Hi everybody,

Ok - I've got a pair of M40's that I use mostly for listening to vinyl, and I'm currently using a 1980's Harman Kardon 380i receiver. It's a really nice little receiver, but it only puts out about 30watts. Most of the time, it really works out great - it's a great little receiver. Sometimes, though, when I want to listen to music LOUD, I find myself turning it up past halfway - and my rule of thumb is that you shouldn't have to turn it up past halfway - at that point you are in danger of damaging the speaker from driving it with too few watts. Maybe this rule of thumb is flawed - if so, let me know... but with vinyl it can be hard to detect clipping, because it could be a record that just needs cleaning!

So, anway - I'm looking at a pre-amp / amp combo. I REALLY like the way the old 80's HK stuff looks, so I'm probably gonna try and find a used one of those (with the nice silver faces). As for an amp, though - I'm thinking about an old HK Citation 12, an Adcom GTA-535, or maybe even just using the amplifier portion of an HK 730.

I'm pulling stuff off the top of my head that has a good reputation and I know I can find pretty cheap. If anyone has any other cheap recommendations, I'd love to hear 'em! I know it might seem like sacrilege to hook up "cheap" stuff to my nice speakers, but I don't have too much cash, and I find that older stuff really does sound great, despite the price - especially when you are only interested in 2 channel stereo like me.

Thanks,
nowave

nowave,

have you considered the new TEAC? I can't remember the model, but Marc has it at
www.audioshopcanada.com

it's 50wpc into 8ohms, and comes built in with tuner and cd player.

There's also a new NAD that is in this fashion. I would get one of those if you don't already have a CD player.

If you do, then that Adcom looks to me like being your best bet. I love Adcom products.

nonwave,

I'm sure there are a lot of brands out there that make great amps, but I thought I should suggest to you Cambridge. I've been using the A500 integrated amp for a year (heavy use, about 5 hours a day). I don't use it with a record player, but it has a phono stage, so it should work for you. I have mated my amp with axiom m22's and currently have m60's, and I think the sound is excellent. Given that most solid-state amps these days have very good, flat frequency response, I think one of the most critical things is high-current capacity.
I never turn my amp up to nearly half-way... I would have to have my stereo in a pretty big room to need more power.

Scott

the Cambridge A500 is also excellent. I was going to buy their DVD player, the D300, but opted for a cheaper one instead due to lack of funds. I heard the A500 on some larger speakers that are not as efficient as Axioms, and they played them fairly loud. If you are in Canada, they have it at a very good price at Dumoulin and Audiotronic.

IRD Audio makes some inexpensive high quality amps and pre-amps. For $1060 you could get a LLC-P (pre-amp) and two MB-100 monoblocks (same as Norh LeAmps). In the near future they are releasing an integrated amp that basically combines the LLC-P and two MB-100s...its only rated at 75W/ch though. It should cost about $650.