Agoners: Need Advice! Have 3K to spend on an Amp, what do I do with no way to audition?


Looking for a solid State Amp, something that will go for 30 years or more (My Last Amp), so I don't need high maintenance, with at least 200 WPC @ 8 ohm load.  SO many to choose from...I've narrowed my choices down to several brands, due to the consistency of great reviews; Krell, Pass Labs, Audio Research, McIntosh, Mark Levinson, Classe.  Now looking serious at a couple by Krell or Pass.  I love most types of music, classical, jazz, rock, punk, electronica, metal, but not Rap & Country.  I love great detail in my music, fast and bold but rich and  warm, played soft or loud with a big soundstage, love bass slam and crisp highs, too much midrange hurts my ears. Which amp does it all???  Wife has me limited to this, you know how that is :(...Please help me out here folks...I've been in this dilemma for a few years, it's time to make a decision and buy! 
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Man you are getting bad advice, if you have $3k to spend and you want your amplifier to last 30 years buying a 5 year or older conventional solid state amp won't do.

Most conventional solid state linear power supply amplifiers use lots of expensive capacitors, which will age and fail over time.

You can get an analog switching amplifier that will knock your socks off and you can get it brand new for $1595.00

You should look at a Nuprime ST 10 shockingly good amp, fast, detailed, smooth, incredible bass control and it runs cool and will last a long time.

Quite frankly you have to spend 3-4 times more money to get an amplifier which betters it.

I used to sell B&W 802's and they tend to be a bit power/current hungry (4ohms?) so it is possible that the midrange harsh qualities are a bit of artifacts from your other gear...  or your room acoustics... or aging drivers... I had found them to be a fairly "polite" sounding speaker during that era of audio...

I loved the Mark Levinson gear driving those speakers and sold a lot of systems matched that way... hard beat ML build quality... The camac connecters were a little off beat but ultra high quality... Just not compatible with everything else which was mostly RCA inputs and duel banana outputs... not so the ML gear that I remember...  The ML3 as mentioned above was a big serious amp of that era yet, to my ears the 23.5's would be better and there is the problem... "to my ears" it's your ears that count and those ML amps do weigh a lot to ship..  

I love ARC amps too, listening to an old SS ARC 100.2 now and they are proud to offer excellent service on their products... Many to choose from but you will probably find you need an amp with high current capabilities and even used ARC amps can be pricey... do consider them though...   BTW.. It's even possible to talk to a human when you call them...

last but certainly not least...

A big YES to the Brystons for your speakers... I used to sell those too... Not all clients had the $$$$ for the ML gear so Bryston was often my go gear for those B&W 802's
I have an old Bryston 3B that still sounds amazing and had to be serviced a few years back for a wimpy channel... it was past the 20 year warranty and yet I think they charged me for the shipping,  a new box, and not the repairs... A truly reputable company... for those 802's I feel you would be best off with the 200wpc version, the 4B, to get that solid bottom end happening... Brystons are a high current, high damping factor, fast rise time amp always producing much more than their rated power on the test bench... The newer models are of course sweeter sounding so look into those for sure... You can find a used Bryston 4B SST2 with single ended and balanced inputs in your price range and probably still under warranty to boot.  Then I suggest you audition some various cables in your system to see if any remaining midrange hash you hear is caused by cable artifacts... it can be a bit neurotic but also gratifying. 

Have you heard of the Sanders Magtech, its as good if not better than most of the amps mentioned here AND you can demo one in your house for free, call up Roger at Sanders Sound and try one for 30 days then send it back, if  you like how it sounds look for a used one on Audiogon which go for around 3k.  
How about buying new...the Emotiva XPA Gen3 2 channel to start you can add more channels later.....2 channel is $2000
Try the new Ming Da tube amps . There reliable the clarity is rare at the price .
 368 KT 120 or the KT150 intergraded amps , can be used as an amp alone