Looking for great Amp for Martin Logan Prodigy woofers
theaudioman They xover at 250hz, so just a Class-D for the bass will be fine that’s what their good at fast dry bass should match up to the speed of the esl's better. Also get one with input level controls and that has higher gain than your esl amp, as you’ll have to match up the gains. And it’s also good to have level controls on the bass amp because on hot humid days the esl panel looses a couple of db efficiency, and the sound "can" get a touch bass heavy, but with the level controls you just back off the bass a touch on those days Cheers George |
theaudioman; Sorry, I missed the part where you gave your budget in your opening post, which would rule out the M-1’s Overall, I would say that you’re better off with one or a pair of better mono amps vs trying to run one amp on the highs and something different for the lows. I would try to do two of the same amps, which in this case would be adding another VT100. A better sounding amp is just that - better! The VT100 will run your Prodigy’s fine and I don't know if putting a Krell on the bottom will really give you all you're looking for. Something you could consider is upgrading your speaker cable and having them made in a bi-wire configuration, unless you like to change and go through cables, then it’s usually easier to sell non bi-wire versions. Just my opinions... |
I did a passive biamp using two Adcom GFA5802s on my Ascent i hybrids and I was happy for several years. When it came time to upgrade the amps I went to a single Pass X350 and still haven't looked back. I guess my point is that one really good amp might be better than two mismatched amps. Doesn't mean that won't work. You won't really know till you try. There's probably a magic combination waiting out there somewhere. Good luck |
In regards to the M-1’s, those amps got a horrible review because the pair that they were sent was completely new without being properly run in. The amps are a minimum 300 hour break in and will actually sound worse as they play and after about175 hours they will finally start to crawl out of the hole and begin to get better ultimately surpassing how they started after taking them out of the box. They probably we’re at the lowest point around 150 hours when the review was written. A properly broken in set was sent after and I believe there was a small rebuttal that was posted, but the damage was done and the”audiophile” community avoided them. Many dealers use those amps to run passive subs, even over one particular high end in-wall brand who makes their own amps. It was a good learning lesson and every product that has ever been reviewed after has always been properly broken in before sending to a reviewer. Thanks! |
Thank you carey 1110. Great to know you've been there and done that. Naturally, I have more questions: 1) I am looking at model 300, here in Audiogon. I believe yours, the model 300c, was an upgraded version of the original 300. Are you familiar with their performance differences? 2) Any ideas about their fair market price(s)? 3) What did you replace the prodigy & Krel system with, and how much better is the new system (This wont hurt as I am rebuilding my system from scratch. Might as well know what's out there. 4) What was the best, and the worst, thing about that combo... musically speaking?Thanks |
The Krell 300c is an excellent choice. That’s what I had with my prodigy’s however if you plan on biamping you’ll have real problems trying to do that with two different amps even with a crossover. They will never blend and sound coherent. One single powerful amp will sound better IMO. I was pretty happy with the Krell/Prodigy combo. If you want some tube sound in there I’d do it a tube preamp |
I read a review of the Anthem M1 in Stereophile Archives. Do you know if Anthem has made any improvements to the M1s since that review in 2012? The review showed that while it would have no problems driving any speaker, there were, for lack of better word, sound artifacts in the M1 that caused Stereophile to not recommend the amp. |
A pair of Anthem M-1’s would easily do the job and don’t take up much space. https://www.anthemav.com/products-current/model=m1/page=overview |
