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Need New Amp

3K views 20 replies 13 participants last post by  zgeneral 
#1 ·
Searching for a new good quality amp for home theater.

Any input on NADS M25, Cary 7.125, Parasound?

I am leaning to the NADS

All are old designs. Are they worth it? Please. no Emotiva, Outlaw or ATI, i am familiar, looking for a little more
 
#2 ·
NAD m25 being replaced by M27 which is smaller 7x180W 8 ohm class D amplifier (search this forum for more info on m25 and m27 threads).

So the new version m27 seems to have some advantages with newer technology plus if you're set on an M25 then there might be some clearance of old stock - discontinued pricing deals to be had in the near future.
 
#4 ·
I have a Parasound model A 52, which is 125 watts x 5 channels, and I love it.

It is a high current amp, so 125 watts is plenty for my 87 decibels sensitivity 8 ohm bookshelf speakers.

My previous amps were an Emotiva LPA-1 , which was 125X 7 channels, and a Marantz MM9000, which was 150x 5 channels.

Unfortunately, the A52 is a discontinued model. I picked up one of the last ones that Audio Advisor had in stock, at the time.
 
#5 ·
I have a NAD T975.The current model is T977. No bad experience with it for almost 2 years now. It is clean sounding amp. I just feel it is little lean on the lower frequencies though I'm not sure what contributes to this impression. It is paired with the T187 and B&W 683s for the mains.
 
#6 ·
Searching for a new good quality amp for home theater. Please. no Emotiva, Outlaw or ATI, i am familiar, looking for a little more
It would help if you could say more what than ATI you seek.
 
#7 ·
I currently have a Krell Showcase 7 channel amp.

I am used to the level of clarity, seperation, soundstage, musical and tone it brings. The new Krells are beyond budget.

I am not looking for just raw power. My Thiel Powerpoints are 4ohm rated with a max of 250 each. So all i really need is 150-200 8ohm amp, 4ohm stable.

I was looking at NAD M25 but now they have the newer M27. Older tech in M25 but class A, new tech in M27 but class D digital, not my favorite for SQ

I have seen too much mixed opinion on ATI on this forum on so many different amps to be confident.

Open to hear your recommendation
 
#10 · (Edited)
Here is distortion vs power, with the amps sorted from worst to best (overall):

20th Place: D'Agostino Momentum (horrible performance, thanks for wasting our time and money!!! :eek:)


19th Place: Emotiva UPA-7 (
 
#11 ·
#15 ·
It took a while to decide. Pulled the trigger on D-Sonic M3-2800-7

Lets see how this goes, very curious
 
#16 ·
Most of the distortion graphs and whatnot do NOT reflect the level of ambient hiss and noise BTW. I bought Pass Labs for my horns and they had too much ambient noise for my taste. I think the amp you want is going to depend on your speakers in that respect. For high sensitivity speakers above 100db, I would definitely go for the NAD M22 or NAD27 . For speakers above 105db sensitivity, the Benchmark AHB2 cannot be beat for noise.

The Parasound's sound very good every time I have heard them, particularly with air motion tweeter based speaker designs. The do a great job but are not as cool as the NAD amps with ncore. I personally see no more advantages in 2015 to buying the older parasound designs. They aren't unreasonably priced and still look beautiful though. I would certainly consider the used market on Parasound.

Hypex ncore (found in NAD) has more or less made class AB obsolete in terms of energy usage and cooling issues. Even Theta Digital (now a subsidiary of ATI) has gone with ncore modules.
 
#17 ·
Got the D-Sonic M3-2800-7 today. Packaged well. Hooked it up and working very nicely so far in first few hours. Only odd thing that threw me off was the selector switches on bakc of amp for Low Level or XLR.
The amp is larger than expected. Higher profile than my Krell but a little smaller foot print. Barely fits in space i have available but got it in. So far I am happy with my choice. Seems to be a little more detailed than the Krell Showcase which surprised me. To this day, my Krell has been the finest amp i have listened to. I believe i have more head room with this amp because of the vast power difference. Dennis tells me i have the Pascal amplfiers in this model giving me 400 watts @ 8ohms. I have 4 ohm speakers and he tells me i am seeing 750 into all 7 channels.
 

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#19 ·
Sorry to disagree. Money spent and ownership of many different amps has shown me different sound properties over the years. The less expensive ones i have used all seemed to have the same issues, muffled mids and highs, lack of clarity, depth and separation.

Quality of parts and design do make a difference.

I will give you this, you can get to the point of diminishing returns vs cost. Plus there is also more than one to skin a cat, meaning there is more than one way to accomplish the same thing. Some amp manufacturers brag about this design or another design, all to amplify sound as neutral as possible. Some designs make a difference, some dont.
 
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