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For classical music lovers best amp for large orchestral forces?

I recently upgraded my pre to an arc ref 6se. Currently using pas xa25. It's a very good amp but I'm noticing a fair amount of compression when playing large symphonic works. My speakers are Dalis and they are excellent as is the arc.

For smaller forces, chamber, piano and voices the system works beautifully. But if I'm looking for more transparency and a deeper sound stage for symphonies I find sometimes a boxy cramped sound. Looking to spend around 8k or less either tube or solid state. There have been discussions about the xa25 and what's better but they fill up immediately with tangents of philosophical and technical discussions of how one hears. I'm looking for as many possibilities of actual units that I can read about and possibly hear.

Thanks for your ideas.

roxy1927

Showing 2 responses by jjss49

jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
6,610 posts
 

i agree that xa25 is unlikely the root cause of the compression, i too am curious which dali’s the op has and what size of room are they playing in...

the xa25, despite its lowish official power rating, has substantial power and headroom -- that said, nelson and crew have many other, much more powerful amps up the line...

jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
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On another forum somebody went from a xa25 to an AGD Audion. Affordable and physically manageable Anybody have experience with these?

op - the search bar above is your friend... just search and you will find 3-4 recent, well populated threads on alberto’s agd’s -- plenty of info to sate your curiosity

i personally have audions, as well as numerous arc tube amps, including the ref 75, as well as having the pass xa25 (twice actually, in the past 2 years, as i changed speakers) - as excellent as it is, the xa25(s) are gone while arc and agd’s i have kept...

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