At Excel Audio in Newport Beach, I recently heard a pair of Sasha DAW driven by the mid-level BAT preamp retailing for 15K, and the BAT Rex 3 amp, retailing for 20K. Digital front end was a DCS Bartok with the master clock. I felt the music in my spine. My jaw is still on the floor and my spine is still tingling three days later. It’s the only Wilson set up at an attainable price point I’ve ever heard that knocked me out like this. Sensational.
Best amp for Wilson sasha DAW
Just received my new Wilson Sasha DAW speakers and am now beginning to sift through a long list of electronics that would bring out the best in them. If anyone owns these and could give some recommendations I love to hear them. I’m open to tube or solid state. Looking for amps and preamp. All opinions are appreciated.
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You mention 20k is your budget… is that total budget or just components? You can easily spend that on speaker cables, power, interconnects etc. makes a huge difference for recommendations. Are you dead set on separates or is an integrated possibly part of the discussion? What, if any, components do you currently have? Are you looking at analog, or digital, or both. Need more info. And congrats on your new speakers! |
The best combination I know for the WA is VTL power amps and ARC pre-amps.I have the WATT/Puppy 5 with VTL MB450, ARC LS25 II, and ARC DAC9. It’s really good.WA are known for using VTL Siegfried power amps as one of their reference amps. As for ARC power amps you can’t go wrong with them, but the VTL’s may have the edge in grip, bass and power. Cheers |
monjoviIf the one stereo amp has enough wattage for you and you get the volume you need comfortably without taxing the amp, then I say a definite yes. As bridging amplifiers has one plus only, increasing the wattage. Everything else takes a hit. 1: distortion goes up 2: not as stable into low impedance 3: damping factor is doubled (worse) 4: the ability to drive low impedance’s is not as good I’m sure there are others I can’t think of right now. I jokingly say, bridging a good stereo amp turns them into a high wattage PA amp. Cheers George |
Thank you so much for getting back to me. I really appreciate it. Sounds like I should look into alternatives. One follow-up though (in case you happen to see this), am I right to conclude from your comments that I'd be better off just using one of the Nagra MSA's to power these speakers until I find a replacement amplifier? FWIW, I haven't purchased the speakers yet, so this is very helpful in terms of thinking about total budget and whether I'm willing to spend the money. Thanks again, Mark |
monjoviNo sorry I was just letting to OP know what would get the very best from his DAW's. Looking at your Nagra's though, these look to be very fine amps for a nicely mated speaker, like TAD's ect. But from what I quickly read, being only a single complimentary pair of Mosfets per channel, I would say not the very best for the DAW's. Even if bridged yes you gain more watts, (which you don't really need with 91db speakers) but the problem with bridging a solid state amp is that your current ability is halved and it's ability to dive into low impedance's is also halved. Sorryi'd never have suggested this/these amps for this kind of speaker with this load to extract the very best from the bass especially, of the Daw's Cheers George |
georgehifi...were you responding to my Nagra question? If so, thanks! If not, any view :) Sorry, I'm not not super sophisticated with the technicals just love to listen to music and have been waiting for the wife to let me upgrade from my Wilson Duette's to the Sasha line for a numbers of years... FWIW, my other gear is dCS Puccini w/u-Clock and CJ Act2 Series 2 |
carey1110 OP They are efficient at 91db so a 100w into 8ohm amp will do, but! looking at the mid bass area where all the grunt is needed, this 2.4ohm impedance load combined also with 45 degrees -phase angle loading around that area. https://ibb.co/Xx3TdXr means they are going to be a "current suckers". You should be looking at amps that will remain stable and with good current ability down to 2ohms. T Ones that can double that 100w to 200w into 4 and at least 300-350w onto 2ohms, good solid state linear amps will do this for you, and this will then give the very best from the bass of the Sasha DAW’s Cheers George |
@carey1110 For your Wilson Sasha DAW speakers you might want to stretch your budget more than $20k for both preamp & power amp(s). Additionally, you will also need to purchase front end source component(s) whether digital or analog front end source component(s) or both. The Wilson Sasha Daw are very fine speakers and you will want to feed them with highest fidelity signals from electronics. Wilson speakers, especially their higher end series such as the Sasha Daw, Alexia ll, Alexx & Wamm will pair really well with D’Agostino, Audio Research (ARC) Reference series, VTL, T&A, Pass Labs (higher end models) & higher end Naim 500 series separates among others. For your Sasha Daw I would look into ARC Reference series gears or D’Agostino Progression series or Momentum series if you could afford them. Try to look for used ones either here on Agon or some other sites. I was going to recommend the following Naim 500 series separate gears to you but figured will be way way over your budget but you will get the best out of your Sasha Daw speakers. The following Naim 500 series separate gears are as follow : Naim NAP 500 DR power amp + Naim 555 PS DR power supply unit; Naim NAC 552 linestage analog preamp + Naim 555 PS DR power supply unit; Naim ND 555 digital streamer/DAC + one or two 555 PS DR power supply unit(s), one 555 PS DR feeds power to the ND 555 digital side of thing and the other 555 PS DR feeds power to the ND 555 analog audio stages or you can just use a single 555 PS DR power supply for the ND 555 streamer/DAC. Assuming you are going digital audio source. If you aren’t into digital front end sources then go look for a great turntable with its accompanying accessories eg tonearm, cartridge & phonostage pre. However, these Naim 500 series separate gears will run you around $100k altogether, for the digital streamer/DAC, analog linestage preamp & power amp together with their 555 PS DR power supply units, one for each of all those three components. But the sound is magical highly musical and very musically engaging and involving. If you decide to go with these Naim separates I highly recommend you use their DIN connections (interconnect cables) to connect between these Naim components as they will sound better than using their RCA single-ended connections. Naim’s DIN proprietary connections are basically their XLR balanced connections version. |
I don’t own them but have heard them paired with VTL amps both at a show and at a dealer. That is not an accidental pairing. Don’t know the exact model but it was pretty great. I am not a fan of VTL preamps. Different model but have heard the Alexx driven by Ayre’s KR line and it was one of the top 5 systems I have ever heard. VTL amps with an Ayre Pre would be an A+ combo in my opinion. I had this match in my system for a stretch and it was very good. I know what I personally would pair them with but am going to avoid guesses and stick only to things I have heard. Good luck to you. |