So you need amp which has tight controled bass(d class amplifier)expressive midrange (tube amplifier,maybe hybrid )
Good amplification for Monitor Audio Gold 200?
I moved my 5th Gen Monitor Audio Gold 200s from home theater duty into my office system with my vintage Luxman C1010 and M2000 separates. Results so far are less than spectacular.
The Gold 200s are 4 ohm speakers and I think about 86-88 dB sensitive. The M2000 is 120wpc so I thought they’d be a good match, but maybe it’s the vintage nature of the amp... it is not an optimal sound that I think these speakers are capable of.
I’ve worked with placement and toe-in quite a bit but I can’t get over 4 issues:
1) Bass is overpowering no matter what. It totally sucks all the air out of the room. I’ve moved them nearly 3 feet away from the back walls. I have plugged the bung holes and the speakers popped the bung plugs out every time I listen. So much bass.
2) The midrange sounds very lifeless and somewhat artificial. Like you have all this energy in the bass, then the guitars, vocals, etc sound recessed and there’s no depth or layering. Like you have a kick-ass subwoofer cranked up, and then pretty crappy bookshelf speakers handling everything else.
3) Regardless of placement, the soundstage does not extend outside of the speakers. They are placed about 9’ apart and that is where the sound field starts, right at the boundary of the speakers.
4) There’s a massive amount of crosstalk either in this Luxman preamp (C1010) or amp (M2000). Moving the balance all the way over to one speaker still has significant dB coming out of the opposite speaker.
So I am thinking this vintage amp isn’t giving what the Gold 200s want.
I’m streaming from a CCA toslink into an Ayre Codex DAC via Roon, and I think that is not an issue. Amp-wise, I’ve been looking at something like the Cambridge Audio CXA 81 integrated but at 80wpc I’m not sure that’s going to do the trick either.
Any suggestions for a great amp or integrated for these Gold 200s below $2k? Used or new. Thanks!
The Gold 200s are 4 ohm speakers and I think about 86-88 dB sensitive. The M2000 is 120wpc so I thought they’d be a good match, but maybe it’s the vintage nature of the amp... it is not an optimal sound that I think these speakers are capable of.
I’ve worked with placement and toe-in quite a bit but I can’t get over 4 issues:
1) Bass is overpowering no matter what. It totally sucks all the air out of the room. I’ve moved them nearly 3 feet away from the back walls. I have plugged the bung holes and the speakers popped the bung plugs out every time I listen. So much bass.
2) The midrange sounds very lifeless and somewhat artificial. Like you have all this energy in the bass, then the guitars, vocals, etc sound recessed and there’s no depth or layering. Like you have a kick-ass subwoofer cranked up, and then pretty crappy bookshelf speakers handling everything else.
3) Regardless of placement, the soundstage does not extend outside of the speakers. They are placed about 9’ apart and that is where the sound field starts, right at the boundary of the speakers.
4) There’s a massive amount of crosstalk either in this Luxman preamp (C1010) or amp (M2000). Moving the balance all the way over to one speaker still has significant dB coming out of the opposite speaker.
So I am thinking this vintage amp isn’t giving what the Gold 200s want.
I’m streaming from a CCA toslink into an Ayre Codex DAC via Roon, and I think that is not an issue. Amp-wise, I’ve been looking at something like the Cambridge Audio CXA 81 integrated but at 80wpc I’m not sure that’s going to do the trick either.
Any suggestions for a great amp or integrated for these Gold 200s below $2k? Used or new. Thanks!
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