ASR Emitter 1 , Does can drive B&W 802d ?

I have driven the 802's with a 140 watt tube amp, 200 watt per channel Carver home theater amp and Bryston 4BSST's. The speakers had no problem playing music nor serving as part of the home cinema with the two transitor amps, the tube amp did not have the bass slam as the two other amps, but oh did it play music way better. It will depned on how loud you will play and how big of a space you have to determine the real demand of these speakers, yeah they dip into 4 ohms in the impedance curev, but it is not as critical as you may think. These speakers rock.
Ciao,
Audioquest4life

II would not say necessarily say better, but more efficient. You have to match speakers and amps together to suit ones ultimate goals. I am driving B&W 800's with 140 watt tube amps, and I could care less about any other speakers as I am completely satisfied. That is why I said, the low impedance curve does not matter with these speakers and good equipment. Pair of mono Octave 140 watt amps drive the 800's easily with clean, deep, dry bass. The best thing the original poster can do is to evaluate speakers in his own room and on his system to make the final determination for what the best synergy is. Perhaps the Plinius is not up to the job to drive these types of speakers at all, despite the 91db efficiency rating.
Ciao,
Audioquest4life

Oops, meant to say ASR and not Plinius, was multi-tasking several threads.
Ciao,
Audioquest4life

Good luck with your decisions. Personally I have listened to the ASR Emitter and then compared them to the Octave amps I am now using. I was on an upgrade path to purchase ML 33H's or Classe Omega series amps, until I auditioned the Octave maps. At that point I never looked back and that is when I realized that so many people are jaded in believing that because a certain speaker has one factor that causes it to appear that it might be difficult to drive, really have not heard state of the art tube equipment driving such speakers, hence my comments.

I was also ready to purchase MBL 101's and perhaps MBL 111's, but from my auditions, the N800's do so many things well, layering space and dimensionality, small voice inflections and breathing ques, timber and bass, all of those superlatives. That is why I sit back and laugh at those critics who claim to "KNOW" that certain speakers are just bad, when in fact they were probably not driven by the correct electronics or maybe have not heard them set up properly. There are so many variables to consider when making purchases. You would think that top of the line MP and MBL equipment would be an easy decision, however, I am methodicall and practical when it comes to spending my money. Plenty of research, evalautions and solicitations are asked for, such as you are doing.

The only way you will ever know, is to evaluate on your own, and be aware of the proper setup conditions for whatever you are evaluating.

Ciao,
Audioquest4life

Ps68,

You are correct in a way where setup and ancillaries male a difference. Perhaps you have not had the pleasure of listening to these speakers exactly measured in a dedicated room woth first rate electronics. I state this overlooked fact from my responses, I have had B&W 802's with tubes and B&W800's, still do, with tubes and the system sounds glorious. I have demoed custom built amps, ML33H's, ASR's (amps and phono), big giant Krells's, various Avalon speakers, MBL101's, Wilson Watt Puppy 7's, and a host of other electronics. But at end of the day, it was the tubes and 800's that sounded the best to me. I know from my own experience and base my statements about those experiences, I am sure there are plenty of speakers out there that initially might sound better because they were setup properly or had the best synergy from the other electronics. Lets be honest here, how many people "Really" get to here electronics or speakers at home to make an informed decision based on their own room and setup? Not that many and of those that do, how many really have the sepakers setup properly to conduct a proper audition. It is not impossible, but it takes time, lots of time.

The OP will find that out when he attempts to demo at home. The speakers that stand out in the shop, might not be the best ones at home, and you are correct about it all being about personal taste, but in addition, the amount of synergy that all of the combined components bring to the table is what the listener is going to focus one.

Bottom line, YES, the ASR can drive the B&W802d's and easily, the same thing can be said about the electronics, there are better electronics from my perspective at the same price point.

Ciao,
Audioquest4life