I have no intention of upgrading anything any time soon since I believe I am right at the point of diminishing returns for my listening room. This combination is outstanding in my medium sized listening room.
I use this amp along with a Classe CP-45 Preamp, YBA Special CD player, and Totem Acoustic Arro speakers, and Synergistic Research/Nordost cables and interconnects. Overall I agree with most of the comment made in the Stereophile review of this amp, it is quite a bargain at its retail price and a superb second hand purchase, build quality is solid and superb apart from the RCA inputs which can seem a little loose fitting with certain RCA cables and the speaker terminals if using banana plugs, it really is quite capable with a variety of systems and speakers (if not over 90db and 4ohm) I feel works wonders with speakers such as the Rogers Studio 1 or Spendor BC1and some of the IMF and TDL transmission line models, these can be a little overblown slightly slow sounding in the bass and clearly benefit from the control and dry bass the CA-100 offers. Regarding bass, I feel its performance is pretty dry here, and it does not dig quite as deep as some, I use Kef R107 which go down to 18hz and this amp has failed to produce the lower octaves and switched off when too much was asked of it, yet it still sounds wonderful at social levels of output with good punch and slam. (so I may experiment with bi-amping and bridging)
NIKKO ALPHA III MOSFET AMP FULL
Of course the noise issue may just be a case of equipment needing a service, but here in the UK, at not that far off £400 for a full going over by B&W, service seems a little pricey for now, particularly when it looks like I may be obtaining a second CA-100 for £400 from eBay today. Noise issues though, I feel are system dependent, in particular regard with speaker sensitivity, My Kef have always been quite adept at highlighting any amplifier noise with the likes of Audio Research and the MF Nu-vista 300, and even though I cannot fault the absolute silence I get from my Krell power, I even find the Krell KRC 3 produces too much hiss for my liking. I myself have been using the Classe CA-100 power amp for a number of years in various set ups, it is currently in use in my bedroom system.įirst I have to agree with some of the view's regarding noise, it is not the quietest amp around, I have had noise problems with sensitive speakers such as Kef and with noise issues with its RCA inputs, balanced reduces the problem but does not eliminate it, of course it is less noticeable with speakers such as the Linn Kan or Rogers Studio.(though it does not get on with one of my dacs and gives quite noticeable hum when the dac is in circuit)
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