Amp choices for my Snell D7 towers

[Shanman]

I've been attempting to get a second Outlaw 2200 to no avail lately, so I have been looking at other options for my 2.1 music set up and would appreciate some guidance and thoughts.

Current power is coming from a Niles SI-2150 which is rated 220rms into a 4ohm load. Things are getting gritty at extended louder sessions, so I feel I may be running out of headroom powering the D7's and certainly don't want to be sourcing/replacing forward and backfiring tweeters in these towers.

The D7's are 4 ohms rated from 50-300w, 90dB sensitivity. Current choices within budget are:

1.Newer Outlaw 2220 pair of monoblocks

Outlaw 2220

2. ATI made Monoprice Monolith 2 or 3 ch

Monolith 2
Monolith 3

I say the 3 channel Monolith as an option because for $200 more, you get a larger toroid and an extra channel in case one goes down. Seems also useful later down the road if the amp gets assigned to LCR duty for home theatre.

Current preamp is a legacy Adcom GTP-500II, so having the ability later down the road to have amps to take balanced preamp connections is nice if the Adcom craps itself one day.

 

[lovinthehd]

Maybe Crown XLS amps could provide better low impedance performance as well as save some money? With the Monoliths would tend to go with as many channels as possible just due the cost structure even if not needed initially.

 

[Shanman]

Thanks Chris, after my previous attempts to use the Crown XLS amps when repowering the Snell sub, I just don't want to mess with them. I tried 2 different ones, and both went back unfortunately. I don't know if it was gain structure issues as I always had to max out the gain dial on them which induced hiss and hum. All was solved with an Outlaw 2200 and things have been fine ever since.

That being said, I am certainly not against considering some of the newer class D Hypex NCore amps people seem to be raving about. Would certainly be lighter, smaller, and less heat. ASR reviews seem to regard many of the newer D rated amps like Nord, Buckeye, etc. My only issue with those is the fact of my legacy Adcom not having XLR outputs, it's all RCA. Most of those Class D's seem to only have XLR inputs

I wish I had simply bought a second Outlaw 2200 when they were available, and no one other than scammers seem to reply to the wtb ad here so far. Strangely, folks seem to be a tad sketchy pulling the trigger on the new Outlaw 2220. I suppose the swap Outlaw chose from the Taiwanese factory where Parasound was also made, to a factory in China for the newer 2220 has people scratching their heads. Seems no one has done a review on the newer 2220's either which seems a tad weird.

 

[lovinthehd]

You had gen 1 or gen 2 XLS Drive-Core amps? What is the pre-amp?

 

[Shanman]

I had 2nd gen at the time with an Arcam AVR350.
We had spoken at length all the issues I had.
The current preamp I will be using for the stereo amp I will purchase is an Adcom GTP-500II.

Man, looking at all the D class stuff everyone is raving about is daunting. All the different boards- ICE, Hypex, Purify, and power supplies that all these companies are combining and throwing together, saying theirs are the best. Sheesh, that whole class D arena firing up is wild.

 

[lovinthehd]

I had 2nd gen at the time with an Arcam AVR350.
We had spoken at length all the issues I had.
The current preamp I will be using for the stereo amp I will purchase is an Adcom GTP-500II.

Man, looking at all the D class stuff everyone is raving about is daunting. All the different boards- ICE, Hype, Purify, and power supplies that all these companies are combining and throwing together, saying theirs are the best. Sheesh, that whole class D arena firing up is wild.

Been a while, will have to reread. Still have an Adcom pre-amp myself, altho not currently using it. Class D is the future, tho.