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Best Amp for $300 to Power Paradigm Monitor 9s

I'm looking for a 2-channel amplifier to power my Paradigm Monitor 9 (series 7) speakers. I want something simple, with few bells and whistles, but excellent sound. I've read that the Paradigms are bright and so a warm amp would be the way to, and have heard that Marantz pairs well, but am open to any quality option.

My budget is about 300 dollars, and I'd like something in the 100 WPC range, so I will likely buy second hand vintage.
commodus1
sonicdead
20 posts
 
rotel rb-980bx is amazing for under $300 ($200).
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
4,637 posts
 
Log with the Crown xls series as mentioned.
wolf_garcia
4,650 posts
 
I'd ignore pro sound amps like the QSC since it has fan noise that is far too loud
for home hifi unless you will only be playing things really loud (I own a GX3 for
certain PA needs and the fan is way too loud even for my rehearsal/recording
studio....I use an old reliable and fanless Alesis RA100 for that). I recommended
Adcom in the other post as they are bulletproof and pretty cheap to buy these
days...they sound amazing for the price.
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
4,637 posts
 
The Crown is totally different and I have heard it. Nice class D amp.
mapman's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
mapman
15,679 posts
 
They use those Crowns for exercise classes at my Gym along with four high corner mounted high efficiency pro horn loaded speakers (forget the make) at my gym. I hear them for a hour or so almost everyday. Acoustics in those rooms are the pits though, and I doubt those HE horns are a great match, so hard for me to assess apples/apples for home use. COuld be a great bargain with the right speakers at home perhaps. I smaller somewhat high efficiency speakers at home I use with my Class D amps. Not bad, but tube amplification does seem to go a long ways with higher efficiency speakers in particular.
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