Hi All,


I have a budget/vintage system and I’ve decided to sell my vintage Sansui amplifiers for something new. I’ve had my M5HP’s for a couple of years. I’m very happy with the clear, natural balanced sound. However, where they are coming up short is in the soundstage and imaging areas.

I believe that these shortcomings are due mostly to my (terrible) room.

As luck would have it I am moving soon and will have a much better listening room and I’m looking for advice on a new amp to pair with my speakers.

Current source is a Mac Mini into a Chinese DAC. The top end of my budget is about $3500 CAD. I have my eye on NAD and Naim but I’m unable to try before I buy as I live in a very remote location.

What are you using with your Axiom’s and do you have any recommendations?

Thanks.

I also have the M5HP and have been using the Schiit Vidar as an amp. No complaints. Seems to have a little more punch with 2 vidars but I didn't do formal level matching and I ended up going back to one and using the other amp in a different room. Amp also has reasonable in home audition period

Schiit has been on my radar for awhile.

I think I’m at a place in my life where, for the amount of listening I do, I’m content with what I have and I’m leaning more towards streamlining things.

Less cables and less boxes is more appealing.

I think it would be prudent to move into the new place before making any equipment changes. It's been my experience that the room makes a huge difference, then the number of channels, and then speaker placement; my ears aren't good enough to discern differences between mainstream electronic devices at normal listening volumes (if they exist).

For stereo listening, I've had holographic soundstage and pinpoint imaging when placing the speakers along the narrow wall. All of my homes since then have had the speakers on the wide wall or diagonal, so I've relied on 5.1 Dolby Digital upmixing to achieve the same effect.

Yes. We’re moving in a month. No changes will be made until after the move.

There WILL be a change though. My amp is a recently recapped Sansui BA-2000 from 1976ish. It’s just time for a change.

I lied. The Sansui is gone and purchased a used Lyngdorf TDAI1120.

Haven’t moved yet.