Mean Mother-lovin' Monoblocs

[Madge]

Any ideas people? I'm looking for fairly cheap (£500 each) monoblocs that laugh in the face of difficult (2Ohm) loads, have greater current reserves than the eastern seaboard of the US (not dificult right now) and don't have a harsh or bright treble.



Your thoughts are appreciated.

[deckard]

Rare as rocking horse manure and only available S/H now (so prob not at the top of your list!), I'd suggest the Linn LK240 - optimised to deal with Linn's tricky 4ohm speakers, I'd have thought it would probably laugh in the face of 2ohms.

[Madge]

Rare as rocking horse manure and only available S/H now (so prob not at the top of your list!), I'd suggest the Linn LK240 - optimised to deal with Linn's tricky 4ohm speakers, I'd have thought it would probably laugh in the face of 2ohms.


Deckard, I'd take second hand Linn (or any other quality manufacturer) over new from most manufacturers at this price point.

Amps I'd been considering were the Quad 99 mono, Meridian 505 and a few pro amps that may or may not be suitable.

[deckard]

They all sound like good choices Mudge, I agree with you that I'd rather have a quality S/H amp for this money.



What are thinking of doing with them? Plain stereo or are they for a multichannel affair? And what's the trcky load they're going to have to drive?

[Madge]

Multichannel Deckard. Or at least the front three. Hopefully they'll be driving Quad ESL-63s but with about 10-25cm of speaker cable per speaker. That way I could buy 1 metre of £500-£1000 speaker cable :lol:.

[buns]

Have a look at Norh Le Amp II.....



Ad

[Underground_pro]

Have you thought about the BRYSTON POWERPAC 120, very clean sound coupled with enough grunt to move just about any load. I have seen one of these driving a static 1 ohm load which must have been almost short circut when dynamic. Last time I checked these were around $825 canadian so this would meet your budget.



Phil

[Gordon, Convergent-AV]

The best value amp you'll find I'd suggest is actually a Linn LK280. Unmodded it will sound miles better than a pair of LK240's.



It's a dual mono design with shared Transformer. You can double up the caps inside on the PS to make it like a LK280.Spark for about £75 more. MASSIVE improvement in sound. Need to go to well up in price to beat this. You should be able to pick up LK280's easily in free add papers for £150-£200 EACH I'd think. Make sure it's a LK280 NOT LK275 or LK2/260



Gordon

[Madge]

I'll keep that in mind for the rears Gordon, but I do need three mono amps for the front. Well unless my search for audio grade HT transistors is sucessful :D~:-D~:grin:.

[Gordon, Convergent-AV]

Don't quite see the need for a mono amp if one channel of a stereo amp could sound better for same or less money...but there you go. Good luck in your search and let us all know what you end up with



Gordon

[Madge]

Don't quite see the need for a mono amp if one channel of a stereo amp could sound better for same or less money...but there you go. Good luck in your search and let us all know what you end up with



Gordon


You have a point there. Sadly my trawls through every online classifieds and 2nd/hand dealer's websites I can think of haven't turned up a 280 yet, but I'll keep looking :thumbup:



Actually that's just given me a good idea for a sticky in General Hardware. :)~:-)~:smile:



EDIT: Found One (1) and one only, for £300 :(

[deckard]

Mmm, the LK280 must have passed me by Gordon. I've got a Majik, an 85 and a 140, and have heard the 100 and Klout. Never come across a 280 before, is it recent; ie a 'shoe box' affair?

[Bradley Porter]

Mudge,



Not quite sure whether you would be interested in this but the Arcam P-25 and 35 can be used as mono blocks and stick 200 watts into a 4Ohm load. They can be picked up ex-demo and second hand for under GBP 500 and, I really like them running my 4Ohm M&K loads. I use the P-25 2-Chan to run my front speakers and have had the volume to ear bleeding level without losing quality. If you use it as a monobloc, its going to have no issue at all.



It might not be what you are after but I thought I would add my two cents! You can always bring the speakers round to mine for a test if you like!



Brad

[oreo]

<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText">Gordon, Convergent-AV wrote on Tue, 19 August 2003 18:09</td></tr><tr><td class="quote">
Don't quite see the need for a mono amp if one channel of a stereo amp could sound better for same or less money...but there you go. Good luck in your search and let us all know what you end up with



Gordon


You have a point there. Sadly my trawls through every online classifieds and 2nd/hand dealer's websites I can think of haven't turned up a 280 yet, but I'll keep looking :thumbup:



Actually that's just given me a good idea for a sticky in General Hardware. :)~:-)~:smile:



EDIT: Found One (1) and one only, for £300 :(








http://www.musicalapproach.co.uk/sales/



near the bottom, £250





On a side note, if these are so much better, why do people buy things like a rotel 1075/95 instead of 5 of these?

[Madge]

On a side note, if these are so much better, why do people buy things like a rotel 1075/95 instead of 5 of these?


This is a good question and one I don't really have an answer to.



At 2nd hand prices, one can get five channels of incredible amplification for silly money. One can then buy five or six identical speakers which in some areas are still more than a match for brand new ones.



Only in the arena of digital products is real progress being made. Every other area is just making slow incremental improvements.

[Dubbing Mixer]

Personally, I wouldn't be so sure about the digital stuff either. There's a roadmap and this stuff is rolled out to keep people upgrading on a regular basis....