Amp for Ascent i?

[longhorn]

Hi Unclemonty

Do you think you are missing out out sound quality wise going with the GCC from PS Audio? Compared to the Krell combo.

The GCC is the integrated product from PS right? Why the GCC 500 and not the GCC 250? The 250 has 500 watts into 4 ohms,the 500 has ( GULP!) 1,000 wats into 4 ohms...........talk about dynamic headroom.

 

[unclemonty]

it's a very good question, and one I debated long and hard! Certainly the presentation between the two brands is very different and the sound from the PS Audio amp is more immediate and more strident and, 'in your face' compared to the Krell. There appears to be a lot more detail in instrument and voice positioning using the PS Audio amp too.

On balance though, no, I don't believe I have lost out on sound quality or, if I have it's not much at all in % terms. I had the Krell power and the IcePower amps in my house at the same time, and I didn't let the Krell go until I was satisfied that the PS Audio amp could do the business. It's only a matter of personal opinon but I believe the days of the 'behemoth' giant amps are somewhat numbered and I didn't want to get left with lots of large expensive amps in my house (I had a KAV250/a3 too).

Re the other query, I wanted as much power as I could get, and the top IcePower module is supposed to sound the best. Perhaps you have seen an article called '1000w from a sheet of A4'? Its a test of this IcePower module with an ML speaker (forget which). I'd post the link here but it seems to be down at the moment. I probably have the pdf somewhere & it makes interesting reading.

Regards

 

[HK-Steve]

unclemonty,
I would be interested in reading the PDF if you still have it.
Let me know.


Cheers
Steve

 

[EricE]

I seem to remember that someone here has the Innersound amp designed for electrostatics. Any thoughts on that amp. Wasn't it designed by Roger Sanders previously of ML.

 

[sleepysurf]

unclemonty,

Are you SURE PS Audio uses the IcePower circuitry? Their literature only mentions Gain Cell Technology, with no specific technical details. It's probably Class D design *similar* to IcePower modules.

FWIW, I had been looking at IcePower amps from Acoustic-Reality, and H2OAudio, but ended up getting a Sunfire Cinema Grand 200 ~five, which I've vertically bi-amped for 400 watts per front channel. The Sunfire unit also runs cool, and drives my Aerius i's beautifully. I might upgrade to IcePower later as the technology matures.

 

[donbelongia]

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Howdy. I am currently driving two Ascent i's and a Cinema i with a Denon 3805 (120W - 8 ohm) integrated receiver and want to upgrade to a better sounding and higher powered amp using the Denon as a preamp. The 3805 and MLs sound wonderful on HT, no complaints there but on two channel music the sound is definitely lacking a certain something. I am new to audio so I don't have the right words to describe it. The best I can do is: lean-sounding, not rich and alive and "big" like in the audio shop where I bought my speakers. At the shop, the Ascents were driven with a Primare set up.

The acoustic properties of my room are probably atrocious (huge 15' high vaulted ceilings) but I cannot do anything about that for the time being so I am focusing on the amp first.

I am on a budget and am currently looking at the Fosgate 1000.5 and the Aragon 2005. I'd like to stay under $2.5k and get something like 200W into 4 ohm, 5 channels if that is possible(?). Currently use my system for 70% music, 30% HT.

Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks

 

[Robin]

This thread is a golden oldie...

donbelongia,

Welcome to the ML Club!

What an interesting, all-be-it, relevant thread. This is still a good question to ask, as always, "What Amplifier for Ascent i's?"...

Most of the folks here know, what I'm going to say, so I'll just say it... The "Anthem Statement P5", amplifier is an awesome soild state amplifier. The P5 would be my first recommendation. Their are others, I would recommend, second or next choice - Simi Audio's "Moon-Arura" then, Cary Audio's "Cinema X", in that order. I would add tubes to the path via pre-amp. and SACD player like the "Shandling T200".

This is a good thread.

Cheers

-Robin

 

[leaderc]

i'm running a VTL ST-150 with my Ascent i's and love it! If you like the tube sound, it's a great amp to look at.

 

[SugarMedia]

I guess I will jump in and vote for myself as well. Here we go... "you just can't go wrong with the Musical Fidelity A5 amplifiers...plenty of, Current Peak to Peak, which is what is important."
http://www.musicalfidelity.com/mf/en/Products/A5/a5cr_pow

 

[Crawdaddy]

How about the Odyssey Stratos?

I use the Odyssey Stratos Extreme Mono's with my Ascent i's and I'm very happy. You should have all the power you want (just under 600W into 4 ohms and over 60 amps per channel! ). I got mine for <$2000 off Audiogon.

20 year warrenty doesn't hurt either!

Next step for me, I think, will be a good tube pre. Any suggestions?

Good luck!

 

[C.A.P]

never go wrong with Krell, as I say you need big high curent amp to run Logans

 

[Reverb2009]

It’s quality not quantity.

I will take 100 watts of pure clean musical enjoyment any day of the week over 1000 watts of carp. If you like the sound of the Krell, stick with it.

The last Krell setup I heard was at a dealer with the Summits, it made my ears bleed.

 

[jjqiv]

It’s quality not quantity.

I will take 100 watts of pure clean musical enjoyment any day of the week over 1000 watts of carp. If you like the sound of the Krell, stick with it.

The last Krell setup I heard was at a dealer with the Summits, it made my ears bleed.

And, I call you with the 50 watts that has even better tone, texture and body!!

You are right! It is a myth that ML's requires tons of wattage.

 

[Kruppy]

It’s quality not quantity.

I will take 100 watts of pure clean musical enjoyment any day of the week over 1000 watts of carp. If you like the sound of the Krell, stick with it.

The last Krell setup I heard was at a dealer with the Summits, it made my ears bleed.

Me too, 100 clean watts over 1000 watts of carp.....It's hard to concentrate on the music with all that stink.

 

[Reverb2009]

And, I call you with the 50 watts that has even better tone, texture and body!!

You are right! It is a myth that ML's requires tons of wattage.

50 watts?

I sure hope your referring to tube power, because I would never go that low with sold state, you would have very little head room left over.

 

[MarkNewbie]

It’s quality not quantity.

I will take 100 watts of pure clean musical enjoyment any day of the week over 1000 watts of carp. If you like the sound of the Krell, stick with it.

The last Krell setup I heard was at a dealer with the Summits, it made my ears bleed.

They have carp in California too???? I hate those smelly fish!

 

[Spike]

50 watts?
I sure hope your referring to tube power, because I would never go that low with sold state, you would have very little head room left over.

50 watts from my (tubed) SixPacs are more than enough! The trick is to have a beefy power-supply capable of pumping out 50 watts of full-bandwidth power at the speaker interface. And that is what the SixPacs were designed to do. The SixPacs are more musical than my Classe' CA-300 when my SPL meter registered 98db at my listening position 12 feet away! The SixPacs even beat out the ARC VT100 pumping out 100 wpc of tube power. The ARC sounded a bit strained when the SixPacs were just cruising.

Spike

 

[jjqiv]

50 watts?

I sure hope your referring to tube power, because I would never go that low with sold state, you would have very little head room left over.

I am running my CLS's with 50 watts of pure triode tube power. Definitely sounds more powerful (+more finese, musicality, better tone, etc. ) than the 200 watt Aragon 8008X5 the little tube mono's are replacing. Spike is using the same amp that I do.

 

[C.A.P]

not tons of wattage but tons of good clean curent, as for Krell amps they do differentiate between models, however some tube amps do sound good for near field listining , but if you have a large room with vaulted cieleings the sound just gets ate up and thats where a big high curent amp will shine , remember to listen and demo as much as you can , because audio is about interpidtation , and every one will hear something different

 

[timinwi]

Amp

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampsmult&1133886788

There is an EAD Amp for sale on audiogon.
This will exceed all your requirements listed