It's all been said in the reviews in this forum. The Acurus A250 is a fine amp, especially for the money. I bought mine new in 1993, along with the matching L10 preamp. I mate the combo with a very revealing pair of Martin Logan hybrid electrostatics (completely passive) and get crazy smoothness, detail, depth, width, and control. I once heard a similarly powered Aragon amp, which had even more bass depth and control, so that's why I give the amp four stars instead of five. After owning the amp for 20 years and running it through the same power conditioner the whole time, I finally got a wild hair and wondered what it would sound like plugged directly into the wall. Well, I did that, and then my wife and I laughed out loud. The transparency increased by a whole lot. It wasn't subtle. Then I almost cried knowing that I spent 20 years with sound that was not as good as it could have been. Anyway, it's like I have a whole new amp!

Same old same old....I'm with the folks here who have actually Listened to this Amplifier before AND after it has been well broken in and not someone who just likes to see their printed words saying how clever they are for buying something else after only a brief encounter or actually just repeating something else they have read somewhere and never given something a fair chance. Bought my A-250 in the early 1990s and matched it up with an Adcom GFP 564 preamp various HK and Elite CD, cassette decks, Project Turntable MIT connections and a pair of NEAR 50-ME speakers...still listen to it at least once a week and it is still sounding better than ever! When I first got the amp I had read about the harshness issue before hand but like everything else in my life at least I was willing to get some experience with the thing first because to me that is the true test of ANYTHING....giving up on anything too quickly just leads to never being satisfied and always mucking about unfullfilled in my eyes anyway. I started off my Audio journey in the 1970s with a Marantz 1060 amp Pioneer turntable and Larger Advent speakers and went through several componants over the years mostly just to increase the power involved and keep up with better sound quality. The system I had before the one I have now had Bryston 3B for power, a AGI pre-amp, Denon turntable JVC casssette deck and JBL L100 speakers Soundcraftman Equalizer Yamaha tuner...which was stolen from my apartment...which REALLY pissed me off! So I'm sticking with what has been good for me for over 20 years and have so far resisted the temptation to constantly "upgrade"...damn hard but true. The only thing I have added is a Velodyn sub and have replaced the Tweeters in the Nears....which were made just down the road from where I live. So the Acurus is still keeping me enjoying music because it just sounds really good and has plenty of power what I need...just my version from real life use boys and girls...

The Acurus 250 is a true gem--and a price line miracle I has power, grace and with the proper speakers-my old baby MagnepanMGA--now MMG it sang.It is paired the B&K Pro MC10 Sonata preamp (now a classic)

With my new NHT Classic 3 with NHT B10 subwoofer it also sounds goup on my NAD CD player ir my MIcromega DAC ( with a SONY multi disc player with Optical cable(Audioquest Cinnamon ). or through my Project III turntable it sounds quite spectcular. Lots of fun and I did not pay $60,000.f00or theprivilege as one must to does to buy the new Don D' Agostino new monoblock Ppower amplfiers (review in the latest issue of TAS. Budget

The Acurus A250 is one of the most powerful amps in their line and this is a great all-around sounding unit. I like the fact it has plenty of power to push most hard to drive speakers with ease. Once you've matched the unit with high quality equipment one can hear all the little details from the speakers. This unit is a well built with very clean plain and simple model with great very detailed broad sound-stage to it. This is a very musical and robust power amplifier can have a major improvement in any system with appropriate matching equipment and no worries driving speakers like Thiel's, Hale's, Vandersteen's. Don't find them much in the used market due to owners tend to keep them long, if you find one highly recommend, as you'll like what this powerful amp has to offer.

I bought this piece from a dealer that had it burried in their stock room, new old stock for $400.00. Hooked it up to a pair Usher loudspeakers. A/B it to my McIntosh amp with HiVi speakers, the unit sounds neutral, clear and accurate. Most problems of harshness or brightness is most likely caused by having inferior speakers, preamps or other source components. Great sounding, great buy for an amp, if you can find one.

Strengths: Great neutral, clean amp, built to last amp for a great price.

Weaknesses: Must be matched to other high quality componests to get best sound quality.

Other componets:

McIntosh C32 preamp (2) McIntosh MR7082 Tuner
McIntosh C31V preamp McIntosh MA6200 Intergrated Amp
McIntosh MC2200 Amp Luxman PD272 Table with Denon Moving coil Cartridge
McIntosh MC2205 Amp Dual CS5000 Table with Ortofon MC20FL moving coil cartridge
McIntosh MC2120 Amp Pioneer PD65 Reference CD player
McIntosh MR7082 Signature Audio Srd23 Tube CD player
Acurus A250 Amp Luxman D105U Tube CD player
B&K PT3 Preamp Nakamichi CD2 & CD4 CD players
Hivi, Vifa, JBL and Usher monitor speakers.

I totally agree with you automaticmojo. It's as simple as garbage in, garbage out. You have to sit down and listen. Not for one minute. Try hours of listening and let your ears adjust to the sound. Tha's what I did. First I thought it was bright. Well it was not. It sounded way better that my modified Dynaco ST70/VTA amp. I'm talking wider sound stage, transparency, reat imaging and presence, very dymamic. right amount of bass, and great with vocals. I listen to classic and modern jazz, classical, motown, and the more I listen, the more I get into the music. I can listen for hours with no fatigue.
Forget about the reviews. Audio is all about matching. Expensive does not mean it will give you the best sound, you are wrong brother. I got mine for $400 and I can say it's a great score.

Set up:
Sonus Faber Concertino on PARADIGM 18 inch lead filled stands
Audible Illusions Modulus IIA
Acurus A250
Thorens TD 125MkII
Rega RB600/Incognito Wires/JA Michelle/Shure A97XE
CANARE Interconnects/Tara labs
CANARE 4S11 speaker wires
SONY CDP 120

First off, I am quite positive the main reason this amp had gotten some bad reviews here probably has more to do with a marginal Stereophile review than anything. I think many of their earlier reviews lauded those solid state amps that had a tube sound, or should I say perhaps a worn tube amp sound with out of spec caps, etc i.e. over emphasised midrange, with veiled highs and muddy, wallowing bass.
In my experiecne with the proper breakin, this amps is a extremely neutral, clean sounding amp with a huge reserve, particuliarly into 4 ohm loads. It's not going to change the sound, what you put in, is what you get out-subpar componenets, source material etc-that's the way they will sound. It's not a 'coverup amp by any means
The owners manual clearly states that it requires around 250 hr of break in to reach it's fullest potential. Any brightness you may have heard early on is gone by this point. Other than a good power conditioner, no special cables are needed in my experience. I use Blue Jeans cables, and they sound fine.
This amp reminds me of my H/K Signature 1.5 amp-nuetral, clean, no add-no subtractions, withn loads of reserve as well.
I use a H/K PT2300 to drive this amp, which powers a pair of restored and upgraded 4 ohm ESS AMT3's- very revieling speakers. I have also had very good luck with a H/K Citation 21 (US built unit) as well.
With the Great Heils, if this amp had any sort of brightness, it would be readily apparent with these speakers. It has none- I run the tweeter control on the speakers in it's normal postion, but even with it in the bright posistion, it doesn't sound overly bright.
My recommendation is if your looking for a superb sounding amp, for difficult speakers to drive, 4 ohm units like Infinities, etc, this amp will fit the bill.
If it hasen't had the required hours on it, make sure you give it some time.
I read many reviews here, and it continues to amaze me how many people are so quick to trash a product (or ride the Stereophile bandwagon-lot's of those people here) with out really finidng out how to use the product properly. I think they get a kick out of throwing wrenches in the works-and probably is a trait of their character-believe those reviews with some reserve and caution-as they seem to provide little real helpul or informative information. Danny Downers, anfd proud of it!
Give this amp a chance, and I guarantee would will be rewarded with clean, dydnamic reliable sound for many years-and a bargin IMHO for the $300-$375 they seem to go for.

As an Acurus fan I really thought this Amp would do the job. Great build quality, lots of horsepower. Musical no way. Just sound that can get real loud. Very disappointed. For tin ears only.

Sound, build quality, price.

Did not have a 12 volt trigger so I installed one myself. Now this is a perfect amp!

Great amp. Warm sound with a pretty deep noise floor. I have it driving a set of art of sound line array towers. www.artofsound.net Preamp is an outlaw 990. It runs cool to the touch. Built very well. Has a tordial transformer and eight output transisters per side. Simple design. I'm using the A250 as the main amp and an outlaw 755 for the other 5 channels. Both amps sound really good.

Customer Service

Out of business. Really to bad!

Similar Products Used:

Outlaw, carver, parasound,

Has great highs and mids that are detailed and involving. The bottom end is extended, with nice deep notes. For the dollar 550.00 cdn a no brainer and "Oh," dos'nt take up a lot of space.

Longer than average break in but worth it for the doller if you can call weakness.

Wanted an amp that would'nt break the bank and that was dynamic and did'nt add any of that ear fatigue stuff. Had the Amp hooked up to an older pre amp for listening in stereo. out side of the pre amp everything was new and needed break in time including the Acurus 250a; as it had sat for about five years in a closet. It took about 250 hours of break in time when my audio equipment and cables fully bloomed. I have had many opportunity and years of breaking in different equipment and auditioning equipment as I worked in electronics. I found it true what others have said about break in time and matching up equipment. My Paradigm Monitor speakers sound great with this amp and i'm impressed that I did'nt have the problems with highs sounding bright. Excited about upgrading speakers with this amp in the near future and plan on upgrading to Paradigms 100s. I listen to a lot music and in this price range; how can you go wrong when it takes a lot more money to get any great audible difference.

Similar Products Used:

Citation,Krell, Sonic frontier, Nad, Bryston, YBA, Adcom, Rotel, Simaudio, Classe, Creek etc...