I. Like. Big.... Amps-and-I-cannot-lie.

Hope you-all don’t mind me bumping this thread but here’s my beast - early MKII Krell KSA-100. Pure Class A, gobs of power and it even sounds good. Makes my electric bill go up whenever I rotate it into my system - though it heats the room nicely during winter..

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I bought some big amps (used) once. They lasted about a week. When I took them back to the dealer, he gave me a complete refund….no questions asked.
Big to me now is something over 5000 mW.
 
Just me: the amp ought not clip until just before the woofers fuse. For safety, yes, but more important: you can interpret that nasty sound as proof that your speakers are not keeping up with your demands.

In practice, out in the world of real customers with real rooms and with just slightly unreasonable demands, that situation is showing up these days. I've had several guys run out of LF system at 2x1KW, and with plenty of transducer at work.

I think that, if your transducers get ugly early on, maybe you place the blame on the amplification, since your rig certainly sounds better without the top of your vol pot. It's hard to even recognize 3dB, but it can kill your rig, make it scream. But when the transducer array delivers prissy-clean output at higher levels, you'll find yourself happily running at those levels because you're not hearing the tell-tale sounds of "loud" stereo. I've set guy up with +10dB over their previous systems, and they're pretty much: "OK, that's nice. Much better". But, um, gentlemen, that's 100 times. Linear playback systems, logarithmic perception systems.

I'm running 2600W / side and bang the stops all the time at realistic, energetic Rock 'n' Roll levels that I'm certain none of you guys would l find to be excessive. (True, though: half of that juice is buying bandwidth.)

So, yeah, big big amps please. Move at least one darn problem up and out of the way.;)
 
I like some large solid state gear - I use a couple of bridged Classe DR3 VHCs in one system - just over 100 lb.s each, and another of those amps run in stereo in another system, and a Rowland 5 in a third system - 140 lbs.
 
The biggest amp I owned was the 55kg Line Magnetic 219IA with its whopping 24 SET watts per channel.

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That is unreasonable. This situation.must be dealt with. I will send you my shipping details.

;-)
It was a great amp - I could not afford my dream amplifier - the Jinro (a copper-wired version of the Ongaku)

But this was so heavy and difficult to move - it also was a bit of a process to bias the tubes (although the on board meters helped).

The discontinued it for a while but I see that it is back in both black and silver again. And there is a "plus" version but I don't know what that adds.

But this is the one we all secretly want - that will also cause a divorce - the LM 212

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LM-212 is designed with full straight vacuum tubes, a tube as a rectifier, and WE series iron core of audio transformer made by LM itself. It has two outputs at the same time due to the spare tubes 300B.

Power output:212-20W (211 18W)(300B 6W)(RMS)
Frequency response:10Hz~20kHz(1W)
Input Impedance:100kΩ
Output impedance: 4Ω,8Ω,16Ω,600Ω

Tube Complement: 205D×2 / 102D×2 / 211×6 /5U4×4 /313×2 /300B×4 / 6X5×2 / 6J7×2 /EL-6C×8 /300B×2 (buy by customers)
Dimension (WxHxD): 1740mmx520mmx570mm
Net weight: 204kg

 
I have heard Antique Sound Labs was and exceptional company with great products. Too bad they are no longer around.
 
Mmm... Ongaku.

Yes, this is a Lottery Amp. As is the LM-212. I love that it does not include tubes!

But the lottery would form Marriage Insurance.
The Ongaku is way out of my budget - and the problem with their 211 amps is no phono stage - so you have to add to it with either an active phono preamp or RIAA Phono making it even more unobtanium.

Audio Note showed a new level 5 Meishu Phono Tonmeister at the German Hi-Fi Deluxe show - The same level as Ongaku but 300B instead of 211 called the Meishu Phono Kappelmeister. I have asked about a level 4 version. If I can swing it I will trade in my M6 Phono and Empress Silver monoblocks. The Basic Level 3 Meishu Tonmeister I love every time I hear it. But their pricing is becoming more challenging. OTOH - the resale on my gear is also increasing, so we'll see. 30kg is better than 55kg though:)

I also want a "safer" amplifier in the covered 300B vs the big voltage exposed 211s. Safer for kids and pets.

I am too lazy for an amp like the LM 212 - The biasing would be crazy I suspect. I like the self-bias amps - change the 'lightbulbs' every decade and be done with it.
 
I have heard Antique Sound Labs was and exceptional company with great products. Too bad they are no longer around.
I had not heard that - that's a shame - my first tube amp was the MG Head DT Headphone amp I bought back in 2000 for my Sennheiser HD 600s. I still own both units. I wonder if the owner retired?
 
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