HK PA2400 picture - beautiful

[bigburner]

I'm basically a Rotel guy, but I love the looks of my old HK amp - straight out of 2001 A Space Odyssey. Its sound, power and weight are similar to my Rotel RB-1080. I use it to drive a pair of B&W DM610i speakers in a 4.1 music configuration (2 stereo pairs plus a subwoofer).

[Glen B]

Looks very similar to my old HK PA5800 5-channel amp.

[Andrew Pratt]

The PA-5800 was an amazing value and sounded better then most other budget amps...and then the prices dropped even further and they became legendary! I had two of them in my rack before switching over to Rotels.

[bigburner]

Yup, the 5800 is every bit as beautiful as the 2400. I love the simple, uncluttered lines of both amps.

Andrew, how much of an improvement were your Rotels over your HKs? I ask this because my upgrade to Rotel wasn't as impressive as I had expected. Don't get me wrong. I like my Rotel gear but it's obvious when I did an A/B comparison between the two amps that I either underrated the HK or got carried away with all the hype about Rotel in this forum.

Having said that, I'm really happy with the way things have turned out. I now run a 4.1 music system (2 stereo pairs plus a sub) with the PA2400 driving the second pair of speakers. Fortunately the volume of each stereo pair is virtually identical.

[Andrew Pratt]

I found it to be a rather significant upgrade though my speakers are 4 ohm loads so for me it was a jump from 105 watts to 200 watts a channel and beefier power supplies etc. I tend to run my mains as large for music so the extra current seems to give me more control and better highs. That said for the cost the 5800's go for now they are still the deal of the industry IMO.

[Glen B]

I switched from the PA-5800 to an Onkyo TX-DS696 receiver and found the performance to be better. The 5800 was great in 2-channel mode but whenever I switched to multichannel, there was a noticeable drop in performance. That and the fact that I had tried a couple of preamp/processors and was left dissatisfied, made me switch to the receiver. The Onkyo plays as loud as I want without strain and there is no drop in overall volume level when I switch from stereo to multichannel.

[ds22030]

I have the 5800. The difference btwn the 5800 and Rotel 1075 was slight...with HK being better IMO. The 1080 is another story....better sound than the 5800. 5800 is a great amp...except for the stupid flimsy power switch...