Turtlerock Forum

Hi, I just got a pair of Yamaha NS10s ($550, good price?) and I need an amp for them. I really want to go as cheap as possible in the short term as I'm trying to not spend more money on gear at the moment. In the long term I'll get a good one, but in the mean time does anybody have a cheapy that would satisfy the minimum requirements for NS10s? According to one site I checked out they want about 150w per speaker, does this sound right? If I can get a hi fi amp that will do the job for the moment then once I splurge on something better in the future, I can use the cheap amp to play music in my dining room... Any ideas? Thanks!!

Dustin McLean
(Melbourne)

My girlfriend got an ART SLA-1 for her NS-10's and it does the job nicely. It cost about $110 second hand

I have an Amcron DC300A which is in VGC and sounds terrific - would be a minimum of $450 but buy right , buy once as they say.
Cheers, Ross

Ross Muir
Alice Springs

There is a lot of good old stereo amps out there that will do the job in the meantime.
I have an old 70's Rotel that I run my NS10's and Dynaudio BM6's on at home and its really good - Old Yamaha's are good too. There are so many "old" amps out there that were made in the good old days. The modern cheaper one's most probably will be brittle in the top end , slow on the slew rate - and weak in the bottom end - or all of these.
If you don't monitor loudly then I would search for a nice old stereo amp until you find "the one"
Happy hunting

Try a Yamaha PC2002M if you can find one, maybe try an AV hire shop. That's where I found mine. Perfect for the NS10M. It will be a vast improvement on a hi-fi amp.
K

Thanks for the responses, at this stage I'm hoping to spend not too much more than $100 as I probably shouldn't have bought the NS10s right now anyway, trying to be a bit more cautious about gear expenditure due to recently doubled rent. Still, glad I got them, wanted some for ages and need a better monitoring situation. However I'm trying to keep any more purchases to a minimum in the short term...

The ART SLA-1 is the right price, where did you get that, ebay?

The Amcron DC300A looks awesome and I'm very tempted as I assume a purchase like that would see me through for a long time, but i imagine the postage from Alice on something that size/weight is gonna pump the price up even more...

Old hi fi amps are what I originally had in mind, but they all seem to have a fairly low output and I've read on a few forums that this can stuff your NS10s (min 150 watt each side seems to be recommended)...

What sort of price would I pay for a Yamaha PC2002M? Did you just call around a heap of AV hire shops until you found one for sale?

Any other suggestions or local (melbourne) amps for sale?


Cheers!!

If you are running the NS10s as monitors from the line outs of a console, then you only need a power amp, hifi amps have a preamp and a power amp section. You should be able to find a reasonable second hand 100 watt (RMS) per side power amp for not much more than $100.00 if you search around. The other problem with running through the preamp section of a hifi amp is that it will have some sort of EQ, which will almost always detract from the linearity of your mix. Be aware that the quoted output of hifi amps, particularly at the low price end, bears no resemblance to the actual output power.

Re the old Hi Fi amps, most of the better ones had a pre amp out power amp in jumper, so all you have to do to bypass the preamp is pull the jumper out and plug directly into the power amp. I have an old Sansui AU 555A and it out powers an Alesis 100 watt amp and sounds much better. I was mixing on a small system a few years ago when the house PA 300 watt amp blew. I went to the car and got the Sansui and they all laughed at me when i brought it in....... You should have seen the dumb stupid looks on their faces when i got on with the show.
Unfortunately like much of the old quality gear the net is driving the prices up but they can still be had for under $80. Mine cost $30.

On this site they're $350 but there is some good info on what type of amps to look for here.
http://www.vintageaudio.com.au/Amps/San ... %20Amp.htm

The Amcron DC 300A would be a great choice though. I have the earlier DC 300 model and it's great having the extra power in an amp even when monitoring at low levels but krikey, nothing's wrong with going for what you can afford, and upgrading later.

Tim de Paravicini worked in the design team at Luxman from 1972 till 76 so their amps from that time are a great option also with some very good options amongst them.

I know this will sound like the grumpy old bastard but if you can't find a great amp for around $100 you haven't done your research.

Whats the pro's opinions of the Alesis RA-100 ?

These can sometimes be picked up for cheap.. 2RU with an on-off switch & 2 volume knobs.

The Alesis amp sound terrible.

The other thing I want to be able to do in the future is switch between many pairs of monitors, but am I right in assuming I don't need an amp with lots of outputs, I'd just send one stereo output from the amp to a router of some description that would allow me to easily switch between them? Might get a single Auratone for mono checks plus something nicer to listen to as well...

Pioneer SA-420 going relatively cheap on ebay in 40 min, any recommendations for this model? says 150 watts on the back, would this be 150 per side or 75 per side? Powerful enough for NS10s?

Hi Dustin, usually the watts rating on the back refers to power consumption not power output. Usually amps are 50% efficient so 150 watts means that there would be around 75-90 watts available at the amplifiers outputs divided by two for two channels of course. Therefore amp is probably more likely to be around 35-50watts per channel maximum. That being said those old amps are much better at delivering current than new ones, though you might want to recap the amps power supply for noise. Best to do a search online as there are heaps of 'sound clubs' and aficionados who review the good older amps and if there aren't any reviews probably not a great amp.

look for marantz, cambridge, harman kardon and luxman. here's a few...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MARANTZ-1040-CON ... 500wt_1154

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/LUXMAN-L-200-QAU ... 030wt_1139

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Marantz-Pre-and- ... 500wt_1154

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Harman-Kardon-In ... 505wt_1139

Thanks Miles, can't find any reviews of the Pioneer SA-420, reckon its worth buying for short term use or will it damage the NS10s? In the long term I can use it for dining room ipod use...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... K:MEWAX:IT

i Dustin,

its unlikely to damage your ns-10s unless you drive them too hard. many people put fuses on their tweeters with the ns-10s because its easy at high listening levels to pop them and thats a $100 mistake each tweeter. not sure on the rating of the fuse though as I've never done it.

and definitely retire the amp to the kitchen at some point as kitchen tunes are important...

M

rafu1210 wrote:Thanks Miles, can't find any reviews of the Pioneer SA-420, reckon its worth buying for short term use or will it damage the NS10s? In the long term I can use it for dining room ipod use...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... K:MEWAX:IT

I would not buy a hi fi amp for monitor work if it didn't have the direct input to the power amp. bypassing the pre amp stage, and the pics of this
pioneer amp show no pre amp out - power amp in option.

mylesgm wrote:i Dustin,

not sure on the rating of the fuse though as I've never done it.

M

Fuses should be about 1amp quick blow but it depends how loud you want to go. I've got fuses across my tweeters but should probably do both.
Hifi amps don't do the job. NS10's need strong active signal to perform. Feed them more than they need.
If you can get an RA100 for $100 then it will do you until you get what you want. Maybe the ART??