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.

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.

I just went to http://www.audiogon.com & saw some nifty solid state amps there. Aragon2002 MkII, B&K, others.... you might want to take a look.

I just went to http://www.audiogon.com & saw some nifty solid state amps there. Aragon2002 MkII, B&K, others.... you might want to take a look.

Gosh Don...those are ALL incredible amps...his budget is $300 usd(dollars)..this wont buy a fuse holder in some of them...But great advice as to what to strive for!

I would suggest buying saving money and buying active speakers instead. You can srill keep your current amp and speakers for comparing your mix, but active is the way to go for a cleaner and more accurate sound when recording.

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.

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" ;)

Thanks guys for all the tips!

I have started to look at the hifi market and I think that its the way to go..something between 50-100W 8 ohm. There are many used gears and since I dont have to have the newest I think I can find a bargain or so.

Magnus

Parasound makes some excellent sounding stereo and multi-channel amps for a reasonable price.

CONRAD

This thread is seven and a half years old. I'd hope he'd have found one by now...