are all amps equal

your friend is silly

"power more important than brand" I don't think so,to me sound is more important than anything else, class a, class d, tube, ss etc.

Alot of very general comments being made here.

Here is a list of just power amps that I have owned,own or at least had in my house for a reasonable amount of time
Mcintosh....252,402,501,275
ARC d60,M100 D90b,D115
Vtl st85,125,it85,185
Marantz 8b
Dynaco st70
Linn lk100,klout
naim...alot
threshold, Perreaux,Apt,Nikko....ah the old days....and more that I am forgetting...... are amps the same ????

Er um...NOPE

Laser, I hear people say that about automobiles too, but we all know that they are not equal, despite the fact that they all go forward and backward and can turn left and right? If comparing one amp to another prompts one to say that X amp sounds better than Y amp, than how can they be equal? It would be very interesting to know the criteria used by those folks that believe all amps, preamps, cd players etc. are equal. I would bet that they have probably compared a few different amps that sounded the same and derived their conclusion of equality based on this sample. IMHO, If Keslerd really believed that they were all equal, he wouldn't have posted this as a question.

Where should I spend my Money.
I will list my system again.

cd- player Onkyo DX-7555
amp- ARC 150.2
preamp- ARC LS1 (old)
all my cables are Phillips from Walmart.
speaker wire 12 gauage, 10ft. run, and bi-wired

I plan to spend between 3k & 4k$, where would you put the money. The Usher speakers are here to stay. Thanks for ANY suggestions..

First, get the amplifier/speaker match correct. The Usher BE-718 are not very
sensitive at 87db (actually measured 85db by John Atkinson in his Stereophile
measurements) , therefore they require a good amount of power. Although they
have a fairly flat impedance curve, their power requirements probably eliminate
most tube amps as the best match, including your ARC 150.2.

So, I would recommend buying a solid state amp (or chip/digital amp) with lots
of power (at least 200wpc into 8 ohms and 400 wpc into 4 ohms). Even 200wpc
isn't really quite enough power to give you realistic decibel levels on the BE-
718, but it will be a good start. If you can go to 400 wpc into 8 ohms, that's
even better.

Also, I would recommend buying a subwoofer since you're not planning to
replace the BE-718, which only go to 42Hz, and therefore are missing a
significant range of bass where much of the music lies.