Post by hifidez on Oct 12, 2015 8:20:32 GMT
My power amp is a Musical Fidelity A3.2cr. I think these were introduced around 2003. I bought mine 'nearly new' (it was six months old) and have been happy with it since then.
It's >130W per channel, it has a choke regulated power supply, there's plenty of current so it'll drive pretty much any speakers you can find and, two or three years ago, I had it overhauled/upgraded by John Sampson of JS Audio so that the amp would be able to 'see me out' (as they say). You see, I had assumed that I'd not likely be in a position to buy anything of the quality of the A3.2cr ever again so the work done by JS Audio, which centred around renewing all the caps., was a sensible move. By the way, it turned out to be money well spent.
But... I'm fortunate in that we're shortly going to inherit a little cash and my wife (bless her) is happy that I upgrade my main hifi system.
Top of the list is new speakers; shortlisted are the new-ish Spendor D7s. I like the Spendor sound and the D7s have had glowing reviews which means that if the D7s pass the audition then my Spendor A5s will be up for sale... remarkable loudspeakers they are too.
There's enough cash in the budget to replace the power amp as well, but...
How do you know an amp can be improved upon? Given that's it's not obviously deficient in any way? I'm not averse to changing the amp 'because I can' because that's often part of the hobby side of hifi. It's fun to have a change around. But from a practicality point of view, what improvements could I expect if, say, I bought one the new Quad Artera power amps? It looks beautiful (to me anyway), it has a great spec and HiFi News gave it 'outstanding product'.
Just how does one know an amp is due for an upgrade? Yes, a dealer audition is a good idea. But differences between two competently designed amps working with their sepcifications are going to be subtle at best. So do I stay with the A3.2 or say '#### it!' and buy a new toy?
It's >130W per channel, it has a choke regulated power supply, there's plenty of current so it'll drive pretty much any speakers you can find and, two or three years ago, I had it overhauled/upgraded by John Sampson of JS Audio so that the amp would be able to 'see me out' (as they say). You see, I had assumed that I'd not likely be in a position to buy anything of the quality of the A3.2cr ever again so the work done by JS Audio, which centred around renewing all the caps., was a sensible move. By the way, it turned out to be money well spent.
But... I'm fortunate in that we're shortly going to inherit a little cash and my wife (bless her) is happy that I upgrade my main hifi system.
Top of the list is new speakers; shortlisted are the new-ish Spendor D7s. I like the Spendor sound and the D7s have had glowing reviews which means that if the D7s pass the audition then my Spendor A5s will be up for sale... remarkable loudspeakers they are too.
There's enough cash in the budget to replace the power amp as well, but...
How do you know an amp can be improved upon? Given that's it's not obviously deficient in any way? I'm not averse to changing the amp 'because I can' because that's often part of the hobby side of hifi. It's fun to have a change around. But from a practicality point of view, what improvements could I expect if, say, I bought one the new Quad Artera power amps? It looks beautiful (to me anyway), it has a great spec and HiFi News gave it 'outstanding product'.
Just how does one know an amp is due for an upgrade? Yes, a dealer audition is a good idea. But differences between two competently designed amps working with their sepcifications are going to be subtle at best. So do I stay with the A3.2 or say '#### it!' and buy a new toy?