Wattage. Build quality. Looks. Clarity. Low impedance capability

Weak bass response. Way too big and heavy. Brite logo has no shut off

Back in the mid nineties I remeber the Citation models when they came out. The 5.0 was a dream I had to have. I started looking for all the Citation models and bought a couple pieces before I decided they just were not for me. This amp is huge. The build quality is very good. I liked the way it looked but it really aggrivated me that I could not turn off the brite blue Citation logo! In a dark room it really lights things up. The inside is impressive. You can tell it has a more than adequate power supply. But the real story is that it isnt a THX amp. The maker actaully emailed me and told me this. The 7.1 is though. Even though its not THX certified it was still louder than anything I heard so far. I had it connected to a Citation 7.0 Proceesor. I had a few diffrent speakers hooked up to this setup. As i watched TRON the old movie I can tell right away that the Citation amp was so much clearer than the other amps I listened too. Just in stereo there were sounds coming out of my speakers I never heard. There was one draw back that made me sell the amp. Thin bass. I have a NAD 2600A which still cant be beat as far ass thick, deep drooling bass. The Citation was a wonderful player except for bass. The bass hit hard and loud but lacked the sublevel of mind boggling depths I have from the NAD. I just as soon had a midbass instead of a subwoofer. Other than that it played clean and had no extra hiss or hum. The NAD didnt either but I learned not all amps are the same. I learned that mixing brands is not bad at all. In fact, to get the best results you must. I sold the amp on eBay cause it was way to big and had weak bass. But I kinda wish I kept it cause I havent found any amp that sounded so good for everything else.

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None as far as clarity. But NAD beats it for bass big time.

Natural reproduction; Power

No power switch on front panel. It's a pain to access it on rear panel.

I'd have to say this is the first time I've ever personally benefitted from a corporate merger. When Mark Levinson/Proceed came under the Harmon Kardon umbrella, the fallout was obviously the redundancy of HK's low-end/hi-fi Citation line. This is the niche already filled by Proceed. Ironically my amp came shipped in a Proceed box. It's hard to imagine a better value in the current hi-fi market. Under $700 for an amp of this pedigree? It's almost criminal. And when you listen to it, you really feel guilty. A truly unadulterated sound quality that is tube-smooth and probably the quietest I've ever heard. I mean quiet! Tremendous definition and dynamics without sounding artificial or fatiguing. And power to die for. My 6 ohm Revel F-30s nearly cooked my Parasound amp, but the Citation drives them without even getting warm. Herculean build quality. It weighs in at almost 70lbs. Sadly, they won't be making any more of these sublime amps. On the other hand, the end of production ensures that a few lucky people can have Proceed=level audio for chump-change.

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parasound 1200 mk II

I purchased one of these amps from a local dealer and have been very pleased with the sound. I upgraded from using the internal amp in my Yamaha receiver. The difference in sound quality has been staggering. Check out the specs on the website, and believe me, this is one heavy amp. The 4/3/2 setup allows one to bi-amp a pair of speakers or to bridge and have enormous power in the two channel mode. Overall, if you can get one for around $1000 or less, I would say to go for it. I'm not sure how well it drives low impedance loads, but it plays my 8 ohm Boston Acoustics VR-40s louder and cleaner than I ever thought possible. Happy Listening!

Flexible, incredibly well built, great sounding, heavy

Hard to think of any, especially at the price I paid

I now own two Citation 7.1s and one 5.1 - see my similar review for the 7.1s under that category.

This is simply a great sounding amp with a lot of clean power. It's very neutral, and gets the bass right for H/T and music. This thing is incredibly well built and detailed sounding. It reminds me of the Aragons and Brystons I've had - big, heavy, and apparently indistructable. It is bridgable and can be run as a 4, 3, or 2 channel amp. I've run it bridged into 2 channels powering some demanding (4 ohm or less) speakers with no problems (Aerials and Maggies). This amp gets a little warm when pushing the big Maggies in bridged mode, but never hot. (My 7.1 amps don't significantly warm up when pushing any speakers.) These amps are conservatively rated and appear to have have tons of power to spare.

They blow away the Classe I had previously, and are every bit as good as the Brystons at a fraction of the price. I loved my Bryston and Aragon amps, but for the money I had to get the Citations.

I have never thought any product I've owned deserved a "5" rating, but this amp is close. I gave it a "5" for value and a "4" overall. (The the Citation 7.1 a "5" rating across the board.) Would give this amp a "4+" if I could.

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Aragon 8008, Classe CAV-150, Bryston 8B, and a bunch of other lesser amps

easily configurable, quality construction, aesthetic

none thus far

I bridge 2 channels (300 W)to power a Paradigm StudioCC (Center Channel)and the other 2 channels drive my rears. This is a quality component for a very reasonable price. Of course, I prefer my Parasound 1500A (see review), but the Citation does a superb job on HT applications, which is what I bought it for.

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Parasound 1000, Parasound 1500A, Adcom

Plenty of clean power. Flexible setup.

None other than it's really heavy.

This is a nice sounding amp. Very flexible in that you can configure easily to be 4, 3 or 2 channel output. This sounded great in home theater setup using four channel configuration at 100 watts per channel (luxman L580 driving two additional channels). In less than 5 minutes I configured to 300 watts per channel into two channels for my home stereo.

I like the Citation 7.1 better but of course that requires a few more coins.

Sounds very nice at higher volume with little or no listener fatigue.

I have seen these recently sell for $560 on internet.

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Citation 7.1, Luxman M02, Luxman L580