I am in the process of putting together an alternative system. I picked up two amplifiers Sunday, selling one and keeping the other. The one that's going is a Soundcraftsmen MA-5002 at 250 x 2 (this one is clean and looks really nice!), but it's going to my bud to drive his 250 Ti's and from the looks of it, there ain't going to be a problem with lack of power.
The one that's a keeper is a cosmetically challenged ESS Eclipse 500A, also 250 x 2 and a very, very good deal. It has the same large VU meters that the Macs used, but alas, they don't work and I need to open it up. Early design with 24 output TO's and it's missing two buttons as well, but still fully functional. Sounds nice using one of the recievers as a pre-amp, but curiosity has the better of me and I'm in the process of buying a 80's pre-amplifier of very good quality (haven't got it yet, details when I finally get/win it).
Going to stack it up against the big Sansui G and see just how it compares sound wise. The ESS may not stack up against the best-of-the-best boutique amps of the 80's (ala Krell, Levinson, etc, etc) but I'm willing to give it a try and see how I like it.
I will post photo's soon, but meanwhile a linkee will have to work for now
http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20917&highlight=ESS+amp ESS 500A
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