Music-Sense amps??

[scottthompson91]

hey i have recently just blown an amp real good like smoke all over...lol..
i had an onkyo m-282 and it is fried now, my question is is there a better amp out there that has the same auto power on/standby feature the only other one i found is the niles si-2125 and si-275. the onkyo was nice but nothing but trouble, two weeks after purchase started fritzin on my sent out got it back worked ok for 16 months or so and now it filled my cabinet with smoke not on warrenty any more so looking for a new one.

i like the si2125 but it is $700ish and the si275 is to weak. im looking for 100-150 watts/ch, with audio-sense or music sence (dont really know the righ term for it it has vaired depending on where i look)

Thanks inadvance
-scott

[adk highlander]

Hi Scott and welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear you've had issues with your Onkyo amp. I've had several of those both the Onkyo and Integra versions and have not had any issues.

Niles makes great products and those amps from what I have read are very solid. Have you looked at used ones on Audiogon or ebay?

The other company that makes an inexpensive sensing amp would be AudioSource. These can be had at great prices and their AMP-200 & AMP-300 should meet your wattage spec. I'm not sure about this retailer but this is a great price: LInk

[DaveHo]

I was going to recommend Audiosource as well. I have an older Amp Two that I've been pleased with. Many amps have a 12V trigger. What are you using for a preamp/processor? Does it have a 12V trigger output?

-Dave

[ParadigmDawg]

Here is a random selection of used amps just to give you an idea what you can get on the used market.

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.p...ran&1280716169

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....37&/Rotel-1080

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....RB-1050-Silver

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....&/Anthem-PVA-2

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....Adcom-GFA-5500

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....Adcom-GFA-5800

[scottthompson91]

from what im seeing the audiosource amp 310 looks like it is pretty good i couldn't find many reviews on it would anyone happen to have owned one or have worked with one give me there opinion.
the aplication of is this:
i got a onkyo TX-SR605 for my tv room and i send the zone2 to the amp (what used to be my onkyo m-282) from that is is going to a niles ssvc-6 and off to 6 pair of speakers inside various rooms of my home. would anyone be able to tell me if the audiosource 310 would be a good replacement for my onkyo.

-thanks again
--scott

[adk highlander]

The 310 is a recent replacement of the 300. Several members here have used or use the amp-300 and I have not heard them complain. It should work well with your application. Just make sure to use the selectable impedance magnification to protect the amp.

[ParadigmDawg]

I use an AudioSource AMP-100 for zone 3. I got it as a refurb for 59 bucks and it has been going strong for 4 years.

The 310 is a recent replacement of the 300. Several members here have used or use the amp-300 and I have not heard them complain. It should work well with your application. Just make sure to use the selectable impedance magnification to protect the amp.

[Seth=L]

I had the Niles SI-275, and it was anything but weak. I had one and I severely regret selling it. It has a robust transformer (approx. 1000kva) 4 - 10000uF capacitors and a total of 12 transistors, that's 6 per channel. I think you'll find the Niles SI-275 will best your old Onkyo in terms of headroom. If there's any possibility that the Onkyo fried due to handling overly complex loads that is a worry that is far far away with the Niles SI-275. That beastly amplifier is rated to safely handle below 3 ohms!

I've got a Sony TA-N611 I've been using and it's rated 150 watts per channel @ 8 ohms. It has 8 transistors of similar value, two 15000uF capacitors, and a smaller transformer as well (figure half or less). It is bigger still than the Onkyo you had been using, which I believe has 4 output transistors total, two caps of 10000uF or less (yeesh) and a small transformer in the size class of a typical 350-400kva transformer.

SI-275 has a current draw of up to 9 amps, the Onkyo is rated at 2.5 amps. The SI-275 doesn't weight a lot more, but it has a smaller case that doesn't waste space like the Onkyo. Instead of having a heavier less efficient iron core transformer like the Onkyo the Niles has a nice toroidal.

The auto signal detection is very nice because it doesn't require the use of a 12v trigger, or you getting up to turn the amplifier on. The amplifier has good features, solid power, excellent headroom, and it's low profile and efficient (it runs extremely cool and this means its power is being put were it should be, into your speakers).

Street price is $400-600 on the Niles SI-275.

I looked into the SI-2125. I'm not sold on that unit. It seems to have a completely different design approach. That's not to say there's anything wrong with it. I'm just not certain that it's that special. It's current draw is 8 amps apposed to the current draw of the SI-275's 9 amps. The SI-275 weighs 21 pounds and the SI-2125 weighs 26 pounds. The SI-2125 has a larger chassis, possibly accounting for the increased weight.

[scottthompson91]

Thanks for everything so far guys.
seth you seem to know a lot about the build of the amps would happen to know about audiosource and any way you could look into them and give you opinion

[j_garcia]

I have 2 Amp300s and they are solid. I also have an Amp100 and it doesn't really compare to the 200s or 300s, but no real complaints about it either.