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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
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
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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.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
Wolf_garcia is right about the fan. You can hear it, but I don't think its too noisy. One thing worth mentioning about me is that I can't listen to music in a room that is dead silent. I find that its just not natural. I know that most audiophiles prefer a dead silent room.

Another thing I should mention since someone brought up the Crown, is that the QSC is a traditional design, where the Crown is class d. I bought the QSC just to experiment with. I've never heard a class d amp that I liked, so I thought getting the QSC would make for a better comparison.

The amp does have limitations, but its a $300 amp and that's what the OP was asking for. I think the QSC is definitely worth the money. It has tons of power and appears to be built like a tank. It sounds fairly neutral but the imaging isn't all that great. I got mine from Guitar Center. They have a very good return policy so you are not stuck with it if you don't like it.
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