Serge Auckland wrote:
"Rob" wrote in message
...
Bruce Lankford wrote:
"adie" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of these amps?


About fifteen years ago, there was a shop near my house which sold
NVA and quite a lot of them.
I heard a couple the amps with different speakers and they sounded
quite good to me.
The little amp (perhaps an AP20?) could not drive the ProAcs which I
was using at the time but the bigger amp was well beyond my budget.
A work colleague of mine bought the AP20, won't part with it.



In what way was it unable to drive the Proacs?

I have this (perceived) issue with Dynaudio speakers, and I've only
ever found two amplifiers that sound good - a huge valve amp (sold)
and an old Cambridge power amp (broke under the strain).

However, I've asked on this NG and been advised that any competently
designed amplifier of the past 20 years should sound identical. Not
unanimous, majority.

Rob


Any competently designed amplifier "when used within its design
parameters" should (and will) sound identical. Some loudspeakers present
a very severe load, and consequently some otherwise competent amplifiers
will be outside their design parameters. I don't know of the specific
instance of the Dynaudio 'speakers or the Proacs, but these could well
present a more severe load than the amp was designed for.

S.


I suppose the Dynaudios (Contour 1.1s and 42s) could be a severe load -
they're rated at 4 Ohms - and are beyond what most amplifiers are happy
with.

I've recently had a hifi cull and I'm in the market for a SS amplifier.
I was looking at a Denon 1500AE (to match the DVD player) and a Musical
Fidelity A5 (discounted ATM, end of range). With the notable exception
of speakers, i've always had great difficulty evaluating components in a
shop. I often think I can detect difference, but not a sense of
'better'. It's only at home over a period of time that I find something
I like. And then it breaks ;-)

Anyways, enough of my neuroses. Could you recommend a SS amplifier that
might deal with severe loads?

Thanks, Rob