Price Paid:  $650.00 from Audio Video Creation

Summary:
I've played with many amps over the past couple of years...Parasound, Hafler, Carver(the Bob Carver stuff) Denon and Rotel. I thought all had performed very well according to each of their strengths, but I just could not get the right match for my NHT 2.5i's. The Carver amp was the most powerful of amps that I owned (250 wpc), but lacked the finesse and imaging. The Rotel (130 wpc) was pretty dammed good, but seemed a bit dry in the high frequency range. I was satisfied with the Rotel to be honest until I walked into this high end AV store that was going out of business. In their audition room, I saw this pair of demo Sherbourn 1/300 B monoblocks. I was very familiar with the Sherbourn 5/1500A 5 channel amp that received outstanding reviews through various magazines and from audioreview.com. The 1/300B is basically the same amp but in it's own chassis. The guy was selling them at half price with full warranty. Prior to this discovery, I was contemplating heavier amplification, but was not ready to assert myself until I came a cross these monoblocks. For the price I took the gamble. What a lucky call...what a F*#%>king lucky find!!! These amps really opened the music in my system. Very articulate, awesome dynamics, controlled low end punch and smooth (not over etched) high end. For regular retail price (1300.00) these amps are worth looking into. Unfortunately, the 1/300 B's are no longer in production, but if you get lucky to find a pair...jump on them!!! Excellent bang for the buck even at regular retail.

Strengths:
Excellent performance with music and movie tracks. Great dynamics, bass punch, smooth articulate highs without sacrafice in midrange information. Will drive difficult loads with any strain even at high SPL's. Forgot about signal sensor feature and balanced inputs.

Weaknesses:
Absolutely none!

Similar Products Used:
Hafler 9300 Denon 2800 (THX certified) Carver M-500 Parasound 1000 (not the A version) Rotel RB 1070