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From B&W 804 D3 to Focal Sopra 2?

I posted this on Reddit as well so apologies in advance to those who may have seen it.

 I have the Anthem STR Pre and Power amp. A dealer is selling a pair of Sopra 2s and he said my Anthem stack is very capable of running the Sopras.

I then read an ad from another seller and he said a lot of power is needed - dual mono (?) or better yet, mono blocks. I also watched a youTube short with that combination. Two people said the Anthem was “bottlenecking” the speakers - i.e. the potential of the Sopra 2 is constrained by the abilities of the Anthem.

Focal puts recommended power at 300 and my Anthem has 400 a side.
So I thought I’d ask thoughts are out there in internetland.

Currently, I’m running B&W 804 D3. I was running them with a 200 wpc integrated and I bought this Anthem set because it was sold to me for a really good price. I’m just not cranking up the volume.  I’ve owned several B&Ws and have found them to be weak in bass.  Improvement has been marginal over succeeding series.

Thanks in advance!

US; odd living/dining combo approx 13 x 30 ft; vaulted ceiling - 8 ft on low end; 15 higher end.; Classical, pop, EDM, folk/C&W.

128x128tobaccoleafpie

Showing 1 response by 8th-note

8th-note
349 posts
 

I tried to find the Sopra 2 imedance curve but I couldn't find anything. If the impedance drops down low (2 ohms or so) for much of the audio band then you would need a very robust amplifier for them to sound their best. Your Anthem is rated for 2 ohms and increases its power with each halving of the impedance (400 @ 8 ohms, 600 @ 4 ohms, 800 @ 2 ohms) but it does not have the balls of a Krell or other monster amp.

Assuming that the Sopras have a reasonable impedance curve then your Anthem should work very well. You would have to spend huge bucks to get an amplifier with more current than your Anthem.

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