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Legendary used amp, or economical new one?

This past week a couple of my 30-yr-old vintage amps went awry. One, a VSP Labs TransMOS 150 developed a loud hum and got smokin' hot before I shut it off. The other, a Heathkit AA-1600, lost the left channel.

I may get them fixed, possibly to keep as backup or to sell, but I've come across yet another, a 100 wpc ultra-wide bandwidth Perreaux amp, also from the mid-'80s. The Perreaux has some features I've always been curious about in an amp but couldn't afford in a new one--distortion at .009%, bandwidth out to 3Mhz, and the accompanying rise time below 1 microsecond. I'd love to see how all that speed and resolution translates into sound quality, spatial cues, low level detail, and pinpoint timing--key elements in musically involving.

But I don't know how rugged Perreaux gear is, and maybe for the same money I should settle for a new Emotiva XPA 200 or a much less used Odyssey Khartago or Stratos.

Thoughts? Feelings? Opinions? Condemnations? :)
johnnyb53
jl35
2,244 posts
 
Odyssey Khartago Plus sounds great and is a great buy, and can be upgraded even more if you choose...
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
There is no one right answer to this question, it depends on the amplifiers involved. I decided to go the route of the classic older used amp, and it works for me. I was able to buy an 18 year old $5500 100 wpc Class A solid state amp for only $1100, and it has served me well for the past two years. I have not heard any new amps under $2K that can compete. However, as with everything else in this hobby, YMMV.
johnnyb53 OP
3,490 posts
 
Well, I went down to the hi-fi shop that had the used Perreaux, and hooked it up to a modest used pair of Aperion 2-way towers. The speed, clarity, pace, and--still most importantly--the correct timbres and tonalities came through. It easily delineated different recording and miking arrangements from one record to another without it being distracting.

Wide bandwidth and high resolution can be a double-edged sword, but this amp always comes out in favor of musicality over clinical scrutiny. The fast risetime enhances initial transients and overall rhythm and pace, as well as room acoustics, low level detail, and inner detail as well. Basically it makes everything better because you get more musical information, sort of like going from 128 kbs mp3 to 24/192Khz HD digital downloads.

Then when I got home and hooked it up, it sounded great but I discovered that when my previous amp went south it took my right tweeter with it. Aaargh!
halcro's avatar
halcro
2,289 posts
 
I bought a Perreaux PMF 1750 in about 1980 and used it every day for 30 years.
The only problem in all that time was the blue power light failed after about 1 year (which never bothered me).... And the spring behind the power-on button didn't retain its strength to push back out in the 'off' position.
Again this did not bother me as I kept it powered 'ON' for the full 30 years :-)
It was....and still is a superb sounding amplifier which was only surpassed in my system by the Halcro DM58 monoblocks about 5 years ago.
The Perreaux amps of the 80s were true high-end products designed and built by Peter Perreaux in New Zealand......and were better than those produced under the Perreaux name after that time.
I can still happily listen to it today.......
runnin
397 posts
 
Buying a 30 yr old amp is buying something that will break down soon, may not be running within spec any more and is just risky in my opinion.

I've owned 3 Emotiva products, including one of their XPA amps. They can suffer from solid state harshness with some speakers, I actually got sibilance, high frequency distortion at higher volumes with my speakers. I eventually sold that amp. The XPA-200 has a small transformer, something many of Emotiva's designs have.

Is there a 3rd option? Surely there is an amp 10 years old or so that you may find for sale. Or a new Parasound A23 for 950. They go on sale on Audio Advisor occasionally. I've got the A21, and compared it to my Emotiva amp. Superior sounding easily.

There's an A23 for sale on Audiogon, worth a look.
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