immediate thought was RA-1062. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Rega Mira?
Roksan Kandy III?
NAD C372?

Any other new options worth looking at at that price?

The rest of the system consists of Marantz CD63, Denon TU260L, Sony TCK511S, KEF Q70, Thorens TT, and Cyrus speaker cable and IXOS interconnects. Yes, I have told them that the amp is the best bit of the system...
 
there's a chinese hybrid valve / mosfet on e-bay that may sound nice and a shanling integrated too. both are about the 300 quid mark so add in postage and duty and you're still under 500. not a clue what they sound like but most chinese kit seems to have more bang for the buck than is healthy for the western manufacturers.
cheers


julian.
 
second hand A21a (doubles up as emergency radiator if your boiler breaks)
 
A21 and valves aren't suitable because the amp will be left on full time but used occasionally. It must be new and available off the shelf in UK shops.
 
I may be mistaken but to my ears, as of late, more expensive amps (say, over £1,000) are getting better and better, whereas cheaper ones (below £500) - more and more boring. Is there any reason why your new amp must be new?
 
Rotel have released a beefy new amp in their RA series. It is called the RA-03-it is taller and deeper than the 01/02, has 70watts of power(uses the power amp section of the RB-03 power amp)+(the pre amp section of the RA01/02)

I havent heard the 1062 but the RC-03+RB-03 prep power combo(which is essentially yhe RA-03 in 2boxes) sounded very clean, rythmic and tight. Bass was abit too lean for my taste though...its £500 brand new

If your parents like to play it loud then the Nad372 will knock their socks off, it is an immensly powerful amp but you can forget about refinement and subtlety!

Id say the Marantz PM7200 is a very safe choice, dont let the budget price tag put you off-it can easily ocmpete with amps costing twice as much-trust me ive auditioned several times this year for a replacement but was never impressed enough by the pricier amps i tried...

Ultra

Ultra
 
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if u do go down this route:
Cyrus 6 vs amps in silver "reprocessed" £459 (£600 is new)
full uk warranty - these are the latest "vs" amps from Cyrus
reprocessed means something like it's a dealer return, or was used in a hifi show, fully rechecked by Cyrus, and then passed to Moorgate, their "clearing house"
phone moorgate acoustics in sheffield, mention u saw the offer on cyrusunofficial and u get free delivery
Telephone (0114)2756048
 
The UK distributor of Opera Consonance have some 'Ex-Dem' integrated amps at that price (the C-100, it's solid state). I bought the power amps off them for my AV system and they're good but not sure how much power they use on idle. A bit of haggling and you may get them for less than £495 advertised price.
 
Isaac,

Your first thought ws bang on th money. The 1062 is an excellent amplifier for the money.


Cheers

Jason
 
Bit late indeed Gazz... The RA-1062 was installed into the system today, and it's sounding pretty good. Shows up the weaknesses of the rest of the system though, although the CD63 and the KEF Q70s are a better synergistic match than perhaps I thought. The CD63 is clearly not delivering anything like the detail of better players though.

This has liberated my old RA-971mkII to stand in for the S300, along with an RB971mkII power amp that I picked up for a very keen price indeed. Now need to sort some stand in speaker cable for this ensemble...
 

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