Ampli choice : tenor dartzeel etc need your exper

hi Samuel, welcome to AudiogoN.

you really cannot go wrong with any of those choices.....great list.

it might be helpful to know the size of your room and the preamp you plan on using as at the level of your speakers and amps synergy will play a large part of any recommendations.

personally; i have owned the Hybrid Tenor 300 monoblocks (essentially a more powerful version of the 150) and i now own darTZeel. i have listened to both the Manley and ARC a few times. i have also listened to the B&W 802D but not with those amps specifically.

my opinion is that the Tenor and darTZeel are considerably more expensive at retail list price than either the Manley or ARC......and in this case you get what you pay for. the Tenor and dart are at a considerably higher level of refinement, detail and clarity than the other 2.....and more neutral and natural sounding. i would want to know more about the rest of your system and listening tastes before i could go further.

obviously; i choose the dart for myself (the dart works perfectly with my dart preamp and my speakers have powered subwoofers......if the dart is #1 in my book the Tenor is #1A).

Note; the Tenor is currently without any manufacturer's warranty as Tenor went out of business a couple of years ago. OTOH i have heard it is coming back in some form soon. service is avalible however and tech support. Tenor is a good enough amp to be worth a bit of hassel in any case.

if you have a very large room then the ARC becomes more of a consideration as it is more powerful than the other amps on your list. the other issue might be the compatability of the Diamond tweeter in the B&W's with each amp. sometimes with Diamond tweeters it can be an issue. in which case the more warm sounding Manley would likely be a good choice.

one other minor consideration is that the ARC can get quite warm if you have a small room without A/C in the summertime. neither the dart or Tenor has an issue about that (i don't know about the Manley).

mikelavigne, thank you for your reply.
Excuse me in advance for further vocabulary and grammatically mistakes, i'm french.

My system is quite unusual, i compose with my speakers (i do some kind of expérimental music)
Before the 802d, i had monitors speakers, then i decide to improve my equipment. I had the choice to continue with monitors or to follow another path.
I work at home so i was listening music on the monitor speakers... that bring me to consider a way to work AND really enjoy hours of listening music.

So i decided to buy the 802D (because someone have them to sell for a good price and they have quite good reputation).
After that buy, i had to find an inexpensive amplifier that can manage these speakers so i bought the nuforce ref 9 and NO preamp.
So my system is now a laptop with prism dac/adc, no preamp, the nuforce and the 802D -i know it is a weird system and not in a good sense-
i rarely buy new product, i prefer to construct slowly but with the best i can afford (in the second hand market in general).

And it is time now to replace the nuforce amplifiers (a bargain for the price but definitely not what i want to listen from my speakers)and find a preamp -i think, maybe i'm wrong, that it is more logical to choose the amplifiers first and after the preamp that feet well with the ampli-

For the size of the room, i move out in 3/4 months (to Monreal) so it is a big -?- but it would probably be between 30m2 and 50m2 i need space to work.

After your post, i hesitate now between the dartzeel and the Tenor.
I have emailed Hervé Deletraz -I definitely love their way of conceiving audio gears AND the way they deal with customers : a reference- he told me that an english customer have made the mix Dartzeel with 802D and it match well, the only possible issue is the power (100w)... is it enough for a 90dB efficiency speaker to work with?

On the other side the tenor, it has more power but you say : "the Tenor is currently without any manufacturer's warranty as Tenor went out of business a couple of years ago. OTOH i have heard it is coming back in some form soon. service is avalible however and tech support"
it can be a crtical issue if there is no longer way to repair it in the future (for now it's ok but in 2 years?)

i hope i haven't been too difficult to read (?!)

Samuel

Sounds like you should consider integrated amps! Look for threads on the subject.

I have made my choice, the dartzeel wouldn't be enough powerful... and i'm going to live in Montreal where one of the creator of the tenor live (and continue to repare it and upgrade it).

The only point is what i have to be aware of when i purchase it, in the second and market. I know there was some issues with the 300 but i don't know if it is the case with the 150 hps.
Maybe somme tenor owners can tell me....

Dear Samuel33:

Notre ami Mike Lavigne a raison et connait tres, tres bien le sujet. Surtout avec darTZeel a Geneve, le choix est d'autant plus facil. J'ai deux components Audo Research et ils font un bon produit, mais ils ne sont pas du tout au meme rang de darTZeel ou de Tenor. Le Manley est tres peu fiable et mange des lamps -- laissez tomber.

I better stop before the monitors get peaved.

Bonne chance.

Bonjour Samuel, mon nom est Serge et je suis près de montréal, J'ais un tenor 150 Hps. Si tu a des question ou si tu aimerais faire une écoute écrit moi, merci Serge. Mon email est omconstruction@total.net