8-10k budget suggestions please
Hey guys,
been out of the game about 10 years, got a new wife, new house, and plugged in my old B&W 804's. Connected them to a Denon receiver expecting to want to do surround sound.......But forget it! I really want to maximize my 804's for 2 channel listening.
My room is 15ft long by 13 by 9. not very big but I need amplification and streaming capabilites. Will add TT later as I do have vinyl. Room tx is on it's way so let's just assume it's already done.
Thanks for all your help!
+1 @jeffreyw OP- "I think you should give listen to the modern-day B&W diamond series. When auditioning, I compared 802D3 to Paradigm and Kef Reference. The B&Ws were the warmest of all." Agree. I own the B&W 803 D3s and they sound wonderful to me. B&W and Krell should sound sublime. Enjoy! |
You probably could run the 804s with a push pull tube amp. I wouldn’t. I prefer solid-state over push pull tube amps. Don’t confuse the loose bass of a tube amp losing control of the speaker with tube magic. It isn’t. The real magic in tube amps is single ended triode paired with the right speaker. See my prior post. My 802D3s have got pretty good sensitivity. But, Impedance curve and phase angle are horrific! Impedance drops below 2 ohms at certain frequencies. Despite their relatively good sensitivity, they are a very difficult load for any amplifier. You don’t want to run those with a single ended 3 watt amplifier.
Search enough and you will find that many like me that have been up to the edge with systems approaching $100,000 chasing the dragon and then discover what we’ve been looking for all along was hiding under our nose. We were afraid of the flea watt moniker. Again, the rest of the equipment is imperative. Especially the speakers and EQ. No exceptions. We’re all different. Maybe you wouldn’t like it. But I and many others wish we had gone that route first. More enjoyment at a fraction of the cost. What’s not to like? |
@b737max Agree! I think OP should seriously consider SS amps that double output into 8/4/2 ohms. My Vincent hybrid SP-331 is 150W/ch/8 ohms and 300W/ch/4 ohms and it's almost not enough current. I'm considering bi-amping looking forward. |
