Best Stereo Amp for JBL L-112s

[hjames]

Must admit being not up with the latest amps. I recommend a Phase Linear 400 or 700 power amps. My L212's never sounded so good on a Phase 400 -(L212's are very similar to your 112's). It went DC and cooked a 2122 on my 4350's and gave it away in disgust. Regret that.
There are many on ebay usually with blown output trannies. A full service including newer more robust output trannies will set you back several hundred but you wont regret it.
Something about those old Phases. Maybe being direct coupled and using loads of paraleled tranny outputs. Who knows but they worked.

But they DO seem to have a history that when they go, they take out your precious speaker! We've seen that posted here numerous times ...

Is that a good trade off? Only you can decide.

[SEAWOLF97]

Must admit being not up with the latest amps. I recommend a Phase Linear 400 or 700 power amps. My L212's never sounded so good on a Phase 400 -(L212's are very similar to your 112's). It went DC and cooked a 2122 on my 4350's and gave it away in disgust. Regret that.
There are many on ebay usually with blown output trannies. A full service including newer more robust output trannies will set you back several hundred but you wont regret it.
Something about those old Phases. Maybe being direct coupled and using loads of paraleled tranny outputs. Who knows but they worked.

But they DO seem to have a history that when they go, they take out your precious speaker! We've seen that posted here numerous times ...

Is that a good trade off? Only you can decide.

found this interesting post

soldering with amplifiers
http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?...bgw&r=&session=

in the mid-70's i sold (and still own) BGW amplifiers. They were famous for their revolutionary "crowbar" circuit which reacted much faster than fuses or breakers of the time.
to demonstrate their amazing protection circuitry, we would take a 500 or 750 and crank it up, then disconnect and short one channel - we could solder together the tinned ends of the wire, and the amp would simply click off and discharge into ground - no pop or noise from the hooked up speaker! (the other demo was to use a phase linear and see if you could start the building on fire)

[BMWCCA]

Shorting the amp output shows only how well the amp protects itself from stupid human tricks. As far as I know, it says nothing about how the amp protects the speakers from distorted signal or clipping. I know the Crowns will protect my speakers with their IOC circuitry, and give me plenty of warning before I try to kill my JBLs with my defective electronics. BGW always had a good rep. Phase Linear always a poor one for self-immolation, which wouldn't be so bad if they didn't normally take the speakers with them across the River Styx. There are people who make a living today trying to make the old Flame Linear stuff not so terrifyingly destructive. Make sure you hook up with one of them before you take sweetliberty's recommendation.

[sweetliberty]

There are people who make a living today trying to make the old Flame Linear stuff not so terrifyingly destructive. Make sure you hook up with one of them before you take sweetliberty's recommendation.[/quote]

Good advice BMW.
I had an old Dynaco 400 which I built from a kit. Extremely reliable mine lasted 20 years before giving trouble and that was just the turn-on relay. Sonically IMO - pretty awful..harsh treble and uncontrolled base. Seems that with all the protection circuits involved the trade off was quality.
I would choose the more risky option together with BMW advice and get a fully serviced Phase Linear.

[Akira]

Does anyone have an opinion of Bryston products?

[Valentin]

I just bougt a lexicon nt412 (bryston 8st) and i have a levinson ML9 that i compare with

The sound in the Levinson is Fuller and the Bryston is very detailed but with less body

Bryston has very good bass punch it grabs de bass but it has less air than the levinson in the high frequency.

Bryston amp are very well built and should last very long time with out problems.

Whats your opinion of Bryston amps

[Akira]

I don't have a lot of experience with high end amps. I've always used Bryston for studio use and QSC for live touring. In Canada Bryston owns the high end pro market...you can't go to a studio and not find them. They are well built, have incredible specs and transparency. On the bad side, I also just had one (22 years old) go DC taking out a 4315 woofer.

I once owned a HK Citation 11/12 combo and that was one of my favourite amps for sound...a mere 60watts a side powering original Century 100's. I liked it better than the Bryston 3B I had at the time.

I agree with your comment about lacking body...Bryston products seem so transparent that sometimes you wish there was more there. I think in audio, clean is not always best...music needs texture and that intangible "something."

[Ozzie Fior]

I use an Adcom 555MkII, and I am extremely pleased. This amp is rated at 200W per channel (but has considerable headroom).

I used HK and Pioneer receivers before at 12W/channel, and I can assure you the difference moving to Adcom is significant.

For reference, I use the spekers in a 12x12 room.

Is it the best amp? There's always something better, much better, but this combination is excellent to my ears.

Hope this helps,

Ozzie

[Ozzie Fior]

Oops, I meant 125W per channel for the receivers previously used

Sorry!

[Audiobeer]

Try an Aragon 4004 MKII for $750........Can't beat that. For a few more bucks try a Mcintosh 2205 for around $1200. Both are great with JBLs!

[BMWCCA]

In case anyone didn't notice, the original poster hasn't replied to this thread in almost a year.

Carry on!

[hjames]

In case anyone didn't notice, the original poster hasn't replied to this thread in almost a year.

Carry on!

And when has that stopped ANYONE on this site??

Woohoo!

[chilledspode]

In case anyone didn't notice, the original poster hasn't replied to this thread in almost a year.

Carry on!

Classic!

Mark

[jblsound]

It's hard to beat the warmth and extremely low THD of these amps. 250WPC @8Ohms .003THD. IMHO, JBL and same vintage Yamaha (unless going tube) were meant for each other.

I thought that 30 years ago. The same week I bought my original L212 set I also bought a Yamaha intergrated amp.
But 2 years ago, wanting to setup a TT system again, I bought some Citation gear of about the same vintage, Citaton Eleven pre-amp and Citation 19 power amp. The resulting sound is much nicer than what the Yamaha provided.