I do not have the chance to audition so i ask all of you. What is a better match for these speakers, an Arcam FMJ A32 integarted amp or a Rega pre Cursa plus a rega amp Maia?
The Arcam you mention is $2500. I don't know how much the Rega gear is, and I've never heard it.
For $2500, you can buy the KRELL KAV400xi. The SimAudio Moon i5 integrated is around that price range, and the Bryston B-100 is about $2700. The McIntosh MA 6500 retails for $3500 if that's in your range.
I'd take either of those over the Arcam, but that's just me. If I had $3500 to spend on an amp, the McIntosh would be in my house within minutes.
I'd say skip the amp, rid yourself of those music CDs to be replaced with DVDs, and begin construction of a rocking HT starting with the purchase of a YammiRX-z9
But since that's not what he asked, I guess it's irrelevent and why I made no suggestion.
Eduardo - At this price point you shouldn't just consider sound quality. The differences in sound quality between amps at this price will be small. The amps will sound different, but how much better or worse?
For this much money, you should keep a few things in mind. How long will you have the amp? Will you want to sell it down the road? In twenty years will it sound as good as it does today? Will it be worth anything?
For instance, Bryston has a 20 year transferrable warantee. If something goes wrong with it in the next 20 years, you can send it back to them and have it repaired for free. The warantee also transfers to anyone you sell it to, making it worth more money in the long run. SimAudio has the same type of warantee, only it's for 10 years. How many companies can do that?
McIntosh probably has the best support fortheir products in the business. You can send just about any component to their factory and they will bring it back up to the specs that it was at when new, if not better. This isn't free though. They also hold thier value better than just about anything else. Most vintage Mac's in good condition (not even mint) sell for more money today than they did when they were new. Again this has a lot to do with Mac's support of their products.
If I were spending this much money on an amp, I would have all of these things in mind when deciding on which to buy. These things would be just as important, and maybe even more important to me than sound quality. Don't get me wrong, sound quality is very important.
If I were making a choice between the amps I mentioned, I'd go with the Mac. It has all of the qualities I would want.
