Line Magnetic owners...how quiet are they?

Very to my ears. What are you now using to drive your Nines?

The LM 518IA is dead quiet and absolutely no noise from the speakers. One of the quietest amps I've ever owned. Transformers are silent too. Mine is new and still breaking in but very very nice indeed with an incredible balance across the spectrum.

Old thread but I am very interested in getting a Line Magnetic 518IA to drive my Sonus Faber Evolutions. Worried whether it will have enough power though.

103db speakers here. And it's QUIET.

Ladok, I have owned the LM 211ia (silver series) with Gold Lion output tubes (K77 upgrade) for about a year. The unit is DEAD QUIET and I am very happy with it. I have it paired with Devore Nines, an OPPO 105 and a Well Tempered Simplex TT with a Dynavector 20X2L cartridge. Together the entire system sounds incredible.

I am not ready to change a thing, but if I were to upgrade my integrated amp, I would definitely buy LM again and probably the gold series like you're thinking of purchasing.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your decision

Mrc- What phono stage are you using with the 20X2L. I am getting good results with a Heed Quasar, but am always looking for options (-:

Fjn04, I was going to buy the latest Jasmine, but I ended up getting the Musical Surroundings Phenom. II instead after calling Michael Yee's company and talking with one of his designers. I couldn't be happier. At first I was a little skeptical that the MS unit, would not be up to snuff, even with the great reviews, but I was pleasantly surprised, because I was willing to spend up to $1,500 - $2,000 for a new or used phono amp like the Parasound Halo, the Liberty or Whest.

I'm glad I didn't. The sound coming out of the MS is very neutral, clean and well balanced and allows the Dynavector to sing. Could I see myself getting something nicer in the future? Yes. But I believe I would have to spend $2,000 or more and if I did, I would upgrade the LM to the gold series, or purchase Shindo separates and probably upgrade my Nines to the Silverbacks or the O96/93's. So right now, I'm very happy with the setup that I have. I hope this helps.

Fjn04, I forgot to ask you in my response to you, but how do you like the Quasar? And what did the Heed unit replace?

With some rube rolling (rectifier and pre) you can get rid of most hum. I can only hear it within two feet of the amp. With a $99 Emotiva cmx2 you can eliminate hum altogether

Mrc- Sorry for the delayed response, lost track of this....
The Heed is a very nice unit. I'm partial to tubes, yet I have no regret with the Quasar. If there is a better unit for my tastes in the $1000 range, I would be pleasantly surprised. I think it will stay until I can afford a nice tubed preamp, which will be 3X the cost of the Heed.

Mine is dead quite,.. only a touch of tube rush with your ear at the speaker and the volume wide open. No transx hum at all. I do plug into a PS Audio Power Plant though, so I know my power going in is close to perfect.

have a 518ia very quiet ,superb sounding integrated ,trounced a few integrated for twice as many bucks on a side by side comparison..again system dependent on speakers and source..

Recently purchased the 518ia, it is exceptionally quite and IMHO an excellent value - well built and very good sounding