Perreaux 200I Amplifiers

Perreaux 200I Amplifiers 

DESCRIPTION

20 Watt Integrated Amplifier

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-8 of 8  
[Apr 12, 2003]
Perreaux
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Solid, Well made Good service back up and warranty bass control looks great bullet proof just about idiot proof

Weakness:

remote control is only OK

Looked at large amounts of reviews and gear To avoid spending vast amounts of time dithering, especially on a limited budget,discovering from overseas reviews that probably the best amps were made right here in New Zealand. If not arguably the best in quality, value for money, unequalled.I bought this amp before reading any reviews and in comparison to many other brands which I listened to (Plinius, HK, Marantz,Music Fidelity, Lin)this blew me away within 5 minutes. The bass control is excellent, clarity great,and the dynamic speed of the sound is great.A Roll Royce on a Mini budget.It just gets better with time.I'm running it on a much higher volume comfortably now without panicing about blowing up my PSB 6T's which are also excellent value for money.I bought a matching CD player (Perreaux CD1/P) on the basis that if the amp was this good so must the player be. I wasn't disappointed.

Similar Products Used:

Looked at Rotel,but would work out more expensive in NZ with no back up here.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Aug 12, 2002]
oopsscott
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Bass, No Grain at all, Build quality, Gold RCA post, Balanced Cd input

Weakness:

Say again....

One of the best amps I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. The amp is very cold and bright sounding for the first week with no bass. The amp really changes alot over the next month and the bass becomes deep and quick. The best bass I have ever heard. Also, the amp is totally grainless and I can and do listen to it for hours at a time. The amp is built extremely solid and I like the digital volume control, it seems like it would be more reliable after years of use versus a motorized volume control. I have listened to many integrated amps and owned 5 different brands and this is the best by far overall. Highly Recommended!!

Similar Products Used:

Bryston B60, Electrocompaniet ECI-4, Musical Fidelity A300, Plinius 8200, Adcom GFA-555 and GFP-555II, Manley Stingray, Denon PMA-2000R

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jun 22, 2002]
edgo
AudioPhile

Strength:

stage, bass, detail, cost-benefit ratio.

Weakness:

none that I can see.

This is a great integrated amplifier for the money. It has great stage, detail and bass. You will see a significant improvement after a break in period of at least 2-3 weeks. I have used it in conjunction with a a sony SACD C555ES player and Martin LOgan Aeon speakers. The vocals and intrumentals have a near-live performance feeling, absolutely gorgeous, and I venture to say that it sounds better than amplifiers that cost thousands more. I have seriously considered the Plinius 8200 and heard it several times with exactly the same speakers, but I think the Perreaux has more stage and better bass. The details are comparable with both amplifiers. The 200iP seems to be very well built and it doesn't run very hot, despite of hours of auditioning at significant volumes. I strongly recommend this integrated amplifier. In order to do better than this, you would probably have to go to separates and spend 3 times as much (at least).

Similar Products Used:

Plinius 8200, NAD, cinepro, sunfire, carver.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Dec 01, 2000]
Paul Kelleway
Audiophile

Strength:

Natural acoustic presentation, Toatl freedom from distortion.

Weakness:

None at the price

This is a remarkable product, 4 hrs is not enough time to hear it, it took 2 weeks for mine to properly come on song. I had the Plinius for 1 week on trial and it was superb but I had a question mark over the bass extension, on further investigation I came accross the Perreaux via a dealer in New Zealand, he convinced me to go for this amp over the Plinius (he sold both amps). After many internet exchanges I decide to go for it. When I first listened to it it was nothing special but after a couple of weeks its performance was astonishing! It has a natural, three dimensional presentation that makes you forget your listening to Hi-Fi at all, it just presents music in a live acoustical way. I have Thiel 2.3 speakers and I have never heard them sound like they do with this amp. The Krell & Bryston sound distorted in comparison (e.g. Vocal sibilance or grain, metallic unatural treble) you don't realise this until you hear an un distorted amp.
The amp is built superbly and comes with balanced CD inputs + remote control - its a bargain if bought direct from New Zealand - make sure you listen to a properly run in model.
I dread to think what the bigger Pre/power combo's sound like.....may be one day!

Similar Products Used:

Krell 300i, Plinius 8200, LS7 + Bryston 4BST combo

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Nov 18, 2001]
Tony
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Build quality, natural sound, sound stage, detail of presentation

Weakness:

None that I can find

200IP Perreaux Integrated Amp review

This is the second New Zealand Made Perreaux Amplifier I have owned this follows a pre/power Plinius and Various Japanese Amps from Yamaha, Sony, JVC and Denon. I have also listened to the Class A Amp from Musical Fidelity and others of similar quality. Until I heard the 200iP(200w), I was using the E160i (160w) from Perreaux, which is their entry-level unit. This was to me an extraordinary amp for the price, and presented my CD’s in a warm, full and articulated way. The only reservation I had was when I connected up the newly acquired Wadia 850 player the sound stage was not as startling as the owners of the Wadia player seem to say it would be. That was until I matched it with the Perreaux 200iP, and hello here it was in all its glory, not only was it bigger, both in width and height, but it was much more defined. What’s more it was faster, more dynamic and much more involving.
Trebles were more defined, the mid- range was not more forward, but it just seemed richer, the lower end had more Punch. Vocals seem to reach down into the base and grab lower notes when needed giving them a timbre that previously never existed.
You don’t realise what you have been missing even with the superb E160i until you hook up an amp that gives your music more “life”. It brings out far more of the potential of the Wadia front end than I knew was there. All this and it has only been playing a few days, if the E160i is anything to go by it will get even better over the next few months. I am not the only one to notice the difference in our house, totally unprompted my partner described the differences after casually listening for just an hour.
This amp is also like a tank with superb build quality, hard to fault in this respect and comes with heaps of exposed heat sinks. The remote is OK but not very intuitive, though I don’t use the remote much, as the Wadia is hooked up direct in to the power amp at present, I plan to try the balanced inputs at some stage to see how they compare with the direct in.
I often think a lot of these reviews are so subjective, and so often when you have committed to a particular product you tend to think you have made the right decision, you will back it to the hilt no matter what. So I often take these reviews with a certain grain of salt. All I can say is this, the Perreaux made a dramatic difference to the music I am so familiar with and brought it to life with so much more emotion, vigour and clarity, as big if not a bigger effect than the addition of the Wadia 850 to the system.
I am still puzzled as to why this amp has not got the rave reviews that the also “Made in NZ “Plinius 200w Integrated Amplifier has managed to get. I think it just probably comes down to lack of exposure and marketing in general, or maybe it is just that I am wrong and my ears are not giving me the true picture at all. Well if that is the case I will quite happily live with my illusion for the next how ever many years and just wonder if this secret will ever be discovered by the hi-fi world.

Similar Products Used:

See text of review

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jul 31, 1999]
Warwick Neasmith
an Audio Enthusiast

This is a beautiful piece of equipment The polished aluminium curves make it look like some sort of spaceship, only much better looking. Its practically ornamental.
Truth be told, though it wouldn't matter what this amp looked like because its sound is amazing. Running an Arcam Alpa 7 CD to B&W P5s I don't really think I can hear the amp at all. All I can hear is music. Lot's of it. Intricate detail, breathtaking dynamics and a huge sound. I can fill a nearly 500 sq ft room with music and hear everything. Mozart to Motorhead, Sinatra to Silverchair, it all comes across totally uncolored in any way.

I love it.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
[Oct 27, 1999]
Adam
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Neutrality, great looks

I really like this amp. In moving from a Marantz SR-82 receiver, I auditioned quite a few amplifiers. One of the most revealing sessions was against the Marantz PM-17 and the MF-XA1 bi-amped with X-A50s
The Marantz sounded cold and edgy by comparison and the MF sounded great, but decidedly less articulate and neutral. The only edge the biamped MF setup had was in driving some Ambience ribbon speakers - however I didn't listen to a bi-amped Perreaux setup with these speakers.
With other speakers (such as the EPOS ES-22s I ended up with), the Perreaux just sounded fantastic with good drive, sweet treble and no hint of strain (the manual warns that the heat sinks can get very hot, however I've never managed to get them anything more than slightly warmer than room temperature).
I can't wait until I can get a 200P to match this 200i.
I have read that the more up-market Perreaux components (such as the SM-6 with the balanced amps) sound better, but for value-for money, the 200i is excellent.
Finally, the curvy polished aluminium facia may be a matter of choice, but is certainly to my taste.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
4
[Jul 14, 2000]
Jeff Williams
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Looks

Weakness:

Weak sound for the price

Has decent control of the speakers, but when i compared it to the lowly rotel RB-976 i seriously couldnt tell the difference. This amp is severly overrated, as is most of perreaux's gear in my opinion. I gave it a good 4 hours of listening, and I just didnt gel with it. My rotel goes louder, with more crisp bass and control in the midrange.
I expected good things from this amp... but it just didnt fill the criteria. I think its available power is just not enough to drive speakers to very loud listening volumes, and as i like to have the ability to do this, it wasnt my thing.
Sound was good, but ive heard better for cheaper

Similar Products Used:

Rotel, Plinius, yamaha,

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
2
Showing 1-8 of 8  

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