[bjarnetv]

i have been thinking of buying a desktop amp for some time now, but being a student without any real income i had to choose between a new amp or new floats; naturally i went for new floats

but the future has now arrived, and i am a student no more, so its time to build an office rig!

i will be using the amp with the ergo2, PMB85DA and PMB100 ortho (and probably some other orthos).

i have been reading a lot, but there is just too much information to digest, and i need some advice.

so far i am leaning toward various DIY amps, like the stacker and soha, as they seem to be the most bang for the buck.
the only problem is that i suck at DIY, so i would have to get someone else to build for me.

anyone got any recommendations?

 

[scompton]

I don't know about the floats since the only float I own is the QP85, but my orthos are driven quite nicely by my vintage NAD 3155 integrated amp. I also use it to drive my stats. What do you drive your Sigma with and does it have a headphone jack?

 

[bjarnetv]

i use a music angel XD-800mkIII tube amp to power the sigmas and float ps2, unfortunately without a headphone jack.
getting a good deal on a vintage NAD is highly unlikely here in norway, but it would probably be to large for office duty anyway.

 

[scompton]

I got recommendations on the ortho thread for compact systems that have good sound. I just recently bought a Toshiba SC-M15 which sounds great, but needs a preamp. In Europe I believe it was sold as the Aurex SC-M15. It weighs a lot so you don't want to have it shipped overseas. Facelvega recommended the GRUNDIG MXV 100. It's pretty small at 270 x 60 x 220mm. I see it a lot on eBay.de but I've avoided it because it has DIN jacks instead of RCAs. I think for that reason it goes pretty cheap. There's one on eBay now with a matching tuner.

 

[bjarnetv]

hmm... that grundig seems like a nice deal, and a DIN to RCA adapter should be quite easy to find.
guess i´ll go for that one, unless something better shows up

 

[IceClass]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scompton /img/forum/go_quote.gif I just recently bought a Toshiba SC-M15 which sounds great, but needs a preamp. In Europe I believe it was sold as the Aurex SC-M15.

Yay, team M15!!

I've got two of them little beauties and love'em to bits. I also have a complete System 15 tower (Amp,tuner,preamp, cassette deck - plus a T10 tuner for AM reception). Awesome stuff.
The M15 is the star component of the system. They're nice punchy yet warm little amps with a pleasant, smooth delivery. I used them both to bi-amp my MC-2s for a while before I blew a woofer with the Nak620

.

While the other components have their strengths and for desktop use one can't argue against their stackability, I think the M15 is let down a little by the preamp though. The C15 preamp is cute and practical as it matches the footprint of the M15 amp and it also has two preamp outputs which is often useful but there are better alternatives that will allow the M15 to shine.
I found the C15 pre to be a tiny little bit noisy when used with cans.

My own recommendation that I've had lots of fun with is the Firestone Audio Tubehead preamp:

It is remarkably complimentary to the M15 in a number of ways. Side by side, they are the same height and share the same black paint job on cast aluminum but soundwise, the Firestone adds just the right silkiness of tube to the Toshiba's Solid State edge in SQ.
The Firestone is very nicely built and while I find most of the products in their range to be gateway drugs to higher and harder things, the TubeHead is so small and so useful in so many different instances while consistently producing great results, I don't see myself ever being able to upgrade it.

It has two RCA inputs, one output and a great feeling volume knob.

The Toshiba M15 and Firestone TubeHead pre are an awesome combo for desktop, dorm or small room rig without sacrifice. The combo also just looks so nice together you get that joy and pride of ownership going with every use.

I'm not certain but I think the Aurex designation was reserved for the Japanese as well as European markets.

 

[scompton]

Mine's silver not black

Everything else I have at work is black so the Firestone would fit right in. So far, I've only hooked it up to my computer and I had to turn the computer's volume down to near zero with a pair of Sextetts. It has a pretty powerful headphone jack. Until I get something with a knob to control the volume, I'll stick to listening to my starving student and TK-44 driven by Super T.

I like the idea of 2 pre outs. One can feed the starving student and the other the Toshiba.

 

[Duggeh]

Feed your inner Float. Go for the Ergo Amp1

 

[IceClass]

 

[bjarnetv]

how good do you think the headphone jack on the grundig would be compared to a dedicated headphone amp, like a little dot/darvoice/starving student?

 

[scompton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjarnetv /img/forum/go_quote.gif how good do you think the headphone jack on the grundig would be compared to a dedicated headphone amp, like a little dot/darvoice/starving student?

I don't know. I was looking for something I could use as a headphone amp and to drive stats.

You might want to PM Facelvega since he's who recommended it to me.