Integrated amp for NEWFORM R645

the gnu musical fidelity integrated, the electrocompaniet integrated, the pathos classic one hybrid integrated, plinius integrated. all have good reviews, not *too* much money... doug. ps - tell me more about those r645's...

Hey Doug When are you getting your pair? When you do I would be interested in hearing a report from you.

hi tube groover. sure, but it may be a while - i plan on building a pair of speakers w/three accuton (also known as thiel & partner - german, no relation to thiel in kentucky) c2 88/6 drivers/side, crossed over at 1khz to newform research's 45" ribbon drivers. i was initially interested in purchasing newform's nhb645, (which uses two scan-speak revelator 5.5" mid-woofers/side), but when i emailed john meyer (newform's owner) the info on the c2 88/6's, he became interested in them himself. so, i am currently awaiting input from him, prior to proceeding. the accuton drivers are ceramic inverted domes, like the ones used in the kharma loudspeakers. info on accuton can be found at these sites: http://www.thiel-partner.de/ http://orcadesign.com/accuton/c288.htm http://www.hi-fi.com/speaker/drivers/c2_88.html http://www.hi-fi.com/speaker/drivers/thiel_qa.html regards, doug. ps - if john reports unsatisfactory results, then i will go w/the nhb645's, different from the r645's, in that their smaller (5'5" vs 6.5") scanspeak drivers are a bit tighter, but not as extende in the low-end. not an issue for me, as i will be crossing them over to my vmps larger subs...

The speakers are great. The recent HP review of the Wisdom speakers ($35000) reminds me a lot of the Newforms. John recommends spectron amps but I can't lay my hands on one. The speakers really break in over time. They were sounding pretty good and yesterday I put on a CD with piano on it (one of the winter solstice from windham hills) and wow it sounded like real piano. Talking about it and hearing it are two different things. I was going the Magnepan route and liked them a lot but for some reason my system made them sound bright and I had to cover every single piece of glass in my listening room. The other concerns were the wait for the 1.6s and how loud everyone says you have to play them. My friend came over with his Proceed HPA2 and Rel Storm III to see how they would sound and in a word fantastic. We put on Bella Fleck Cosmic Hippo to test bass and had to roll the Rel off at 28 hz so as not to interfere with the newforms. The proceed is a bass champ anyway but there was not very much difference with and without the Rel in the mix. I'm considereing the tekna sonic vibration absorbers for the cabinets and maybe trying some Aurios for them to sit on. at $299 for a set that would be $600 but you can send them back if not happy. Please report back on the other drivers, I would be interested in hearing about them. One think John told me is that within a year he is hoping to have a digital speaker available but current 645s will be upgradable.

Anything in the Accuphase line.

Morasp, I would be interested in your results with the tekna sonic vibration absorbers and Aurios under the R645's if you would not mind letting me know. I myself am getting ready to upgrade the crossovers and bring them out of the cabinets as well as bypassing some of the binding posts. Also I am going to experiment with Black Hole & Deflex panels. My email address is msalamone@cortel.com Thanks, Mike