Further update, I formerly posted as Lou3rd, I have a new email address and I forgot my password. I must have been pretty tired when I last posted as my spelling and even terminology was flawed. Soft recovery diodes, such as Hexfreds, or Stealth diodes improve any amp or preamp that doesn't have compensation, resistors and capacitors across the diodes in the bridge rectifier(s). These are known as snubbers. They were more common in horizontal flyback transformer circuits in cathode ray tube based televisions before flat screens took over, but the principals and results are the same. Tube diodes don't share the ringing characteristics which is one of many reasons that so many people have for years considered tube equipment to be sonically superior. While stock the 200C has been considered to be a superior amplifier, even a giant killer, replacing the stock bridge rectifiers with soft recovery based rectifiers reduces the noise on the B+ rails, which in turn removes low level noise increasing air around and between instruments which also increases definition, making it an all together tougher amplifier to beat.

New old stock parts are increasingly more difficult to find, often newer semiconductors with similar specifications but different Emitter-Base-Collector configurations may have to be used. That may have unexpected implications for the sound. They are rather old, so they may not be the prettiest amp around, and while the power supply capacitors have held up amazingly well, you may want to consider using newer capacitors at least on the circuit boards.

Sweet highs and mids, bass response is phoenomenal, no fatigue at any volume, high power output

Heavy as hell, though this isn't a weakness just a backbreaker

My friend recommended this amp to me and I was finally able to get one on ebay. I have gone through many amps including parasound, adcom, van alstine, and acurus. I never felt a need to post a review for these amps, but for the PS audio I felt the need to post a review. The sound from this amp is better than any other amp I have had in my system and paying only $500 was a steal. The detail this amp brings to the highs and mids are awesome. The bass response and control is pheonomenal when compared to the other amps I have had in my system. You won't get a hint of listeners fatigue with this amp at any volume. My Mirage M3Si have never sounded better. I own a CD store and all types of music play well on this amp from techno to jazz and classical. I think once I upgrade my preamp the system will sound even better. I plan on purchasing another one to power my centers for a first class home theatre. I would recommend buying this amp to anyone you won't be disappointed. The only bad thing about this amp is a hissing and poping sound through the speakers when the amp is turned off. I think I can live with that as long as it doesn't hurt my speakers.

Similar Products Used:

adcom, parasound, acurus, van alstine don't even compare to this power house!!

This is an update to my previous post. This amp runs dual mono from the bridge rectifiers forward, meaning they have 2 bridge rectifiers. Standard bridge rectifiers ring, they are not quite, and this imposes noise upon the B+ rails, and ultimately it effects the music. Both bridge rectifiers should be replaced with ones made using Fred diodes. It makes these amps arguably the best SS amps I have heard. I cannot say this in absolute terms because I have not heard all the other amps in my system, but if it is not as good, it is VERY close to the best.

The first one of these amps met with a little gold-plated ''accident'' (a spade lug shorted a pair of speaker terminals...boom! Oops!) and was rebuilt with the superior Motorola output devices in both channels to replace the NEC original devices, though only one channel was damaged. This mod was well worth doing and I intend to do it to the unit I have now. It was a significant improvement. The 200C is a GREAT amp in the 2000 dollar range. It is sometimes known as a poor man''s Krell, and it deserves that description. I know. I own Krells, too. (KMA-160 monoblocks) The 200C is fast, detailed, authoritative, smooth, and POWERFUL. My Krells ARE better amps, but admittedly, not by a whole lot. I use this 200C strictly as a subwoofer amp in my usual configuration...but WHAT a configuration! The 200C can deliver a genuine FIVE HUNDRED watts per channel into four ohm drivers, and my custom designed and built sub has two separate four ohm drivers that can take the power. I''ve driven this subwoofer system to the edge of clipping, at a full kilowatt, and read 120 dB at 20 Hz with my sound level meter. That''s world class performance for single box subwoofers in a home

Well, it''s heavy and not every part is really easy to find if it should need to be repaired, but as long as you don''t turn it on with a gold-plated spade lug shorting the output terminals (note to self...hook up cables only where you can SEE your work in the future!), I don''t think these amps are very likely to fail. It''s a heavy amp, too, at about 75 pounds.

It''s not often that I own a piece of equipment that I later am persuaded to sell when I really don''t want to, and less often that I actually buy another of them, but this is such a product! OK, both amps are 200C''s not CX''s, but close enough... One I bought from its original owner, and the other (the one I have now) I bought off of ebay, and this particular one happens to be the exact one reviewed by Harry Pearson for The Absolute Sound magazine some years ago! A little piece of history! I paid 300 bucks for the first one, and 450 for the second

Similar Products Used:

Krell KMA-160 monoblocks (Main speaker amps) Carver M400T cube amp (gone) Pioneer Spec-4 power amp (gone) Acurus A250 power amp (Use it..as a spare!) The 200C is better than all of these amps ex

Built like a Tank! Incredible, detailed sound.

Heavy!!

I purchased this at my favorite Audio store to replace my dead Carver Amplifier.I was told that this particular Amplifier was a Stereophile recommended Class A Amp several years ago so I was excited to install this in my system to power the rear channels. WOW!! what a sweet sound this thing has.I have since switched this Amp to power my front channels now because they are so musical and put my AcurusA200 for the center and rear. I highly recommend this Amp, sure it's a few years old but damn! it's rock solid and the sound is incredible.This is a keeper.

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Acurus, Carver, Sony, Yamaha.

Balanced from top to bottom. Great soundstage. Lots and lots of detail. great bass

A little sterile and dry sounding but not harsh.

Great amp for the $$$. Ive paid a lot more for worse. Parasound 2200 for example. Huge detailed focused soundstage. Well controlled precise bass. Can be a little unrelenting with digital front end as it is dry sterile from upper midrange on up. But nonetheless captivating in its ability just present the music and not color it. Maybe just dry it up a bit, but this is typical of solid state at this price range. Some turn on pop and hum usually noticable on every one of these Ive heard. Reliability is a ??? according to some.

Similar Products Used:

Parasound 2200, Nak PA 7, Warner Imaging VTE 200s, AR D130

Capable of very high current out put, Stereophile Class A for years, and it deserved/s it.

Large and heavy, but it has to be....

The one fault this amp has, is a slight tendency toward being a bit dark. It's not so pronounced that it is a real issue, but you would not want to mate it to other dark gear. Other than that, it holds it's own VERY well against the amps above I have owned, and many others I have heard. It's not a Mark Levinson, but it is the poor man's version, IMO.

It's not a tube amp, so if that's what you want, that's what you should consider buying. For what it is, it is top knotch.

As for repair problems, the older 200C mdls initially shipped with a real problem, they liked to cook speakers, but they had good taste, they liked Apogees best of all! That problem was quickly fixed and the 200CX never suffered from any such issues.

I have heard from some using silver interconnects that they think the amp is bright, silver cables are generally bright and are generally used to compensate for very dark amps, or tube amps which roll off the highs. This is NOT a bright amp.

While currently I am using a Moscode 600, I have no intention of selling any of my 200CX's in the near future, I do swap amps from time to time because both have their own strengths.

Associate Equipment:

Acoustat Spectra 3300 speakers
Perraux SM-2 or Minuet in A or Superphon DM preamp
Sota Sapphire turntable with an AQ 6PT arm, and Denon 103 cart.
Sony ES CDP 707ES CD Player from the 80's buy I have not heard one that was worth buying since.

Similar Products Used:

B&K Sonata 442, B&K 4420, Hafler DH-500, Moscode 600, Amber, PS Audio 2C+

Great build quality. Sound

Its a very heavy amp.(not a real weakness but bad on the back).

I got this amp in a trade for an Adcom DAC and a Monarchy DIP jitter reducer. Im glad I did because this a great amp. It is rated at 200 watts per channel into 8 ohms 400 into 4 ohms and over 1000 watts in 1.5 ohms. There is not a load this amp cannot drive. The control it has in the bass is very good and the mids and highs are as good or better than most tube amps. I never get tired of playing music with this amp, it lets me listen to MUSIC not equipment. Talk about build quality, this thing is overbuilt, just take one look inside and see. Solid copper buss rails, four giant 15000 mfd caps and the biggest transformer I have ever seen in an amplifier. Also the unit weighs close to 70 pounds. If you can find one used for about $550 to $650 they are a great deal and will be better than most amps from Adcom, Rotel, Parasound and many more higher priced amps. This is a wonderful and very special amp to me, it will be in my system for a long time.
My system;
Technics 1700MII turntable with grado prestige gold cartridge
Sony XA20ES cd player
rotel rc972 pre amp
rotel rq970bx phono pre amp
PS audio 200cx power amp
Paradigm monitor 7 speakers

Similar Products Used:

EL34 tube integrated amp. Adcom, NAD, Proton.