Guys,
I am interested in hearing your opinions on Monster Amps. I found a deal on a Monster 3250 (250 watts by 3 channels) for only slightly more than the 7500. I realize that I would lose the 2 extra channels, but I'm not too worried about that at this point.

So, discounting the fact that you would lose 2 channels, do you prefer the sound of the 7500 or the 3250?

I haven't found any professional reviews of either amps on the internet...

Thanks guys,
kgt

Yup, that's the model that I'm referring to - haven't seen that ad at ebay, though. Pretty cheap, if it's legit.

In any case, any thoughts on Monster amps such as the 3250?

I'm trying to remember if this is another amp made by ATI. I think I read that on one of the forums.

Is memory the first thing to go?

It's a Marsh design. Made by ?

Well, Monster's one-year warranty isn't quite as appealing as the 7500's five-year warranty. The 7500 is still a bit new to have had a chance for professional reviews to pop up, but its predecessors have consistently been well-liked by reviewers and owners alike. I haven't heard much at all about Monster's amps, though, so it's hard for me to offer much more than that.

I have been able to have both the monster 3250 and the 7500 hooked up in my system and to my ears I prefered the sound of the monster by a slim margin. It seemed to me to have a little better bass and just a little more dynamics. I had the monster first and returned it to give the 7500 a try so as to not have to add an amp to power the rear channels. Don't get me wrong the 7500 is a great amp and would be a great addition to any setup I just liked the Monster a little better and with the prices it can be had at it is a steal. The Monster can be also be purchased with a two year warranty from some authorized dealers but the 5yr warranty from the outlaws is also something that one must be considered.

Heh, the Monster amps are also made by ATI.

Apparently, because of the LCD displays that Noel Lee specified the amps HAD to have, they have problems with noise and are set up in a nonstandard way to resolve the issue.

Because of this, the amps won't pass THX spec, which doesn't sit well with Noel Lee and he has been trying to get THX to change the spec, hah good luck.

Some very interesting information. Blogging: what causes noise with the LCD displays? Can you give us some more information on this and/ or any other issues that you know about? Do you have any links?

I have also been looking at the Monster amp. But, it sort of bothers me when I see something for 1/3 list price. I wonder what is wrong with it and why are they clearing them???

When I had the Monster amp it indeed had the ground loop hum that has also seemed to plague the 7700 and 7500 due to the size of their transformers. A ground loop isolator from parts express fixed my cable grounding problem and I found the Monster as well as the 7500 to have a very low noise floor which in turn makes for excellent dynamics. If there is noise issues due to the LCD display it was not evident in my system.