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Best Amp to drive my Apogee Stages?

Greetings all.
I am wondering if I might get some good suggestions from anyone who might be firmiliar with the Apogee Stages. I have owned them for quite awhile, but due to blowing up my Krell (300i)intergrated amplifier more than once now (a $400 bill to fix it each time) I beleive that it is time to buy the right amplifier for the job. I need more power for sure, but my wallet is light these days. This means that I must minimize my purchase to something definitly under $2K and even more like $1200 price range. This seems to limit me quite a bit in my findings, but I am wondering if I might have missed something with my research so far? I have reviewed Krell, Levinson, Pass Labs and Threshold to date. Each have older options in my price range, but I am not certain if any will work better with my speakers?

Any thoughts out there?

Thank you in advance.

-LoveItLoud
loveitloud
loveitloud OP
7 posts
 
Whoa,
It has been crazy-fun to read all of your postings. I have been enjoying the comments and opinions so much. And, I have researched many of these ideas.

I still have not made an amplifier purchase due to my 4 month old daughter joining Day Care. With 2 kids in Day Care now I am looking at around $3K/mo.

Recently I have run into a Krell KST-100 amplifier ($750) which seems like it would drive the Stages just fine, but after reading all of these postings I might think about saving more money to get more. I really want to be able to experiment and listen to some of these great quality amplifiers to get more of a reference sound. My Dad owns a Levinson, but he will not let me take it out of his house. I can't blame him for that.

Does anybody have an opinion on the sound differences between mono block amplifiers versus a stereo amp? Financially it seems like I can get more of a quality amp. with 2-channel, but reading past Stereophile articles has brought my attention to the old B&K M-200 as well as the Adcom 565 mono blocks.

Thank you all for participating in this thread. Keep on writing.

LoveItLoud
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Gallant_diva, I get the point.

The amplifier in question is a Manley Stingray. I think it meets the quality requirements of the Stage. It is an early Stingray rated at 50wpc.

Also, I spoke with you years ago when I was in the business. You mentioned you were doing something with electrostatic speakers. I thought you said you were building them. Did you give that up?
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Loveitloud, The KST 100 is a lower priced amplifier and it is not the quality of the KSA series amplifiers by Krell which were made during the same time.
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
The H2O 100 costs $2k. It will run the Stage with all the control a high power amp gives it. You can get all the tube warmth, and depth separation by choosing another component with tubes. I just have tubes in my CD player, and that is what determines the sound.

www.iceh2oaudio.com/images/H20...
satch
329 posts
 
I love the sound of my (old but revised) Threshold S/300 on my Apogees.
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