Parasound HCA 1500A vs. HCA 1200II vs. other ~$500 power amps

Nightfall wrote: »

http://www.ebay.com/itm/B-K-Reference-200-2-2-Channel-Amplifier-1-of-4-200W-per-channel-/151662037171?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item234fc308b3

One of these, they're being sold by former chief engineer of B&K and they've just been calibrated.

That looks really nice. I'm not too familiar with B&K. I'm going to have to look into this amp some more. The price is in the right area though.

Interestingly, I originally planned on getting a new preamp, then a new power amp, then a new source. I've seemingly done just the opposite. I got a source first and it's looking likely that I'll buy a power amp before a preamp.

It's looking like all four of them are gone. I looked up the sellers other items and got 0 results unfortunately.

DSkip wrote: »

Class d is a no go. They've got a balls to the walls sound but it's highly artificial sounding.

That's what I figured. I've always understood that class D amplifiers were really best served for larger PA systems and such where high amounts of power were needed, but at the sacrifice of sound quality.

Do you have any thoughts on the Rotel RB 1080? There's one I'm watching on eBay. It's looking like it's going to go a bit above my current price range, but I'm really liking the looks of this amp. The reviews I'm reading are very positive.

Polkie2009 wrote: »

deronb1 wrote: »

Really, an Adcom GFA 555 might be a good match with the 9s. Very neutral.

The 555 might be worth a try since it can handle a 4 ohm load. I have a spare Adcom 545 amp laying around I was thinking about running my 9's with ,but noticed the amp isn't rated for the 4 ohm speakers.

I'm still looking at the 555 as well. I've been very happy with my 545. I've had it for something like 5-6 years now and I've never had a single issue with it. I've driven both Monitor 7As and SDA 2As with it, and both of these are fairly lower impedance. About 6 ohms as I recall, and sometimes dipping to 4 ohms. So far the 545 is doing just fine driving the LSi9s as well. Although to be fair, I haven't really turned the volume up past 10 o'clock or so. Perhaps as far as a 11 once. I've been checking the amp to see how warm it's gotten while driving the 9s, and it hasn't gotten unusually warm yet. The 545 is a fairly warm running amp to begin with though.

This raises the question...which of the various versions of the 555 is the one to look for?

My main concern is that the 555 is going to sound very similar to the 545, just with more power in reserve. This isn't to suggest that I dislike the sound of the 545 in any way, but I'd like to try something different. Should I be concerned about this, or does the 555 have a different overall sound than the 545?

I feel like it's stupid to pass on something because of appearances, but I can't deny the fact that it is of at least some importance to me.

I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea of the B&K at this point. This one in the FM is tempting.

Edit - I see that he also has a Parasound P5 listed along with the B&K. Now THAT I am incredibly tempted by. This is the preamp that I've wanted, and used ones don't pop up too often.

Well I'm buying the Parasound P5. I'm looking forward to getting my ears on it. I'm anticipating a huge difference from this preamp. I'm currently using an Acurus L10, which is a good little preamp in its own right, but it's not in the same league as the P5.

I'm looking forward to having some bass management and a built in DAC in my preamp. I'm 3/4 of the way done with my upgrades now. All that's left is an amp. With the purchase of the P5, the amp is going to get put off for a little bit while my bank account recuperates. I'll most likely end up buying an amp toward the end of July or so. I'm definitely still looking for input on them now though.

DSkip wrote: »

I think the P5 is a good fit for your needs. It's not an end game preamp, but it is exactly where you need to be right now.

This is how I see it. My eventual plan is to integrate the P5 with a combination HT/2 channel system, and then set up a dedicated 2 channel rig. This is a long distant plan at this point though. I've got 2 years of college left, and I'll be a grad student for about 6 years after that. So needless to say, my funds aren't likely to allow for 2 separate rigs for a good while.

I think I'm going to be very happy with the P5. It's going to make for a huge improvement in my sound.

Nightfall wrote: »

Congrats man. Good to see you get a piece of kit you really wanted and Rick gets some help as well. Win, win.

Thanks! I was really glad to see a used P5 pop up. I've been watching them for about 2 months now, and I haven't even seen any used ones anywhere. This was too good of a deal to pass up.

It just occurred to me that whatever amp I end up with needs to be common ground. I'm not planning on getting rid of my SDAs, so I need to be sure that I can run them.

I know this isn't an issue for the Adcoms. What about the Parasound amps? I'm also really interested in the Rotel RB1080. Does anyone know if this is common ground?