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REVIEW: Acurus A100 Amplifier (SS)

208.58.106.102


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Model: A100
Category: Amplifier (SS)
Suggested Retail Price: $700
Description: 100 wpc/8 ohm stereo power amp
Manufacturer URL: Acurus
Manufacturer URL: Acurus

Review by badman on November 18, 2001 at 15:23:43
IP Address: 208.58.106.102
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for the A100


I've been reluctant to place a review on this piece for a while, having only used it with solid state preamps (Acurus RL-11, Parasound). With these Preamps, I liked the Acurus right off the bat-it has a good deal of power, is easy to listen to (fatigue is not an issue) and still retains an excellent level of detail compared to other power amps in the price range. My reason for delaying this review was the concern that the somewhat easygoing nature of this amp might not mesh well with tube preamps. I would hate to have called this a superb, versatile amp (for the price) with the possibility of sounding sloppy with tubes.

These concerns have been laid to rest, the amp retains a very slight smoothness away from neutrality, but this is much better than excessive analytical sound, and you MUST have some sort of coloration in this price range. When I plugged in the Bottlehead Corp Foreplay, I got a very musical, dynamic performance, with excellent imaging and tonality. With electronics costing only about 750 for cdp, pre, and A100, the system rocks. I've played with all my favorite recordings, from Classical to Rock, to Ska to Rap (yeah yeah, I'm young yet) and the amp never loses pace or power- it drives the rather funky load of my B&W DM605 s2s without the slightest burp in the funny ranges (at low frequencies, the speaker has a very high impedance due to the active bass, and it dips to 3 Ohms in the mids).

The smoothness of this amp winds up being it's defining characteristic, but it is not too significant. The Dynamics, tonality, imaging, and "toe tapping" are all excellent for this price range all across the spectrum. Every amp this price I've seen has a lot more "personality" meaning coloration than this, so now that it's shown itself to not be sloppy with a tube pre, I wholeheartedly recommend this piece.


Product Weakness: A little smoothed out at times, but well within reason, not serious.
Product Strengths: Price, tonality, cleanliness, esp in treble, low noise, very powerful for it's ratings.


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: A100
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Acurus RL-11, Parasound something, Bottlehead Foreplay
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Marantz CC-67, Rotel 955AX, Pioneer LD-1090, others
Speakers: B&W DM 605 s2
Cables/Interconnects: Various diy, Kimber.
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Various
Room Size (LxWxH): var x i x ous
Room Comments/Treatments: multiple envirnments
Time Period/Length of Audition: 1 1/2 Years
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): All kinds of tweaks, my own PCs.
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Acurus A100 Amplifier (SS) - badman 15:23:43 11/18/01 ( 0)