2-channel home amp

My trusty Onkyo M5150 seems to have finally fallen prey to my house's berkeleying terrible wiring/voltage swings. Or it died of natural causes, i'm not sure. Either way, it's powering up, but won't come out of protection mode, and i don't see anything wrong with my eyes, so i guess the magic smoke fell out.

I hate listening to tv speakers. I need to replace it.

I like: Denon POA series, Yamaha M/MX "Natural sound" 60/80 series, Onkyo Integra M504/506/508 with the huge VU meters, Adcom GFA-555 and higher, B&K.

Would love to find a deal on something for $200. $300-$350 for the right amp. As silly as it sounds, asthetic appeal is important, as the stereo stack shows prominently in the living room. (Hence my semi-obsession with VU meters.)

Anything else i should be looking at besides the list above? I'm seeing a lot of stuff that has doubled in price on the used market in the last 5 years, and that makes me sad.

Don't junk the Onkyo, it's probably repairable by someone with some time and a few bucks in parts. Knowing that you have poor power in your house, it's probably power supply related. If you were in my neighborhood, I'd be scoping out your curb to see when you toss it out so I could snag it and fix it

If you have high sensitivity speakers... http://www.oddwattaudio.com/owAlpha.html

No VU meters, and weird size, but good performance:

http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-apa150-150w-power-amplifier--300-812

If you aren't driving anything too powerful and it's one source usage, I enjoy my AudioSource AMP-100. No EQ anything so it might not be best for just a television.

How about a nice Phase Linear? It has VU meters!

I always liked Carver amps.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CARVER-M500-POWER-AMPLIFIER-2-CHANNEL-/191599368308

Derick Freese wrote: Don't junk the Onkyo, it's probably repairable by someone with some time and a few bucks in parts. Knowing that you have poor power in your house, it's probably power supply related. If you were in my neighborhood, I'd be scoping out your curb to see when you toss it out so I could snag it and fix it

It blew a fuse. Spectacularly. New fuse lets it power up, but won't come out of protection mode.

Buddy is looking at it, finding a schematic hasn't been easy.

RossD wrote: If you have high sensitivity speakers... http://www.oddwattaudio.com/owAlpha.html

I don't. Power hungry Paradigms.

kylini wrote: If you aren't driving anything too powerful and it's one source usage, I enjoy my AudioSource AMP-100. No EQ anything so it might not be best for just a television.

I use a B&K Reference 5 S2 as a preamp. My 2 channel handles TV, PS3, Amazon Fire TV, BluRay/CD player, radio, etc etc etc.

PS3 and Amazon Fire go through an Emotiva XDA-2 dac first.

1988RedT2 wrote: How about a nice Phase Linear? It has VU meters! I always liked Carver amps. http://www.ebay.com/itm/CARVER-M500-POWER-AMPLIFIER-2-CHANNEL-/191599368308

I don't historically love Carver, but that's sortof the "level" of amp that i'm looking for. Added to watch list anyways. I'd roll one of those for cheap enough.

I have an old Dynaco with VU meters that I will not sell to you. Sorry. It's marvelous though.

Heh, thanks?

So right now i have the little Class D amp from my outdoor speakers running in thr main system. It's not hateful.

Good enough that i think i'm going to wait an extra week so i have a little more money and i'm going to get one of the Yamaha Class A amps just because i'be always wanted one.

SFO,

Hifiengine has the service manual for free. You just have to register.

http://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/onkyo/m-5150.shtml

You might want to look over on audiokarma.org. Lots of vintage audio guys over there who repair equipment.

Good luck!

Thanks!

I lurk on AK. Honestly i bought this thing for $75 seven years ago, i got my money's worth.

I will download that anyways, thanks for the link! I may poke around it more and see what i can figure out. Wouldn't mind using it as a tool to learn how to repair/mod amps with. It was getting pretty noisy in the end anyways and i hated the clip-style speaker wire connections.

Swank Force One wrote:

kylini wrote: If you aren't driving anything too powerful and it's one source usage, I enjoy my AudioSource AMP-100. No EQ anything so it might not be best for just a television.

I use a B&K Reference 5 S2 as a preamp. My 2 channel handles TV, PS3, Amazon Fire TV, BluRay/CD player, radio, etc etc etc. PS3 and Amazon Fire go through an Emotiva XDA-2 dac first.

Oh in that case, enjoy my hilariously overkill setup at work. It's not remotely relevant for this thread, but you might find it amusing, especially since our lab has 6 people in it.

I have a Yamaha RX-V1 I would sell you. The center channel needs some fixing that I haven't got around to yet. Pretty certain it's just replacing a capacitor. Works fine in stereo. $150?

clutchsmoke wrote: I have a Yamaha RX-V1 I would sell you. The center channel needs some fixing that I haven't got around to yet. Pretty certain it's just replacing a capacitor. Works fine in stereo. $150?

I already have a preamp, but thanks for the offer.

I thought it was a stand alone receiver.. Well now I know why I got the receiver along with a Yamaha M-80 amp. Make me an offer on it?

clutchsmoke wrote: I thought it was a stand alone receiver.. Well now I know why I got the receiver along with a Yamaha M-80 amp. Make me an offer on it?

Yes, that is a receiver.

But i already have a preamp that i'm not looking to replace.

I'll make you an offer on that M80, though.

Watches TV/Movies in 2.0.

Luddite.

z31maniac wrote: Watches TV/Movies in 2.0. Luddite.

Quality over quantity, bruh.

This poor little amp is having a bad time. (Middle shelf.)

20150611_214848 by concealer404, on Flickr

Swank Force One wrote:

z31maniac wrote: Watches TV/Movies in 2.0. Luddite.

Quality over quantity, bruh.

Hahaha, yeah, I've been watching in 3.1 forever because I'm always to lazy to hook up the rear speakers. But the .1 is important for me. If action sequences and/or metal and hard rock don't make the house feel likes it's shaking apart.....no bueno.

Although now that I moved in with a friend of mine, the 500w Polk 12" isn't doing as good a job as in my old smaller house.

z31maniac wrote:

Swank Force One wrote:

z31maniac wrote: Watches TV/Movies in 2.0. Luddite.

Quality over quantity, bruh.

Hahaha, yeah, I've been watching in 3.1 forever because I'm always to lazy to hook up the rear speakers. But the .1 is important for me. If action sequences and/or metal and hard rock don't make the house feel likes it's shaking apart.....no bueno. Although now that I moved in with a friend of mine, the 500w Polk 12" isn't doing as good a job as in my old smaller house.

My towers have plenty of low end.

I'm in a small room. Your system would be more than it can handle.

Then again I still want a set of Maggies and a bigger sub than I have now.

Decent 2.1 is so much better than most 5.1 systems. One of these days I might go with a center channel, but it's not something I'm concerned about now.

Last weekend I spent some time listening to a set of Sound Lab M1s. They were at an estate sale that a friend of mine was helping out with, the tube amps that had been running them weren't working right (probably bad tubes) so I brought over my spare Adcom GFA-5300. Despite only being 85 watts, the little Adcom did an admirable job with them.

Of course, now I want to replace my Vandersteens (2ce signatures) with electrostatics... sigh. There just isn't enough space in my living room for speakers 7 feet tall and 3 feet wide that need to be 5 feet out from the wall.

Yeah i've had a couple Adcoms in the past. They do a pretty decent job especially from a power perspective, but until i get into at least the GFA-555 or higher, they sound pretty harsh in my setup at "jam out" volumes.

The "right" thing for me to do would be to just get a B&K ST140 because i know those are super smooth and probably play nice with my B&K Preamp, and B&K + Paradigm is an awesome match.

But that's the boring choice, and i would kick myself for not ponying up for the 200.2 instead.

dude you have an emotiva component now

whats stopping you from going back to them? they make great stuff.