I need a 250 watt pre channel amp, Acurus??

[jamie2112]

I bought a pair of B&W matrix 804 speakers and my Denon 3802 is just not enough for them. I am looking for a power amp under 400 shipped. My Sapphires and B&W 602 sound great through the denon but I think the Matrix need a little more power. Any thoughts? I know I don't want the beringer so used I guess is the way forward for me. I looked at an Acurus 500 watt amp for 375 shipped but I have not heard them before.......

 

[Seth=L]

Other than cosmetics and replacing the fan, what do you have against the Behringer EP2500?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

If you must get an amp, I would recommend Emotiva XPA-5 or similar.

But how do you know the Denon receiver is not ENOUGH power?

We don't recommend Acurus amps on this forum anymore because there may be a potential speaker hazzard issue -- apparently there is not sufficient speaker protection circuits in some of the Acurus amps.

 

[Seth=L]

You know from having them, but so long as you never press them too hard there shouldn't be any issues. Old amplifiers like that do go bad though, capacitors typically wear out in amplifiers like those Acurus.

Acurus amplifiers, like most amplifiers are sonically neutral. They fall under the human range of discernibility. The Behringer would be like this as well, as well as the Emotiva XPA-5 and XPA-2 amplifiers along with pretty much any other solid state amplifier you buy today.

 

[rnatalli]

Emotiva has my vote. You could always pick up an LPA-1 and bi-amp the speakers using both the receiver and external amp assuming the receivers allows it. Or spring for the XPA series like others have already suggested.

 

[jamie2112]

Went ahead

I just purchased the acurus it is in mint condition and for 350 shipped I could not find another amp with 250 watts a channel into 8 ohms. If I don't like it I will sell it on craigslist, but my B&W dealer said as long as I check the amp out before I plug it in with a tester of course that the acurus would drive my B&W Matrix 804's with no problems. In fact he uses a acurus in his home as well. That was good enough for me. I wish I had $799 for the emotiva but next year I will be getting an emotiva power amp. Thanks for the suggestions..

 

[dorokusai]

Does anyone have more iformation on the Acurus issue? There's a FS ad in our flea market that I'd like to have addressed by the seller at the very least. I've never heard of that problem, thanks.

Mark
Polk Audio CS

 

[jamie2112]

I checked into it today. The older amps had a light flickering on the power button but as far as any problems I could not find any. And I looked pretty hard to find some.

 

[EJD]

We don't recommend Acurus amps on this forum anymore because there may be a potential speaker hazzard issue --

Whoa - easy there fella. Maybe some of you on this forum don't recommend Acurus amps, but not everyone sold off their amps because of that one thread and the response from one forum member regarding the amp.

The truth is, many people recognize that Acurus amps are extremely high quality pieces of equipment that are very reliable. Thousands of people (including me) have used these amps over the last couple of decades, and while there is no way to know how many (if any) people have had their speakers damaged because of the amp design - it's a pretty safe guess that the overwhelming majority of owners have no issues whatsoever.

Acurus amps, especially the A250, have been in many reference systems over the years, including one from the current Audioholics staff

Reference System 4

 

[davidtwotrees]

Whoa - easy there fella. Maybe some of you on this forum don't recommend Acurus amps, but not everyone sold off their amps because of that one thread and the response from one forum member regarding the amp.

I discussed this in another thread I sold not one, but TWO Acurus A250's! Mostly because they were for biamping and that was really a waste of my precious H/T $$$. The thread by TLS guy wasn't just a flippant remark about the Acurus amp. He is an extremely knowledgable poster, studied the schematics of the amp, and presented a very convincing argument as to why a modern SS amp design without speaker protection was Insane. My Acurus amps worked fine while I had them. Frankly, I couldn't tell the difference between them and my Audio Refinement Multi5 amp (5x125w) so selling them was a sound decision for me.
I would love to hear from the Acurus' amp designer on this. I like the look of the Aragon line and wonder if they have speaker protection?!

 

[bandphan]

Glad to see you picked up a new set of mains. You will enjoy them alot compared to the other ones. Consider picking up a http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHFBQ2496 and using http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/ to taylor the sound they way you like. Those are a wonderful pair. Will you be using them as stereo only or intergrated into the ht?

 

[jamie2112]

I think I will use them as 2 channel music and I have a regular 27 inch toshiba flat screen that I will be upgrading soon,so the HT is going to wait a little bit. I basically have 2 listening rooms as I do not have a large flat screen yet. I am going to eq my rooms with spectrafoo and smarrt live as I have tuned many arenas sheds and theaters all over the planet.I am a sound engineer by trade and tuning rooms is one of the things I do on a regular basis. Thanks I will be enjoying these for years to come.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Whoa - easy there fella. Maybe some of you on this forum don't recommend Acurus amps, but not everyone sold off their amps because of that one thread and the response from one forum member regarding the amp.

The truth is, many people recognize that Acurus amps are extremely high quality pieces of equipment that are very reliable. Thousands of people (including me) have used these amps over the last couple of decades, and while there is no way to know how many (if any) people have had their speakers damaged because of the amp design - it's a pretty safe guess that the overwhelming majority of owners have no issues whatsoever.

Acurus amps, especially the A250, have been in many reference systems over the years, including one from the current Audioholics staff

Reference System 4

I love Acurus.

You notice my call-name is AcuDefTechGuy? The Acu stands for Acurus.

Notice I have 3 Acurus RL-11 preamps? I love Acurus. I wish they were still alive and kicking. I would buy Acurus forever.

But the fact that the company no longer exists means that you have no customer support and no on-going Research & Development.

As far as sound quality is concerned, I would never bet against Acurus or Aragon. I think the world of Acurus & Aragon when it comes to sound quality and power output. I love Mondial Designs. But without a speaker-protection circuit, I just feel a bit of concern when it comes to the "safety" of my speakers.