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Hello people!

I am about to buy a new monitor amp for my home studio. I have a pair of tannoy reveal passive.
I have the studio at home so I cant play very loud but I want the amp to deliver all the transients of percussive instruments.

Do you have any suggestions witch amp to buy? The budget is about maximum 300usd.

I was thinking of a Alesis or maybe InterM R-300 or maybe a good hifi stage? Passive cooling of course.

Please let me hear your opinions?

Magnus

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Comments

Davedog Mon, 08/25/2003 - 17:00

Most people make their mistake with passives using power amps which are better off as PA amplification.You will want an audiofile amp capable of delivering all the frequencies @wattage...and also with enough headroom to deal with transients clearly and cleanly. These are a few of the amps you might find available in your price range. Crown....Carver....Crest....Hafler....Phase Linear.....there are others.

Don Grossinger Tue, 08/26/2003 - 11:11

I would suggest looking for some used high end stereo gear. Amps are pretty reliable: they will either work or not. Then you could shoot higher. Perhaps a Classe', Bryston, Threshold, or Conrad- Johnson (solid state).

I have heard good things about Audiogon.com for used sales.

You might also look at Stereophile.com for their reccommended components list (of a couple of years ago) for power amps.

It's amaizing how much the sound of an amp can affect the overall sound of your monitoring system. Always try to by more clean power than you think you need. The whole system will sound smoother & be less likely to blow tweeters if it runs unstressed. Also if you buy a class A/B amp (most solid state amps are) try to get one that runs up to 25 or 30 watts in class A before switching over to class B. Again, smoother sound without crossover distortion.

Michael Fossenkemper Wed, 08/27/2003 - 04:05

I'll have to disagree on the active is better. It's the cheapest and maybe a better bang for the buck, but not the best. There is no upgrade path with active monitors. By piecing a system together, you can upgrade the components as your budget and ears increase. Tayloring your system to your needs and likes as they change is an important process in being a professional ME. Picking the right amp is just as important as picking the right speakers.

Ammitsboel Wed, 08/27/2003 - 08:43

That's incorrect BUZAIN!!

Passive systems have problems and so do Active.
If it where a matter of fewer components in the signal pass then passive speakers would be it.
Active speaker design today is in almost all cases about forcing drive units to play correctly in a small cabinet.

So you can't make a statement that says "go only for active" ;)