Shakur

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
4.80 of 5, 5.00 votes

Price Paid:  $695.00 from Audiogon

Summary:
If you can find one, and you have no more than $800. to spend on an integrated, JUST BUY IT. Oodles of current, stunning lower end control, extended mids and treble that just sing, great pace and timing, and a very minimal degree of solid-statey haze in it's price class. Beautiful to look at, a joy to use. Nice solid remote, which has source selection as well as vol. control, and dimmer for the red LED (numeric volume level). If your source and IC are really decent (significantly beyond mid-fi) and spkrs. pretty resolving, the CAP 80 should satisfy for quite a while. If someone offered me a Naim NAIT 5 instead now for the same price I paid here, I wouldn't take it, in spite of it's rep for great presence in the mids. If you just can't find one, the best alternate (for $200-300. more) is the Consonance C-100 by Opera Audio, if still available by the time you read this. At $1k new the design is similar to the CAP80, is also 100 watts, with remote, and a balanced, full, transparent sound from top to bottom. I spoke with a former CAP80 owner at length who'd regretted selling his a few yrs. back for some $3k MacIntosh rig that disappointed. He recently bought the C-100 and is now one happy camper. He had a chance to compare it against the Creek 5350se under very good conditions through Von Schwkt. VR-4s, and said the Consonance pretty much left the Creek in the dust. Having heard the Creek a bit myself, I think the same is quite true with the CAP80, though I haven't made a direct comparison. The C-100 is available through only a few shops, via NAT Distribution, (they have an Audiogon presence in the integr./power amp sections). My system: Transport: Harmon Kardon DVD 25 Digital signal processing: GW Labs DSP data rate converter, with upsampling to 96kHz. (At only $400 new, this provides GRAND improvements for the money and can't be recommended highly enough to anyone who has yet to deal with jitter and is drawn to the possibilities of upsampling) DAC: Channel Islands Audio VDA-1 with full mods by Dan Wright. digital IC: Apogee Wyde-Eye Analog IC: Moose Audio model 1a. Integrated amp: Classe' CAP80 Speaker cable: Moose Audio Demon Speakers: GR Research Paradox 3 (full range dynamic 3-ways)

Strengths:
Tonal balance, bass control and resolution ...slightly sweet treble, NO undue brightness. Allows a full harmonic richness to come through in the mids, in context of price class. Remote does everything. Pre-outs for future power amp. Beautiful. Solidly built, stable circuitry. Fantastic $$ value.

Weaknesses:
Hard to find.

Similar Products Used:
No integrateds...previously was using a Superphon SP100 line stage and a Sumo model 9, class A solid state amp. I would have considered getting a much better pwr amp to use with the Superphon instead of an integrated if my wife and I both didn't need remote so badly and didn't have space considerations. The Superphon was such a fantastic piece for the money ...and still is, used.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
There seems to be so much confusion as to the differences between the CAP 80 and CAP 101. The CAP 101 is almost the same as the CAP 80 except for the Newer Black and Silver face plate on the 101 AND according to CLasse's Manager that I contacted at their website is the 101 has an Improved Output stage and Power Supply. Anyway both amps are very good. I sold my Rotel 971 HDCD player and used my Toshiba DVD player and didn't hear much difference in sound from my Sonus faber speakers. Then I sold my highly rated Puccini Integrated amp and went back to my Harman kardon top of the line Receiver and the sound loss was very very significant, much more than the CD player switch. Could not stand it much longer so in comes the Classe CAP 101. The sound difference is the best I have had with the $1000 Sonus concertino speaker. the amp makes way more difference in sound than the CD player change. The speakers have much more speed, the base more pace and punch and more resolution without being bright. Next step get a good CD player to go with the True balanced input the CAP 101 has. Final recomendation: B&W is the now THE distributer for CLasse in England!

Price Paid:  $875.00 from 2nd hand

Summary:
After buying Diapason Adamantes 3 Speakers I discovered that these speaker reveal every little detail (also the bad ones) of my Denon PMA1500 amp & DCD1550 cd player. I was looking for amps around 2500 Euro, auditioned Unison Research S6, Primare 30.1 , Meredian, densen and Classe CAP-101. After long listening session at the dealer (4 hours) with several amps I decided that the Classe CAP-101 and Unison research S6 (tube) gave the smooth sound I was looking for. Then the dealer told me that he had a 2nd hand Classe CAP-80 (Basically the same as CAP-101 except less power and different front)for 875 Euro. Unison Research S6 for 2500 Euro or 875 Euro for classe CAP-80, what would you do?. Well I chose the classe of course, because it had a very smooth sound especially with high frequencies and it also has a powerfull bass. It was almost more tubesounding then the Unison research. For 875 Euro this was one of the best deals I could have made, Most smooth tube-like sound for the buck (ehhh Euro of course).

Strengths:
- Smooth Tube-like sound, Smooth highs, - Powerfull but smooth bass. - Looks. - Balanced connections - Very kewl volume control display. - Very kewl aluminium front.

Weaknesses:
- My spades do not fit very well at speaker-terminals because the terminals are to small (might have to remove and use bare wire or bananas). - When powering on I hear a "plop!" over the speakers.

Similar Products Used:
Denon PMA-1500R.

View Comments (2)

Would you like to Comment?
Join audioReview for a free account, or Login if you are already a member.

Price Paid:  $1300.00 from Wilbert Netherlands

Summary:
I`ve listened to many ampliers with different price`s. If you buy a Classe be awere it sounds right after 3 months listening. In the begin there is no bass, weak treble, no room. But if you can wait. My system contains ML Aerius Speaker, Classe Cdp 0.3 Cd Cables vna den Hul, mainfilter SEEC. Everybody who listened to my system enjoyed it.

Strengths:
It sounds like tubes, plenty of bass, remote built like a tank, Buildquality upon it`s price

Weaknesses:
No Balance

Similar Products Used:
Marantz PM14, Marantz PM17 , Luxman A383,

Price Paid:  $1300.00 from Wilbert Netherlands

Summary:
I`ve listened to many ampliers with different price`s. If you buy a Classe be awere it sounds right after 3 months listening. In the begin there is no bass, weak treble, no room. But if you can wait. My system contains ML Aerius Speaker, Classe Cdp 0.3 Cd Cables vna den Hul, mainfilter SEEC. Everybody who listened to my system enjoyed it.

Strengths:
It sounds like tubes, plenty of bass, remote built like a tank, Buildquality upon it`s price

Weaknesses:
No Balance

Similar Products Used:
Marantz PM14, Marantz PM17 , Luxman A383,