Home hifi power amp advice

xscaramanga

I don't know anything about home audio but my girlfriend was given a record deck, power amp, and speakers a while back. The amp has kicked the bucket and she's asked me to find a replacement.

Identifying stickers have been removed from the speakers except the brand, JPW. From googling I think they are 70 watts, but they seem pretty loud so I think that must be RMS.

I want an amp that'll sound good, be able to take at least two input sources, and not cost a fortune. I am not interested in snake oil or going down the audiophile rabbit hole. Probably looking at buying used.

Any suggestions would be most welcome. 

Ossyrocks

I put together a secondhand setup which I think sounds incredible.

Arcam Alpha 8 power amp. Can be had for less than £100 on eBay.

Flanging_Fred

I had some JPW speakers for my first hi-fi separates system. I used mine with a Marantz PM44 amp and it worked really nicely together. I imagine you could pick one up cheap these days. 

I replaced it with an Arcam Alpha amp which I still have 20 years later and is still going strong.  

strumjoughlamps

I am assuming when you say power amp you mean intergrated amp?

Funkfingers

jonnyscaramanga said:

Identifying stickers have been removed from the speakers except the brand, JPW. From googling, I think they are 70 watts but they seem pretty loud so I think that must be RMS.

I want an amp that'll sound good, be able to take at least two input sources, and not cost a fortune. I am not interested in snake oil or going down the audiophile rabbit hole. Probably looking at buying used.

Any suggestions would be most welcome. 

My brother is a big fan of old Mission Cyrus integrated amplifiers. 

I use my father's cast-off Trio KA-3500. It is indestructible.* It will probably still work after the bomb drops and only Keef, Iggy and the cockroaches are around to operate it. This model always fared well in those hi-fi buyer magazines. Too old to have a dedicated CD input. I use the line level Aux sockets instead.

* Seriously. Read the comments on the linked description page.

Rocker

You won't do much better than Arcam, Rotel, Musical Fidelity or Creek. Don't be too concerned about the amp power output, you could do harm to your speakers by using a low powered amp that is pushed into clipping.

Age is of little concern, anything up to 20 years old will give many years of enjoyment.

sweepy

Those old Trio amps are awesome bits f kit, I had one for my first serious hifi, the old Mission Cyrus, AR A60 etc are all good choices

boogieman

Rocker said:

Age is of little concern, anything up to 20 years old will give many years of enjoyment.

My Creek is 30 years old now and still going strong. Decent kit does seem to last. 

Gagaryn

You don't need a power amp - you need an integrated amp with a built in phono stage.

There are other options but this would be the simplest solution. @Rocker suggestions of second hand kit from those brands is is good advice.

prowla

boogieman said:

Rocker said:

Age is of little concern, anything up to 20 years old will give many years of enjoyment.

My Creek is 30 years old now and still going strong. Decent kit does seem to last. 

20 years - pah, that's nothing!

(Actually, some of my hi-fi could probably use a service/re-cap.)

As mentioned, Creek/NAD/Rotel are respected brands.

You could do worse than go to Richer Sounds and have a look.

Alternatively, if I were looking for something similar, I would buy this (though it has got disclaimers, so buyer beware):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Creek-4040-S3-Integrated-Amplifier/302893557667

TBH, based on your description of the other kit, you'd be wasting your money going for anything more up-market.

You will need to be sure it has a phono input (the Creek's is labelled "Disc", for some reason).

Phil_aka_Pip

Arcam Yes I've got 2 Arcam integrated amplifiers, there's nothing wrong with them. If you can find a NAD 3020 it would be worthwhile even though iirc they produced less o/p power. Nowt wrong with Creek or Rotel either.

Don't worry if what you end up with has only line inputs. You can easily get at decent phono stage. Musical Fidelity X-LPS is fine for MM cartridges (but a bit noisy on MC). Also check out Pro-Ject phono stages.

If it is just a power stage you want then Quad 303 or 405 are very good. I have both.

Phil_aka_Pip

Rocker said:

Age is of little concern, anything up to 20 years old will give many years of enjoyment.

Yes. the "old" technology, especially Quad, can be serviced by any competent audio engineer. My bloke even told me he couldn't get the same o/p stage components for my 303 but the ones he substituted sounded exactly the same.

viz

Hijack alert: anyone got some powerful monoblocks they want to sell? I’m in need of an upgrade. 

Phil_aka_Pip

jonnyscaramanga said:

I don't know anything about home audio but my girlfriend was given a record deck, power amp, and speakers a while back. The amp has kicked the bucket and she's asked me to find a replacement.

You might find a local audio engineer who could resurrect it. The chap I go to can fault find down to component level and has amazingly replaced surface-mount resistors that had gone open circuit. If he can't fix it, it can't be fixed