Biamping B&W 802 with Musical Fidelity and Bryston

Kal, I tried Bryston 4b sst in my set up and treble sounded a bit harsh. The bass was slightly tighter but not much deeper. I'm not sure if the problem was the source. Toshiba SD 9200 is considered a decent one but it is a DVD player. Single ended, class A MF did a better job with treble in my system.

Alex

I agree. This is why the idea of second MF looked to me very appealing. It would double the power and I would not have problems with different gains and impedances. MF is actually dual mono amp. I would technically have 4 mono amps to do both vertical and horizontal bi-amping.

It's a good point. I did not think about it.

Hi Bill,

After trying different apms with my 802 I concluded that your solution- biamping with tube and SS is optimal. I have very little experience with tube gear and I'm thinking about VTL ST 85 or 150. Can you tell me what tube amp are you using?

Thanks.
Alex

Hi Bill,
I think that the major problem is the amp. I have Cornwalls and Aleph 3 and SD9200 does not sound too bright with them.
I agree with Electroid neither Bryston no Musical Fidelity are nice on the top, both sound metallic. I want to try CJ and may be Classe with my B&W. Im also thinking about trying Rega Apollo after I sort out the problem with the amp. People say it sounds very decent and its not too pricy.

Everyone thanks for your input.

Roadman99999, I've got Creek OBH-12 so the difference in amps gain is not a problem. I had in mind Bryston 4B pro or Adcom. I can’t decide on tube amp. I’m trying to minimize harshness of metal tweeters and I think I’d be better off either with pp triode or SE Class A amp.

I just bought a pair of VTL 100 compact mono blocks (100 wpc in 5 Om I believe). It’s a little bit more than I need for the top and I’m not sure if I can run them in triode mode. After I try them with my speakers I will look for a new source. BAT VK-D5 sounds like a very nice player, but it’s a bit pricy. I’ m planning to spend around 1K.

Rodman9999- thanks for all of your advice and suggestions. Actually SCD 777 es was one of my options. From what I found out about VTL 100 they are not switchable. It means that I need to rewire them. It should not be a big deal I need to couple anode with one of the grid pins but I’m not sure if I need to re- adjust bias.
On a different subject. Since my SS amp will be active only in 27-400 Hz range amp’s sonic signature would not make any impact on the sound. The only two things that matter are damping factor and S/N ratio. Is it correct?

I don't have analog source but I don't think it's Toshiba. Tweeters don’t sound too bad with well recorded music. Only bad recordings sound really harsh. Unfortunately a very significant part of my CD collection makes my eyes bleeding.
I can’t listen to music as loud as I wish thanks to the neighbors (I live in townhouse). I tried to bi amp my speakers with 30WPC Pass Aleph3 and 120 wpc MF and I could make my speakers sound loud enough. I think that I need at least 20WPC of tube power but I’m not sure.

I could unsolder resistors, but I’d rather upgrade speakers if be-amping does not work. I already looked at Proac D25 but did not like its bass.It was a bit slow and not very tight. I prefer overall tonality and speed of b&W802. I’m thinking about Audio Physic.
I m planning to get a new CD player. I was considering Rega Apollo, but I see too many used on the market. It’s a little bit strange for a relatively new model. I’m using decent tube preamp so I’m not sure if tubed player or especially buffer would make a big difference.